I've just cancelled my BA Premium Amex card. I keep getting companion vouchers but there are fewer and fewer rewards seats available to use them on. No longer worth the nearly £300 card cost
Very instructive vids for a novice like myself. Took out a premium card in Jan 2023 and will receive 70,000 bonus points once £3k spent in first 3 months. Daughter taken fee free card to receive 20,000 avios after £1k spend. Hope to pool together contributing to US business class return trip requiring 125,000 avios once I top the £10k spend. Keep the valuable advice coming.
Just managed to find business class flight JER-LHR-LGW-KIN for £1300 in February...Reward Flight Finder was only showing premium economy, but business opened up when I applied the voucher. Ya maaaannnn
That was a great video Matt, we have 2 vouchers with the Amex black card, in fact we are of to Cyprus in 2 weeks with one and have a flight booked to Antigua in May 2022 both in club class. We have had a few reward seat in the past, but cannot get one in first, maybe some time we will be lucky. See your numbers are creeping up.
Cheers Peter. F redemptions exist! North America seems like the best way although they are scarce, not least because BA F equipped planes are much scarcer these days!
Hi Matt, just subscribed I’m a big fan of your videos on BA’s executive club and Avios points. I got my BA Amex in April and have just reached my companion voucher which I’m sure I’ll be using soon. Also nearing the 60,000 avios mark so hoping to get a return off peak flight to NYC to see my sister. Keep up the great videos!
Thanks Henry - welcome aboard! Getting that first twofer is always a great moment and New York is a great target as it has probably the best availability of any destination on the network. Good luck!
They are quite similar for off-peak bookings ex-Lon. But if you want peak (and can find availability) then the twofer wins.... As it does with routes starting outside of the UK... And flights on Iberia or Aer Lingus...
Great video and pretty straightforward and precise information. Thanks very much. I have the blue card and have just earned a companion voucher. I wonder whether I should try and upgrade it to the black card
Hi Matt-presuming you’ve heard about BA Amex changes-are you planning on doing a review-cost analysis benefit would be great as I pay for the Premium plus-but it is still worth it? Though I get away with price hikes as billed in May so will only pay £250-all the best and hope you are well!
Hi James. I've looked at it and I'm not getting too worked up about it to be honest.... It's certainly annoying but the price of everything is going up so I am resigned to these sorts of things happening.... £300 is still excellent value in my mind for what you get and its been £10k for a voucher since 2004 - Headforpoints reports that if this had risen by inflation it would be £17k today, so £15k is not as bad as it could have been... I'm annoyed more as it makes a lot of my videos look out of date!!! I will make a video about it but if I was a complete newcomer to the card and didn't know what the old limits were, I would probably still think £300 / £15k was reasonable....
Hi, great channel! I’ve been thinking about the premium card but can’t find much info on the initial credit limit beyond a general Amex limit of £1200. I see that the joining bonus for the premium card is currently 30,000 avios. But you have to spend £6000 to earn it. What is the credit limit on a new BA card, and would it facilitate a £6000 spend in 3 months? Also, could one book a BA holiday, for say £3000, soon after joining to get towards that £6000 threshold, or would the initial credit limit prevent such a high one off spend?
I don't think anyone can predict what credit limit you're going to get- it will depend on your credit score and the info you provided when applying....
Was just looking to use my voucher to fly to Miami. It's worthless! I would have to spend my entire Avios points and still pay £2000 extra! Plus the flights are all connections with 20h hours of flying. I checked business class for the same destination via Sky Scanner and got to the same price for 2x biz class tickets without the voucher! Maybe if you have a million Avios it would be worth it but other than that it's a scam! And I have the black card!
That doesn't sound right... If you can find availability on a direct BA flight you'll see much more reasonable numbers - options with connections on AA can price higher...
Because of the extensions to existing vouchers due to the current situation, I’m sat on 3 old style twofers (expiring in Jan ‘22, July ‘22, and Jan ‘23) and about 200k Avios. As a family of 4 with nothing booked, I’m thinking I’ll just have to lose the first voucher, and focus on a nice long-haul getaway next summer, using my remaining two twofers. Though saying that now, I really should get on with booking that….
Cheers Oliver - as Sean says there is a way of extending twofers by getting them wrapped into a future travel voucher. They are awful things to see go to waste!!
@@seanmac5230 Thanks for this. With a couple of bookings having to be cancelled over the past 18 months, I always tried to get a refund instead of being locked into an ftv, but completely missed what the advantages would have been!
Hey Matt, how much is your ability to land a seat on these reward flights based on your tier. If I had a voucher bust was blue tier, would I struggle to find suitable bizz class reward flights? Love your channel btw!
Gold does allow you to access extra reward availability although I believe that's only the case in economy.... And it doesn't crop up on every flight you search. Other than that, status makes no difference what you can book. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Matt - great video. 2 questions- do Reward flight finder show the I class seats , or do I need to go somewhere else to find those? And how does the upgrade option work with the companion class tickets? I seem to remember something about booking premium economy seats and then upgrading to club if that becomes available, but presumably this is extremely unlikely for two seats ?
ITA Matrix will find I class seats for you... There's a video about it on the channel - you need the qualifier "f bc=i" - basically fare: booking code = i. Best used with the calendar of lowest fares option. If that's all gibberish - check out the video and persevere as it will change your life.... A bit... Upgrade with the companion isn't really a concept - you need to book straight into a redemption seat in the class you want, then you get a second one for zero avios but you need to still pay the taxes on the second seat. You do need availability to be 2, but that's not that uncommon to find. Thanks for watching and I hope this helped!
Hi Matt, thank you so much much for such a good video. I have obtained a companion voucher trough the blue card that could only be used in economy. Would you advise whether it would be better to use it for long haul flights (given the significant taxes), or short reward saver flights? Thank you in advance for your help.
With the economy voucher no option is brilliant... But Long Haul is generally the way to go... Its best to value that voucher at zero so anything you get out of it is a bonus!
Thank you very much for this video, I have a companion voucher and wondered if you knew the answer. I know that the voucher allows for you to have a discounted seat price and 241 but I am wondering if the taxes ( the amount I need to pay) can be paid for with avios points ? I have lots of avios points after spending 10k ...thank you in advance.
Hello Syeda - thanks for watching! The easy answer is no - they will extract the taxes and fees element from you in cash... A slightly more complicated answer is with "reward flight saver" fares - you still have to pay a cash element if you redeem a twofer against a rfs fare, but its a lower amount than the taxes and fees would be if the RFS didn't exist. But as I say in the video, the destinations where RFS fares apply are usually European short haul to offer relatively poor value for the avios. So No! Sadly...
Hi Matt, can I book an outbound flight on my companion voucher, then add the return at a later date when the seats become available ? I've read / heard somewhere that I can do that, ( possibly on one of your useful videos !) but now I've used the ticket for the outbound flight, it is showing it as used… And presumably I’d have to get through to BA on the phone to make the return booking… ?
Hi Julie - you're bang on. Lots of people call 355 days before the date of travel to book as that's when the seats are released onto BA's system. Grab them, apply the twofer even though its a one way and relax... A little... The voucher shows as used although there's still the return available. Then people call again 355 days before the return to grab those seats when they are released and the agent can then tidy everything up to give you a simple return booking. You do need to call. Not without stress, pay attention to the time zones as the optimum is to call at midnight which can be 1am when the clocks change...
