Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

BIG NEWS: Use your BA Amex 2-4-1 companion vouchers on Iberia and Aer Lingus

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British Airways and American Express have announced some exciting news today about the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher.

Effective immediately, these vouchers can be used on Aer Lingus and Iberia flights.

How does New York for 34,000 Avios RETURN, PER PERSON, IN BUSINESS plus just £213 of taxes and charges per person sound?

This is particularly good news for those in the Manchester area who will be able to redeem on the long haul flights operated by Aer Lingus to New York, Orlando and Barbados.

Use American Express companion vouchers Iberia Avios

The rules are the same as for redemptions on British Airways:

Another upside is that taxes and charges on Iberia redemptions are substantially lower than those on British Airways flights.

Here is an example using Iberia to fly to New York from Madrid (I am assuming that you buy separate flights to Madrid to escape UK Air Passenger Duty):

68,000 Avios FOR TWO PEOPLE IN BUSINESS CLASS, RETURN plus £425 in taxes and charges between you isn’t too bad ….

We will run some articles over the next few days showing you where you can fly on Aer Lingus and Iberia to take advantage of this new benefit. We’ve updated our main article on the key benefits of the British Airways Premium Plus American Express card.

You can see the current card features in our British Airways Premium Plus American Express review here and our free British Airways American Express review here.

There is some other news about the extension of Reward Flight Saver to Club World flights. This is complex and isn’t necessarily a good deal – take a look at our two other articles published today.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (230)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • dst87 says:

    This is great news! I’m looking forward to the articles showcasing some routes.

    …and anxiously awaiting the forthcoming bad news!

  • Louise K says:

    Is it possible to use the old style vouchers on EI and IB? Still have two of these due to expire next year.

    • Rob says:

      No idea because I don’t have one to test with.

      Someone who has an old style voucher should try to book the exact Iberia flights in the screenshot in the article and report back. You’ll need to start from London though because of the ex-UK rule on the old vouchers.

      • Layerden says:

        I have both vouchers on my account, the old style one says I need to fly out from a UK airport when using the details above, but the new one lets me book it.

        Shame, but makes sense.

      • C says:

        I’ve just tried and I get the usual warning message that the voucher can only be used to depart from the UK

      • conspicuous-capybara says:

        Just tried, it says it’s only valid for journeys departing the UK.

    • Simon says:

      My thoughts exactly.

    • sigma421 says:

      Doesn’t look like it. They’d be limited to ex-UK services anyway (so you’d be stuck with APD) and my test of LHR-MAD isn’t showing any IB services

  • Optimus Prime says:

    This site will implode when the voucher is allowed on QR! 😂

    • Rob says:

      No date yet.

      • Numpty says:

        But you did say ‘yet’….

      • immi says:

        Just out of curiosity, do we think there is every any likely at all Black card BA AmEx companion vouchers will be accepted for Qatar business class? That would be mind boggling!

      • YFP says:

        Is this likely to be within a few months Rob? Have a flight to book in March, if I can use the voucher them quids in!

    • Paul says:

      OMG that would be epic! NZ and Oz here we all go!

  • Miles. OnPoint says:

    This is brilliant news, especially with the way BA is inflating the fuel surcharges on Club World redemptions.

    Would be interesting to know if you can open-jaw / mix with different carriers.

    E.g.
    OUT: Dublin – Seattle on Aer Lingus (US pre-clearance, no APD, low taxes)
    RTN: Vancouver – London on BA (Direct flight, taxes lower than ex-UK)

    • Marc says:

      Watch out for the second article Rob is teasing in the last paragraph. Big changes to carrier-imposed fees!

    • Scott says:

      This doesn’t seem to be possible. Although different carriers are shown to me in the flight selection screen, it throws an error when it comes to pricing. Works fine for BA-only or Iberia-only, but not mix-and-match.

  • John Munn says:

    This potentially great for us in Northern Ireland, availability will be the key though. Aerlingus Business Class reward seats have been like hen’s teeth. Hopefully the 2-for-1 voucher will unlock additional availability like it does for BA

  • Lady London says:

    Wow.
    The more useful voucher to be earned with Barclaycard must really have got BA and Amex worried.

    It’s only a short while ago that finally, after ignoring years of feedback BA made it useful for a single traveller instead of insisting it could only be used for 2 people travelling.

    Long live Barclaycard.

    • Rob says:

      Yes, it is now very clear what the price was for stopping Amex launching a lawsuit against IAG!

  • hugo r says:

    Any idea if this will be rolled out to be used on AA

    • Rob says:

      No reason why it couldn’t on transatlantic, because of the joint venture agreement, but I’ve not heard that its even under discussion. Not that AA releases any reward seats transatlantic in premium cabins ….

  • GB says:

    The question with the move to RFS on all flights is how much a UUA is going to be now… going from 20-25k to c40k Avios seems on the cards?

    Also the RFS prices seem good value vs current taxes and charges, but far less good vs taxes and charges from a year or so ago….

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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