Companion Voucher

deborah_kate

Hello, I am very close to the threshold for gaining a Companion Voucher with my British Airways American Express card and was planning to withdraw cash to hit the target but have read that withdrawals do not count towards the target. Does anyone know if make a big purchase, get the voucher, and then return the purchase for a refund I would lose the voucher?

bigadaj

Possibly look at purchasing a supermarket gift card or similar?

Presume your close to the end of year, so why not just use up the gift card over time.

msallen

From my understanding, BUT DO NOT TAKE THIS AS 100% TRUE, a refund will cause the companion voucher to be retracted if the charge refunded was the one that took you over the voucher target.

e.g. (assuming a £10,000 target on the "premium" card)

1. Total spend 9,500
2. Spend 600
3. Voucher issued
4. Refund 600
5. Voucher retracted.

But...

1. Total spend 9,500
2. Spend 450
3. Spend 100
4. Voucher issued
5. Refund 450
6. Voucher OK as the spend that "earned" it (the 100) has not been refunded.

However as bigadaj says, your best bet would probably be to buy gift cards for shops where you will be spending cash over the coming months thus basically just bring a bit of spending forward.

deborah_kate

Great thanks, I will go down the super market card route. Good idea.

Chino

msallen wrote: »

From my understanding, BUT DO NOT TAKE THIS AS 100% TRUE, a refund will cause the companion voucher to be retracted if the charge refunded was the one that took you over the voucher target.

Is this understanding from your reading of the terms and conditions for the card, from asking the card issuer or merely your guess?

msallen

From both my own experience of a refund (albeit with the sign up bonus target as opposed to the 2-4-1 target) and from reading about the experience of many others.

I can't point you towards the exact location of discussions on this, but both flyertalk (perhaps try http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1536545-ba-american-express-credit-card.html as a starting point) and headforpoints cover this card extensively.