Great and useful video Avois points can be redeemed by Qatar Airways. Can I use the voucher in Qatar Airways flight? Can the Boucher be redeemed by my 2 family mbmrs without me?
Hi Ahmed. Has to be on a BA flight, although they've just extended it so Iberia and Aer Lingus flights are available too so fingers crossed Qatar will be added too. And you have to be one of the travellers, although if there's a family of 4 you can redeem 2 vouchers at the same time and only pay 2 fares.
Do the reward flights need to be direct with BA? As I’ve seen you can’t redeem the vouchers with any partner airlines. Does this mean if I were to go to Sydney, both flights would need to be British Airways? Is this even possible? I thought the connecting flight was usually with a partner airline
Has to be BA metal all the way, although Iberia and Aer Lingus will work too. Looking at an Iberia redemption from Boston to Heathrow via Madrid and that is acceptable. Sydney would work as there is one BA option all the way through
Hi Matt. Really enjoying your series mate. How would you spend say 45000 avios and companion voucher? What would be your recommendation if my partner and I wanted to travel business class long haul. For eg - To Tampa (USA) or Mumbai (India) for eg. Would you recommenda that I purchase more avios on their sale maybe?
Thanks for watching! 45k avios is an annoying amount - its enough for a F redemption to zone 4, which is 2,001 - 3,000 miles away. That's enough to get to Kuwait but not Doha or Dubai and its not far enough for anywhere in North America. If you could find F reward availability... Which is not that common these days. It's a business class flight to the same zone as the next zone up starts at 50,000 in business. That would cover anywhere 3,001 to 4,000 miles away, which covers the Middle East and all of North east USA (including Chicago). Not quite enough for Atlanta or anywhere in India - Delhi I think is the shortest flight at around 4,125 miles. So if you can get (or buy) up to 50k then New York, Toronto, Chicago or Dubai would be good options - even better as you'd find decent availability on those routes. Tampa's about 4,400 miles and Mumbai is 4,500 miles which are both in the next band up where you'd need 62,600 miles. 50k and 62.5k miles are both off-peak rates too... Hope that's help.
Thanks for this Matt. Wish I had watched this video before applying for the Blue BA Amex a couple of months ago, but that’s my silly fault. One quick question: Can you use the twofor to book an economy ticket and then upgrade with Avios?
Hi Jon... I think you can upgrade the card if you want to pursue the "better" voucher... As regards your question - I think you can although you'd need availability for both economy and business - to make the first booking then to process the upgrade...
@@Shoneyonmainstreet You need to be logged into your BA account and search reward seats for DUB-XXX. The voucher should be applicable if you find anything.... Sadly BA's calendars don't show availability for Aer Lingus flights so it can be a bit hit and miss... You can also call - you need to connect to BA to be able to apply the voucher, either online or on the phone
Hi, I want to get a card that can help me lower the cost of my flight tickets or even free upgrades etc with British airways. Which car is best suited for that?
Hello! No card will lower the cost - you pay the fare the airline offers... But if you run your spending through the Amex card you will earn avios that you can then use to reduce the cost by part paying for your fares with avios. No card will improve your chances of an upgrade, but once again you can collect avios and then spend them on upgrades.
@@MattsPlanet thanks! I dont want to pay an annual fee..I just want to start of easy and then work my way up. I shall sign up for the normal basic card at the beginning?
@@Jude19 Hey - sorry to be vague but credit cards are a regulated industry here in the UK so I need to be careful to not advise you on what to do, except to say credit cards are great as long as you're not carrying a balance - its a very expensive way to borrow money if you run a balance. Check out headforpoints.com - he is regulated so can give more advice than I can. He talks about all the UK card options, paid or free, from which you should be able to find the card that works for you - there will be one! Good luck!
It's obtained via a card issued in the UK so it's the cards t's & C's rather than the vouchers that I'd look at. I suspect UK residency is very helpful but Amex is an international business so they may not require it. I'd give them a call - their customer service has always been good when I've needed it.
I find booking business class flights with a companion voucher very frustrating do you have any tips to make booking easier when researching what flights are available.
Hi Kevin. Using a twofer can be really frustrating... 3 tips - book early. Flights are released 355 days and every flight has 2 business class reward seats so the further out you book the more likely you are to get what you want. 2 - be flexible. MIA may be tough but there's always always availability to New York and you can connect on from there (for example). Not the same experience as a direct flight, but you do still get good value and the BA experience. 3 - subscribe to seatspy and set up alerts. But send those alerts to an email you constantly monitor and be ready to act - there could be dozens of alerts fired out and you'd need to react first!
So really it’s only worth getting if you value flying anything above economy, which I don’t, I’d always rather spend the money saved flying as cheap as possible into the holiday itself.
@@MattsPlanet I’m going to comfortable achieve the spend requirement essentially but if I cancel now after 70K Avios bonus I’ll get £200 pro rata and as you’ve highlighted I doubt I’ll save that using the voucher if I only plan on flying economy and also don’t have any long haul flights in my horizon currently!
Hi Matt-watched this video with interest and what’s clear is it’s worth paying for my BA AMEX premium as it gives me access to business twofers-as well as accumulating avios quicker. I’m planning to fly to Singapore in April 2024 and considering using my twofer for my wife and I to fly return leg business (excel spreadsheet says will only have 150k avios)-Changhi to LHR-we originate in Jersey so would it be dangerous to not have this final leg included (LHR to JSY)? We were thinking of flying PE with BA out with both legs included JSY-LHR-Changhi. Is this the best approach or should we upgrade with avios? Also I can’t use twofer on a Qatar flight can I? Or should I rely on my BA gold status giving me a chance to upgrade from PE both ways? So many options and I don’t even know if twofer is spelt twofer!😂
Hi James! I call it a "twofer" and spell it that way, but people know what you mean! Singapore is probably the most popular redemption route on the BA network so finding availability is going to be your challenge in club... All of BA's recent changes mean that adding a leg like Jersey has also gotten more expensive (in avios terms) although it should be easy to add that leg if you can find seats to or from SIN. Getting a through ticket is handy but by no means essential - its helpful if you want to check baggage through... And it won't work on Qatar... Lots of questions but the biggest bit of advice is to start searching for availability and if you find any, book first and finesse later - the seats won't be there for long!
Hi Matt, Having found you via the HfP link to your tier point run clip; I’m now going through your others including this one which I found very useful since having accumulated 4 twofers (3 old 1 new) between wife and I was unclear about the differences. Now all I need is to get my head around finding I class availability. Presumably the BA website knows when you look for availability but how about the other online sites eg seatspy ? As I’m about to reach gold status this year after completing short tier point run in April (LHR-AGP-MAD-LHR=100points) can I ask if that changes the availability criteria in any way?
