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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.

  • Comrade says:

    Virgin Atlantic next?

  • Grimz says:

    All we need is some good news on the Virgin 241 voucher as its looking like terrible value with £900 taxes!!

  • lumma says:

    Just tried to price up London to Mexico City with the new pricing.

    Solo traveller using a BAPP voucher is 95000 avios + £450 in business, but switching to First on the return it’s still 95000 avios but the taxes increase to £878.

    • MattB says:

      Yes F appears to be unchanged

    • Scott says:

      I think what you could be seeing is differing ratios of Avios:cash across the two classes. In the old system, CW and F had identical cash surcharges, but F required more Avios, so it seems that for your business flight you’ve selected a higher Avios/lower cash option.

      • lumma says:

        I didn’t choose anything. That’s what came up as the default option when I selected the flights.

  • janolabs says:

    Does this work with the old-style vouchers?

    • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

      Looks like the answer is no – see page 1 of comments for further details…

      • janolabs says:

        Oh yes, makes sense. Old-style vouchers require UK departure, which is quite difficult with Iberia or Aer Lingus unless connecting…

  • Gareth says:

    Qq- when using the 241 voucher can you pick any ratio or avois to cash?

    • Cam says:

      Doesn’t look like it. Dummy run on RFS on UK – LAX shows 180k and £900 – no option to adjust more cash + less avios.

      • Rob says:

        Total nonsense! Works fine on a sliding scale – or are you using an ‘old’ 241?

        • smblcklck says:

          Yes – bit of a double whammy today for us ‘old style’ holders particularly those of us not flush with Avios. Very real chance I’ll let it lapse now

        • Cam says:

          Yep, old one. New one is pending a couple of Hundred quid spend.

          • Rob says:

            That makes sense then, because old ones couldn’t mix ‘cash and Avios’ before.

      • Scott says:

        For my search (UK-PHX), both legs off-peak and with RFS icon, 180k + £900 is the default, but I’m able to select other combinations. It looks like this default offers the best value per Avios as the next best (which I think is more akin to the old pricing) is 152k + £1,360, so the extra 28k Avios save £460.

        • Scott says:

          Interestingly this search was with a domestic connection. The cost is exactly the same if I search from LON, suggesting domestic connections to long-haul are now truly free (previously there was no Avios cost but the surcharges were a bit higher.)

    • Vit says:

      In my experience, yes.

  • Cam says:

    Is this eligible for vouchers issued before the recent changes to the voucher scheme?

    How will these be sold? Via the platform on BA’s site? Quick search of my old Style vouchers on BA doesn’t show any results on various dates

    • Rob says:

      No.

      Via ba.com, but given the very limited Aer Lingus reward availability in Business it is fairly moot.

  • Peter says:

    How do I know if I have an old or new style?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    Oh yes! Christmas has come early!

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