so as a previous user of AMEX and now Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) - I continue to learn about the quirks of companion vouchers. With RBC the collection is always per calendar year and so depending on how quickly you spend 30k bucks, depends on how soon you get the voucher (and usually too late for Christmas availability) This year, it took 6 weeks for the voucher to be issued from the time the 30 000th RBC earned avios was credited. It may be different with the UK AMEX card, but when I tried to book from NY a few days earlier at xmas due to no availability from YYZ, I was told that RBC companion vouchers can only be used for flights ex Canada and returning to Canada. With Calgary being dropped for the winter, and 2 dreamliners only for the winter from YYZ (and no first most days) the availability is getting worse. You learn something new every day!!