Thanks Bella - although I doubt that's your name!!! The BA website is ok at finding available seats - you may have noticed you need to nominate a voucher when searching and I think they use that to present inventory depending on what type of voucher it is... I class inventory is best found on matrix - there is a video!!! - the key filter is f bc=i (basically fare booking class = i). That'll show you all i class availability so when you add it to "airlines = ba" that should do the trick! Seatspy is great but I think it only shows reward inventory - which is what you needed for the old style voucher. Cheers and thanks for watching!
The rules only changed for vouchers issued after the scheme changed so an older voucher should still carry the t's and c's in force when you earned it. Good luck!
Thanks for the video very informative, i am currently a blue card holder if i change to the black card will i still be eligible for the 40000 bonus points if i spend £3000 within 3 months of getting the new card
Cheers Rok. Rokky??? I don't know actually... There'd be a bonus available for the black card so whether you'd transfer what you'd spent towards that or you'd lost what you'd accumulated, I don't know... 40k points is quite a decent haul... I don't know how much you spend (and I don't know whether you'd be accepted for the black card) but perhaps spend £3,001 on the blue, bank the bonus then upgrade??? Perhaps give them a quick call - their customer service has been pretty good in my experience. Good luck!
I've just earned my reward, how do I get details of it, as not received any email or letter. Just found it. Does the companion have to live at same address.
There's a lag before it shows up... You can travel with anyone, from anywhere, but as the cardholder you need to book and pay, and you need to take all flights together.
Hi Matt, from your examples it looks like you get inbound and outbound with a single voucher, is that correct? Meaning the voucher is two for one on the booking rather than a particular flight?
Hi Robert. The twofer is a free return alongside a paid return, so 4 flights in total, 2 free... The Barclays upgrade voucher is a one class upgrade for 2 flights - so a solo traveller can return a couple would get one way upgraded.
Hi Matt great video. Today I completed my transaction it says im qualify for companion voucher . But where i can get this voucher? I cant see in my account. Also when i book reward flight it didnt give option. Will it take time to come through? I hold blue amex
It will take a day or two to show up in your BA account and it will open up an option to apply it when making a booking. Time to start planning the trip!
Hi. The video was absolute class,it helped a lot. I had a few questions. I recently just met the threshold of receiving a companion voucher. I was on the black card but now the free blue one as I also have a barclays aviois credit card and was using that one more. 1. Can I use the companion voucher on Qatar Airways? 2. Can I pay for the flight by cash and not use my Avios and also receive the companion voucher ? 3. Can I reapply for the black card and still receive the voucher ? Thank you
Hi there. I think its 3 nos... Only BA "metal" not Qatar, although they did recently extend it to Iberia and Aer Lingus for redemptions... Virgin lets to double up a cash or reward booking but on BA it has to be a redemption. And If you go back to the black one, I believe you'll have the spending reset. Not the answers you want, but answers!
@Matt's Planet I appreciate your quick response.. so in order to use the companion voucher I will need to use up all my points? Or i can use points and cash to cover the difference? Thank you
@@jaykay1262 That's a great question... You need to go through the redemption booking path, and there will be various cash and avios options when you get to payment. Its part of the BA site that works well so you can certainly go and have a play - it shows the voucher use quite clearly. Slightly more advanced maths here, but you might want to buy more avios (versus paying more cash) as you're getting double the value you may pay to buy them through the use of the voucher....
Hi Matt, really appreciate the video. I gained my first companion voucher last year and have used it wisely, however how can I track how close I am to reaching my companion voucher for this year? As I probably only spend around 10k a year on it I want to be able to make sure I don’t miss out by a couple hundred quid just because I wasn’t paying attention
Hi Steve - thanks for watching. I have the Amex app on my phone and I think it shows progress towards the 10k... I say "I think" as I have triggered mine for the year and so there's no tracker showing in the app. Pretty sure my year resets in May so I'll be able to check for certain then! But somewhere between the App and the Amex website would be where I'd look.
@@MattsPlanet thanks Matt, yep found it in the app. It was just me being lazy and not investigating further myself. Also with the new Barclays avios credit cards, is there a referral scheme in place?
I've not seen anything about referring for the new Barclay's avios card... I know head for points was a launch partner (my phrase, not theirs) so they may have some agreement but I'm not aware of one being available for others yet...
Hi Matt, thanks for the content. I like others signed up for the blue card. I have seen that I can upgrade it. If I pay the annual fee will my companion voucher then be sent as the “all class” voucher? Thanks for your help so far
You have to! On BA the companion voucher is a redemption based concept. Virgin allows you to choose whether you apply the voucher to a cash or points booking but with BA it has to be avios.
Thanks… just noticed a bit of a boo boo on my end. My voucher expires on 28th March 2023. I thought i could simply book the flight before that date and then fly after that date.. how wrong I was :(
Hello Matt, I have companion voucher from blue card. I want to travel with my 1yo child. It seems impossible to find Reward Flight route Belfast - Jakarta and I also try search different route but its always error or nothing show up? I’m hopeless.
Hi there... Vouchers can only be used on BA flights and they don't fly to Jakarta. Indeed they stopped KUL and BKK during the pandemic and haven't resumed since - as Malaysian flies to KUL there's talk that BA won't reopen that route now. So the only real option is a redemption to Singapore, but that's one of the most competitive routes to find reward availability on... If you call BA and explain what you want to achieve you may well get a helpful agent who can at least help you understand the options. But Jakarta is going to be really tough to get anywhere close to, I'm afraid.
@@MattsPlanet thanks Matt. Ack, it’s very cheeky of them lol. I thought i could use the Companion Voucher for any route (regardless its a BA or joint flights BA+Qatar). Maybe I can find other routes. I read you advised seatspy but i can’t find route from anywhere in ROI / NI to New York/other cities. Any other website I should check? Thanks in advance.
@@brisbentashannatova3492 BA planes only head to the US from London - BA is cheekily known by some as London Airlines... So a routing from BFS - LHR - USA should be relatively easy to find - JFK often has excellent availability as there are so many flights. If you search LHR - JFK and call to book when you find something, they should be able to add connecting flights in from Belfast or even Dublin.
Hi Matt think of taking out the black premium card. I will spent about £10k a year on it so enough to get the 241 voucher. But will I have enough points from only spending £10k on it for a long hall flight ? No point in me meeting the requirements if I don’t have enough Avios to pay for a flight. Or can I buy a flight using £ and get the 241 voucher off the credit card ? New to all of this thanks.
Thanks baz... A £10k spend will get you 15k avios, or 30k if all of that spend is on BA... Neither of which will be enough for a flight of any significance... You may get a sign up bonus but you'd probably need to get some avios from elsewhere... I shared where I get mine from here - ua-cam.com/video/Kag8gCucpjU/v-deo.html
Hi Matt, great video, many thanks for taking the time to explain this. I had a quick question.. if I achieve the companion voucher on the black BA amex card 4 months in, can I downgrade to the free blue BA amex card and retain my companion voucher for 2yrs with option to use in any cabin? (doing this would allow me to reclaim 160 quid or so of that 250 quid fee). Thanks
I believe you can downgrade cards and keep the voucher - you've earned it after all! A quick call to Amex would confirm it but once the voucher is issued and sits in your BA account I believe you could even cancel the card and still get the benefit of the voucher.
