For the past three years I have been racking up companion tickets using my Virgin Amex (I think I get one per every £15000 spent?). Anyway I've never used one because I've been told it can only be used with a fully flexible UC ticket which is normally double the price of the discount UC ticket. So unless you are flying for business and need flexible tickets what's the point? Am I missing something?
Programs: VS Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, Virgin Amex.
Posts: 687
Generally, they are not worth anything and are considered a marketing gimmick.
I have never managed to find a use for them, but there have been reports on V-Flyer of very occasional value for money redemptions. IIRC, the ones I read about were for PE flights to South Africa.
Historically it was always the case that the only destination where an Upper Class companion ticket made sense was JNB/CPT where the price of 2 x Z > 1 x J. I used a couple in this way a few years back, and it was nice having the limo transfers for our holidays.
However, a quick check on ExpertFlyer reveals that at the moment J is £4.7K and there are promotional Z fares for just over £2K. So the voucher is probably pretty worthless until this promotion is over and the Z fares revert to £2.7K.
Another way companion vouchers may be useful is on PE 'S' fares, where sometimes a single S can be less than two K's (in non-sale times) - however with the taxes rising as they are, I don't know if this still holds true?
Is it right that BA companion vouchers are valid for any fare class?
