How to earn and burn the 2-4-1 Companion British Airways Amex voucher: easy guide – Series 3.

Recently, British Airways had a 50% avios redemption sale, 50% off long haul flights and 25% off short haul flights. Naturally I had to take advantage of 50% avios redemption sale, and booked myself a long weekend away to Dubai in November. 

Since I had 2 x 2-4-1 companion vouchers sitting in my account, which British Airways kindly extended the expiration dates for an additional 6 months due to COVID-19, I decided it would be the perfect time to use it and maximize the value out of it. 

BA’s new Club World suite featured on the A350-1000

What is a 2-4-1 companion voucher?

This voucher allows you to book 2 x avios redemption tickets in any class, only for the price of redeeming 1 avios redemption ticket. So essentially, it is buy one get one free. However, taxes are not exempt so you do have to pay this in addition. 

How do I earn one?

A 2-4-1 voucher can be earned via the British Airways American Express cards. They currently offer 2 versions of this card: the blue one which has no annual fee and earns 1 point per pound spent, and the black premium card which comes with a £160 annual fee, and earns 1.5 points per pound spent on it. The blue card requires an annual spend of £20,000 in order to earn a 2-4-1 voucher which is valid for 1 year only, whereas the black card requires only an annual spend of £10,000 for the voucher but is valid for 2 years. 

What benefits come with the voucher?

Glad you asked.  As the premium voucher comes with a 2 year expiration date, it gives you more time to take advantage of this as seats are released 355 days in advance.  On the other hand, the voucher attained from the blue card only has a 1 year expiration date, so less time to think and plan a trip. 

This voucher can also be used by those who are ‘avios rich’ but do not necessarily hold a status with British Airways. For example. a return flight from London to Dubai in business class will set you back 100,000 avios, so it would mean 200,000 avios for 2 people. However if you use the voucher, you’d only use the 100,000 points. I would say that if the voucher is used correctly, you could bag yourself around £750-1,000 in savings, and maybe even more. 

Another key benefit is to book an open jaw (multi-city) ticket. However, this ticket can only be booked over the phone by calling BA directly.  An open jaw ticket allows you to fly into one airport, and fly out from another airport/city. However, this is only applicable when the mileage flown is not greater than the outbound. For example, you can fly from London to Cape Town, and outbound is from Johannesburg to London. 

In my case…

I combined my 2-4-1 voucher with the British Airways 50% avios redemption sale, so in hindsight I saved myself 75% of my points, or 150,000 avios if you will. Not bad! 

Here’s the icing on the cake…

Initially I assumed that I will be travelling on the newly delivered BA A350 which comes fitted with the new Club World suites. However, I realized that the aircraft will actually be an old 777 that has not been retro fitted but still comes with its first class seats, I immediately jumped onto expertflyer and checked for availability. With great luck, I found 2 first class outbound seats and booked them using an additional 9,000 avios points with no extra taxes. 

Conclusion:

If you have ever thought about getting a BA Amex card, now may be the perfect time to get it as BA have great offers going on at the moment. This voucher can save you a lot of money, and if you do earn one and decide not to use it then not to worry, you will have a year or two to redeem it. 

Have you used your 2-4-1 voucher? Leave your comments below!

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