How do British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers work?

How do British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers work?

We run this article once per year to reflect recent changes. Whilst these vouchers have been around for 20 years now, the goalposts are constantly moving. To be fair to BA and Amex, the majority of changes have been in your favour.

The last 18 months have seen the ability to use 2-4-1 vouchers on Aer Lingus and Iberia as well Reward Flight Saver pricing added to long haul premium cabins redemptions. We have also seen the T&C changed to confirm what we already knew – that you do NOT need to pay the taxes and charges element with a BA American Express card. Any Amex, in any name, is fine.

The key thing to know is that, whilst both British Airways American Express cards offer a 2-4-1 voucher, the typical Head for Points reader is unlikely to want the voucher from the free British Airways American Express credit card. This is because it can only be redeemed in Economy.

Whilst an Economy 2-4-1 voucher will, I am sure, be useful to some people, people who know where the real value is – which is hopefully you, if you’re reading this – will know that premium cabin redemptions are the way to go.

What does the 2-4-1 companion voucher do for me?

If two people wish to travel:

It allows you to book two Avios redemption seats for the points of one.  You can instantly sense the savings available – over 500,000 Avios in the unlikely event you were able to find two First Class return seats to Australia.  Even on the worst possible redemption – an off-peak economy return to Paris – you would save 18,500 Avios.

(When I quote Avios pricing in this article, I am using the ‘most Avios, least cash’ pricing option that ba.com offers. Other Avios and cash permutations are available to choose from, some of which are better value.)

In reality, most people use them for long haul redemptions in Club World for a flat bed business class seat, typically somewhere like New York or Dubai.  That would save you 160,000 Avios on off-peak dates and 180,000 Avios on peak dates.

Assuming you value an Avios point at 1p, the 2-4-1 voucher would be worth £1,600 to £1,800 for such a trip.  This makes it easily the most valuable perk of ANY UK credit card. The £300 annual fee for the British Airways Premium Plus card is a fair price to pay to get access to this.

Vouchers earned on the free British Airways American Express card are limited to Economy class redemptions. This substantially reduces their value. In many cases you would be better off buying Economy flights for cash.

If one person wishes to travel:

From June 2022, companion vouchers have also been usable by people without a travel companion.

You can book an Avios redemption for one person using your voucher and you will receive a 50% discount on the Avios required. Full taxes and charges are still due.

Note that you need a ‘new style’ voucher issued from 1st September 2021 in order to do this.

Remember that vouchers earned on the free British Airways American Express card are now limited to Economy class redemptions. Vouchers earned on the Premium Plus card are valid in all cabins.

How do I earn a companion voucher?

You need to spend either:

• £15,000 on the free British Airways American Express card, for a voucher valid for one year for an Economy class redemption, or

• £15,000 on the £300 British Airways Premium Plus American Express card, for a voucher valid for two years for a redemption in any class

Note that spending must be done in your ‘card year’ and not a calendar year.  Your card year runs from the date you are approved.

The voucher will be added to your British Airways Executive Club account within a few days of the spending target being reached. You will see it under ‘My eVouchers’.

How many companion vouchers can I earn per year?

You can only earn one voucher per card year irrespective of how much you spend on the card.

You can, of course, get your partner to apply for their own card – instead of having a supplementary on your card – and so earn their own voucher.

Whether this makes sense depends on how many Avios you earn per year (there is no point earning two 2-4-1 vouchers each year if you don’t earn enough Avios to make use of them) and how much American Express spending you can manage.

What small print do I need to know?

This is where some people come unstuck, because they don’t understand the limitations of the voucher.

It can only be used on British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia services.  You can’t use it on Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific etc even though you can book such flights on Avios.

It can’t be used on franchise or codeshare services.  You can’t use them on the BA-branded SUN-AIR flights to Scandinavia for example.

It CAN be used on ‘open jaw’ flights, where you return from a different airport, even though these can’t be booked online and require a call to British Airways.  The only rule is that the distance between your arrival and departure airport must be shorter than either of the two flights.  London – Johannesburg, Cape Town – London is fine.  London – Oslo and Madrid – London is not.  This article looks at how to book open jaw flights using Avios.

You need to book AND fly the outbound leg before the expiry date of the voucher.  You can fly back at any point.

