Hello,
I am new and this is my first forum post, so please forgive me if I am going over old ground (I did search) or have posted in the wrong place.

I have been using BA a lot for work and now for pleasure only. I have an Amex card with which I built up enough to earn a BA companion voucher. However, when I try to redeem this it seems it is not quite worth the 'free flight' I rightly or wrongly believed it to be.

So flying from LHR to KRK return, for my wife and I would cost £390 cash only. If I try to redeem my companion voucher, it asks for 6500 Avios points plus £230 cash. If you look to purchase 6000 Avios it will cost £159. Now I realise purchasing Avios is a bad deal but if you did it that way it would cost £389, saving £1. What you cannot do is buy the lead passenger ticket for cash and get the companion for free (plus taxes etc). Flights I tried are listed as 'Reward Flights'

Add that you now need to spend £15000 on your card to obtain a companion voucher per year, up from £10000, this seems like poor value to me. Or, am I missing a trick that more seasoned travellers than me could advise on ?
Thanks