British Airways extends unused eVouchers to 30th September 2024

British Airways has begun to email customers with outstanding eVouchers from the pandemic to tell them that they have been extended by a further 12 months.

Vouchers had originally been due to expire on 30th September 2023.

This has now been extended to 30th September 2024.

The situation with eVouchers was becoming increasing controversial.

When it published its financial results last month, IAG – the parent company of British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus – said that it had €600 million of unused eVouchers. The group refused to commit to a further extension at the time, and some financial analysts had started to factor in a balance sheet boost in September.

I was personally sceptical that British Airways would pull the plug. Many people took an eVoucher during covid – when a cash refund was offered as an alternative – because they wanted to do their bit to ensure that the airline did not go bankrupt.

Expiring these vouchers would not have been a good look. Whilst you could argue that people have now had a long period of no covid restrictions to rebook, many will have putting it off due to the current high fares – it is very unlikely that you could book the same trip today with an eVoucher based on 2019 flight prices.

There is also some benefit to British Airways, if loads are expected to remain high this year, to encourage people to hold off using their vouchers until 2024. This would allow it to sell more seats this year for fresh cash.

You can see full details of BA’s eVoucher policy on this page of ba.com.

Remember that eVouchers cannot be used to pay the taxes and charges element of Avios redemptions. They can be used to pay BA Holidays balances but not online.

There is also a link there to an online tool where you can check the value of any outstanding eVouchers.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (June 2023)

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:

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

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 13th June, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is doubled to 60,000 Membership Rewards points – and you get £200 to spend at Amex Travel too! Apply here.

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.

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.

EDIT: Applications for this card are temporarily suspended due to IT issues with the British Airways On Business SME loyalty scheme.

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.

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