@@MattsPlanet yes, you can downgrade your cards, and keep the old (Premium) voucher. Just be careful when you have 2 vouchers (one of each) and use the correct one when booking. (Premium allows business class, whereas the free card is Economy)
Great video. How come when I search for normal Business Class flights LHR to Dubai I can buy them but when I go to book two with a companion voucher the next available date is 23 April 2022?
Hi Aiden. If your voucher was issued before 1 sept, then BA controls the availability. And with the recent loosening of travel restrictions it wouldn't surprise me if they pulled all redemption availability to see what the passenger reaction was. They'll then reopen inventory as the dust settles. If the voucher was post 1 sep, then they may have done something similar - pull all discount business inventory until they know how passengers are reacting. So check often, or set an alert with seatspy or expertflyer to notify you when seats pop up. Good luck!
Hi Matt, I have an Amex gold already. Do you think it’s more worth it to go for the black BA as that would limit me to BA airlines only but I can get a twofer. Or should I stick to Amex gold which would give me all airlines but no twofer? Which would save me more money ? I always travel with my husband and would only use the points on flights.
A big question... If you do fly, the BA voucher is considered one of the best credit card perks in the UK. Plus the black BA card earns 1.5 avios per £ (and 3 avios for BA spend) compared (I believe) to 1 point on the gold amex... But depending on your travel ambitions, you might get more value out of 10,000 amex points moved to Lufthansa than you do from 15,000 avios... It's not an easy answer I'm afraid...
@@maariabodi5796 If you can get good value out of it, it would... That involves having a realistic view of what you can use it for, or having a very long planning cycle so you can book when availability is created.
Honest answer is I don't know... I think you'd be better off calling, cancelling the 2nd traveller (which you can do up to 24 hours before travel as it's still an avios booking, even with the voucher). That'll give you back their taxes (probably less a £35 fee) but you'll also get your voucher back and will still have your booking intact. Hope this is s theoretical and it doesn't mean something awful has happened! Cheers
@@MattsPlanet hi Matt, I now have the opposite situation where I have a companion ticket booking and I still want my companion to fly but without me - do you know if you can do that?
In terms of redeeming the voucher, you mention it would cost X avios + £X, the second seat being free. Does this mean, despite having the voucher, I still need 45,000 avois points too (for example)?
Second question - if the above is correct and I don't have enough avios points, can I pay cash for a seat, use the voucher and have the 2nd seat free? Or is it only free if you purchase seat #1 using avios points.
Yes - the Amex is a redemption tool, not a cash tool. So if one seat costs 100,000 avios plus £350, applying the voucher will give you two seats for 100,000 plus £700 - you still have to pay the taxes on the second seat. And you need to find availability... You cannot get a second seat on a cash booking. I think that answers the second question too.
Matt. Have you looked recently for any fares using an Amex Premium card 2 4 1 voucher? If so how did you go about it? Did you use the BA website? If not is there an easy way to look for the 2 4 1 voucher seat availability. Are they subject to the 355 day rule? Business class still seams difficult to come by. Thanks. Steve. C. YNWA.
Hi Steve. The twofer shows up in your BA account and is easily applied to a booking you're looking at. In fact its harder to search without using a voucher than it is with!! All flights are created 355 days ahead so that limit availability applied to all cash and reward bookings.... I'm actually playing with a reward site at the moment and I'm seeing lots (and lots) of availability in the first quarter but it does dry up a bit after that...
The BA American Express Credit Card Companion Voucher is what most people have ! .. NOT the BA American Express PREMIUM PLUS Voucher ! If you would have looked into what 90% of what people have , you would have realised what a Scam these vouchers are. You did in fairness mention that you can only use it for ECONOMY TICKETS ... BUT what you failed to say is that BA stipulate that the companion voucher can only used accompanied by a " Reward Flight Only" and the voucher ONLY gives you now 50% discount on the reward required ! so basically you will need a vast amount of Avios points for this to be used. In other words BA are ripping off the public
@@MattsPlanet With great respect , you have missed the point of my comment : I am not making a critical comment on AMEX C Card. This is only on how B.A. rip off the " majority" of people who get a companion voucher using their Blue Card , and then find out the BA conditions to redeem this voucher are horrible, and onerous , that frankly make these vouchers useless. FYI Amex Blue Card represents 92% of their Credit Card holders. Its in their financial report
@@theinvestorstrategist I'm with you! I've caught up... I violently agree that there is indeed minimal value in an economy twofer redemption... And I also agree its something I could do a better job of making clear in my videos.... Thanks! 92% is a fascinating statistic...
@@MattsPlanet There are 56.4 million American Express cards in the United States and 65.3 million internationally. (Google + Amex info) . So 8% who have a "Paid Amex Card" is actually a big number. I am surprised, as I thought it will be far less than 8% , as most people will not want to pay a yearly fee for a credit card.
@@theinvestorstrategist hello, could you link the report/statement which breaks down the types of card issued in the UK as you suggest i.e 92% cards are 'free'. Thanks
Thanks Matt! You finally decoded this for me... after months of trying to figure it out! :)
I'm glad it helped!
Id love you to expand this video onto the Barclaycards too!
Not a bad call! I'll add it to the list
Just earned our voucher. Super excited to get it used, especially with the new reward flight saver on biz class!
Congrats! Some really interesting Iberia destinations... Spend it well!
Enjoying so far!
Thanks - even if this video is now out of date from the changes announced yesterday!!!
I've just cancelled my BA Premium Amex card. I keep getting companion vouchers but there are fewer and fewer rewards seats available to use them on. No longer worth the nearly £300 card cost
The more cardholders the harder it is to get a seat.. I tend to not find it too hard but I have extreme flexibility!
Very instructive vids for a novice like myself. Took out a premium card in Jan 2023 and will receive 70,000 bonus points once £3k spent in first 3 months. Daughter taken fee free card to receive 20,000 avios after £1k spend. Hope to pool together contributing to US business class return trip requiring 125,000 avios once I top the £10k spend. Keep the valuable advice coming.
Thanks Brian. I'll warn you though - it gets addictive!!
Such a brilliant perk. Just booked return to MIA for 4 of us in club. Saved a small fortune. The trick is knowing how and when to use the twofer!
Absolutely - the increased availability for the latest vouchers seems to make it even better
Should do. Just used up the last of my old style ones
I ordered mine yesterday and this video was extremely useful
Glad I could help.
cracking video my friend! Thanks for the info!
Thanks so much!
Just managed to find business class flight JER-LHR-LGW-KIN for £1300 in February...Reward Flight Finder was only showing premium economy, but business opened up when I applied the voucher. Ya maaaannnn
That's excellent - congrats! Jersey's a decent starting point too... KIN in Feb will be fab. Enjoy!
This was incredibly useful and helped my fiance and me decide to go for the black card. Ace!
I'm glad it helped... Thanks for taking the time to comment - its always fantastic to get feedback like this!
Thank you for this. I have liked and subscribed.
Welcome aboard!
Nicely explained. Thanks Matt
Thanks Rob
That was a great video Matt, we have 2 vouchers with the Amex black card, in fact we are of to Cyprus in 2 weeks with one and have a flight booked to Antigua in May 2022 both in club class.
We have had a few reward seat in the past, but cannot get one in first, maybe some time we will be lucky.
