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BIG NEWS: the BA Amex 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved (Part 1)

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There is some exciting news today for anyone who has a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher.

BA and American Express have unveiled two important changes to how the companion vouchers work.

One of these is a genuine improvement (I’m less sure about the 2nd one!) and, even better, the changes are already reflected when you try to book at ba.com.

You can see the new list of card features in our British Airways Premium Plus American Express review here and our free British Airways American Express review here.

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

Here are the two changes:

  • BA Amex change #1: The companion voucher can now be used by a solo traveller to get a 50% discount on the cost of an Avios redemption
  • BA Amex change #2: You can now mix the percentage of Avios and cash used

Let’s get the key bit of small print out of the way first.

These changes only apply to 2-4-1 companion vouchers issued after 1st September 2021. These vouchers are different to older vouchers because:

If you only have ‘old style’ vouchers on your account, nothing you are about to read will apply to you. You will need to wait until your next voucher is issued.

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

Your 2-4-1 companion voucher can now be used by solo travellers for a 50% Avios discount

This is the big one. It is, without a doubt, a response to the new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard which we covered here and which has a 25,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

In our view, the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard is the ideal card for people who liked to travel solo. This is because it comes with an annual BA Avios upgrade voucher which can be used by either a couple (to upgrade one leg of their flight) or a solo traveller (to upgrade a return flight).

I can imagine that American Express was starting to see a drift to the new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard from this group. This change means that solo travellers now have a good reason to stick with, or return to, American Express.

How does this work in practice?

It is as simple as you would expect:

  • Go to the Avios booking page on ba.com
  • Tick the box to say that you want to use your companion voucher (which we may now need to rename!)
  • Search for availability for one person

This is what you will see:

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

There is now a message saying that you have activated the solo traveller 50% discount.

Whilst the message references the Premium Plus card, the 50% discount also applies to Economy bookings made using a new-style free British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher.

I did a dummy booking for a return flight to New York for one person on an off peak date. This would usually cost 100,000 Avios + £844 in taxes and charges.

Instead, you now see this:

British Airyways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher has been improved

You are charged 100% of the taxes and charges but only 50% of the Avios.

One benefit of this change vs the Barclaycard Avios Mastercard upgrade voucher is that it is valid for First Class travel. The Barclaycard voucher can only be used to upgrade an Avios booking from Economy to Premium Economy, or from Premium Economy to Business Class.

PS. There is one loophole which BA seems to have missed. You cannot use 2 x new-style BA Amex vouchers at once to book for three people, only one of which is the cardholder. You can do this if four people are travelling, but not three. I think it is worth the BA IT team having a look at this because, after all, there are plenty of families of three out there.

Conclusion

There’s nothing bad to say about this!

It is a 100% genuine improvement which offers a lot of value to some people without taking anything away from those who won’t benefit.

In Part 2 ….

There is another interesting feature in the screenshot above.

As you can see, you are offered ‘More pricing options’.

In Part 2 of this article on the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher changes, we’ll look at what these options are.

Learn more about the American Express and Barclaycard Avios-earning credit cards:

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

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

Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

Comments (147)

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

  • robkeane says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:00

    the biggest differentiator is that the Amex ones can be used for a journey that starts outside the UK. That can result in many £100s of a saving.

    • Rob says:
      13 Jun13 June 13:17

      You massively overthink how many BA Amex cardholders give a monkeys about this 🙂

      Even amongst HfP readers I’d estimate 95% won’t do it under threat of excommunication from their partner.

      However, I CAN see this being more popular with solo travellers who don’t have anyone else to keep happy.

      • Sussex bantam says:
        13 Jun13 June 13:24

        Exactly – there is no chance of me even trying to drag my family to an ex-EU start but I may well do it if travelling by myself

        • G says:
          13 Jun13 June 13:36

          I mean; Dublin isn’t necessarily a faff but I do understand.