If you need to cancel a flight booked using a 2-4-1 voucher, you get the voucher back.  The original expiry date remains the same.

It CAN be used on one-way flights.  Vouchers issued after 1st September 2021 can be used to book one-way flights in either direction. Older vouchers can only be used for one-way flights departing from the UK.

You can fly a different class on the outbound to the return.  However, both passengers must travel together in the same class.  You cannot fly in First and book your companion in Club World if there is only one Avios seat available in First.

‘Gold Upgrade For Two’ vouchers (issued when you earn 2,500 tier points) can be used in conjunction with a 2-4-1 voucher.

You cannot change the name of the second traveller after booking.  You would need to cancel the whole booking with no guarantee that the seats would be re-offered for Avios redemption.

You cannot turn an existing Avios redemption into a 2-4-1 redemption with half of the Avios returned to you.

There are no circumstances under which you can ask British Airways to extend a 2-4-1 voucher.

Both passengers must travel together at all times.

You do not need to use the card to pay the taxes when you come to redeem your 2-4-1 voucher.  You must use an American Express card but it does not have to be a British Airways one. It doesn’t even need to be an American Express card in your name, as Amex does not do name verification as part of its security procedures.

You will not earn Avios or tier points on your redemption flight in line with standard Avios redemptions.

Your flights will not be cancelled if you cancel your British Airways American Express card after making your 2-4-1 booking.

Can you transfer the voucher to someone else?

No.

The BA Amex cardholder MUST be one of the two travellers.  There is no way to avoid this.  If you are in a Household Account, the second passenger must be in the household account or on your ‘Friends and Family’ list.

(This is a different policy to one on the upgrade vouchers issued on the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard. You CAN book for anyone with this voucher, albeit the voucher holder must make the booking from their account.)

Can I combine multiple vouchers in one booking?

For four people:

If you have two vouchers to use, issued to the same person, they can be used together for the BA Amex cardholder and three other people.  This is what we do for our family of four.  This situation would occur if you triggered your voucher for the next card year before you had used the voucher from the previous year.

IMPORTANT: For technical reasons, it is impossible to combine vouchers issued before 1st September 2021 with vouchers issued afterwards. If you are in this position you will not be able to use two vouchers together to redeem for a group of four people.

For three people:

No.

Frustratingly, even though you can now use a 2-4-1 voucher for a solo traveller, paying half the standard number of Avios, you cannot use two vouchers issued to the same person to book for a family of three.

This is an IT oversight by British Airways and I would expect that it will get changed at some point, since it makes no sense.

A family of three would require both parents to each earn their own separate 2-4-1 voucher. One voucher could be used for the first parent and the child on a 2-4-1 basis, whilst the second voucher could be used by the second parent for a 50% discount on their own ticket. You can only do this if each parent generates their own 2-4-1 voucher from their own credit card.

Where can I find the Avios pricing chart on ba.com?

You can’t. It was removed a few years ago.

The good news is that Head for Points recreated the Avios pricing chart. You can see how many Avios you need for a specific route in this article.

This chart only covers BA redemptions, not partner airlines.

How many seats are released per flight for Avios?

British Airways makes four Club World / Club Europe, two World Traveller Plus and eight World Traveller / Economy seats available on every flight.  

‘New style companion vouchers come with extra Avios availability in Business Class. Without getting too technical about how it works, if cash prices are below a certain threshold, additional Business Class seats are made available when redeeming a ‘new style’ voucher. These seats will show automatically when you search, as long as you select ‘use a voucher’ before searching.

More reward seats are usually made available closer to the date of travel – a lot more, on some routes – but if you absolutely must travel on a certain day you need to book 355 days out. Even then, you need to be realistic about your chances of getting seats over Christmas, February half term, Easter and October half-term.

Iberia guarantees to release Avios seats for all flights but does not commit to a specific number in each class. Aer Lingus does not guarantee any minimum number of seats per flight (I believe).

The least known secret for unlocking Avios seats in Business Class when you can’t see any is ….

As mentioned above, companion vouchers have access to additional Avios availability in Business Class.

There is SUBSTANTIALLY more extra availability opened up via this route if you start your trip outside London.

