Ba companion voucher

Got a wedding in Cape Town end of the year. £2,700 for 2 return tickets but as little as £300 with a voucher and 60K points. No way we'll get that many points but 23K is more realistic which brings total cost to £1,000. Only thing is we'll have to claim another voucher as my outstanding one ends in October. Considering getting the premium Amex BA card, it's got a hefty £250 annual fee but it isn't difficult to get more value than that and the vouchers last 2 years.

Edit - doh didn't know you can earn way more points booking a hotel through your account.
 
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Booked Heathrow to Singapore last night, 2 flights with 4 business on each, all gone in under 4 minutes, luckily I'm pretty quick and can get them done in under 90 seconds, 2 tickets was £1400 total with 85k miles and a voucher

Got the refitted 777 with Club Suite too, other flight was A380 with the old ones
 
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Hi all, my wife and I are looking at booking Tokyo for blossom season in 2025. I have 221,722 avios and a BA American Express Premium Plus Companion Voucher that expires July 2025.

Could some of you more seasoned users of these vouchers advise when is the best time to book and also what is the best way to do it. I have read around on Reddit etc of calling up BA 355d before we want to fly and secure the seats that way or maybe use one of these services that exist e.g. SeatSpy. I expect of course that the seats will go quickly and whilst we have a lot of flexibility with it, we do want to get the flights around that famous blossom season to experience it.

If I have understood, the 220k points will be enough for me and my wife to fly business class return + cash on top of course.
 
355 days in advance is the best way to guarantee it. Book immediately the outbound then phone up and add the inbound when it comes available. Will cost you another £70 but guarantees your seat.
 
I am in a bit of a predicament having a voucher that expires March next year, with no aim of where to go or what to do. I was thinking to just go to NY for a week (not been for a while), see some family etc, however there is very little first availability for this summer (naturally, given I have left it so late), only business. I have never been either, so anything above cattle class is a benefit :P
Any thoughts on a low subscribed route which might be worth looking at other than NY?
 
Doubt there is much first availability to anywhere. Quite a rare occurrence these days. What about Boston or Chicago? Seems like a lot of availability for both most of the year.
 
Biz.Kid09 said:
Hi all, my wife and I are looking at booking Tokyo for blossom season in 2025. I have 221,722 avios and a BA American Express Premium Plus Companion Voucher that expires July 2025.

Could some of you more seasoned users of these vouchers advise when is the best time to book and also what is the best way to do it. I have read around on Reddit etc of calling up BA 355d before we want to fly and secure the seats that way or maybe use one of these services that exist e.g. SeatSpy. I expect of course that the seats will go quickly and whilst we have a lot of flexibility with it, we do want to get the flights around that famous blossom season to experience it.

If I have understood, the 220k points will be enough for me and my wife to fly business class return + cash on top of course.
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They go on sale 335 days ahead as you say, you usually have 5 minute max to get the seats booked after they go online at midnight

I always do the outbound leg online, the return leg you will probably have to do on the phone (call USA or Tokyo) as you may not have enough mailes as you don;t get the voucher reduction back until the bookings are combined later
 
ShivP said:
I am in a bit of a predicament having a voucher that expires March next year, with no aim of where to go or what to do. I was thinking to just go to NY for a week (not been for a while), see some family etc, however there is very little first availability for this summer (naturally, given I have left it so late), only business. I have never been either, so anything above cattle class is a benefit :p
Any thoughts on a low subscribed route which might be worth looking at other than NY?
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post some dates, I'll run seatspy based on dates rather than routes and a rough idea where

Plenty to Vegas late 24, early 25

lv.JPG t
 
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Rotty said:
They go on sale 335 days ahead as you say, you usually have 5 minute max to get the seats booked after they go online at midnight

I always do the outbound leg online, the return leg you will probably have to do on the phone (call USA or Tokyo) as you may not have enough mailes as you don;t get the voucher reduction back until the bookings are combined later
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335d or 355d

Thanks for the tip. It makes sense of course that the return flights wont be available till a couple weeks later, hopefully it works out!
 
Biz.Kid09 said:
Ok cheers mate. Do I just go direct to the BA site or do you recommend any of the third party tools?
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if you doing it at midnight at 355 days they are released bang on the second and there will be 4 seats, some routes last a few hours, most are gone in under 10 mins, no need for a tool as they will def be there of you are quick enough, the tools can show availability but you can't book through them
 
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I've been slowly coming off Chrome across my devices but my wife still has it installed on her laptop. Just booked Avios hotels for NY, it wouldn't let me click the pay button (just gets stuck or gives some random error).

I install Firefox, sign into her Exec account and the same booking is £100 cheaper and it let me actually pay. Not going to argue but another nail in the coffin for Chrome and this was on her profile so no extensions like an adblocker.

9,000 points for that booking :D.
 
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Penfold101 said:
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.

Question re the BA Amex Card - FlyerTalk Forums

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.
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In a 15 minute call with AMEX I clarified the situation regarding the companion voucher (switching from blue to black card), asked a bunch of other questions and applied for the new card. It's arriving in 10 days. I was not expecting it to be that straightforward!
 
Robi said:
In a 15 minute call with AMEX I clarified the situation regarding the companion voucher (switching from blue to black card), asked a bunch of other questions and applied for the new card. It's arriving in 10 days. I was not expecting it to be that straightforward!
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Advantages of paying an annual fee for a credit card - their customer service will bend over backwards to help you, especially if someone else has stolen THEIR money from your card...
 
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