          • Colin MacKinnon says:
            13 Jun13 June 13:47

            A night out in Paris ? Although the tickets for the Opera cost more than the APD saved!!!

      • SteveW says:
        13 Jun13 June 14:38

        Got it spot on, Rob.

      • qrfan says:
        13 Jun13 June 17:06

        If I am dragging my family exEU, I am not doing it to save a few hundred quid of fees. I am doing it to save thousands overall on a cash ticket and earn status for the best part of 2 years. The value of avios to me is direct flights for exEU prices. That might change when we’re not taking twins and a few litres of milk through security mind…

      • joe Jordan says:
        13 Jun13 June 19:39

        Useful for your (albeit) minority readership that live in N.I. and can handily avail of DUB as a starting point.

        • joe Jordan says:
          13 Jun13 June 19:43

          Also, thinking again, when coming up with this new voucher, BA gave being able to start outside UK higher priority than solo solo traveller, someone in Amex must have seen it as useful, these things don’t just suddenly appea for no reason.

      • YC says:
        13 Jun13 June 20:09

        It does open up a lot more possibilities if u end up somewhere else with another set of miles (virgin, Amex, etc). Helps with flexibility

      • PGW says:
        14 Jun14 June 05:19

        I’m sure that’s and accurate assessment for those starting in London but it may be less true for regional departures. I’ve beens having significant sums for years but taking a 30 minute hop to DUB from NW England. In many cases it hasn’t been necessary to overnight there and for award redemptions it isn’t necessary to go back to DUB on the return.

      • Tomgold says:
        16 Jun16 June 14:54

        and then there are those based out of the UK, for Whom tis was a massive improvement

  • Mouse says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:07

    Good for couples who both have the card too I guess as they can now use their two vouchers per year to travel together once for half price, rather than having to take two long haul trips a year to get value out of both having the card.

    • MattB says:
      13 Jun13 June 13:16

      Surely if you have 2 vouchers you still need to travel twice to benefit? Its a waste using 2 vouchers to fly 2 people half price when its the same cost as using 1 for BOGOF?

  • AndyW says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:13

    Why would they want to use two vouchers instead of one for the same outcome…

    • Rob says:
      13 Jun13 June 13:15

      You use 2 vouchers together so a family of 3 can get all three seats at (effectively) half the Avios cost.

  • Phil says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:16

    Just need them to allow Barclaycard and Amex vouchers to be used on cash tickets now.

  • Steve in Croydon says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:22

    About time too! As a solo traveller I’ve been asking for this for many years. However, it doesn’t seem to be a genuine desire to improve the lot of Avios collectors, but a reaction to the new Avios BarclayCard.
    BA’s surcharges are still outrageous and other OneWorld airlines offer a better business class product for fewer Avios and lower surcharges. Also, will this stop redemption First/Business flyers being bumped or down-graded by BA? Answer – NO!!
    I’ve had many 2-4-1 vouchers over the years and several that I couldn’t use. For me it’s too little too late. I’ve switched to the BarclayCard and Platinum Amex with flexible MR Points. I’m also transferring Avios to Nectar as a hedge against devaluation.

    • Lady London says:
      13 Jun13 June 19:39

      And the fact that BA is halving only the avios, and keeping the full cash co-pay that they’ve still got the cheek to call ‘taxes’ as still required when someone travels on the voucher, is another indication of BA taking step after step to reduce the value of avios.

  • NorthernLass says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:29

    So you still can’t use it in 2 parts to book the outbound and return? That much be so much more helpful than either of these changes!

  • Max says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:35

    I’ve already have reward flights booked without using a voucher. Is it possible to rebook the flight when I’ve earned the voucher at a later date to save on some Avios?

    • Rob says:
      13 Jun13 June 14:08

      No. All you can do is cancel and hope the seats go back in the Avios pot. Chances drop through nearer to departure you get.

  • Alan says:
    13 Jun13 June 13:37

    Good improvement but really frustrating it’s only for post Sept 2021 vouchers 😭

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

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