Can you no longer ring BA at midnight to use a BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher?

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• Bob says:

  16 Jan16 January 08:47

  So if I book a one way 241, and later want to add the return leg on my booking, the 241 still apply? But I need to pay the change fee? is it correct? never done that before, but if it works, will really help me to fly the dates I want. Thanks

  • Rob says:

    16 Jan16 January 08:53

    Correct. In fact, most agents don’t impose the change fee either.

    • Bob says:

      18 Jan18 January 16:03

      Thanks Rob!

  • Grimz says:

    16 Jan16 January 09:03

    Yes, you can always add in a return
    Not always, depends who you get on the phone.

• rams1981 says:

  16 Jan16 January 08:59

  OT sort of. I snagged LON-CPT yesterday at midnight. Happy as first off-peak date I believe so 62,500 Avios one way. At first it showed seats as gone but when i refreshed they were there and I checked out quickly. All done via BA app.

  Sounds like calling Japan is the way forward for the return leg. I may return from Johannesburg which will help availability I’m sure.

• John says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:03

  Last week I successfully booked 241 Clb World return leg tickets from Mexico Cit to Heathrow for Dec 30th. I used the New York number at midnight, but had to wait in a queue for 55 minutes! Ironically I then got dealt with by a UK agent who amended my booking and added this return leg with no problem. No fee was charged for doing this.

  • Anna says:

    16 Jan16 January 09:12

    That’s great to hear…enjoy your New Year in Mexico!

• Lorna says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:13

  All very well for those of you who know your plans one year in advance. I am now about to lose my second 241 voucher as I simply can’t find seats – at any level – to use them on the flights I want. It expires on 4 June and my final effort to fly to USA in May has failed, as did SA and Singapore and in October. Clearly the only way to book is 365 hours ahead. Having said that, I often use the USA call centres for any out of hours calls and find them very useful. Presumably there is nothing I can do with the vouchers – non extendable and non returnable.

  • Lorna says:

    16 Jan16 January 09:14

    non extendable and non transferable!

    • Rob says:

      16 Jan16 January 09:36

      We booked an Asia holiday for 4 people in November, for travel over Easter, using 2 x 241s so I have never fully bought into the ‘no availability’ story. You need to be flexible. My wife wanted to go to Japan – no availability, prime cherry blossom period. So we jiggled it and we’re doing Hong Kong (no problem getting 4 premium seats over Easter) then a JAL Avios redemption to Tokyo and then we’re popping over to Beijing and flying back from there. We could also have come back from Seoul, seats were there.

      Similarly, we have done the Middle East over Easter and October half term for the last 3 years, mainly on Avios (occasionally Emirates). Admittedly my kids have a two-week October half-term which makes it easier – this year we are flying out on the Tuesday of the first week, which obviously you wouldn’t do if you were only off for a week. Again, though, most people don’t realise that Abu Dhabi is only 20 minutes extra drive to The Palm area of Dubai than flying into DXB. Heck, even Doha is a decent option – you can get a connecting flight to Dubai for 4,500 Avios or a very modest amount of cash.

      A reader emailed me last week bemoaning no availability to the US West Coast on a specific date during October half term. I looked up San Jose and, voila, 2 Club World seats were there. The day before his preferred travel date was showing 9+ seats in Club World ….

      • Sam says:

        16 Jan16 January 11:12

        Sorry Rob, may have snagged two Tokyo F seats for that period..!

        • Rob says:

          16 Jan16 January 11:15

          I need 4 anyway!

      • Ro says:

        16 Jan16 January 18:00

        How long are you staying in hong kong before you go to japan and similarly in beijing before you fly back? Because then you have the worry of missing your main flights with a delay on the positioning flight… or not being able to spend as much time at your main destination because you split it betwern different cities? Or am i missing something?
        Sometimes its just not possible to be flexible

        • Rob says:

          16 Jan16 January 19:02

          4 nights in HK and 2 nights in Beijing (my wife has a friend there so it is actually a handy diversion).

  • Mike says:

    16 Jan16 January 09:48

    You work hard to get it so the last thing you want to see is it disappearing into the ether. I used a 241 one way CE to Venice last year as opposed to getting nothing out of it. That hurt. My only other option to use it was NYC but it didn’t fit in with our plans. I have a similar situation this year with one expiring in October, so I’ve just downgraded one of our BA PP cards for a year and taken out 2 of the Amex gold rewards cards. Fly / Cruise planned for October. I may reapply for the BA card once I’ve used up a couple of our remaining vouchers. I’ll see how it goes.

