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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.

  • NorthernLass says:

    Well I now can’t use my new voucher for 3 people, or use the stopover facility so I can fly to LHR the night before. I suppose BA giveth and they taketh away!

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      I dont follow?

      • NorthernLass says:

        You could use the old voucher for 3 or more people, but it seems that the extra availability on the new vouchers only allows you to book for 2 pax, even if there are 8 seats available. So useless for families.

        • Rob says:

          Correct.

          • Rob says:

            Is this another change, I thought you could still make ‘4 for 2’ bookings with the new companion vouchers? Or is it that the additional availability is limited to two seats so not useful in practice?

          • Rob says:

            You can book 4 seats with 2 vouchers. You can’t book 4 seats – all into the ‘extra’ business availability – with 1 voucher.

        • Vit says:

          @Anna, can you not use 2 (amex plus) vouchers for 2 pax.? 1 voucher for you + someone and another voucher for your OH as a solo traveller?

          • Super Secret Stuff says:

            That’s what I was thinking but I think the point is the third person would be on a seperate booking

    • Alan says:

      Perhaps they can do it on one booking via the call centre, esp if there’s still standard (non enhanced) availability? I was often booking open jaws so always used to book via the phoneline anyway.

  • Nun says:

    Is this available if the 2-for-1 certificate is issued by the US BA Visa?

  • NorthernLass says:

    SeatSpy needs to up its game now as it currently doesn’t feature Air Lingus or Iberia!

    • Alan Clarke says:

      Nor does it show new style companion voucher extra availability. That’d be nice.

  • Paul says:

    I’ve just tried to book a MAD > JFK for November 2023 and at the payment stage, there was an error. Now I’m not seeing any direct Iberia flights in the search results. Hopefully just teething problems!

    • Scott says:

      I had a few issues like this earlier today, running the search again brought back different results.

  • Can says:

    Holy moly

  • Aston100 says:

    Hi, just checking:
    I’ve got a couple of the old style companion vouchers.
    I might be able to benefit from some flights on BA metal ex UK (due to RFS changes), but cannot access flights on Iberia and Aer Lingus.

    Is that about right?

    Presumably, no way of getting the end date on these old vouchers extended, or traded in for a new style companion voucher right?

    • Rob says:

      You definitely can’t extend them or trade them in.

      It was not 100% confirmed to us that you can’t use them on Iberia or Aer Lingus but no-one has mentioned it in the comments AFAIK.

    • NorthernLass says:

      Hi @Aston, if you read through the other comments a lot of extra questions have been asked and answered in addition to what’s in the article. But basically these changes only seem to apply to the new 241s.

    • Vit says:

      @Aston100, I think you should try to get rid of this old style asap. We have one from pre-covid and just used it a couple day ago to TYO, exINV. Good value still with 75k and £500 one-way. But the return from HKG is ruined now with this new RFS.

  • NorthernLass says:

    Well EI not looking a great option, tbh, – for MAN-NYC they want 55k plus £658 in economy with the new 241.

  • Jaime says:

    I am big Iberia flyer. I have a few hundred thousand Avios Miles (thank you, Cepsa). So you r saying I and my nice looking wife who loves to dance flamenco even though she is a bit fat on her thighs and bum and pushing 60 – we can fly half price? What do we have to do to get this half price ticket for 2?

    • NorthernLass says:

      Read all Rob’s HFPs articles!

    • babyg_wc says:

      Theres a lot to unpack there , but you need a BA branded amex card to earn a 2for1 voucher .

      • Jaime says:

        Can I get it in Barcelona? If not, I have many friends in London, Bristol, Birmingham – you name it, I have amigos. They will give me their address. Why is this not for us in Spain?

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

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