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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?

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.

  • NorthernLass says:

    A post has just appeared in the forums suggesting the new avios pricing on long haul now applies to the BC upgrade voucher …

    • Rob says:

      It does, to the extent that the ‘base’ price is now the RFS price.

      • Richie says:

        So BC upgrade voucher holders who are new to BA Avios who don’t yet qualify for RFS redemptions, need to sort that out soonish?

        • Richie says:

          or is the price just based at RFS levels? I may just be confusing myself here.

          • Rhys says:

            Yes. So for example, New York in Club is 85,000 Avios (WTP RFS fare) + £350 (Club RFS taxes). Not sure what happens if you don’t have access to RFS

  • Tim says:

    I too have the upgrade voucher which I presume cannot be used in conjunction with Amex 241 ?

  • John says:

    I have both an old and new 241 voucher. Have tried to book Manchester-Boston Aer Lingus on new voucher. But website rejects this and “ticks” the old voucher. This of course is only good for going through LHR.
    So I will probably have to phone to make a booking via Aer Lingus- unless of course the Boston flight is excluded.

    • NorthernLass says:

      You can usually select which voucher you want to use when you go to the “book with avios” page – are you not getting this?

      • NorthernLass says:

        Also, you have to book on ba.com to use the voucher – award seats from MAN are extremely limited though, except in economy, and they are not released as far out as BA’s.

      • John says:

        No….it automatically ticks the “old” voucher…..which of course doesn’t work with Aer Lingus.
        I am hoping to get club availability as wish to book for early September 2023.
        When I finally decide on dates will phone the allegedly more responsive BA gold line.

  • Alan says:

    Sorry for a very basic question…. How do I use my BA companion voucher on Iberia. Has the IT systems caught up with the changes or will I need to call Iberia? I only ask because I will need to cancel a BA flight to get enough Avios to get through the book flight.

    • Rob says:

      You book it on ba.com like any other Avios redemption.

      • Jonathan says:

        Not all Avios redemptions have to be fine via BA…
        Many of us were very happy to have to option to redeem on Qatar Airways with an Avios ticket that never started in the UK !

  • Alan says:

    I have just tried to book an open jaw business flight from Madrid to Lima and back from GYE on the telephone using a companion voucher .
    When I was given the pricing it was obviously wrong (circa 120k Avios and £2100 in taxes). When looking at BA.com as one way flights it should have been 105k Avios and £831 which is cheap.

    • Alan says:

      Sorry meant to say they have referred it to the pricing team as the quoted price was obviously wrong.

      • meta says:

        It should be 105 ans £440 in taxes, not £800+. I booked yesterday on the same route.

        • meta says:

          That’s a combination peak/off peak. If it’s just off peak then it’s 85k and peak/peak I think it’s 120k.

          • Alan says:

            Thank you. They have just come back with an amended price of 105k Avios and £442 which I think is great value fir business both ways ( albeit I have never flown Iberia Business long haul so not sure how it compares to BA. I will be flying via Madrid a lot more now 👍

          • meta says:

            @Alan Good! I have done a few trips before to US and South America. It’s not better than Club Suite, but better than old CW. I find it perfectly fine. If you get a good crew then the service is great. Lounge in Madrid is definitely better than Galleries N&S / Galleries First.

  • IJAY says:

    Am I missing something? I can’t see any Aer Lingus availability from Manchester to Orlando on the BA website

    • Rob says:

      There probably isn’t any. Aer Lingus makes very few reward seats available on core routes. Dublin to Portland etc are your best bets.

  • joe says:

    Any chance they open this up to their major partner -Qatar airways?
    I would be tempted to wait for that

  • Mark says:

    Of course the most cost-effective Iberia redemptions (for those of us in the UK) are MAD-destination-MAD-UK, which saves UK long haul APD whilst retaining the convenience of the through connection on the way back. That’s not bookable on ba.com, but presumably now will be via the call centre with a 2for1…. There’s a windowless hotel landside at MAD T4 which is handy for an over-night on the way out, if not the best hotel you’ll ever stay in!

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