Here is the full British Airways and Iberia peak and off peak Avios calendar for 2020 flights

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• James G says:

  9 Jul9 July 10:28

  OT

  This morning I booked 4 outbound one way flights to an EU city (reward flight saver) and used one of my Amex ba 2-4-1 vouchers.

  1) Do I need to ring BA to get the return one way flights added on? Or book the return flight online and then call?

  2) Any idea what happens if I want to come back early. But other 3 family members come back as scheduled? Have two Sub-options here.
  A- I call ba and ask to change just one of the 4 tickets. They will likely say no (as a voucher was used)

  B- I just book a new one way inbound flight for myself. Family of 3 then come back as scheduled and I am effectively a no show at the airport. Can the 3 be denied boarding, at the very last moment?

  • pauldb says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:42

    1) You can call to add the inbound, or book it online at full avios then call to get it “vouchered” for a 1x avios refund.

    2) Do you mean you will return early, or might? You cannot put yourself on a different flight with it being your voucher. Yes you can probably no show with no issue, but if you aren’t flying the leg you get no benefot from the voucher and waste your RFS charges. Is there any chance you can use the voucher for the inbound leg of a later, otherwise-seperate trip with one of your family.

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:47

    B is fairly easy, I hope. You (cardholder) must be one of the 2-4-1 party when you book – but you don’t have to actually travel. Ie if you are a no-show on the return flight, the other 3 won’t be denied boarding; their tickets are valid in themselves.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jul9 July 11:46

    1. Both seem to work
    2. You no-show. Family will be fine.

    • James B says:

      9 Jul9 July 16:33

      Thank you. Quick follow up

      If I call BA to cancel just my outbound ticket, are they able to do so ? Or will they insist all 4 tickets needed to be cancelled and then the 3 rebooked again?

      I know the 2-4-1 may be lost- but don’t want to pay the change fee x3 and also potentially lose the 3 award tickets if availability is gone

      • Shoestring says:

        9 Jul9 July 16:49

        cardholder has to be in the booking, so for outward tickets, you could be a no show but you could just cancel your part of the booking

        it’s only SH to Europe, right? So no show on 2-4-1s is probably going to be cheaper (than cancellation then rebooking) if you still want the other 3 to take their flights

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Jul9 July 17:37

          *couldn’t

      • Rob says:

        9 Jul9 July 17:27

        Gut feeling is they will want to cancel two tickets – yours and the free one – with the other two remaining. That is logical but of course BA does not work that way.

        If there are kids on the booking you are stuffed anyway, aren’t you? If your wife is on the free ticket, they can’t cancel you and her as unaccompanied kids are not allowed. If the ‘free’ seat is a kid, the other two seats (wife and kid) would remain but you can’t rebook the kid as it would be a standalone booking.

        • James F says:

          9 Jul9 July 17:45

          Thanks rob
          Btw, How does one even know who is on the “free ticket”?

          More importantly, surely a standalone ticket can be booked for a kid, and can then be added on/linked to the existing parent booking?

          Haha this 2-4-1 is more trouble than its worth for Eu short haul.

        • Rob says:

          9 Jul9 July 23:07

          Only a Gold can link two tickets IIRC. Not allowed for anyone else. It is called TCP ‘to complete party’.

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Jul9 July 17:49

          I don’t think it is at all easy to buy a standalone ticket for an under-14YO kid – definitely impossible online but I guess on the phone would be do-able once you explain they will be travelling with parent who already has a ticket

        • Yuff says:

          9 Jul9 July 21:32

          It’s doable on the phone, I added my daughter’s friend on to our flight at October half term….she will be 13 when we travel…she is on a separate booking

        • Spurs Debs says:

          10 Jul10 July 06:46

          I also have bought a stand-alone ticket for my grandson and had bookings linked as he was only 6.
          I paid with avois and had to do it by phone.

      • pauldb says:

        9 Jul9 July 19:03

        If you call them tonight (now – within 24hrs) I think there’s a chance they will be able to re-work the booking. I.e. remove you from the booking and refund the voucher so the 3x avios cover the other 3 travellers, and you have the voucher to reuse.

        • pauldb says:

          9 Jul9 July 19:10

          I also expect that if you did have to cancel (free <24hrs) to rebook, you can probably expect the 4 seats to reopen for booking. No guarantee though – what are you risking: are cash seats an acceptable price if not.

