The British Airways Visa Signature Card (review) is one of the best airline co-branded credit cards out there, as it offers lots of benefits for those who fly British Airways with any frequency, and it’s also offering a solid welcome bonus at the moment.
Continue reading: Is The British Airways Companion Voucher Worth It?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Best value I’ve found for Companion voucher is around Europe from LHR. Companion voucher + £1 to Tenerife or Athens. Great value for a 4+ hour flight.
Not an easy redemption but just how possible would it be to fly out of a country that severely limits YQ in first class while using the companion certificate? Hong Kong used to limit scam charges although I don't know if they still do that.
I've used this twice for Business class award tickets. I think the $30000 spend to get it is a bit high. The Ba Visa card is not a good earning card in my opinion. You could just a Sapphire reserve with 3x on most things and then transfer avios.
2nd, first class long haul award for two is almost impossible. They rarely even release 1 seat. And unless you are booking far out, even business availability is tough for 2.
3rd, Once you use this voucher your reservation goes into a super super special case category. No online management will be possible at that point for changes or cancellations. Also the billing and receipts get totally messed up and even BA can't sorry out what you'll be owed properly if you cancel. You must also call a special dept within executive with limited hours to deal with the reservation. Not worth it overall IMHO.
I’ve cancelled bookings on Companion vouchers and BA have just given back the voucher to use again whenever I choose.
Avios is just the worst. Fees are way too high. The only thing that is sometimes worthwhile is the 10% discount on high priced tickets.
I think the companion voucher is solid for anyone with (a) limited vacation time, (b) relatively inflexible travel availability, (c) who plans far ahead, and (d) who needs multiple people on the same flight. I personally plan my award travel at schedule open for specific days around school breaks, and need tix for a family of 3 or 4 (depending on whether my teen son wants to join his family!) so I really value this benefit but I can absolutely see why others wouldn't.
Agree though that 30k spend is really steep. This would be a knockout benefit at 20k spend though.