Here’s a random example from last year (no-one in the office has an unused 241 at the moment to re-create this screenshot!). Looking for Business Class from London to Tokyo on 25th April 2023 I got this message:

Looking at Manchester to Tokyo, via London, on 25th April 2023 I got this:

If you book via this route you MUST take the first flight from Manchester. You can’t just hop on in London – your ticket will already have been cancelled as a ‘no show’. On your return, you could hop out at Heathrow if you only had hand baggage.

What is the best way to secure seats on peak flights?

Seats become available at midnight GMT 355 days before departure.

If you must travel on a specific date, you need to call an open BA call centre (usually the US or Japanese ones, you can Google the numbers) on the stroke of UK midnight (or 1am during British Summer Time).  A call centre agent can always grab seats ahead of someone waiting online, because until you submit your credit card details online, a call centre agent can ‘steal’ your seats from your basket.

For a booking 355 days out, you should look to book your outbound flights on the day they become available.  Do NOT wait until the return flights come up.  You can call British Airways on the day that the return flights becomes available and add it to the booking.  You should not be charged a change fee for this.

There is a ‘Plan B’ for booking your return flights …..

There is an alternative way of securing your return flights, assuming you booked the outbound at 355 prior to departure to guarantee you got what you wanted.

If you don’t want to ring the call centre at midnight to book the return you can, if you have enough Avios, book your return seats online using 100% Avios (ie paying for both tickets in full) and then call BA at your convenience to get half of the Avios for the return leg refunded.

There are three problems with this approach.

Firstly, you obviously need to have enough additional Avios to pay for the return flights at full points cost.

Secondly, on high demand routes, you still need to call because the call centre gets priority over website users.

Thirdly, if you end up cancelling, you will pay two lots of cancellation fees because you have two separate bookings.

Are there any easy ways of reducing the taxes payable?

Not if you are flying with British Airways, ever since BA moved to ‘Reward Flight Saver’ pricing on long haul in 2022.

The ‘taxes and charges’ payment you make no longer reflects the actual taxes and charges due, which means that there is no difference if you start your trip in a city which is exempt from Air Passenger Duty.

You can make substantial savings if you redeem your 2-4-1 voucher on Iberia or Aer Lingus. You will make even bigger savings in premium cabins if you book your 2-4-1 flights directly from Dublin or Madrid to avoid paying UK Air Passenger Duty. You would buy a standalone flight in Economy for cash to get to Dublin or Madrid to start your trip.

This HfP article looks at where you can fly on Aer Lingus with your voucher.

This HfP article looks at where you can fly on Iberia with your voucher.

Can I travel with an infant or book without my baby being born yet?

Yes.  For infant (under 2) bookings you pay 10% of the Avios and 10% of the taxes of an adult passenger.

If your child is not yet born, book for the two adults and then call to add the baby when it has arrived and has a name.  These rules apply to standard Avios redemptions as well.

If I cancel my BA Amex card after earning the voucher, is it lost?

No.  Absolutely not.  Do not believe anyone who tells you otherwise.

You will also still get your voucher back if you cancel a 2-4-1 redemption but no longer hold your BA Amex at the time of cancellation.

You will, however, still need access to an American Express card of some sort to pay the taxes and charges when you do use your companion voucher.

If I downgrade from the Premium Plus to the free card after earning my voucher, does it retain the 2-year expiry?

Yes.

Can I change my class of travel if seats open up in a higher class after I’ve booked?

Yes.  Standard Avios change fees apply of £35 per person, plus of course the additional Avios and any extra taxes and charges.  You will need to call BA to do this.

Is there any value in the free British Airways American Express card, if the voucher can only be used in Economy?

Not really, if you plan to use your companion voucher.

No-one should apply directly for the free British Airways American Express. Even if you want this card – and I’m not entirely sure why you would – it makes more sense to:

• apply for Premium Plus
• spend the necessary amount to trigger the higher sign-up bonus (which easily covers the £300 annual fee)
• downgrade to the free card at the end of your first year

If you have any further questions about the voucher, please ask them in the comments. We have a ‘beginners’ guide to using British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers, which is less advanced than this article, which is here.

Our reviews of the two British Airways cards and the two Barclaycard Avios Mastercards are here:

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

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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:

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. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

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.