Help me make sense of BA Avios

[NatterNatter50]

Hello! Hope someone can help as I’m new to this. I’ve just earned my first companion voucher and also have 55,000 avios accumulated. Want to book a trip for me, DH and our 5-year old (stuck with going in UK school holidays). What are my options? I have no idea what I can even get with this and how to find out as I believe that to use companion voucher I have to pay for the other adult seat in avios and can’t part pay that in cash. My app states that the companion voucher ends by August 2026 so assume I have to book by then. Not bothered about business class which I guess is just as well as I don’t have enough avios for business class I think. Also what if I book outbound seats and then can’t get the return seats? I’m so confused, help! xx

I would look at the head for points website for full details.
I used a companion ticket for 3 adults to fly to Orlando return. We used 110,000 points and £225 each for the flights. I can’t recall how they calculated it as I was pricing it for just 2 adults and then book the 3rd separately but in the end did the 3 of us together.
If you have the normal blue Amex, the companion ticket will expire this August meaning you must book and travel before the expiry date.
The more points you have, the cheaper the flights will be. You can have a mooch around the BA site, select the rewards voucher box and see where you can go.
I am currently £300 off triggering my next voucher but I don’t want it until May as I will likely use it for a flight May 2027 so I have not been using my card.

You can’t use a companion voucher for anything other than Economy class.

You need to search online for reward flights after you’ve logged in

That’s only if it’s the basic blue Amex that you earned it with. If it’s the black Amex (BA premium card) then you can use it for all classes. We use ours to fly business class long haul which has the best value.

I’d also say Head for Points is a great website to get your head around Avios. Also Man of Miles UK and Nicky Kelvin on Instagram.

This is why I have a cash back Amex 😂

you can trade your Avios points for other things if you can’t make use of them for flights.

We've used 2 vouchers, as ours last 2 years, for 4 club seats to Hong Kong and also Antiqua. Flying club or first is the best way to use avios and companion vouchers. What I would say is you need to get better at building your avios points balance if you really want to get the benefits. The companion voucher is basically 2for1. Do research on head for points website as pp has said. You need to keep on top of your spends on Amex as it auto triggers a voucher and you sometimes need to time when you want it.

Not with the standard card you can’t. Do you have one of the premium/Gold cards?

I can use them in any class - BA lifetime gold member and premium card which more than pays for itself in terms of how many avois I rack up.

@NatterNatter50 don’t forget you don’t have to be all on a single booking. So you can use your avios and voucher to reduce cost for one adult to fly. And then use cash for the other adult and child. It’s a pain but you need to look at multiple options. Where are you trying to fly to and when? Very happy to try and help you find best options.

Mines blue, but the paid version. I’ve just used companion voucher for business.

Thank you all! The head for points site is amazing. @TheBossOfMe- thank you so much! I really want to go to Barbados first two weeks in April next year or failing that St Lucia or Antigua. I am expecting to use my 55k Avios to pay for my son’s flight (and top up with cash if needed), then companion voucher for DH flight and then I’ll pay full price for my flight in cash. So it’s the two reward flights in economy that I’ll need to look for. I have the black Amex card but just won’t have enough points for business class.

I think you have to be one of the travelers when using the CV rather than paying cash iyswim? Might be different for black card holders though?

OK, you can't book those yet because availability on rewards flights isn't open for April next year yet, you'll have to look in a couple of weeks - I think the last date available for booking now is 25 Mar next year. But here's what I think you're going to need to do:

Book a return flight for yourself using your companion voucher which halves the amount of Avios you need to use (the companion voucher only works if you're booking a reward flight using Avios). You don't have enough Avios for two people travelling, only for one. That will use most of your Avios and cost taxes of £170ish.

Book for your DH and DS in cash, and you might be able to reduce the cost slightly using your remaining Avios as part payment.

Makes sense?

Thanks! I’ll wait a week or so and then start looking. Makes sense that I need to use companion voucher to book my flight. The only thing I am unsure about….why would using companion voucher to book my flight use up my 55k avios too? I thought I’d get to use the voucher for one flight (with taxes on top) and then put the 55k avios towards another flight and then pay third flight fully in cash.

If your companion voucher expires In august you need to travel by then not just book, so will be no use for April next year unless you have another one?

Okay my DH normally does this, but assuming it is 55,000 for an ecomony return, your tickets i think would be
You - 55,000 avios+ tax and fees
DH- companion voucher means 0 avios + tax and fees
DC - buy ticket.

Can buy 355 days out. The good news is avios flights are flexible and it is only £35 pp to change or cancel flights so it's minimal risk to buy.

I've been to all those places and would pick Barbados - it's the only place I've returned multiple times.

The companion voucher isn’t a “free flight”, it just reduces the amount of avios used to buy a reward flight.

https://www.britishairways.com/content/the-british-airways-club/avios/collecting-avios/credit-cards/gb-companion-vouchers

So using one uses up most of your avios points

We bought one flight with avios and got a seat using the companion voucher. You get a matched flight.

Yes that’s the point - you get two tickets for the avios needed for one ticket with a companion voucher. Or you can buy one ticket with the companion voucher and halve the amount of avios you use. Either way still uses up avios though.

I use Avios a lot - platinum card here
Had 2 companion vouchers last year and booked 5 flights to Male (Maldives) for just the tax (two seats “free” the rest covered by points. Also used for Mexico and Singapore for two adults, three teens tied to the school holidays.
my tips would be to use the Avios cashback site to bump up your points, for example if you book a hotel on booking.com and click through the cashback site, you get six times the value back in Avios so spend £500 and get 3000 Avios etc
also, for school holidays, you really need to be on the ball and book 355 days in advance at midnight, head for points has lots of tips around this, I booked one way for the Maldives, and then 12 days later booked the return, otherwise the reward flights get snapped up pretty quickly for peak times. BA will connect the two flights for you once you’ve booked both legs to ensure the companion voucher is applied. Good luck!!

Sorry op but pretty sure you have to have gone away by expiry date not just booked !

we used before for Japan and booked a full year in advance - you need to be quick and organised to grab those reward seats as they go fast!!

we are planning on using our next one for Thailand flights and are getting ourselves organised to try book.

Didn't spot that - yes you have to have travelled by the expiry date. If you only just got the voucher it must have a much later expiry date though - I’ve only just used one up that I earned back in 2024.

@Thischarmlessgirl I would never book outbound only. When doing this you can never guarantee the inbound will be available. On popular routes, that’s a huge gamble. We wait until the inbound dates are up and then book both together.

@MeetMeOnTheCorner - courses for horses, I’ve done this loads, it was the only way we could get five business class seats, for popular routes such as Male.
Also, the Avios reward seats are always fully refundable so the worst comes to it and you don’t get the return and you just cancel. Most people know that on the popular route, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Japan, Orlando that if you try to get outbound and return together for more than one person, there won’t be any reward seats left for the outgoing by the time you book the return and especially not at peak times like school holidays and Christmas/Chinese new year.

It’s a bit stressful having to stay up until midnight to get the reward seats 355 days in advance , but I’ve always managed to get both legs.

Can you tell me how to do this? I tried to book on the BA app the other night at midnight but the next day’s flights never appeared! What am I doing wrong?