What will British Airways do about expiring BA American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers?

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One of our other articles today looks at the new Virgin Atlantic policy for extending your Virgin Flying Club status and vouchers due to coronavirus – read here.

We have, unsurprisingly, had a lof of emails and discussion in our comments section about what is happening with British Airways Executive Club status years and British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers.

There is no official publicly-stated policy as yet. However, I wouldn’t be too concerned. British Airways is going to need every bit of customer goodwill it can get when flying starts to return to normal. It would be foolish to remove status from good customers and give them an excuse to run off to Virgin Atlantic, Star Alliance or SkyTeam.

British Airways BA American Express Amex credit cards

Will British Airways extend your American Express 241 voucher?

I have been told, unofficially, that there is a policy in place to extend 2-4-1 vouchers by six months on request.

A reader sent me in some proof (click to enlarge):

In this case, the reader had a voucher due to expire in November 2021. It will now expire in May 2022.

(This seems ludicrously generous, frankly, given that our reader already had 18 months to use it.)

He contacted a specific email address to get this done. I am NOT sharing the email address because, frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself if you are planning to waste the time of BA Customer Services today with a query over a 241 voucher which isn’t going to expire for months.

There are literally thousands of people who desperately need to contact BA at the moment and 99% of them have a more pressing need than the extension of a 241 voucher.

In any event, I fully expect that, at some point, British Airways will automatically extend all unused 241 vouchers by six months. As well as being the right thing to do, it will take the pressure off the call centre. Like Virgin Atlantic, I imagine that an email will pop up out of the blue at some point.

You can learn more about how the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher works in this ‘Avios Redemption University’ article.

Will British Airways extend your Executive Club status?

Will British Airways extend your Executive Club Gold, Silver or Bronze status?

This is a little trickier, although it should not be a hugely difficult IT task to extend all current membership years by a few months.

If you are at risk of dropping at the end of March, remember British Airways has a soft landing policy. A Gold will only drop to Silver and a Silver will only drop to Bronze.

Again, please do not call British Airways to discuss this. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if your status drops at the end of March because you are unlikely to be doing much flying in April anyway.

I fully expect British Airways to make a formal announcement soon. For now, don’t worry about it and don’t block the telephone lines with questions about it. Rest assured that British Airways will need your custom more than ever once things return to normal.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Rish says:

16 Mar16 March 05:16

A portion of the letter is cut out from the screenshot, but it seems to suggest that the return flight can be after the 241 voucher expiry date. Is that right? I’d thought that both flights now needed to be completed before the expiry date.
- Pete says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 05:58
  
  Only the outbound needs to be flown before the expiry date
Daniel Evans says:

16 Mar16 March 06:06

I have a flight to Jo’burg booked with a Lloyds/Avios upgrade voucher which has now expired. Does anyone know if this will get a similar exension now i have to cancel the flight (or wait for BA to cancel it).
- Josh says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 06:20
  
  I’m in the same boat, flight out to Barcelona first weekend of April and just waiting for BA to carvel, used two upgrade vouchers for journey out and back.
  
  Don’t not whether it’s worth being proactive or if the flight gets cancelled these will just get lost
- BJ says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 06:45
  
  There was at least one comment over the last few days of a Lloyd’s voucher being extended by 6 months. Best to handle this one over the phone I think since it has always been the case that cancelling a flight meant losing the voucher. You had to phone to make changes only. Unless your flights are within the next few weeks I suggest you leave it until closer to your departure to call BA. If BA cancels the flight with no info about your voucher then you can chase it up via the online contact form.
- Gritts says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 08:20
  
  I had to cancel 2 Lloyds upgrade flights that should have been departing today. One voucher had not expired and was granted a 6 month extension. The other had expired so they would not extend. Charged £35 cancellation fee.
Paul says:

16 Mar16 March 06:08

Finnair: status and upgrade vouchers extended 6 months, but they have become super difficult about changes that are not directly caused by their cancellations. They were doing so well but now they lost my loyalty.
- Lady London says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 13:55
  
  s.75.?
Nick Wilson says:

16 Mar16 March 06:31

Hi. Sort of unrelated but I’m in Japan and need to change my flight to come back tomorrow. It was booked with LLoyds upgrade voucher. BA exec club said I have to change with Avios but they are closed. I will try once open but I think it will be hard to get through. Does anyone know if I can just change at the airport? Many thanks
Nick
- Gritts says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 08:23
  
  Try Live chat. May have to wait 1-2 hours but I got thru. No joy on the phone as you get cut off after an hour of holding.
P says:

16 Mar16 March 06:35

I completed the online form after contacting BAEC about extension of my 241. At the same time I also asked about my TP status as I would have hit silver had I not had to cancel another flight, and asked if as a guesture of goodwill and my loyalty, would they consider appointing silver to me. I did hear back shortly to say I had been granted silver status. I have yet to hear about my 241 extension which will expire next month but it is not 10 working days yet.
- T says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 08:48
  
  Which online form did you use? I have a similar question about my 2-4-1 voucher. Calls are even connecting to the BA call centre anymore. Thanks
- Ian says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 10:46
  
  Where did you find the online form ? Somewhere on your online account ? I don’t seem to be able to find one as of yet.
  - P says:
    
    17 Mar17 March 09:07
    
    To Ian and T
    I was told to use:
    Ba.com/ecsupportingdocs (it will come up on Google). You will have to log in but on the page, scroll down to Others and in the free text box, enter your voucher number, expiry date, booking ref, and say you are looking for an extension as your 241 will be expiring soon.
Benilyn says:

16 Mar16 March 07:22

*IAG FOR APRIL, MAY TO CUT CAPACITY AT LEAST 75% VS YEAR AGO

Side note, any ideas where to get hand sanitiser gel? Struggling to find any.
- Shoestring says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 07:31
  
  Superdrug, Bristol Airport has plenty
- Anna says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 07:31
  
  Benilyn, there are various recipes online for making your own, including one by Dr Hillary from the TV which should be reliable! For surfaces etc, good old fashioned diluted bleach is effective, children of the 70s and 80s know this lol.
  - Aston100 says:
    
    16 Mar16 March 07:35
    
    Ah, those episodes of ‘Why Don’t You?’ and Blue Peter coming in handy now.
    - Anna says:
      
      16 Mar16 March 07:52
      
      Indeed, I can’t wait to show my bemused teenager how to make a Tracy Island model out of all the toilet rolls we’ve stockpiled and some sticky-backed plastic 😝
      - Spursdebs says:
        
        16 Mar16 March 17:09
        
        You may laugh Anna, but every Christmas I make crackers out of said item and put money, tickets or vouchers in them. I like to think I’m up cycling doing my bit! 🤣
  - flyforfun says:
    
    16 Mar16 March 09:31
    
    If you can find it, 3 parts Isopropyl rubbing alcohol 90% and 1 part Aloe Vera gel. Add a few drops of tea tree oil if you want to mask the scent of the alcohol.
    - mariusz says:
      
      16 Mar16 March 10:15
      
      Well apparently it’s not that simple and easy and vote against making your own.
- Aston100 says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 07:34
  
  Marylebone Station.
  They’ve added extra hand sanitisers around the station; ensured there is plenty of loo paper in the loos, and have made the loos free to use. Might even introduce free temperature scanners.
  Well worth a visit before and after work.
- Lady London says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 13:56
  
  Smirnoff ?
  - Spursdebs says:
    
    16 Mar16 March 17:11
    
    Works perfectly well, other vodkas and alcohol are available or not. Oldest disinfectant in the world alcohol.
Billy says:

16 Mar16 March 07:44

He/she doesn’t fly F they fly private
ChrisD says:

16 Mar16 March 07:48

Openly and somewhat harshly chastising folks who “waste” BAs precious call centre resources for menial requests but still willing to use this person’s generously provided letter as the basis for an entire article! 😄
- Rob says:
  
  16 Mar16 March 08:43
  
  This was requested a week or so ago, to be fair.