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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?

Use American Express companion vouchers Iberia Avios

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.

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 2025)

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

Get 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

30,000 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 – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

  • David Cohen says:

    Sorry, but this isn’t the kind of article that I’d have expected of the HfP of old.

    It’s clear that over the past 12 months particularly, YQ has gone up significantly. This has lead to a devaluation of the overall Avios value prop as the cash outlay has increased significantly.

    With these changes, there’s been a substantial increase in the amount of Avios required yet, it’s being billed as a reduction in taxes.

    I would have expected the traditional HfP forensic commercial analysis of the increase in Avios required, verus the reduction in YQ. Is this actually an improvement, or a traditional BA ‘enhancement’ dangling something shiny in front of us, where as actually in reality nothing has changed?

    It would be good to see that, or has HfP just become to focused on flogging credit cards?

    • Rob says:

      Wait to see the RFS article ….

      • babyg says:

        Avios goes up, fees come down, but you can reduce the amount of avios by paying more fees/cash – so effectively no real change unless you have millions of Avios earnt cheaply/referrals/churning/MS. But being up to use your 241 on other oneworld carries is pretty awesome thou…

    • Grant says:

      I think you’ve jumped the gun a bit, David. The article is about being able to use the companion voucher on Iberia and Aer Lingus. The last para covers the RFS roll out to CW and suggests that it will include the foresnic analysis of value you are looking for.

      • Rob says:

        Truth is we wrote this article in 20 minutes because we had a meeting to go to! Plenty of time to expand the analysis later.

        The RFS one was drafted last week and just needs some numbers crushed.

    • JDB says:

      If you really wish to criticise the HfP team, it’s best to use language correctly. ‘Forensic’ does not mean that which you are suggesting. See OED.

      • points_worrier says:

        forensic = detailed scientific analysis in the investigation of a crime

        The crime in this case is the (metaphorical) one of devaluing avios.
        The word was used correctly.

      • David Cohen says:

        I did have a typo at the end of my comment where I used ‘to’ rather than ‘too’.

        However looking forwards to the full commercial analysis. The back of a fag packet maths seems to show this coming out at about 0.7p per avios so not awful, but not great value either. However be curious to see the overall increase in Avios required of the last 12 to 24 months. I suspect that this is going to be in the double digit inflation, and over what RPI is running at.

        • Rhys says:

          Broadly speaking the old options are still there, BA have just introduced a higher Avios/lower cash option.

          • David Cohen says:

            Curious if this was initiated at the Amex or BA/Avios side of things. I’ve certainly downgraded my BA Amex card to the free one, after holding the premium plus for the best part of 20 years.

        • Erico1875 says:

          David, cash fares are through the roof, so I’m not surprised redemptions have went up in cost

  • lumma says:

    Is there a seatspy or reward flight finder site for Iberia and Aer Lingus? Or an easy way to search for multiple dates?

  • Simon says:

    Any reason why old vouchers aren’t included?

    • SamG says:

      Probably just not worth the IT changes considering they’ll be fewer and fewer in number

  • david says:

    So Barclays competition forced BAs hand. Lets hope another competitor come into the fore and forces their hand even more.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      Probably more likely forced Amex to ask what can be done

  • Lee says:

    Will QR be the next?

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      That should be there new year resolution, how long it will last no one knows

  • Aston100 says:

    To save me some time, can you please advise if older companion vouchers can be used on Aer Lingus out of BHX?
    Thanks.

  • BajiNahid says:

    All we need is Barclay are to tie up with Qatar and we’re even

  • MCO says:

    Rob – Would it be possible to do different airline? Can we do MIA-MAD-LHR (IB) DXB (BA) for instance?

    • Hugh says:

      I (well tbh my daughter, but I have been advising her) have an IB Mad > Mex booked with a BA CUN > LHR return leg to be booked next week using companion voucher. Now doing the maths to figure out if she should cancel the IB flight and rebook using a 2nd companion voucher. Will be interesting to find out if she can do both legs on the 1 voucher. I am guessing there is no guarantee the original seats will become available though if she does do this!

    • Scott says:

      Doesn’t seem possible to mix airlines on a single booking. Partner flights were offered to me, but it failed when it came to pricing.

      • meta says:

        You can probably call to book a mix, but agents might not all be aware yet of the chage.

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

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