Do you know that short-haul Avios redemptions are often cheaper as 2 x one-ways?

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• John says:

  2 Nov2 November 05:55

  Slight downside of booking separate tickets are that if one leg is cancelled or rescheduled by BA, you will forfeit the money if you want to cancel the other, or pay to change it (or cancel+rebook) and there may be no availability by the time you need to rebook.

  The protection from having only one ticket may be more useful on very short trips.

  Though I feel the savings from booking separate legs outweigh the potential risks.

  • Rob says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:30

    On the other side …. you cannot cancel the return leg for a refund once outbound is flown. With 2 x one ways you can.

  • Mikeact says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:33

    We always book one ways, particularly for the flexibility of being able to change the return half while away for numerous reasons….extend our stay, sickness etc. We haven’t yet had a problem but then we are fortunate to have the flexibility as retirees. Even coming back from Australia, BA managed to change us for around three weeks later. As Rob says, the savings, while not enermous, can make a difference as we have pleasantly found.

    • Mikeact says:

      2 Nov2 November 07:45

      Just out of interest, I’ve just had to book a KLM flight out of Dublin to Amsterdam, one way, taxes etc., €11.22.

  • Ed says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:41

    Had this issue flying from lcy to ams during the cold weather snap back feb/March this year. Outbound cancelled, but had to pay to get the return moved. I think we eventually persuaded them to drop the fees but there is a risk

• Tim M says:

  2 Nov2 November 06:16

  Eg.2: Malaga to Manchester (BA Cityflyer) is just £9.50 in taxes Club class.

• Lumma says:

  2 Nov2 November 06:24

  Can confirm that Bilbao to London is £8.80 in taxes in both economy and business. It was great as it allowed me to cancel and change to the later flight that I wanted to get for just £8.80 when a seat became available last minute

  • Polly says:

    2 Nov2 November 08:12

    I do this all the time with our DUB flights. Saved us a fortune esp with last minute flights…very very useful bonus to our BAEC. Still think it’s the best family FFP out there.

• Docksguy says:

  2 Nov2 November 07:57

  I have booked 2 singles a few times, but the last time I tried to bookm BA had changed the taxes for the EU to London to exactly half of what the return was. That for a destination I had before the EU to London for only £3. So really convinced it still works.

  • Lumma says:

    2 Nov2 November 08:32

    It’s not necessarily every EU departure that’s cheaper. I verified the Bilbao example this morning and it’s still £8.80.

  • John says:

    2 Nov2 November 11:24

    BA changed nothing. The government of your destination country increased the taxes for departing from that country, or the airport you flew from increased its user fee.

    The higher tax became exactly half the charges of booking a return, because BA paid the rest! That is the entire point of Reward Flight Saver!

• Rachel Everett says:

  2 Nov2 November 08:44

  How does it work when using the BA 2-4-1 voucher Rob. I just booked outbound flights to Tenerife for 3 of us using the 2-4-1 voucher, £51 cash and 29k miles. When the inbound becomes available is it best to ring up and do the booming so they can link it with the outbound and deduct one of the miles from inbound? Thanks

  • Rob says:

    2 Nov2 November 08:52

    You have to ring, no alternative!

    • Rachel Everett says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:59

      That’s great, thanks ????????

      • Anna says:

        2 Nov2 November 09:14

        If it’s for October half term next year I would strongly suggest ringing one of the overseas call centres at midnight as the redemption seats are likely to be gone by morning!

• Slonik says:

  2 Nov2 November 09:46

  OT but BA redemptions related. Does anyone know which BA routes from London regularly have more than 2 business class tickets available per flight? I’ve seen it with Moscow, for example. Any others?

  • Roberto says:

    2 Nov2 November 09:53

    NYC

    • Spurs Debs says:

      3 Nov3 November 08:14

      I got 4 return club class seats to New York for next April. I booked as soon as they were available.

  • Rob says:

    2 Nov2 November 09:57

    Most of them, but not 355 days out. You can check in 10 seconds via baredemptionfinder – plug in a route with 4 seats and a whole year shows immediately.

    Give yourself 10 mins and you can do every major long haul route.

