BA Companion Voucher questions
Jan 4, 2018, 2:22 am
#16
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: HKG
Programs: BAEC Gold, CX MPC Gold, Avis preferred plus, MyWaitrose card
Posts: 287
Yes, the voucher only allows 2 for 1 on the avios cost ONLY - the taxes and charges (which on a long haul economy are most of the cost of the ticket) are still charged for both tickets. That's what a lot of first time voucher users don't necessarily realise...
Jan 4, 2018, 2:24 am
#17
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: UK, Peak District near MAN
Programs: BA- blue, BD,DL
Posts: 2,027
Upgrading doesn’t do anything for me either - I could never justify paying for Business or First class, however using the companion voucher means I can travel business/first class for less than the price of economy. That does interest me and we’ve been to
Cape Town, San Francisco, Seattle in First class and Rio, Delhi and New York in business.
If you can save enough Avios to do this it’s well worth it.
If you can save enough Avios to do this it’s well worth it.
Jan 4, 2018, 2:45 am
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 10
Depends on which route you want and when you’re travelling - JFK has usually pretty good availability especially if you avoid weekends so the more flexible you can be the better unless you have a Joker as GGL to open reward space?
As an example I have 2 F returns next month to CPT which cost 137500 Avios , a GUF2, and 2 for 1 voucher - did need Joker for space release but these tickets were close to £12k to buy so the above plus £1k more or less in tax is great vakue
Prior to being GGL I’ve used 2 for 1 many time to MIA, JNB, SFO ATL by planning as far ahead as ticketing allows and being flexible on flying days to get the seats.
Would never recommend that these vouchers are used for Y on long haul as you don’t maximise the value
Good luck
F
As an example I have 2 F returns next month to CPT which cost 137500 Avios , a GUF2, and 2 for 1 voucher - did need Joker for space release but these tickets were close to £12k to buy so the above plus £1k more or less in tax is great vakue
Prior to being GGL I’ve used 2 for 1 many time to MIA, JNB, SFO ATL by planning as far ahead as ticketing allows and being flexible on flying days to get the seats.
Would never recommend that these vouchers are used for Y on long haul as you don’t maximise the value
Good luck
F
The ideal scenario would have been:
- want to go somewhere in Asia
- check airlines sales
- BA has a sale to Phuket - good
- get a ticket to somewhere I haven't been yet, use the voucher, save a ticket's worth of cash
Jan 4, 2018, 2:46 am
#20
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 10
I only have 40000 Avios, do they worth anything? And I stopped spending towards another voucher (still paying nearly £200 yearly for the card) since I realised this is not really what I thought it is.
Jan 4, 2018, 3:52 am
#21
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Cumbria
Programs: BAEC GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond, Starbucks Gold
Posts: 4,510
First of all drop from the paid card to the free card. Your voucher will remain save. You will get a pro rata refund of the fee. I would then look to use your points for CE return for two (with the voucher). There will be £100 fees to pay using RFS.
Alternatjve look at the cost of UUA from Y to W. Although cheapest Y tickets cannot be upgraded.
Alternatjve look at the cost of UUA from Y to W. Although cheapest Y tickets cannot be upgraded.
Jan 4, 2018, 4:07 am
#22
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: London
Programs: Mucci (Scirocco Sash), BAEC Gold, IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 864
First of all drop from the paid card to the free card. Your voucher will remain save. You will get a pro rata refund of the fee. I would then look to use your points for CE return for two (with the voucher). There will be £100 fees to pay using RFS.
Alternatjve look at the cost of UUA from Y to W. Although cheapest Y tickets cannot be upgraded.
Alternatjve look at the cost of UUA from Y to W. Although cheapest Y tickets cannot be upgraded.
Jan 4, 2018, 4:31 am
#23
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 10
First of all drop from the paid card to the free card. Your voucher will remain save. You will get a pro rata refund of the fee. I would then look to use your points for CE return for two (with the voucher). There will be £100 fees to pay using RFS.
Alternatjve look at the cost of UUA from Y to W. Although cheapest Y tickets cannot be upgraded.
Alternatjve look at the cost of UUA from Y to W. Although cheapest Y tickets cannot be upgraded.
Jan 4, 2018, 4:36 am
#24
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Aberdeen
Programs: BA Gold, Flying Blue Plat, UA Silver, Bonvoy Titanium Lifetime, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold Ambassador
Posts: 536
UUA is indeed "upgrade using Avios", CE is Club Europe (business class in short haul basically and not very exciting), RFS is Reward Flight Saver
Jan 4, 2018, 4:49 am
#25
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
I would also suggest a trip to Europe. If you really don't value travelling business (the lounge and food onboard are a nice touch, especially for longer routes), or you travel only the shorter routes, your avios will stretch to a 2 or 3 trips. RFS is Reward Flight Saver which caps your fees shorthaul at £35 for economy or £50 business, return. However you need to have earned 1 avios in the last 12 months to qualify for this, in case you see normal, higher fees when you search.
