BOOK NOW: 200 IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks hotels bookable

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• 1DES1 says:

  30 Jan30 January 15:27

  Off topic:

  My wife and I are moving back to New Zealand (in August) and have just booked a 2-4-1 First redemption on BA to HKG.

  We have enough Avios (70,000 plus only £100 in taxes) to book Economy flights (tough gig I know after being in First from LHR!) as follows (HKG to SYD to CHC).

  The BA flight is booked and ticketed already (using Avios and BA AMEX 2-4-1 voucher).

  I am planning on booking the QF flights (HKG to SYD to CHC) early next week when some Tesco points hit my BAEC.

  Could you please confirm if it will be possible to “link” our 2-4-1 First redemption with the QF flights (booked via Avios) from HKG to SYD to CHC? Even if they are booked are different times on the BA website? Should I call to book the QF flights in order to get them “linked”?

  The flights will look like the below:

  LHR to HKG (BA27) arrives into HKG at 1640 (First Class, AMEX 2-4-1 voucher & ticketed already)

  HKG to SYD (QF128) departs HKG at 20:00 arrives into SYD at 06:55

  Accordingly, we may have 3 hours 20 minutes between flights (if the flight is on time from LHR).

  These bookings may be on separate e-tickets, requiring us to clear immigration in HKG, collect baggage and check in as normal for the QF flight.

  Even allowing for a 1 hour delay from LHR (the HKG flight is an evening departure) we should still arrive into HKG with 2 hours 20 minutes to spare.

  We would then have the day in Sydney to relax before our connecting flight:

  SYD to CHC (QF139) departs SYD at 17:55.

  Unless I am missing something, do I need to put through a separate Avios booking for the QF flights online but this will mean we are required to grab our luggage in Hong Kong, check in for QF, clear immigration etc? BA flies into Terminal 1 and so does Qantas so that should help things.

  Many thanks in advance for your assistance,

  1DES1

  • Matt says:

    30 Jan30 January 16:28

    I don’t think you will be able to link the bookings because of the 241. That means that BA will refuse to interline your luggage, so you will have to pick it up and check in again in HKG. Might be worth giving them a call to check before you book the onward flights. If you have two separate bookings already made then you definitely won’t be able to link them.

  • shd says:

    30 Jan30 January 16:33

    You can’t link such separate bookings in any meaningful way.

    A friendly agent might offer to put a note in each booking referring to the other, but this gives you zero additional protection if any flights on your first booking are delayed or cancelled.

    If you misconnect, you’d be a no-show for the start of the journey on the second ticket, and dealt with however that airline’s agents feel like it on the day. “Buy a new walk-up ticket” is the worst case there.

  • Gavin says:

    30 Jan30 January 17:43

    I’ve rechecked at Hong Kong, going from BA to Cathay. Had 3:05 to do this, the time from getting off the BA A380 to being in the Wing lounge was approx. 40 minutes. Ample time for a shower, meal and a few bevvies in the lounge before getting the next flight. No fasttrack security at Hong Kong but it’s a very efficient airport.

    Supposedly you can ask at the transfer desk for your luggage to be retagged but not having been to Hong Kong before and having an urgent appointment the next day in Seoul I chose to kept it simple.

    • 1DES1 says:

      30 Jan30 January 18:36

      Many thanks – Matt, SHD and Gavin – I appreciate your comments.

      I have not yet made the second booking (HKG – SYD – CHC).

      I will call BA and see what they have to say. In any event, it sounds like it will definitely be separate bookings with re-checking of baggage required / clearing of immigration at HKG.

      It is irritating I will not be able to interline the baggage (despite them both being booked through Avios and they are both OneWorld Carriers). I think this is a new BA policy?

      I have just looked at the T&C’s of the Qantas Avios redemption which states the below:

      “Time/date changes permitted up to 24 hours before your first flight, subject to availability, for a service fee (£35).”

      “You can cancel this booking at any time up to 24 hours before outbound departure and receive a full refund, minus a service fee (£35).”

      Presumably if you try and change the booking within 24 hours this is not possible and you forfeit the Avios redemption? If that occurred, we would require a new tickets on the day? I’m just thinking worst case scenario here if the BA LHR to HKG flight was delayed beyond say 2 hours which meant we missed the final check in time for QF to SYD in HKG. I might just overnight in Hong Kong to build a bigger buffer in, problem with that is the lack of Avios availability for QF (HKG – SYD – CHC).

      Best,

      1DES1

      • Lyn says:

        30 Jan30 January 20:35

        I suggest you call Qantas as well to get their take on this as well before booking, i.e. on what would, or might, happen if your incoming BA flight was late. It is possible they might have some sort of fast track process in Hong Kong that could help a bit for instance, especially since you will be arriving in First. They are really quite a sensible airline. Not sure I’d use that word to describe BA. Yes, it is now Oneworld policy but apparently driven by BA.

