News you may have missed at Points Well Made - 10th May

Hello all of you,

First off, today, myself and my two sisters, Bethan and Hannah, are running the Bristol Half Marathon today raising money for Pancreatic Cancer UK. Pancreatic cancer is one of deadliest forms of cancer as its usually only picked up once its too late to treat. This is exactly how it took the life of our Nana, Sue Pomeroy. Anything you can spare towards this worthy cause would be greatly appreciated. You can click here to donate towards Pancreatic Cancer UK. Thank you.

Anyway, back to normal business! This week I've tried to answer something that comes up constantly, which BA Avios routes do you actually need to be up at midnight for, and which ones can you take your time on? I've split the main long-haul destinations into tiers based on how quickly business class seats tend to disappear, and why some routes are so much harder than others. Spoiler: it's not just because more people want to go there.

Helena went to Portugal for a hen do and was fully prepared to document the EU EES horror stories for you all. What she got was a 10-minute wait at Faro. She was a teensy bit disappointed. Elsewhere, Virgin Atlantic has axed Dubai for the winter and paused Seattle, shifting the capacity to South Africa instead. There's a 1,000,000 Avios competition running for BA Amex cardholders, up to 10,000 bonus Avios for adding a free supplementary card to your BA Amex, and we've answered whether you can you extend your Companion Voucher or give it away? (Almost certainly not, and no. But we've gone through it properly.)

Sam

Which BA Avios routes sell out quickly and need a midnight booking, and which don't

Some Avios routes on BA are gone within minutes of midnight. Others sit there for weeks.

This is an attempt at a guide to telling them apart.

BA releases reward seats at midnight GMT, 355 days before departure. The guaranteed allocation on day one is eight in economy, two in premium economy, four in business class.

On some routes those four business class seats last weeks. On others they are gone before most people know the window has opened.

Below I've split the main BA long-haul destinations into three tiers based on how quickly business class seats tend to disappear. But first, why some routes are so much harder than others. The answer isn't simply that more people want to go there.

The full guide can be found here.

My experience of the new EU EES system at Faro (and why you shouldn't panic)

Everyone has heard the queue horror stories that have been rolling out in the last few weeks, 90-minute waits, missed flights, chaos at the gates. So when I'd booked a long weekend to the Algarve in late March for a friend's hen-do, I was braced for the worst, and totally prepared to document it for you all to see.

What I got was something a lot more mundane: a functioning border with a 10-minute wait on arrival and 15 minutes on departure. There was part of that was a teensy bit disappointed

not to get to tell you all about the chaos.

Anyway, here's what you need to know.

Win 1,000,000 Avios in BA and Amex's 25th anniversary prize draw

If you hold either of the British Airways American Express cards, there's a new competition in town. British Airways and American Express are continuing to mark 25 years of their partnership with an Avios competition. There's a 1,000,000 Avios top prize and a further 25 prizes of 100,000 Avios each up for grabs.

All the details can be found here.

Virgin Atlantic axes Dubai, Seattle paused, South Africa boosted

Virgin Atlantic has confirmed it won't be operating its seasonal Heathrow-Dubai route this coming winter. The 2025/26 season was already cut short on 7 March due to the conflict in the region, so this is two consecutive winters of cancellations. Heathrow-Seattle is also being paused for the winter, returning in March 2027. Instead they're giving both Heathrow-Cape Town and Heathrow-Johannesburg extra flights this winter.

Affected customers should start hearing from Virgin soon regarding refunds or reroutings.

More on that here.

Up to 10,000 bonus Avios on the BA Amex for adding a free supplementary card

If this sounds familiar, that is because we covered the same offer on the Amex Gold and Platinum a few weeks ago. Amex has now dished the bonus out to the British Airways American Express cards too, meaning until 30 June 2026, you can earn up to 10,000 bonus Avios just for adding your first supplementary card.

Easy right? All the details here.

Can I extend or gift my British Airways Amex Companion Voucher?

Your companion voucher is about to expire. You're not going to use it. Maybe life got in the way, maybe you couldn't find availability, maybe you just ran out of time.

So can you extend it? Or give it to someone who will use it?

Almost certainly not, and no. But there's more to it than that, so let's go through it properly.

In this post we cover:

• Can I extend my companion voucher?

• What qualifies for an extension?

• How do I apply for an extension?

• What if I don't qualify?

• Does the voucher expiry mean I have to be back by then too?

• Can I gift my companion voucher to someone else?

Carmel, California - Where we first used our Companion Voucher

Everything you need to know can be found here.

Points Well Made is a passion project from Sam and Helena. If you've enjoyed this and want to help us keep the lights on, please consider buying us a Ko-fi or subscribing monthly. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for more of the same. Thanks for reading.