Chase & British Airways improve the Travel Together companion voucher

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Earlier today, I wrote about British Airways improving the Companion Voucher issued by UK-issued American Express cards and while that news probably wasn’t particularly interesting to US-based readers, the follow-up news that Chase and British Airways have improved the Travel Together benefit that comes with the British Airways Visa Signature® card will probably attract more attention.

Historically, the Travel Together benefit (earned after a cardholder spends $30,000 on their British Airways Visa Signature® card in a calendar year) has offered two people traveling on the same award booking a 50% discount on the number of Avios needed to make the booking. No discount is given on the taxes, fees, and horrendous surcharges – they have to be paid in full for both passengers – but the number of Avios needed is halved.

Up until now, that has been the only way the Travel Together benefit could be used.

Now, however, the Travel Together benefit can also be used to give solo travelers a 50% reduction in the number of Avios needed for a reward flight booking – a traveling companion is no longer needed.

As far as I can tell, there has been no announcement to broadcast this positive change but the new wording is clear to see on the relevant British Airways webpage:

Travelling the world is great – and it’s even better when you can share the experience with someone else or pay 50% of the Avios fare when travelling solo. Every year that you spend $30,000 on your British Airways Visa Signature Credit Card we’ll give you a Travel Together Ticket good for two years.

The Travel Together Ticket allows you to pay 50% of the Avios fare when travelling solo or gives you a second seat for a companion, on the same flight and in the same cabin when you book a reward flight on a British Airways mainline flight originating in and returning to the United States. All you’ll have to pay is the taxes, fees, and carrier charges for the reward seats.

Clearly, the way to maximize the number of Avios that a Travel Together voucher can save a British Airways Visa cardholder continues to be to use it to save on the Avios needed for a companion, and it continues to be an annoying feature of the benefit that it can only be used for travel originating in the US and that you still have to pay high surcharges when using it, but with solo travel more popular now than ever before, this is still a good positive change that has been made to the way the Travel Together benefit can be used.

When banks and their partners make improvements to a credit card they usually love to tell everyone about it as quickly as possible so the fact that Chase and British Airways appear to have improved the British Airways Visa Signature® card’s Travel Together benefit without letting anyone know, is a little bit strange…but who cares?!

The change is there for all to see and as it’s a positive one, I’m not going to worry too much about why Chase and BA have kept this news to themselves.

[HT: OMAAT]