        I suppose you’ve already looked at any other options from HKG to CHC that might give you more leeway, such as via Brisbane or perhaps even Melbourne?

      • Lady London says:

        30 Jan30 January 22:01

        I think you should stay overnight in Hong Kong anyway and schedule your onward QF flight out of Hong Kong the following day.

        It’s true that Hong Kong is a very efficient airport and excellent chance that there are no problems. But if there are any problems then you could be in a very bad (and potentially expensive) position indeed. How about booking a ticket with QF with conditions similar to the ones you quote above, but in 24hrs time or less? Then if you land on time maybe take advantage of the changeability and ask to change flights to earlier one.

        Why can;t you just go Hong Kong to NZ directly? did you consider Adelaide or Brisbane and not just MEL/SYD?

      • Lady London says:

        30 Jan30 January 22:04

        PS if you can only get to SYD then a few months ahead, cash fares across the ditch (SYD-AKL) can be very cheap indeed with a choice of about 5 airlines. Close in they seem to get horrendous.

      • 1DES1 says:

        31 Jan31 January 15:35

        Hi Lyn & Lady London,

        I just called BAEC and got their take on this. BA has suggested we pay the £35 per person change fee (£70 total) to amend the existing 2-4-1 First Redemption and add on the new QF flights (as soon as I have enough Avios in my BAEC).

        BA (i.e. the call centre) thought that this would mean we can have all bookings under one PNR and all flights will be protected in the event of any delays and we can then check in all of our luggage from LHR to CHC.

        I will report back with how I get on!

        The Tesco points will hit by Avios account this Saturday plus I need to wait until I get some additional BA AMEX Avios on Monday 5th February and will get this all locked in then.

        There are still 5 seats appearing online as Avios available (BAEC) so fingers crossed they don’t disappear between now and Monday morning.

        I have looked at other options (specifically HKG to SYD/MEL/BNE/ADL/AKL/CHC but only one other option is really feasible (QF118 HKG to SYD departs at 2325 which is an option if we missed QF128 at 2000). Unfortunately, the later flight (QF118) does not appear as an option at BAEC but it does appear on the QF website as being available.

        To make matters even more confusing, the reward availability HKG to SYD/MEL/BNE/ADL is non-existent unless you also booked SYD to CHC as another option. No idea why this is the case.

        HKG to CHC or AKL direct is non-existent for the dates we are looking at. Perhaps Cathay Pacific will release some space closer to the time but that is an unknown at this stage. They don’t tend to have any flights available inside BAEC for this route so perhaps Cathay is just stingy even with Economy Redemption.

        Thanks again for all of your help and I will post back with how I get on 🙂

        1DES1

      • Gavin says:

        31 Jan31 January 18:56

        Sometimes there is an issue with Cathay availability showing online. The BA call centre can usually book it for you.

• PAL says:

  30 Jan30 January 15:31

  Is there a way on this site to see what articles you have historically commented on?

  • Rob says:

    30 Jan30 January 16:27

    I can do it, you can’t.

  • John Munn says:

    31 Jan31 January 15:39

    You could try putting this into google:

    site:headforpoints.com “PAL says:”

    doing that, I got 13 results.
    This assumes no one else with the name PAL has commented

• Sapiens says:

  30 Jan30 January 17:44

  OT – is it possible to refer myself from platinum amex to BA amex to receive 18k points?

  Thanks

  • Rob MC says:

    30 Jan30 January 19:06

    A few people have done so and been successful.

    • Sapiens says:

      30 Jan30 January 19:51

      Interesting thank you. Is there any special technique that you are aware of?

      Cheers

  • Sue says:

    30 Jan30 January 19:21

    I’d love to know if any HFP readers in uk that have had success with that recently? Reading on forums, It seems to work on canada and US self referrals.

  • Jonathan says:

    30 Jan30 January 21:17

    I tried, referring myself from my platinum charge card to BAPP and got no referral bonus.

    • Jonathan says:

      31 Jan31 January 08:09

      I take it back, the 18k referral points posted today.

      • Sue says:

        31 Jan31 January 20:13

        Hi jonathan. Thats great. How long did the bonus points take to post after you were acceoted for new BAPP card?

• Dave says:

  30 Jan30 January 21:10

  OT – Can i downgrade from BAPP to free BA Amex online or do i have to ring up?

  • Dave says:

    30 Jan30 January 22:36

    Thanks. So can I just put the BAPP number in if downgrading to BA Blue?

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