Jan 4, 2018, 8:38 am
#26
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 10
Another mind....! London - London to Miami in March
Using RFS
Total 33000Avios + £ 1,119.22 (no company voucher)
Outbound - Tue 20 Mar 2018 / 09:15 20 Mar Heathrow (London) TO 15:05 20 Mar Miami International (FL)
Inbound - Thu 29 Mar 2018 / 20:40 29 Mar Miami International (FL) TO 10:20 30 Mar Heathrow (London)
Whilst on the same route, date/times, in an incognito session, normal search - £873.22
Using RFS
Total 33000Avios + £ 1,119.22 (no company voucher)
Outbound - Tue 20 Mar 2018 / 09:15 20 Mar Heathrow (London) TO 15:05 20 Mar Miami International (FL)
Inbound - Thu 29 Mar 2018 / 20:40 29 Mar Miami International (FL) TO 10:20 30 Mar Heathrow (London)
Whilst on the same route, date/times, in an incognito session, normal search - £873.22
Jan 4, 2018, 9:14 am
#27
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Using RFS
Total 33000Avios + £ 1,119.22 (no company voucher)
Outbound - Tue 20 Mar 2018 / 09:15 20 Mar Heathrow (London) TO 15:05 20 Mar Miami International (FL)
Inbound - Thu 29 Mar 2018 / 20:40 29 Mar Miami International (FL) TO 10:20 30 Mar Heathrow (London)
Whilst on the same route, date/times, in an incognito session, normal search - £873.22
Total 33000Avios + £ 1,119.22 (no company voucher)
Outbound - Tue 20 Mar 2018 / 09:15 20 Mar Heathrow (London) TO 15:05 20 Mar Miami International (FL)
Inbound - Thu 29 Mar 2018 / 20:40 29 Mar Miami International (FL) TO 10:20 30 Mar Heathrow (London)
Whilst on the same route, date/times, in an incognito session, normal search - £873.22
The £873.22 number you get is made up as follows:-
Base fare: £67.00
Taxes, fees and charges: £369.61
Total: £436.61
x 2 pax = £873.22
If you redeem Avios, the price is 41,250 Avios + £369.61 per person. (You can see that the taxes, fees and charges figure is the same as for a cash ticket.)
For 2 pax, that's 82,500 + £739.22.
If you were to use a companion voucher, that would be 41,250 Avios + £739.22 for two pax.
The Avios price that you are quoting comes from asking to spend more cash in order to reduce the number of Avios used. That's why you can move from a combination of 82,500 Avios + £739.22 to 33,000 Avios + £1,199.22.
None of this is unusual or unexpected. But it highlights once again the pointlessness in normal circumstances of using Avios for long-haul economy.
Jan 4, 2018, 4:09 pm
#28
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 574
I've got the credit card two years ago and started spending massively so to get the voucher advertised. I got the voucher in the end, all good.
My math was simple: since my wife and I have paid ~1k for return flights to whatever destination several times, we will now only pay around ~£500 and use the voucher. Right?
Yet, a simple search for LA or NY from London (exact dates and flights) shows very similar results in terms of what we would pay:
London - NY
15:50 22 Mar Heathrow (London) to Newark Liberty International (NJ) (New York) - BA0189
07:55 29 Mar John F Kennedy (NY) (New York) to Heathrow (London) - BA0178
Total: 33000Avios + BA American Express Companion Voucher + £739.82
or
Total: £741.82 (no voucher, no avios, no sale - I think)
London - LA
12:30 21 Mar to 17:05 21 Mar LHR to LAX
21:35 Thu, 29 Mar 2018 Los Angeles
Total: 41250 Avios + BA American Express Companion Voucher + £792.12
or
Total: £831.82 (no voucher, no avios, no sale - I think)
Can anyone please advise of how to use this voucher more effectively? Or do I just let it expire as it seems to me it's a huge con? I won't be using this crap for a save of £40, this is preposterous. That's why I am here as I am a bit baffled and maybe there's something I miss.
Thanks!
My math was simple: since my wife and I have paid ~1k for return flights to whatever destination several times, we will now only pay around ~£500 and use the voucher. Right?
Yet, a simple search for LA or NY from London (exact dates and flights) shows very similar results in terms of what we would pay:
London - NY
15:50 22 Mar Heathrow (London) to Newark Liberty International (NJ) (New York) - BA0189
07:55 29 Mar John F Kennedy (NY) (New York) to Heathrow (London) - BA0178
Total: 33000Avios + BA American Express Companion Voucher + £739.82
or
Total: £741.82 (no voucher, no avios, no sale - I think)
London - LA
12:30 21 Mar to 17:05 21 Mar LHR to LAX
21:35 Thu, 29 Mar 2018 Los Angeles
Total: 41250 Avios + BA American Express Companion Voucher + £792.12
or
Total: £831.82 (no voucher, no avios, no sale - I think)
Can anyone please advise of how to use this voucher more effectively? Or do I just let it expire as it seems to me it's a huge con? I won't be using this crap for a save of £40, this is preposterous. That's why I am here as I am a bit baffled and maybe there's something I miss.
Thanks!