British Airways Companion Flights: What Happens If You Cancel Your BA Amex Card?

BA companion voucher flights are considered by many to be the best benefit offered with any UK air miles credit card. Anyone who spends £10,000 a year on the BA Amex Premium Plus card can receive an Avios companion voucher which allows the cardholder to book a return reward flight, using their Avios, then receive another free ticket for a travel companion, excluding surcharges and taxes. The downside is that the card comes with a hefty £195 annual fee and a high interest rate if you don’t pay off your balance each month. So what happens if you decide to cancel your card after earning your Avios companion voucher?

The good news is that if you have a valid companion voucher showing in your British Airways Executive Club account, it is safe. Tickets for British Airways companion flights you have already booked, before cancelling your card will also remain valid. If you have to cancel BA companion voucher flights, likely because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on travel, your voucher will still be returned to your account, even if you have cancelled your card.

There are however a couple of things to be aware of.

In the unlikely event that your card was withdrawn, because you breached the American Express cardholder terms and conditions, your 2–4–1 voucher may be withdrawn by Amex too.

A more likely scenario to avoid is that, whilst your Avios points and voucher cover the price of the two tickets, you still need to pay the taxes and surcharges. It is a condition of the BA Companion voucher that these are paid for using an American Express card account with the same cardholder name as the one on the voucher. However, this can be ANY American Express card. So the advice from Reward Flight Finder is that if you want to cancel the card to avoid the £195 fee, but still have a valid voucher, it is better to downgrade to the free British Airways American Express Card than to leave Amex altogether. Alternatively, you could consider the fee-free American Express Rewards Credit Card.

Vouchers earned with the Premium Plus card have a longer expiry date, but that will also still apply if that was the card you earned your voucher through. You can still downgrade to a fee-free card by calling Amex, without reducing the validity period for your existing companion voucher.

Of course, terms and conditions can change over time, however, our enquiries confirmed the above rules were applicable in the UK, in January 2021.