See your numbers are creeping up.
Cheers Peter. F redemptions exist! North America seems like the best way although they are scarce, not least because BA F equipped planes are much scarcer these days!
I'm a bit late to this but very helpful video!
Better late than never! Hope it was helpful
Awesome video as always. Keep them coming!
Thanks! Will do!
Very clear advice. A very helpful video, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Matt, just subscribed I’m a big fan of your videos on BA’s executive club and Avios points. I got my BA Amex in April and have just reached my companion voucher which I’m sure I’ll be using soon. Also nearing the 60,000 avios mark so hoping to get a return off peak flight to NYC to see my sister. Keep up the great videos!
Thanks Henry - welcome aboard! Getting that first twofer is always a great moment and New York is a great target as it has probably the best availability of any destination on the network. Good luck!
In my opinion the upgrade voucher looks a bit meh and the 2-4-1 of the Amex card looks a lot better
They are quite similar for off-peak bookings ex-Lon. But if you want peak (and can find availability) then the twofer wins.... As it does with routes starting outside of the UK... And flights on Iberia or Aer Lingus...
Thanks mate good info
Glad it helped!
Great video and pretty straightforward and precise information. Thanks very much. I have the blue card and have just earned a companion voucher.
I wonder whether I should try and upgrade it to the black card
Thanks Sachin. Being limited to an economy award with the blue card is certainly something to think about.... There can be value but not that much...
I’m just waiting for my black card , still a complete novice to this but thanks for your information
Excellent! Gathering points through an Amex is a slow moving project so you have time to build your knowledge!
Useful thanks
You're welcome!
Hi Matt-presuming you’ve heard about BA Amex changes-are you planning on doing a review-cost analysis benefit would be great as I pay for the Premium plus-but it is still worth it? Though I get away with price hikes as billed in May so will only pay £250-all the best and hope you are well!
Hi James. I've looked at it and I'm not getting too worked up about it to be honest.... It's certainly annoying but the price of everything is going up so I am resigned to these sorts of things happening.... £300 is still excellent value in my mind for what you get and its been £10k for a voucher since 2004 - Headforpoints reports that if this had risen by inflation it would be £17k today, so £15k is not as bad as it could have been... I'm annoyed more as it makes a lot of my videos look out of date!!! I will make a video about it but if I was a complete newcomer to the card and didn't know what the old limits were, I would probably still think £300 / £15k was reasonable....
Great stuff.
Thanks!
Hi, great channel! I’ve been thinking about the premium card but can’t find much info on the initial credit limit beyond a general Amex limit of £1200. I see that the joining bonus for the premium card is currently 30,000 avios. But you have to spend £6000 to earn it. What is the credit limit on a new BA card, and would it facilitate a £6000 spend in 3 months? Also, could one book a BA holiday, for say £3000, soon after joining to get towards that £6000 threshold, or would the initial credit limit prevent such a high one off spend?
I don't think anyone can predict what credit limit you're going to get- it will depend on your credit score and the info you provided when applying....
Very helpful thanks
You're welcome!
Was just looking to use my voucher to fly to Miami. It's worthless! I would have to spend my entire Avios points and still pay £2000 extra! Plus the flights are all connections with 20h hours of flying. I checked business class for the same destination via Sky Scanner and got to the same price for 2x biz class tickets without the voucher! Maybe if you have a million Avios it would be worth it but other than that it's a scam! And I have the black card!
That doesn't sound right... If you can find availability on a direct BA flight you'll see much more reasonable numbers - options with connections on AA can price higher...
Because of the extensions to existing vouchers due to the current situation, I’m sat on 3 old style twofers (expiring in Jan ‘22, July ‘22, and Jan ‘23) and about 200k Avios. As a family of 4 with nothing booked, I’m thinking I’ll just have to lose the first voucher, and focus on a nice long-haul getaway next summer, using my remaining two twofers. Though saying that now, I really should get on with booking that….
you can extend your "vouchers" by booking a cheap ticket anywhere e.g. one way man to edi and then cancel for an ftv
Cheers Oliver - as Sean says there is a way of extending twofers by getting them wrapped into a future travel voucher. They are awful things to see go to waste!!
@@seanmac5230 Thanks for this. With a couple of bookings having to be cancelled over the past 18 months, I always tried to get a refund instead of being locked into an ftv, but completely missed what the advantages would have been!
I got a 70,000 Avios Sign up bonus for the premium black card
Those sign up bonuses can be really handy!
Hey Matt, how much is your ability to land a seat on these reward flights based on your tier. If I had a voucher bust was blue tier, would I struggle to find suitable bizz class reward flights? Love your channel btw!
Gold does allow you to access extra reward availability although I believe that's only the case in economy.... And it doesn't crop up on every flight you search. Other than that, status makes no difference what you can book. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Matt - great video. 2 questions- do Reward flight finder show the I class seats , or do I need to go somewhere else to find those?
And how does the upgrade option work with the companion class tickets? I seem to remember something about booking premium economy seats and then upgrading to club if that becomes available, but presumably this is extremely unlikely for two seats ?
ITA Matrix will find I class seats for you... There's a video about it on the channel - you need the qualifier "f bc=i" - basically fare: booking code = i. Best used with the calendar of lowest fares option. If that's all gibberish - check out the video and persevere as it will change your life.... A bit...
Upgrade with the companion isn't really a concept - you need to book straight into a redemption seat in the class you want, then you get a second one for zero avios but you need to still pay the taxes on the second seat. You do need availability to be 2, but that's not that uncommon to find. Thanks for watching and I hope this helped!
Hi Matt, thank you so much much for such a good video. I have obtained a companion voucher trough the blue card that could only be used in economy. Would you advise whether it would be better to use it for long haul flights (given the significant taxes), or short reward saver flights?
Thank you in advance for your help.
With the economy voucher no option is brilliant... But Long Haul is generally the way to go... Its best to value that voucher at zero so anything you get out of it is a bonus!
Thank you very much for this video, I have a companion voucher and wondered if you knew the answer. I know that the voucher allows for you to have a discounted seat price and 241 but I am wondering if the taxes ( the amount I need to pay) can be paid for with avios points ? I have lots of avios points after spending 10k ...thank you in advance.
Hello Syeda - thanks for watching! The easy answer is no - they will extract the taxes and fees element from you in cash...
A slightly more complicated answer is with "reward flight saver" fares - you still have to pay a cash element if you redeem a twofer against a rfs fare, but its a lower amount than the taxes and fees would be if the RFS didn't exist. But as I say in the video, the destinations where RFS fares apply are usually European short haul to offer relatively poor value for the avios. So No! Sadly...
Hi Matt, can I book an outbound flight on my companion voucher, then add the return at a later date when the seats become available ? I've read / heard somewhere that I can do that, ( possibly on one of your useful videos !) but now I've used the ticket for the outbound flight, it is showing it as used… And presumably I’d have to get through to BA on the phone to make the return booking… ?
Hi Julie - you're bang on. Lots of people call 355 days before the date of travel to book as that's when the seats are released onto BA's system. Grab them, apply the twofer even though its a one way and relax... A little... The voucher shows as used although there's still the return available. Then people call again 355 days before the return to grab those seats when they are released and the agent can then tidy everything up to give you a simple return booking. You do need to call. Not without stress, pay attention to the time zones as the optimum is to call at midnight which can be 1am when the clocks change...
