How to use a British Airways companion voucher

Is the companion voucher the most valuable Avios hack?

It’s one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to get more from your Avios points. It’s simple to get (spend a certain amount on a credit card) and equally simple to understand and use, with a few caveats. Not only that, it’s also a magical ticket to more availability on flights.

What is a BA Companion Voucher?

It’s a digital voucher that sits in your Executive Club account. Using it during an Avios booking will mean one of two things:

1. You and a guest can make a booking using Avios and you use half the Avios points you would normally need.
2. A solo traveller can make a booking using Avios and it will cost them half of the Avios points.

How do you get a BA companion voucher?

The only way to get a companion voucher is to have an American Express British Airways credit card. There are two on offer:

1. The free “British Airways American Express” card has no annual fee. You’ll collect 1 Avios per £1 you spend, and you’ll get a companion voucher that you can ONLY use on economy flights. Once you spend £15,000 in your card year, a companion voucher will appear in your account.
   
2. For £300 a year, you can get the “British Airways Premium Plus” card. You’ll collect 1.5 Avios per £1 you spend (3 Avios per £1 on any BA transactions). You’ll get a companion voucher that you can use in any cabin (including Business Class and First Class). Once you spend £15,000 in your card year, a companion voucher will appear in your account.

What are the rules around a companion voucher?

There are some rules around using your companion voucher; they are not onerous, but they are worth considering.

Firstly, there are two different types of vouchers. The voucher from the free card, and the one from the premium card.

The latter is significantly more valuable, as it allows you to use the voucher when booking First Class, Business Class (Club World or Club Europe) or Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus) tickets. I’d really question the value of the voucher on the free card, given that you can only use it in the economy cabin.

It’s not a rule, but it’s worth flagging – a flight booked using Avios is not “free” as you have to cover taxes and surcharges for the flight. The reality is that what you pay is significantly more than BA pays in taxes and airport fees. For long-haul business and first class flights the £800 to £1200 range is typical for both travellers.

There’s also some rules about multi-city bookings. If you’re planning to fly out from a destination that’s different to the one you return from then this could be important to know. An example of this is a recent trip we took to the US. We flew in to San Diego, drove to Vegas, then Phoenix, and flew back from there.

The rule around this is a little odd. For “open jaw” Avios bookings the distance between the airport you fly out to and the one you return from must be less than both the the outbound or inbound flight. In my example above that booking was fine, because the distance between Phoenix and San Diego was relatively short, and the flight out to Phoenix and the flight back from San Diego was quite long.

Most people will not experience an issue around open jaw bookings, but if you’re planning a European driving holiday (with some flights there and back) it’s worth doing the sums.

For BA companion vouchers the outbound flight must originate in the UK. That means you can’t use it to just fly back from another country.

What are the differences between the companion voucher on the free and the premium cards?

I’ve already mentioned that the free card companion voucher only allows you to book economy seats. It also only lasts a single year. If you don’t use it within twelve months of it being issued, then it disappears forever. There are no extensions available. The premium voucher lasts two years.

Any other perks of a companion voucher?

There is one really valuable perk of the voucher from the Premium card. When you use the voucher during a booking, more seats will become available for you. That means you have a greater chance of finding a seat.

It’s a real perk, and you can see it in action during the booking process. If more seats are being shown to you, a banner at the top of the page will let you know. There’s a few times we’ve made bookings and been able to get the flight we wanted because of the voucher.

What’s a good strategy for the companion voucher?

As with all things points and miles, there are some strategic elements to it. You don’t need to use these, but they can be helpful:

• Vouchers have a lifetime (1 year for the free card voucher, 2 years for the premium). The clock starts ticking from the date that the voucher is issued, so you can get yourself close to the spending level that’s required and then switch your spending on a different card. This means you could stretch out the voucher issue date to just before the end of your card year to give yourself as much time as possible to use it.
  
• If, like me, you live in a two-card household, then it’s worth thinking about when each person gets a companion voucher during the year. Having two vouchers that expire at the same time puts pressure on you to use them. We purposely put big travel spend through my Amex first, meaning that my wifes voucher comes much later in the year.

Which airlines can you use a companion voucher on?

Surprisingly, not just BA. I wrote a guide to which airlines you can use a companion voucher on.

How do you use a companion voucher?

Using a voucher is as easy as booking a flight using Avios.

Login to your BA Executive Club account, and under the “Book” menu in the navigation click “Book a flight with Avios”. Within the booking box you’ll see a list of the companion vouchers that you have in your account. One will be selected by default, although you can choose not to use a voucher.

Once you’ve selected the dates for your journey, and where you’re flying from and to, you will enter the same booking process as if you were using just Avios. When you select an outbound and an inbound flight you’ll be taking to a confirmation page which gives you the final total of Avios you need. This total will have been calculated with the companion voucher discount.

I have seen instances where the Avios / Cost total at the base of the booking page (not the confirmation page) is incorrect, and it has not taken the companion voucher into account. Once you head to the next confirmation page you will see an accurate total.