British Airways offers a companion voucher when you accrue more than $30,000 in spending on its Chase-branded credit card. With this voucher, you can redeem your BA Avios for a complimentary companion ticket, paying only the taxes and fuel surcharge on the second ticket. Although BA’s exorbitant fuel surcharges often make the use of the voucher a poor value (I let mine expire…), if you are traveling to Europe, the Middle East, or South Africa the voucher can come in handy.
One annoying restriction on the voucher was the inability to use the voucher for a one-way trip. Open-jaws, mixed cabins, and stopovers are all fine (all flights must be on British Airways metal and originate in the USA), but one-way trips were prohibited. Back when BA still had a U.S. call center this rule was rarely enforced, but since the UK call centers now handle all Avios reservations, I have not been able to find one agent willing to book the vouchers for only one-way travel.
But the rules have changed – one-way redemptions are now permitted.
I called tonight to book an award for a client and the agent read me a memo stating that one-way award redemptions using the companion voucher are now permitted and such functionality will soon be introduced to the British Airways Executive Club website.
The thought of using a companion voucher on a one-way ticket to Europe (paying only about $450 per ticket in taxes/fees) then finding another, cheaper way home seems to be a more attractive way to put the voucher to good use for those budget-conscious travellers who want to experience BA Club World or First Class without spending so much out of pocket.
Looks for the changes to be loaded online soon, but if you need to redeem for a one-way trip now, you can call and do so. Happy hold time!
In theory this is nice, but just tried running a search for Biz class from ATX-LHR next April one way and it returned $8600 for a one way fare. Only about $4500 roundtrip. Any work arounds to that?
@Graham, return using your points as well, but use Air Berlin or Aer Lingus, which have no fuel surcharge.
Is it still true? It ways that travel must originate and end in US…
Dimitri, Travel must originate in the USA, but if you use the voucher on a one-way basis, you do not have to end in the United States.
Thank you!!