NEW! BA Amex 2-4-1 Voucher Improvements!

If you collect Avios points the chances are you currently hold or have previously held one of the BA Amex cards. The cards have one of the most valuable perks available on any ‘travel’ credit card, the BA Amex 2-4-1 Voucher.

The issue was (for some people) whereas they valued the increased Avios earning rate of the Premium Plus card the voucher wasn’t any good for solo travellers. But with no incentive to make changes to the vouchers why would Amex? Enter the Avios Barclaycards stage left with their upgrade voucher and, what we can only assume is in response to them losing customers to the Avios Barclaycards) American Express has made two changes to the BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher

What are the 2 new changes to the BA Amex 2-4-1 Voucher?

The first thing to note here is that these changes only apply to BA Amex 2-4-1 vouchers issued after 1st September. The changes saw (among others) the voucher earned on the free card restricted to economy class & extra I-class availability for those booking into Business Class with the Premium Plus card. You can read more about the changes here.

If you have a voucher issued before the 1st of September 2021 you would need to wait until you have another voucher to benefit from these changes.

1. The 2-4-1 voucher can now be used by solo travellers to get 50% off the Avios cost of a flight.
   
2. You can now choose the amount of cash/Avios you want to use similarly to when you normally make an Avios redemption. (Previously you were restricted to the one Avios + cash cost.)

How do I use my BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher for a solo trip?

Go to the Avios booking page on BA and log in.

Select that you want to use your 2-4-1 voucher and choose your dates/route etc.

Remember to change the passengers back to one and hit ‘Get Flights’

You’ll see the above message appear when selecting your flights (whilst the message references the Premium Plus voucher you will also get a similar message when using the voucher on the free card)

When selecting your flights they will then be priced up as 50% of the Avios cost but still 100% of the ‘taxes & fees’. The above is a Business Class return to Dubai which would normally cost 100,000 Avios.

One key benefit over the 50% off using the solo traveller option on the BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher is that you can book into First Class (normally the above trip would cost 160,000). The Barclaycard Upgrade Voucher is restricted to Economy > Premium Economy or Premium Economy > Business.

This brings us to the second change to the 2-4-1 voucher, under the Total Price you now have ‘More pricing options.’ Previously you didn’t have the choice to use a different amount of Avios/Cash from the price you were given but now you do…

45,000 Avios + £948.32 means paying 5,000 Avios less would cost you £240. 4.8p a point!
37,500 Avios + £1,218.32 means paying 12,500 Avios less would cost you £510. 4.08p a point!
32,500 Avios + £1,448.32 means paying 17,500 Avios less would cost you £740. 4.22p a point!
28,750 Avios + £1,548.32 means paying 21,250 Avios less would cost you £840. 3.95p a point!
25,000 Avios + £1,648.32 means paying 25,000 Avios less would cost you £940. 3.76p a point!

Bearing in mind we value Avios at 1p and you can purchase them directly from BA for between 1.6p – 3.1p depending on the quantity the prices you are paying above for the reduced Avios amount really don’t make any logical sense…

Conclusion

It’s great to see the BA Amex 2-4-1 Voucher opened up to solo travellers (hurray for competition!) But the changes to the amount of cash/Avios you can choose to use are difficult to describe as a benefit and should probably be avoided! What do you make of the changes to the BA Amex 2-4-1 Voucher?