Great and useful video
Avois points can be redeemed by Qatar Airways. Can I use the voucher in Qatar Airways flight? Can the Boucher be redeemed by my 2 family mbmrs without me?
Hi Ahmed. Has to be on a BA flight, although they've just extended it so Iberia and Aer Lingus flights are available too so fingers crossed Qatar will be added too. And you have to be one of the travellers, although if there's a family of 4 you can redeem 2 vouchers at the same time and only pay 2 fares.
Do the reward flights need to be direct with BA? As I’ve seen you can’t redeem the vouchers with any partner airlines. Does this mean if I were to go to Sydney, both flights would need to be British Airways? Is this even possible? I thought the connecting flight was usually with a partner airline
Has to be BA metal all the way, although Iberia and Aer Lingus will work too. Looking at an Iberia redemption from Boston to Heathrow via Madrid and that is acceptable. Sydney would work as there is one BA option all the way through
@@MattsPlanet thank you so much, that’s really helpful.
Hi Matt. Really enjoying your series mate. How would you spend say 45000 avios and companion voucher? What would be your recommendation if my partner and I wanted to travel business class long haul. For eg - To Tampa (USA) or Mumbai (India) for eg. Would you recommenda that I purchase more avios on their sale maybe?
Thanks for watching! 45k avios is an annoying amount - its enough for a F redemption to zone 4, which is 2,001 - 3,000 miles away. That's enough to get to Kuwait but not Doha or Dubai and its not far enough for anywhere in North America. If you could find F reward availability... Which is not that common these days. It's a business class flight to the same zone as the next zone up starts at 50,000 in business. That would cover anywhere 3,001 to 4,000 miles away, which covers the Middle East and all of North east USA (including Chicago). Not quite enough for Atlanta or anywhere in India - Delhi I think is the shortest flight at around 4,125 miles. So if you can get (or buy) up to 50k then New York, Toronto, Chicago or Dubai would be good options - even better as you'd find decent availability on those routes. Tampa's about 4,400 miles and Mumbai is 4,500 miles which are both in the next band up where you'd need 62,600 miles. 50k and 62.5k miles are both off-peak rates too... Hope that's help.
@@MattsPlanet Thanks so much mate. Brilliant.
Thanks for this Matt. Wish I had watched this video before applying for the Blue BA Amex a couple of months ago, but that’s my silly fault. One quick question: Can you use the twofor to book an economy ticket and then upgrade with Avios?
Hi Jon... I think you can upgrade the card if you want to pursue the "better" voucher... As regards your question - I think you can although you'd need availability for both economy and business - to make the first booking then to process the upgrade...
Can you use a companion voucher with Aer Lingus now? I live in N.Ireland. So there’s not many BA flights out of here.
Yes - Iberia too. If you can get to Dublin easily enough then there's now some interesting options
@@MattsPlanet yea it’s not too far. I just don’t know how to book with them and use the companion voucher 🙈 been searching everywhere on how to do it.
@@Shoneyonmainstreet You need to be logged into your BA account and search reward seats for DUB-XXX. The voucher should be applicable if you find anything.... Sadly BA's calendars don't show availability for Aer Lingus flights so it can be a bit hit and miss... You can also call - you need to connect to BA to be able to apply the voucher, either online or on the phone
Hi, I want to get a card that can help me lower the cost of my flight tickets or even free upgrades etc with British airways. Which car is best suited for that?
Hello! No card will lower the cost - you pay the fare the airline offers... But if you run your spending through the Amex card you will earn avios that you can then use to reduce the cost by part paying for your fares with avios. No card will improve your chances of an upgrade, but once again you can collect avios and then spend them on upgrades.
@@MattsPlanet thanks! I dont want to pay an annual fee..I just want to start of easy and then work my way up. I shall sign up for the normal basic card at the beginning?
@@Jude19 Hey - sorry to be vague but credit cards are a regulated industry here in the UK so I need to be careful to not advise you on what to do, except to say credit cards are great as long as you're not carrying a balance - its a very expensive way to borrow money if you run a balance. Check out headforpoints.com - he is regulated so can give more advice than I can. He talks about all the UK card options, paid or free, from which you should be able to find the card that works for you - there will be one! Good luck!
Are you planning anything similar for the Virgin cards/voucher
I'm not as familiar with that product but can certainly take a close look. I probably should be familiar with it!!!
@@MattsPlanet It works a bit like the new barclays voucher should eg beneficial to single travellers
Yes yes , not all of us are BA loyalists . Personally I always fly VA and I work for BA 🤐
The companion voucher, you mention in your video, is available only for UK residents ?
It's obtained via a card issued in the UK so it's the cards t's & C's rather than the vouchers that I'd look at. I suspect UK residency is very helpful but Amex is an international business so they may not require it. I'd give them a call - their customer service has always been good when I've needed it.
I find booking business class flights with a companion voucher very frustrating do you have any tips to make booking easier when researching what flights are available.
Hi Kevin. Using a twofer can be really frustrating... 3 tips - book early. Flights are released 355 days and every flight has 2 business class reward seats so the further out you book the more likely you are to get what you want. 2 - be flexible. MIA may be tough but there's always always availability to New York and you can connect on from there (for example). Not the same experience as a direct flight, but you do still get good value and the BA experience. 3 - subscribe to seatspy and set up alerts. But send those alerts to an email you constantly monitor and be ready to act - there could be dozens of alerts fired out and you'd need to react first!
So really it’s only worth getting if you value flying anything above economy, which I don’t, I’d always rather spend the money saved flying as cheap as possible into the holiday itself.
There can be value in an economy redemption, but its marginal at best... And if economy works for you - go for it! More holiday > less holiday!
@@MattsPlanet I’m going to comfortable achieve the spend requirement essentially but if I cancel now after 70K Avios bonus I’ll get £200 pro rata and as you’ve highlighted I doubt I’ll save that using the voucher if I only plan on flying economy and also don’t have any long haul flights in my horizon currently!
Hi Matt-watched this video with interest and what’s clear is it’s worth paying for my BA AMEX premium as it gives me access to business twofers-as well as accumulating avios quicker. I’m planning to fly to Singapore in April 2024 and considering using my twofer for my wife and I to fly return leg business (excel spreadsheet says will only have 150k avios)-Changhi to LHR-we originate in Jersey so would it be dangerous to not have this final leg included (LHR to JSY)? We were thinking of flying PE with BA out with both legs included JSY-LHR-Changhi. Is this the best approach or should we upgrade with avios? Also I can’t use twofer on a Qatar flight can I? Or should I rely on my BA gold status giving me a chance to upgrade from PE both ways? So many options and I don’t even know if twofer is spelt twofer!😂
Hi James! I call it a "twofer" and spell it that way, but people know what you mean! Singapore is probably the most popular redemption route on the BA network so finding availability is going to be your challenge in club... All of BA's recent changes mean that adding a leg like Jersey has also gotten more expensive (in avios terms) although it should be easy to add that leg if you can find seats to or from SIN. Getting a through ticket is handy but by no means essential - its helpful if you want to check baggage through... And it won't work on Qatar... Lots of questions but the biggest bit of advice is to start searching for availability and if you find any, book first and finesse later - the seats won't be there for long!
