Was £100 each and 50k avios for both of us. So, based on the calcs it was £250 each which seems good value. Less the £50 worth of booze I drank aswell!
Ba companion voucher
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I'm trying to wrap my head around the voucher from my blue card and how it actually works in reality i.e. what is left to pay.
Return flights from London to Tokyo in 2025 with BA. A premium economy return is averaging around £1400 with no avois contribution or voucher, so circa £2800 for for 2 people. How much roughly would be left after using a single companion voucher? When I called BA they said it would be £1400 (first flight) + taxes from the second flight, but it was quite difficult to understand the person at the other side so I'm not sure if I understood what was said correctly.
I have 60k points available to use and will have more when it comes around to booking the flights.
Return flights from London to Tokyo in 2025 with BA. A premium economy return is averaging around £1400 with no avois contribution or voucher, so circa £2800 for for 2 people. How much roughly would be left after using a single companion voucher? When I called BA they said it would be £1400 (first flight) + taxes from the second flight, but it was quite difficult to understand the person at the other side so I'm not sure if I understood what was said correctly.
I have 60k points available to use and will have more when it comes around to booking the flights.
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It sounds like you're mixing up ticket types - if you want to spend purely avios then you need to look at Reward Flights, which come under a different section. It should be listed as 'Book a ticket using Avios' or something similar. You can then see what seats are available on the date you're looking at and what the avios cost will be, along with taxes and fees.
I understand that.
2x return flights from London to Tokyo using a single companion voucher from a blue card (so economy or premium economy), will the voucher cover one of the return flights entirely? Or will there be something left to pay? This is what I'm trying to ascertain (sorry if I wasn't clear).
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Each voucher covers a return flight for 2 people, with one of them paying no Avios. You still have to pay the taxes and fees on both tickets, however, but there's isn't a cash part of the ticket itself. I'm not sure if it applies to the Blue voucher as I've never had one, but the premium one allows you to vary the avios/money ratio if you want to, but there's always some fees to pay.
you'll need to pay taxes and fees, but if using reward flights this should be fixed. usually £350 per person for business but as @Penfold101 i've never had a blue voucher so not entirely sure. easiest way is to go on the BA website and login in and use your companion voucher and get it to show up with the dates to give you the avios and cash you need to pay.
Example:
London (Heathrow) To Tokyo (Haneda)
09/01/25 - 22/01/25
Fare £1,111.00
Carrier imposed charge £343.90
Air Passenger Duty - United Kingdom £202.00
Passenger Service Charge - United Kingdom £48.89
Passenger Service Facilities Charge (Int'L) - Japan £15.80
International Tourist Tax - Japan £5.40
Total for Adult 1 £1,726.99
If I was to buy 2 flights without any vouchers or points, I'd be paying £3453.
Using a companion voucher, I'd be paying:
All fees, taxes and charges for both flights £1,231.98 (£615.99 x2)
Fare of the first ticket £1,111.00
Total payable either in cash, avois or avois + cash £2342.98
In reality the companion voucher would save me the fare on a single ticket - £1,110.
Have I understood that correctly?
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I don't have the companion voucher yet, as I'm trying to time it so I have it from around June this year so I can use it for flights in blossom season 2025.
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Ok, so to make things easier I just priced up a trip for you.
London to Tokyo
7th Jan - 18th Jan
Economy: 75000 Avios + £400
Premium Economy: 127,500 Avios + £760
This is with my Premium Plus voucher but I don't THINK it should make any difference at this point, only when looking at Business Class tickets.
Assuming you have the same options, you can also vary the ratio of Avios and money:
For the Premium Economy seats:
- 108000 Avios + £ 870.00
- 99000 Avios + £ 1,030.00
- 75000 Avios + £ 1,360.00
- 56000 Avios + £ 1,680.00
- 39600 Avios + £ 1,920.00
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You can still do the calculations as you only get the avios element 2-4-1.
LHR to Haneda 16/1/25-24/1/25 Off Peak and Off Peak, are
- 200000 Avios + £760.00
- 172000 Avios + £ 880.00
- 156000 Avios + £ 1,040.00
- 120000 Avios + £ 1,320.00
- 92000 Avios + £ 1,520.00
- 62400 Avios + £ 1,740.00
2x return flights in premium economy for 31,200 Avios + £1,740 is great, considering the same flights are £4,219 with 0 Avois, or £3,979.18 using 44,000 Avois.
Seems like fantastic value. It's effectively a free return flight (unless I completely misunderstood the posts above again).
@Robi if by "blue card" you mean the free Amex BA card then you can only redeem it in economy. Given cash prices at the moment (seems to be over £1k return), you can still get good value though. An off-peak return to Tokyo is 70,000 avios + £200 (other avios/cash combinations are available), so by using the voucher it will cost you 70,000 avios plus £400 for 2 tickets.
Bear in mind that Tokyo is one of the most popular destinations, and blossom season is the most popular time to go, so there might not be any reward seats left for March/April 2025 if you're not booking until June 2024. If you can trigger the companion voucher in April 2024 and book then, that would be optimal
Bear in mind that Tokyo is one of the most popular destinations, and blossom season is the most popular time to go, so there might not be any reward seats left for March/April 2025 if you're not booking until June 2024. If you can trigger the companion voucher in April 2024 and book then, that would be optimal
I thought it was premium economy and economy.
Just economy I think
Vouchers are redeemable when you book a British Airways, Iberia or Aer Lingus Reward Flight in Euro Traveller, World Traveller and economy class cabins only.
World traveller plus is premium economy. World traveller is economy
Noted, thank you.
While not ideal, it's still a saving of around £1800 overall which is nothing to be scoffed at (same flights are a little over £1050 each).
Do you know if it's possible to either:
A. Book seats using points + cash + voucher and then upgrade at a later date? I'd prefer to fly premium economy or above.
B. Transfer the remaining voucher balance from one AMEX card to another? As in, I've spent £7.5k of the £12k already (so £4.5k to go) and would prefer not to lose this if I switched from the blue to black card. Doubtful but thought I'd ask (planning to switch to the black card anyway).
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B: Yes, you can upgrade to it, pay the annual fee and the spend will transfer too so for the £250 you'll get the option to fly in premium cabins. Worth asking them on the phone beforehand just to make sure though.
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British Airways | Executive Club - Question re the BA Amex Card - Hi All I have tried to find this answer online but can not seem to locate it. I have the freebe BA Amex card and because I very rarely use Credit Cards, i.e. I only use it when booking flights/holidays with BA, and on the rare...
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A: Yes, you can upgrade a booked seat if one becomes available on the same flight, or you can cancel it and rebook a different flight for just the difference and a change fee.
Example: I booked a return to the Maldives in Premium Economy, then booked the accommodation for those dates so I knew I had a holiday. Over the next months, the return and outbound legs had a pair of business class seats become available as reward seats so I rang the Executive Club line and upgraded them. These happened a couple of months apart, and all you pay is the extra Avios, any extra taxes and fees due and the change fee. The main part is having the SeatSpy alerts set up so you get notified of any seat availability within an hour of them coming up.
You CAN'T just pay extra cash to upgrade a reward seat though, you have to go down one ticket type or the other.
WT is economy, WTP is premium
If going to SE Asia always look at option of flying back from Hong Kong as they have laws basically banning all the silly extra charges
Here is one I have for next month
Until recently it was only £32 per person, you can still get it at 36.30 if you use 90k Avios (or some amount like that)
Here is one I have for next month
Until recently it was only £32 per person, you can still get it at 36.30 if you use 90k Avios (or some amount like that)
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