British Airways has made changes to the rules around the American Express companion voucher. The voucher is earned with qualifying spending on the British Airways branded American Express cards.
Previously, the 2-4-1 voucher you received upon meeting the earnings threshold of the cards required two passengers to travel. The voucher enabled you to book two reward seats but only pay half the Avios. This would effectively result in only needing to pay the amount of Avios required for one seat, rather than two.
For solo travellers, there was no way to use this voucher for anything other than taking a lucky companion with them on a trip – until now.
Changes being made
From 1st July 2022, the companion voucher now has the following additional benefits:
- Fly solo and receive a 50% discount on the Avios portion of the reward flight.
- Pay £1 in cash and use the companion voucher reward flight within Europe and use Avios to cover all other taxes & fees.
These changes won’t apply if your voucher was issued prior to 1st September 2021.
- The voucher you earn with the free British Airways American Express card can only be used to book Economy flights.
- The voucher you earn with the paid British Airways Premium Plus American Express card gets access to additional inventory of reward flights in Club World (Business class), making it slightly easier to redeem the voucher for long haul Business class trips.
Final thoughts
This is a nice little improvement on the face of things. It opens the door to more flexibility for Solo travellers without compromising on the original 2-4-1 aspect of the voucher. If you haven’t earned another British Airways American Express Companion Voucher yet, once you hit the threshold the voucher issued should be one that allows you to access this new benefit.
