News you may have missed at Points Well Made - 24th May

Hello, I hope you've all had a good week!

Thank you to all of you who messaged saying how much you enjoy using the new Avios Calculator, hopefully it'll save you all some time in the long run.

Meanwhile, there have been some interesting goings on this week.

The front end of the week saw offers if you bought Avios with Qatar and Finnair, so we did a little comparison piece compared with just paying for a cash ticket. We did a guide to how to book for three people with a companion voucher, including ways to get round certain BA rules. Then on Wednesday BA announced said Companion Vouchers could now be used on BA Holiday bookings, so we have written about the caveats around this, as of course there are some.

Later in the week we saw easyJet announce in their financial results that they are going to start a loyalty programme next year, which has lots of people interested. Then Friday rolled around, Happy Friday everyone. Oh. Wait. No. BA announced they were raising the cash element of reward tickets … on 27th May. Lastly, a reminder that the membership rewards bonus signs up on both the Amex Gold and The Platinum card are finishing soon.

As always, a bit of housekeeping, if you want to get in touch to change your subscription to a weekly only email, or from weekly to daily, then please do email sam@pointswellmade.co.uk. Or if you have anything else you want to ask us, tell us or request for us to cover, we love to hear from you so feel free to email helena@pointswellmade.co.uk.

Helena

Both Qatar and Finnair are running 50% buy Avios sales – here's how they compare

Qatar Airways and Finnair have both launched buy Avios sales, each with a top bonus of 50%, with Qatar's running until 25 May, and Finnair's running until 1 June, but the 50% rate only lasts until 22 May.

So its a 50% bonus in both cases, but the price per Avios isn't the same. Here's how each offer works.

We've broken it down into how both of these offers compare to paying for a ticket with cash, so head on over here to see if these offers are actually worth your time.

Can I use two BA Amex Companion Vouchers to book three people?

Congratulations. You've earned two Companion Vouchers from your BA Amex, or you're thinking about pushing for a second, and let's say that you want to book three seats for you, your partner, and a child (other groups of three are available).

The logical solution seems obvious: use one voucher for two people (you + partner), use the second voucher for solo travel at 50% off (the child). Three seats, two vouchers, sorted.

Except British Airways explicitly prohibits this. Check out how you can get around this here.

BA Amex Companion Vouchers can now be used on British Airways Holidays bookings - here's when it makes sense

From today, you can now use your BA Amex Companion Voucher on British Airways Holidays packages and get 25% of your Avios back. This doesn't change how a Companion Voucher normally works on a Reward Flight booking, it's an additional way to use it, and a temporary one, running only until 31 March 2027.

So is this a feature, or an offer? Who knows. Anyway, we've run through it here.

easyJet's new loyalty programme: what we know, and what we're guessing

Having been strongly rumoured for a while, easyJet have finally publicly announced that they are going to be launching their own loyalty programme in 2027. I say publicly, I don't know how many of you read financial results, because that's where they put it.

This programme is not designed to replace easyJet Plus (which so many of you signed up to as your BA Club membership expired), but instead this new programme will complement it.

The full statement can be found here, and our thoughts around it all.

BA raises the cash needed for Avios reward flights from 27 May - five days to book at current prices

British Airways is putting up the cash needed for Avios reward flights from 27 May 2026. The Avios required stay the same, as those already went up in December, but the cash element needed to pay the taxes and fees goes up.

I literally wrote yesterday that I didn't believe BA had another foot to shoot. They had in fact kept one spare.

Bookings made before 27 May hold the current price. From 27 May, you pay the new rate. So if you've got a trip in mind, you've got five days. I'm going to be booking for us. Here are all the details that we know.

FINAL DAYS: Up to 100,000 Membership Rewards points with the Amex Gold and Platinum

The boosted welcome bonuses on the Amex Gold and Platinum run out on Tuesday 26 May, leaving you only four days to decide if this is your time to get one.

If you currently hold, or have held an Amex in the past, but are unsure which bonuses you're eligible for, then you should check out our free Amex eligibility tool to help you out.

You can check out our article about it here.

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