    • mark2 says:

      16 Jan16 January 11:10

      you probably know that if you book a cruise through Amex Travel you get triple points on Gold and no credit card charge.

      • Mike says:

        16 Jan16 January 14:47

        Thanks for flagging that up. The problem I have with Amex is they can’t compete with the guaranteed 10% discount I get via my bank (RBS). The bank accepts Amex with no fees, so it’s marginally in favor of the bank when it comes to the cruise bookings.

  • Anna says:

    16 Jan16 January 09:52

    Could you not fit in a long weekend to Europe in CE before the voucher expires? I have done this a couple of times; as we only fly 2/3 times per year it still feels like a real treat to drink Champagne in the lounge and sit up front before exploring a European city. If you look at what’s available in Zone 1 and 2 there’s usually a few options, even at this stage. Even some of places you might not think of for a city break, such as Munich or Geneva can offer a great experience.

    • Mike says:

      16 Jan16 January 11:02

      Good point but it’s down to timing I’m afraid. The fly cruise from Edinburgh was a great package and it means we can fly into Venice on the day of departure knowing there’s some protection should the flight be delayed. Normally, I go the day before to make sure I’m there on time, albeit an overnight stay in Venice is required (not so bad) . It’s the October school holidays here and the schools are only off for one week, so it’s a very short window of opportunity (my wife is a teacher) Otherwise I would definitely have used the 241 for my flights to Venice (again) I may need to have a look at long weekends somewhere around the September weekend.

    • Alan says:

      16 Jan16 January 23:08

      Sadly from the regions even this is pretty poor value now given you’ve got to pay the extra taxes and Avios for the domestic connection (albeit the voucher covers the Avios for the 2nd ticket) – just not worth it really compared to flying direct on Easyjet, etc.

  • Brian says:

    16 Jan16 January 09:54

    Don’t forget that seats do get made available from time to time, even on routes like Bangkok which are very popular. So you’ve still got time, particularly if you are slightly flexible about which US airport to fly into.

• Adam says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:24

  I did this recently and managed to grab two first class returns from Jo’burg on the exact dates we wanted to compliment our cub world flights to Cape Town.

  The agent doing the return of my 241 questioned why I had called the US line as I had a UK BAEC membership – she seemed to get it and said it was a great idea, but she’d have to check if she could service my request. 5 mins later, she came back and said yes, but I really shouldn’t be calling them and would have to wait until the UK service centre opened next time.
  I suppose it depends on who you get and how good your telephone manner is…

• Yuff says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:25

  Peak availability has definitely got worse over the last couple of years. Although when I first tried , admittedly in 2011 not at T-355, I couldn’t get a return for 4 in CW on the dates I wanted.
  However back then F availability was much better so I used F instead.
  BA have removed availability and the level of their service, and the outcome for us is 3 long haul legs, with a competitor which much higher levels of service for a similar price, and one 241 leg in F on a 787. I do hope to use the return leg, if possible, 6 months later.
  I used to be quite blinkered using BA, but last year our 241 was used to Oslo, for a positioning flight, and I’ve only managed to use outbound for this year.
  There are alternatives out there and thanks to HFP I have healthy balances in all 3 reward schemes I would use and a cash option ex Eu as well. If balances got low I would have booked an ex eu on Qatar last week. 😉

• David says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:32

  off thread – Iberia avis avios are in!

• Gavin says:

  16 Jan16 January 09:34

  O/T My 18000 Avios for Iberia/Avis Car Hire posted today(!)

  I received the 5% discount automatically on booking, so assumed that it would be problematic. Looks like they’ve made a policy decision to keep to the spirit of the promotion, given that they have cancelled the 700 Avios which were ‘Incorrect’ and then reissued the voucher.

  08/12/16 Promotion Avis Cars 18,000
  08/12/16 Car Hire With For 3 Days Avis N: EXXXXXXXXX Cars 700
  08/12/16 Cancellation Of Incorrect Voucher For Car Hire With Avis Cars -700
  08/12/16 Car Hire With For 3 Days Avis N: EXXXXXXXXX Cars 700

  • N. Ford says:

    16 Jan16 January 12:32

    Same as Gavin – all issued/re-issued on the 8th Jan. Nice!

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