Avios Companion Ticket

Author
Discussion

megapixels83

Original Poster:

823 posts

151 months

Monday 24th March 2014
quotequote all
Hi All I bank with Lloyds Premier and as part of the Avios Duo credit card if I spend £15k or more in a year I get a companion ticket. I have now had this issued to me and it is sat in my Avios account under vouchers.

Just had a quick look at at and clicked use and went through with a dummy booking from London to Barcelona. The problem is on Avios this trip costs 60,000 avios + £100 for two people. The issue is I dont have 60,000 Avios as I have used them all and can only buy 54,000 at a cost of £894 so even if it was 54,000 Avios + £100 that is £994 for two to fly whereas the same flights booked direct with BA and not using my companion voucher is only £808 for two all in and I would actually earn Avios on this.

So what is the point of the Companion Ticket, is it pretty much worthless or am I using it wrong.


recordman

386 posts

125 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
I've just checked, and a return to BCN in Club Europe is 30,000 Avios per person and £50. Therefore, with a companion voucher two people can travel for the same amount of Avios plus £100.

You can elect to spend fewer Avios down to a minimum of 16,000 Avios return (CE) and pay cash £110 pp. There is a sliding scale that provides more options.

Economy is half the Avios and slightly lower charges.

It's all here: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/avios-calcula...

Of course, to obtain the best value using Avios is for long haul flights in J or F, but you need to have the Avios in the first place.

A great source of info can be found here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-exe...

z4chris99

11,279 posts

179 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
collecting avios is mainly for people who fly BA a few times a year, trying to take them in with normal spending is hard.

I have about 200k from last year from flying, and about 15k from spending!

Edited by z4chris99 on Tuesday 25th March 07:56

GT03ROB

13,262 posts

221 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
megapixels83 said:
So what is the point of the Companion Ticket, is it pretty much worthless or am I using it wrong.
If you have plenty of Avios & can find a flight with 2 reward seats on they are great. If you don't have enough Avios for the 1st flight, then yes they are worthless!

tuffer

8,849 posts

267 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
Best way to use a companion voucher is if you fly Club or First on long haul. Save up 150,000 Avios and you can fly First to the USA or Caribbean. Waste of time using them on short haul/European flights.

BigBen

11,641 posts

230 months

Tuesday 25th March 2014
quotequote all
z4chris99 said:
collecting avios is mainly for people who fly BA a few times a year, trying to take them in with normal spending is hard.

I have about 200k from last year from flying, and about 15k from spending!

Edited by z4chris99 on Tuesday 25th March 07:56
Exactly this. The avios 'income' from credit card spending is paltry compared to what you earn through flying BA. Caveat that with if you can be bothered you can boost your income through various special offers / credit card sign ups etc.

If you don't have many Avios then the companion vouchers are indeed worthless

matt3001

1,991 posts

197 months

Thursday 27th March 2014
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Off topic.

But is an avios/companion ticket purchase eligible for tier points?

oyster

12,595 posts

248 months

Thursday 27th March 2014
quotequote all
matt3001 said:
Off topic.

But is an avios/companion ticket purchase eligible for tier points?
No

Extra 300 Driver

5,281 posts

246 months

Friday 28th March 2014
quotequote all
I have a BA American Express card. Every £1 I spend I get 2 avios. I think I get 4 avios when I spend on BA flights. Anyway, I have just used half a million avios to go to New Zealand. Unfortunately you can only use the companion ticket on BA flight, from the UK, so we are using it for the LHR to DXB leg in FIRST. Anyways, as has been mentioned, the best way is to use it on longhaul in J or F. The real issue is the availability of reward flights. To get to New Zealand I am flying LHR_DXB_KUL_MEL_AUK

onlynik

3,978 posts

193 months

Saturday 12th April 2014
quotequote all
megapixels83 said:
Hi All I bank with Lloyds Premier and as part of the Avios Duo credit card if I spend £15k or more in a year I get a companion ticket. I have now had this issued to me and it is sat in my Avios account under vouchers.

Just had a quick look at at and clicked use and went through with a dummy booking from London to Barcelona. The problem is on Avios this trip costs 60,000 avios + £100 for two people. The issue is I dont have 60,000 Avios as I have used them all and can only buy 54,000 at a cost of £894 so even if it was 54,000 Avios + £100 that is £994 for two to fly whereas the same flights booked direct with BA and not using my companion voucher is only £808 for two all in and I would actually earn Avios on this.

So what is the point of the Companion Ticket, is it pretty much worthless or am I using it wrong.
Nope, it's worthless really as it's only usable for economy tickets. Best bet would be the BA Amex card which gives you a proper companion voucher.

K50 DEL

9,237 posts

228 months

Monday 14th April 2014
quotequote all
Best way of using them is long haul in either club or First.

I've used my 2012 voucher to book 2 x 1st class returns to Washington for later this year, cost me £1066 and 100k Avios.. not a bad benefit for simply putting all my normal spending on an Amex card.

I still have 2013s voucher to use, not sure where that one will take us

Edited by K50 DEL on Sunday 20th April 08:53