  • Anna says:

    2 Nov2 November 10:53

    North East US is always a good bet, I’ve had no issues getting 3 seats for JFK, Newark , Washington DC and Boston.

    • Rob says:

      2 Nov2 November 11:15

      You can get 6F to NYC (very) occasionally.

    • Mark2 says:

      2 Nov2 November 11:17

      also try west coast

      • Lady London says:

        2 Nov2 November 11:41

        that would be SFO in particular.

        Where there’s a lot of capacity from competing airlines on the same route, is where you seem to get more seats released for award bookings. Doesn’t always happen at T-35n though, as Rob says

  • Scallder says:

    2 Nov2 November 13:27

    Use the BA app and search by ‘continent’ – will tell you by city how many dates are available for each across the next 355 days so gives a good indicator…

• RussellH says:

  2 Nov2 November 11:01

  I remember the olden days, when £1 significantly >€1: booking Ryanair to obscure points in Germany in February from PIK. Booked as return, both legs £0.99 incl. taxes. Booked as two singles £0.99 out, €0,99 in.
  Seemed like a result at the time!
  🙂

  • John says:

    2 Nov2 November 11:26

    You can buy cheap stuff from China on Canadian ebay for 99 cents, that would be 99p on UK ebay…

• MarkZ says:

  2 Nov2 November 11:08

  Dumb question: if you cancel all or part of a redemption flight due to unforeseen circumstances – sickness, for example – do you get the Avios reinstated to your BAEC account? Reason for asking – I got caught out recently when I had to cancel all of a “part-pay with Avios” flight booking, and, because of the selling class of the tickets, only the taxes and fees were refunded by BA. (The remaining flight costs, and reinstatement of the Avios, are currently the subjects of a claim on my travel insurance.)

  • Rob says:

    2 Nov2 November 11:14

    Full redemption, yes (less £35). PPWA, no, you are bound by the rules of the original cash ticket.

    • MarkZ says:

      2 Nov2 November 11:30

      Thanks Rob. I have just reviewed Avios Redemption University – Lesson 4 (Avios and Money) as well. It appears that PPWA is the one booking method using Avios that can jump up and give you a nasty bite if you’re not careful! All part of the learning process …

  • John says:

    2 Nov2 November 11:30

    Part pay with Avios is NOT a redemption, it is a revenue booking that involves you selling Avios back to BA for money, then immediately using that money to pay for a flight.

    That said BA occasionally agrees to make a full refund (or provide a free change) when you have unforeseen circumstances, despite what the fare rules say.

    • Lady London says:

      2 Nov2 November 11:45

      A reminder that if you make a booking completely with avios yes you get more flexibility to change or cancel. But you won’t earn any avios on it.

      If you make a cash booking and use the “part pay with avios” option then you will earn avios on that booking as though it was a fully cash booking. So part pay with Avios can be well worth it. Depending on the “exchange rate of avios for cash reduction” of the price of the booking, that BA offers. Need to do the sums to work out which method of booking works best for you. It also varies according to the cash price which varies all year!

  • Mikeact says:

    2 Nov2 November 16:11

    MarkZ
    ‘Reinstatement of Avios via your travel insurance?’
    How does that work then ?

    • Mark2 says:

      2 Nov2 November 16:38

      needs Lloyds Platinum account, or maybe packaged accounts.

      • Polly says:

        2 Nov2 November 22:00

        V tricky, long 6 mths fight with plat and axa about that 3 years ago, but got the monetary value back, eventually…

    • MarkZ says:

      3 Nov3 November 14:02

      Mikeact – apologies for the delay in responding. My domestic Buildings and Contents insurance includes annual worldwide travel insurance. (The policy was originally purchased maybe 10 years ago, and might no longer be available in this form.) The cover for cancellation of a trip before it starts includes the following paragraph: “the cost of replacing used points or miles if
      you booked your flight or accommodation using Avios or a similar promotional scheme, or a cash equivalent.”. My claim is for the cost of re-purchasing the Avios from BA at their current prices, which, of course, is considerably more than the value received against the flight booking. The insurance company might rule against me in that respect – the policy wording shown above is open to interpretation – but I am still waiting for the outcome.

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