Hi Matt,
Having found you via the HfP link to your tier point run clip; I’m now going through your others including this one which I found very useful since having accumulated 4 twofers (3 old 1 new) between wife and I was unclear about the differences. Now all I need is to get my head around finding I class availability. Presumably the BA website knows when you look for availability but how about the other online sites eg seatspy ?
As I’m about to reach gold status this year after completing short tier point run in April (LHR-AGP-MAD-LHR=100points) can I ask if that changes the availability criteria in any way?
Thanks Bella - although I doubt that's your name!!! The BA website is ok at finding available seats - you may have noticed you need to nominate a voucher when searching and I think they use that to present inventory depending on what type of voucher it is... I class inventory is best found on matrix - there is a video!!! - the key filter is f bc=i (basically fare booking class = i). That'll show you all i class availability so when you add it to "airlines = ba" that should do the trick!
Seatspy is great but I think it only shows reward inventory - which is what you needed for the old style voucher. Cheers and thanks for watching!
Hi Matt , I have a companion voucher earned with the blue card last year - will I still be able to use it for club/1st seats before its expiry date?
The rules only changed for vouchers issued after the scheme changed so an older voucher should still carry the t's and c's in force when you earned it. Good luck!
Thanks for the video very informative, i am currently a blue card holder if i change to the black card will i still be eligible for the 40000 bonus points if i spend £3000 within 3 months of getting the new card
Cheers Rok. Rokky??? I don't know actually... There'd be a bonus available for the black card so whether you'd transfer what you'd spent towards that or you'd lost what you'd accumulated, I don't know... 40k points is quite a decent haul... I don't know how much you spend (and I don't know whether you'd be accepted for the black card) but perhaps spend £3,001 on the blue, bank the bonus then upgrade??? Perhaps give them a quick call - their customer service has been pretty good in my experience. Good luck!
I've just earned my reward, how do I get details of it, as not received any email or letter. Just found it. Does the companion have to live at same address.
There's a lag before it shows up... You can travel with anyone, from anywhere, but as the cardholder you need to book and pay, and you need to take all flights together.
So I can only use the companion voucher if I am paying with Avios? I can’t just pay full price for the seat and get a free one (with taxes)?
Avios (and cash for the taxes and fees) only I'm afraid.
Hi Matt, from your examples it looks like you get inbound and outbound with a single voucher, is that correct? Meaning the voucher is two for one on the booking rather than a particular flight?
Hi Robert. The twofer is a free return alongside a paid return, so 4 flights in total, 2 free... The Barclays upgrade voucher is a one class upgrade for 2 flights - so a solo traveller can return a couple would get one way upgraded.
So if I were booking a return flight, would my companion voucher work for both legs, or just one?
Both - some people split them as they need to to secure the seats as soon as they're released. You can open jaw the flights too if that suits
Hi Matt great video. Today I completed my transaction it says im qualify for companion voucher . But where i can get this voucher? I cant see in my account. Also when i book reward flight it didnt give option. Will it take time to come through? I hold blue amex
It will take a day or two to show up in your BA account and it will open up an option to apply it when making a booking. Time to start planning the trip!
@@MattsPlanet great man thank you for reply.
Hi.
The video was absolute class,it helped a lot. I had a few questions. I recently just met the threshold of receiving a companion voucher. I was on the black card but now the free blue one as I also have a barclays aviois credit card and was using that one more.
1. Can I use the companion voucher on Qatar Airways?
2. Can I pay for the flight by cash and not use my Avios and also receive the companion voucher ?
3. Can I reapply for the black card and still receive the voucher ?
Thank you
Hi there. I think its 3 nos... Only BA "metal" not Qatar, although they did recently extend it to Iberia and Aer Lingus for redemptions... Virgin lets to double up a cash or reward booking but on BA it has to be a redemption. And If you go back to the black one, I believe you'll have the spending reset. Not the answers you want, but answers!
@Matt's Planet I appreciate your quick response.. so in order to use the companion voucher I will need to use up all my points? Or i can use points and cash to cover the difference? Thank you
@@jaykay1262 That's a great question... You need to go through the redemption booking path, and there will be various cash and avios options when you get to payment. Its part of the BA site that works well so you can certainly go and have a play - it shows the voucher use quite clearly. Slightly more advanced maths here, but you might want to buy more avios (versus paying more cash) as you're getting double the value you may pay to buy them through the use of the voucher....
@@MattsPlanet Thank you!! I will have a look tonight .. :)
Hi Matt, really appreciate the video. I gained my first companion voucher last year and have used it wisely, however how can I track how close I am to reaching my companion voucher for this year? As I probably only spend around 10k a year on it I want to be able to make sure I don’t miss out by a couple hundred quid just because I wasn’t paying attention
Hi Steve - thanks for watching. I have the Amex app on my phone and I think it shows progress towards the 10k... I say "I think" as I have triggered mine for the year and so there's no tracker showing in the app. Pretty sure my year resets in May so I'll be able to check for certain then! But somewhere between the App and the Amex website would be where I'd look.
@@MattsPlanet thanks Matt, yep found it in the app. It was just me being lazy and not investigating further myself. Also with the new Barclays avios credit cards, is there a referral scheme in place?
I've not seen anything about referring for the new Barclay's avios card... I know head for points was a launch partner (my phrase, not theirs) so they may have some agreement but I'm not aware of one being available for others yet...
Hi Matt, thanks for the content. I like others signed up for the blue card. I have seen that I can upgrade it.
If I pay the annual fee will my companion voucher then be sent as the “all class” voucher?
Thanks for your help so far
So can you use your companion voucher and avios points together?
You have to! On BA the companion voucher is a redemption based concept. Virgin allows you to choose whether you apply the voucher to a cash or points booking but with BA it has to be avios.
Thanks… just noticed a bit of a boo boo on my end. My voucher expires on 28th March 2023. I thought i could simply book the flight before that date and then fly after that date.. how wrong I was :(
Thanks Matt
Hope it helped
Hello Matt, I have companion voucher from blue card. I want to travel with my 1yo child. It seems impossible to find Reward Flight route Belfast - Jakarta and I also try search different route but its always error or nothing show up? I’m hopeless.
Hi there... Vouchers can only be used on BA flights and they don't fly to Jakarta. Indeed they stopped KUL and BKK during the pandemic and haven't resumed since - as Malaysian flies to KUL there's talk that BA won't reopen that route now. So the only real option is a redemption to Singapore, but that's one of the most competitive routes to find reward availability on... If you call BA and explain what you want to achieve you may well get a helpful agent who can at least help you understand the options. But Jakarta is going to be really tough to get anywhere close to, I'm afraid.
@@MattsPlanet thanks Matt. Ack, it’s very cheeky of them lol. I thought i could use the Companion Voucher for any route (regardless its a BA or joint flights BA+Qatar). Maybe I can find other routes. I read you advised seatspy but i can’t find route from anywhere in ROI / NI to New York/other cities. Any other website I should check? Thanks in advance.
