Check the expiry date of any new British Airways American Express 2-4-1 vouchers

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The Avios IT migration is 95% complete and you should now be able to log in to your account (unless your password includes an ‘&’ sign) and complete most tasks. Just don’t try anything radical such as booking a redemption on American Airlines or moving your Avios from Iberia to BA.

There is a bug with newly issued British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers.

Until 31st December 2021, all new companion vouchers come with an additional six months of validity. Vouchers on the free British Airways American Express come with 18 months validity which those from the Premium Plus American Express come with 30 months.

(You may want to bring forward your next voucher to trigger it before 31st December to maximise its validity, but this is a discussion for another day.)

Unfortunately, someone forget to tell the computer about this.

Here is a ba.com screenshot showing a newly issued companion voucher:

As you can see, the latest voucher has only been issued for 24 months and not 30 months. I know at least two other HfP readers are in the same boat.

Hopefully BA pick this up after reading the above and make the necessary adjustments before people feel the need to start calling up.

Our Midpoint competition winners revealed

We recently ran a special bonus Avios promotion with foreign currency transfer specialist Midpoint.

As well as getting bonus Avios for making a transfer during the promotion, five lucky new Midpoint customers were chosen at random and given 10,000 bonus Avios.

(When I say ‘given’, they will turn up whenever the Avios IT migration sort itself out.)

The winners were:

Yuval L
Jonathan S
Scott S
Irene F-S
Daniel T

Congratulations to the five of you.

If you want to earn Avios on your next foreign currency transfer – as well as paying tiny fees and getting the interbank FX rate – take a look at what Midpoint can offer you by reading this article.

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 and Avios

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

Lyn says:

24 Nov24 November 16:49

Congratulations for a very well-deserved award Rhys.
Iain miller says:

24 Nov24 November 20:51

On a 2-4-1 voucher.
I have one which expires in February.
Is it still possible to extend them with a cheap booking and an FTV?
I know the previous advice was to wait till it was about to expire before doing so…but I presume the chances of it being extended again are zero?
- Dave says:
  
  24 Nov24 November 22:00
  
  Yes I’m pretty sure this is still live. I have two related questions though if anyone can help:
  1) does anyone know what the best options are to keep the taxes low when doing this? Is it possible to not put in £70 by choosing a destination with taxes lower than the RFS cap? Main reason being uncertainty as to whether the FTV would in reality ever be used…
  2) do people sense there is any risk of BA pulling the FTV option in the near future – it would seem crazy in light of the current situation, but still…
  - AJA says:
    
    24 Nov24 November 22:46
    
    In reply to both of you there’s realistically no chance of BA extending validity of 2-4-1s again and yes the booking and cancelling for FTV still works. To keep the cost down just book a one-way in economy eg LHR to MAN which limits the Avios and taxes you wrap up in the FTV. There is a very small likelihood of BA stopping the FTV route while travel is still subdued but there is no guarantee that it will still be there in Feb 2022 so if there’s no chance you want to use your 2-4-1 before it expires naturally and you want to extend the 2-4-1 I’d do it sooner rather than later.
    - Dave says:
      
      24 Nov24 November 23:04
      
      Thanks AJA that’s helpful. One way seems obvious now you say it!
      - Coogan says:
        
        25 Nov25 November 07:06
        
        How does the FTV actually work? I’ve got 2 2-4-1’s expiring in the next 2 months.
        
        Anyone able to explain the details (or point me on the direction of a guide somewhere?) How does it work in practice? What the FTV gives and why booking something random like a one way to Manchester recommend? Or should I just let both vouchers expire in this crazy times we are living where travel is getting riskier again?
      - AJA says:
        
        25 Nov25 November 08:51
        
        @Coogan The FTV is essentially a manual voucher that contains your normal booking. So you
        
        1) initially use the 2-4-1 in the normal way ie book a flight online on BA eg one way LHR MAN in economy for 2 passengers which costs 4,500 Avios +£35 RFS fees for 2 passengers..
        2) Then you cancel the flight but instead of getting everything back less the £35 you opt to receive a FTV. You can do this online via the Covid advice pages.
        3) The FTV suspends your booking for use by 30 Sep 2023. It uses your existing PNR booking ref eg AJA001. 4)You don’t actually get anything back but it is held offline in BA’s system essentially as a pending future flight. 5) When you want to use it you phone BA and say I want to use my FTV AJA001 to book LHR-JFK in Club on 1 Sep 2023 returning 7 Sep 2023 which costs 75,000 Avios +£655 taxes (made up as I can’t remember actual figures). BA says that’s fine you owe an extra 70,500 Avios + £620 taxes.
        
        Upside is you extend 2-4-1 for use by 30 Sep 2023.
        Downsides are:
        1) You have to PHONE BA to use the voucher,
        2) you CANNOT redeem online so no good if you want to fly a route with limited Avios availability
        3) it is travel BY 30 Sep 2023. You cannot use it to book a return flight beyond that date
    - Iain says:
      
      25 Nov25 November 14:24
      
      Thankyou. Very helpful
A says:

2 Dec2 December 06:49

Does anyone know if the 2-4-1 expiry’s have been sorted so that a voucher triggered tomorrow would have +6months expiry?