British Airways Companion Voucher - are they worth it?

[BoyMum100]

I currently have a companion voucher and 75,000 avois points. I know it is more cost efficient to use the companion voucher for a business class flight on a long haul route, I have previously used one to fly business to South Africa about 8 years ago. However, this time around I'm looking at an additional £3.5k spend to travel anywhere business class long haul. I have spent a considerable amount on this card and pay for the premium plus card which has a fee of £300 per annum.

Is it just not what it used to be? I might just use the voucher for travel in Europe and then cancel my card.

Let me know if you have had any luck recently or tips for booking.

We have used them to fly to LA in business class quite a few times. The taxes are usually about £600pp. We managed to get flights to South Africa for this August school holidays but it wasn’t easy! But you do need quite a lot of Avios to do so. I’m presuming it’s so expensive as the Avios you have doesn’t cover the full long haul route?

We’ve used them to Singapore and South Africa. One way business, one way economy in both cases. It was really worth it for us!

Yes, we fly long haul business every year, definitely worth it, recently South America for £1k tax and about 160k points + CV.
Youll need considerably more Avios though, unless you are flying solo? in which case you’ll get it for half using your CV.
I buy everything through the BA shopping portal, I usually use Debenhams/DBZ marketplace instead of Amazon, use Booking.com, Hotels.com (can get up to 12 Avios per £) even a recent single hotel stay using Avios Hotels netted me 15
avios per £1.
All adds up over the year.
if you’re still looking at £3.5k to pay, it sounds like you are part paying with Avios rather than a full reward flight when you only pay taxes. Part pay is rarely good value. Do you follow some of the Fb Avios pages, they are good for hints, , Headforpoints etc?

We haven’t managed to use one since we had kids and have become constrained to school holidays. (The date of issue of our voucher never matches when the flights become available).

However, we have very much decided collecting Avios is the way to go and book our summer holiday flights on points every year which saves us about £2000, just flying to Europe in peak season. Sadly the vouchers just get left to expire.

DH seems to have a regular stock of companion vouchers. I know they are best value if you use them on long haul flights but we’re not at a stage in our life where we do that very much so we just use them on regular flights in Europe where we’d be going on holiday already. We’ve just used one to book our summer holiday to France and it’s saved us a few hundred quid.

Any tips on getting the flights in school holidays?? I’ve timed our vouchers so that we will have 2 to use that will be valid for August 27 and we want to go to Canada

Ive read that we may have to book the outbound flight first then keep fingers crossed and book return when they’re released 2 weeks later is that right?!?! Not sure I’ve got the bottle for that!

I haven't travelled long haul since having kids and was looking forward to a long weekend trip to Boston. We have until May 27 to use it so I might see if I can increase my points in that time. I won't be paying an additional 3.5k!

In the same boat - although, you can still use the vouchers for the European flights, you just get less value from them.

@FusionChefGeoff We have managed it 3 times in school holidays so far (Crete, LA and South Africa) and it’s high stress! We have not tried the only booking the outbound trick, although I’ve read about it online. I’m too worried about not getting the inbound flights for that. We’ve managed to do it by booking as soon as the return leg is released (I think it’s at 1am rather than midnight) knowing the outbound leg is still available the day before. This usually means booking late August for a flight on approx 6th August the following summer.

For 2 of the 3 trips (LA and South Africa) we got 4 seats with 2 companion vouchers and they were business class. For Crete we just did 2 economy with one voucher and paid for a third flight. I would say it helps to be a high frequency route and also to be slightly flexible (eg flying midweek and going for say 13/15 days instead of 14). Good luck!

It was midnight a couple of weeks ago , we just booked Singapore flights.

Have you priced up premium economy flights with the voucher and looked at buying Avois points when they on sale?

We use them. They used to be great value pre Covid. We did three trips to Japan in First using Avios and 2-4-1. Since covid, availability even in business has been much more limited and we will probably give up the BAPP card before too long.

Absolutely. I flew to Singapore in Business and the missus came too for free (taxes). Highly recommended.

@ForAmusedHazelQuoterWe were booking in August for the school holidays.

Rio is around 110,000 Avios one way for business. So 220,000 return. Check the flights. Also on popular routes, availability is low for business. It’s a balancing act. When you go is critical but we have always found flexibility of dates and destinations is best. If you cannot get Boston, try Philadelphia or Denver. It’s a case of thinking about what you might like and doing some research.

We have had numerous flights and it’s worked for us. Always long haul business. Just booked India in 10 months. No issues. Be flexible.