@@brisbentashannatova3492 BA planes only head to the US from London - BA is cheekily known by some as London Airlines... So a routing from BFS - LHR - USA should be relatively easy to find - JFK often has excellent availability as there are so many flights. If you search LHR - JFK and call to book when you find something, they should be able to add connecting flights in from Belfast or even Dublin.
Hi Matt think of taking out the black premium card. I will spent about £10k a year on it so enough to get the 241 voucher. But will I have enough points from only spending £10k on it for a long hall flight ? No point in me meeting the requirements if I don’t have enough Avios to pay for a flight. Or can I buy a flight using £ and get the 241 voucher off the credit card ? New to all of this thanks.
Thanks baz... A £10k spend will get you 15k avios, or 30k if all of that spend is on BA... Neither of which will be enough for a flight of any significance... You may get a sign up bonus but you'd probably need to get some avios from elsewhere... I shared where I get mine from here - ua-cam.com/video/Kag8gCucpjU/v-deo.html
Hi Matt, great video, many thanks for taking the time to explain this. I had a quick question.. if I achieve the companion voucher on the black BA amex card 4 months in, can I downgrade to the free blue BA amex card and retain my companion voucher for 2yrs with option to use in any cabin? (doing this would allow me to reclaim 160 quid or so of that 250 quid fee). Thanks
I believe you can downgrade cards and keep the voucher - you've earned it after all! A quick call to Amex would confirm it but once the voucher is issued and sits in your BA account I believe you could even cancel the card and still get the benefit of the voucher.
@@MattsPlanet yes, you can downgrade your cards, and keep the old (Premium) voucher. Just be careful when you have 2 vouchers (one of each) and use the correct one when booking. (Premium allows business class, whereas the free card is Economy)
Great video. How come when I search for normal Business Class flights LHR to Dubai I can buy them but when I go to book two with a companion voucher the next available date is 23 April 2022?
Is that simply because they limit how many ‘redemption’ seats per flight?
Hi Aiden. If your voucher was issued before 1 sept, then BA controls the availability. And with the recent loosening of travel restrictions it wouldn't surprise me if they pulled all redemption availability to see what the passenger reaction was. They'll then reopen inventory as the dust settles. If the voucher was post 1 sep, then they may have done something similar - pull all discount business inventory until they know how passengers are reacting. So check often, or set an alert with seatspy or expertflyer to notify you when seats pop up. Good luck!
Hi Matt, I have an Amex gold already. Do you think it’s more worth it to go for the black BA as that would limit me to BA airlines only but I can get a twofer. Or should I stick to Amex gold which would give me all airlines but no twofer? Which would save me more money ? I always travel with my husband and would only use the points on flights.
A big question... If you do fly, the BA voucher is considered one of the best credit card perks in the UK. Plus the black BA card earns 1.5 avios per £ (and 3 avios for BA spend) compared (I believe) to 1 point on the gold amex... But depending on your travel ambitions, you might get more value out of 10,000 amex points moved to Lufthansa than you do from 15,000 avios... It's not an easy answer I'm afraid...
@@MattsPlanet hmmm does the twofer not outweigh the Amex gold perks?
@@maariabodi5796 If you can get good value out of it, it would... That involves having a realistic view of what you can use it for, or having a very long planning cycle so you can book when availability is created.
Hi Matt, if I book a companion ticket, then my companion can't go, can I still travel on my own and get a refund of my companion's taxes ? Thanks !
Honest answer is I don't know... I think you'd be better off calling, cancelling the 2nd traveller (which you can do up to 24 hours before travel as it's still an avios booking, even with the voucher). That'll give you back their taxes (probably less a £35 fee) but you'll also get your voucher back and will still have your booking intact.
Hope this is s theoretical and it doesn't mean something awful has happened! Cheers
@@MattsPlanet hi Matt, I now have the opposite situation where I have a companion ticket booking and I still want my companion to fly but without me - do you know if you can do that?
In terms of redeeming the voucher, you mention it would cost X avios + £X, the second seat being free. Does this mean, despite having the voucher, I still need 45,000 avois points too (for example)?
Second question - if the above is correct and I don't have enough avios points, can I pay cash for a seat, use the voucher and have the 2nd seat free? Or is it only free if you purchase seat #1 using avios points.
Yes - the Amex is a redemption tool, not a cash tool. So if one seat costs 100,000 avios plus £350, applying the voucher will give you two seats for 100,000 plus £700 - you still have to pay the taxes on the second seat. And you need to find availability... You cannot get a second seat on a cash booking. I think that answers the second question too.
@@MattsPlanet Thanks for confirming.
When I apply for the black ba I’ll email you to get the code
Standing by!
Matt. Have you looked recently for any fares using an Amex Premium card 2 4 1 voucher? If so how did you go about it? Did you use the BA website? If not is there an easy way to look for the 2 4 1 voucher seat availability. Are they subject to the 355 day rule? Business class still seams difficult to come by.
Thanks.
Steve. C. YNWA.
Hi Steve. The twofer shows up in your BA account and is easily applied to a booking you're looking at. In fact its harder to search without using a voucher than it is with!! All flights are created 355 days ahead so that limit availability applied to all cash and reward bookings.... I'm actually playing with a reward site at the moment and I'm seeing lots (and lots) of availability in the first quarter but it does dry up a bit after that...
@@MattsPlanet what is the reward site you’re playing with Matt?
@@stevecraven3502 It actually a new one that's not launched yet... In the SeatSpy genre
The BA American Express Credit Card Companion Voucher is what most people have ! .. NOT the BA American Express PREMIUM PLUS Voucher ! If you would have looked into what 90% of what people have , you would have realised what a Scam these vouchers are. You did in fairness mention that you can only use it for ECONOMY TICKETS ... BUT what you failed to say is that BA stipulate that the companion voucher can only used accompanied by a " Reward Flight Only" and the voucher ONLY gives you now 50% discount on the reward required ! so basically you will need a vast amount of Avios points for this to be used. In other words BA are ripping off the public
Thanks. Lots of people disagree that this is a scam.... It's widely regarded as the best credit card reward available.
@@MattsPlanet With great respect , you have missed the point of my comment : I am not making a critical comment on AMEX C Card. This is only on how B.A. rip off the " majority" of people who get a companion voucher using their Blue Card , and then find out the BA conditions to redeem this voucher are horrible, and onerous , that frankly make these vouchers useless. FYI Amex Blue Card represents 92% of their Credit Card holders. Its in their financial report
@@theinvestorstrategist I'm with you! I've caught up... I violently agree that there is indeed minimal value in an economy twofer redemption... And I also agree its something I could do a better job of making clear in my videos.... Thanks! 92% is a fascinating statistic...
@@MattsPlanet There are 56.4 million American Express cards in the United States and 65.3 million internationally. (Google + Amex info) . So 8% who have a "Paid Amex Card" is actually a big number. I am surprised, as I thought it will be far less than 8% , as most people will not want to pay a yearly fee for a credit card.
@@theinvestorstrategist hello, could you link the report/statement which breaks down the types of card issued in the UK as you suggest i.e 92% cards are 'free'. Thanks