BA American Express companion voucher | master thread
 

This thread is for discussion of, and questions about, the British Airways American Express Companion Voucher.


The Wiki has been transferred from the old thread and will be regularly updated with questions and answers as they come up, but if you have any particular questions that haven't been answered, please feel free to post and someone will be along to help.

We have 3 vouchers between us, the first expires in April 2021 (after being extended) and the way things are going this will just have to expire unless extended again...honestly can't see when these will get to be used.

Good morning all.

i have a question that relates to the following on the wiki:

“If adding the return sector to an existing one-way Amex 241 where the inbound dates were out of range at time of booking, it is now possible to book the flights online as a new one way Avios booking then call BA UK office when open.

Half of the Avios on this new booking will then be refunded to reflect Amex voucher use. The benefit of this is that there is no need to try calling open BA office in the early hours of the morning and the downside is the itinerary will be ticketed as two one way bookings. In addition the Avios balance must be high enough to take a debit of double the required Avios albeit for a relatively short time.”

I have booked the outbound using one voucher and I need to wait a couple of days to book the return as it hasn’t opened yet.

As I have 2 vouchers available to use and not enough Avios for the return, can I book the return using the second voucher, then call BA to merge the outbound and the return.
Will I then get the second voucher back?

thank you.

If you can be bothered with it since it is a bit of hassle, you can make a current booking with the voucher, cancel and take the FTV which will keep the voucher valid till April 2022 but the tax value is held in the FTV and you are essentially giving BA a tax free loan.

I would not do it this way since you will be dealing with 2 different vouchers and potential problems since they will be 2 different PNRs linked to each voucher unless you are prepared to waste the 2 vouchers for one booking.
Also if BA are cancelling one voucher and reapply to your other voucher, it might potentially be classified as a cancellation and you will be liable for for the £35pp fee.
Your first way of booking online with full Avios and then ringing to apply the voucher will be easiest but you don’t have enough Avios.
So ringing BA might be the best option and if you are booking a popular route, if it means you have to ring an overseas office at midnight/1 am, that might be your best option.

its my understanding that 241’s had to originate from the UK, so you would not be able to use a 241 for the return as a standalone booking.

I don't think this is an option as you can only use these vouchers for travel commencing in the UK (assuming this is a UK-issued voucher) and obviously your return will commence from another country (unless you are using a 241 for a domestic trip!).

Quite right. I should have made it clear in my response that this will only work for domestic.

You are right Bakera. The trip using vouchers has to start in the UK but can be used for domestic trip if needed- not the best use of the voucher of course.

That makes perfect sense.
thank you very much for your answers
happy new year to all!

Can I book the outbound with a GUF2 online or do I only book the 241 and then call BA in the morning to add the GUF2 (considering that it only needs I class availability there is less risk)?

Or is it better in this scenario is call BA at midnight?

Thanks

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone is keeping well, and flying soon in the near future...

I've read the FTV comments and had an open question of FTV vs cash+avios+voucher refund.

I'm planning to cancel my 2-4-1 CW to Cape town for March, hoping to rebook for a later date. voucher expires May 2021 (originally Nov 2020)

If I take FTV with the full value locked in voucher, and say rebook for say December 2021, if I chose to cancel my trip again later on, I can only request another FTV which expires April 2022, and potentially lose £1100 or so if I didnt fly long haul by then.

What if instead of FTV, I request cash refund (241, avois and money back - £70 fees) and then rebook a short haul 2-4-1, claim FTV, and then use it by paying the difference from the short haul to cape town. Am I exactly the same position as above, where if i chose to cancel, I cannot get a cash refund for the new trip as its booked under "FTV" terms? I was hoping the FTV value would only be the short haul trip, but I dont think so..

Not sure if this was covered previously.. If it is indeed the case, then would 241 FTV method of extending the voucher be negated by some loss in refund flexibility?

I’ve been looking at award bookings over the past week to DXB and noticed that although at 00:01 award seats in WT and CW are released nothing seems to be released for WTP and F.

Is BA holding back?

I think this is normal isn’t it? I thought ba only promised to release CW and WT seats at 355 days?

The normal guarantee is 2 CW and 4 WT seats per day per flight. WTP and F is not part of that guaranteed release and so is completely adhoc and hit and miss.