These are flight redemptions I have made with Avios, including one using a British Airways American Express Companion Voucher. Each illustrates a different booking decision. The points and cash figures below come from the original e-ticket receipts where available.
India 2023: using a companion voucher for three
For our February 2023 trip, three of us flew return from London Heathrow to Mumbai in British Airways World Traveller. The Reward Flight Saver booking used a BA Amex Companion Voucher, 82,500 Avios and £894.18 in total. The voucher helped stretch the Avios across a family trip, though the cash portion remained substantial.
This is why I look at the whole booking before using a voucher: the number of travellers it covers, the Avios required, the cash payment and whether the flights suit us. A voucher is valuable when it helps secure the trip we actually want.
Ibiza 2024: three short-haul reward seats
Three of us flew BA CityFlyer return from London City to Ibiza from 24 to 31 August 2024. The original Reward Flight Saver booking cost 76,500 Avios and £3 in total. The small cash payment made the Avios cost especially important to weigh against buying tickets with cash.
British Airways later changed the flight time and issued updated e-tickets showing no extra points or payment. Those later zero amounts were adjustments to the existing booking, not the cost of the flights.
Dubai 2024: one family trip, separate bookings
For our 26 October to 2 November 2024 Dubai trip, we travelled in World Traveller on British Airways flights between Heathrow and Dubai. Nisha’s separate Reward Flight Saver ticket cost 60,000 Avios and £100. Ian and Isla travelled on another booking for the same flights.
The flight emails confirm the separate booking for Ian and Isla, but I do not have its original points-and-cash receipt in the available records. The 60,000 Avios and £100 figure applies only to Nisha’s ticket, so it should not be read as the price for all three of us.
The return journey also produced one of the more unusual flight experiences on the site: British Airways asked for volunteers to give up seats on an overbooked flight from Dubai. Read what happened when we volunteered to be bumped, what BA offered and what I would do differently next time.
See also How Much Is an Avios Worth?
What I take from these bookings
A companion voucher can help with a long-haul family booking; Reward Flight Saver can also work for several short-haul seats or for a single long-haul passenger. The right comparison is the total points plus cash against the cash fare and other ways I could use those points. I also check that the seats and travel dates work before moving flexible points into an airline programme.
For the separate question of when to move points, see how I use points transfer bonuses. A transfer bonus may help fund a redemption, but it does not by itself make the flight good value.
For airline experiences, disruption stories and practical booking lessons beyond the points themselves, browse the main Flights section.