        • James F says:

          9 Jul9 July 22:19

          Thanks Paul

          Cash fares are crazy high. I am not bothered about losing 2 41 as it expires in a couple weeks anyway

          Last question, on my current booking ( 4 one way outbound tickets on a 241), if I don’t show, will the other 3 be Lloyds to fly, if I don’t show at the airport for the outbound.

        • James F says:

          9 Jul9 July 22:21

          *will the other 3 be allowed to fly

        • James F says:

          9 Jul9 July 22:21

          *will the other 3 be allowed to fly

        • pauldb says:

          9 Jul9 July 23:53

          They should be fine on the outbound, but are you thinking of adding an inbound. Some suggestion the system may have a chance to work our something’s wrong in time to mess with their inbound.

• PaulW says:

  9 Jul9 July 10:49

  We have been booking 2020 flights for 6 months+ why isn’t this released a year in advance ?

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Jul9 July 16:50

    because once it’s released publicly, BA lose the flexibility to make off-peak dates peak etc

• Gerry says:

  9 Jul9 July 11:11

  Hi Rhys,
  Thanks for this.
  ‘As you would expect, peak dates cover all the school breaks as well as the majority of bank holidays.’
  For all the problems those of us in the regions/countries of the UK have with BA and the faff of using Avios etc, they still come up trumps with their calendar. For at least 9% of the population the off peak dates do cover part of the school holidays, Scottish schools break up on 26th June 2020.

  • Rhys says:

    9 Jul9 July 13:50

    Lucky them!

  • @mkcol says:

    9 Jul9 July 15:37

    And generally return on 18th August, another off peak date 😀

• Charlie says:

  9 Jul9 July 12:59

  Thanks very useful, added to my google calendar.

• Alex says:

  9 Jul9 July 13:16

  Very useful! I expect a yearly update of this from now on however 😉

• AndyGWP says:

  9 Jul9 July 16:18

  Well the amount of peak weekends in October surprised me 🤔

  Regional school hols or something?

  • Matt B says:

    9 Jul9 July 16:23

    Half term & Easter hols are often different in various parts of the country. I’d imagine private schools also have longer off.

  • Rob says:

    9 Jul9 July 17:28

    Private schools have a 2 week October half term, as Caribbean holidays are difficult to fit into 7 days.

    • AndyW says:

      9 Jul9 July 17:35

      hahahaha! Tough times!

  • Spurs Debs says:

    10 Jul10 July 06:35

    Half term in England

    • AndyGWP says:

      10 Jul10 July 10:58

      Yes, sorry – should have clarified. Aware the last week was half term, but wasn’t sure about the week before, or even the weekend before that (10/11 October)

• Jamie P says:

  9 Jul9 July 17:49

  Wow, only two days in the next 355 where there are x2 F seats from LHR to HKG; Christmas Day and New Years Day.
  I know BA don’t have to release F and it’s a premium heavy route but I still think that’s crazy.

  • Mark2 says:

    9 Jul9 July 18:49

    Perhaps they were released and someone else booked them?

    • Jamie P says:

      9 Jul9 July 21:25

      Maybe Mark2. Very astute of you

      • AndyGWP says:

        9 Jul9 July 22:13

        On a similar note, I can find no redemption availability in any class for LGW to HAV with Virgin. I think I should’ve checked availability before I started collecting the miles! 😂

  • Dominic Montgomery says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:16

    I’m looking for LHR-HKG too. I’m sure I looked within last week and there was availability and now there is nothing. Discussion on flyertalk where people think there is some sort of issue. Rob, do you know anything? Is this normal for HKG?

• ankomonkey says:

  9 Jul9 July 19:40

  Accor rejected my payment from one of the sites that can’t be named, claiming I’d cancelled the stay. I stayed. I’ve mailed them screenshots of the site informing me Accor had rejected due to cancellation along with my LeClub points entries for the stay in question.

  So who’s lying?

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Jul9 July 19:54

    not a lot you can do except move on

    my success rate is close to 9:1 – and I knew in advance that plenty of the declined transactions were likely to be declined (often big ticket entertainment or insurance – the good old days)

    • ankomonkey says:

      9 Jul9 July 20:56

      I met all the criteria and broke no rules, so should have got the money. Why couldn’t the disingenuous rejection have been 20p from ebay rather than £45 from Accor? Ba$t%^&*!

  • Nick says:

    10 Jul10 July 17:50

    Was it a cash booking (you mention points) and was it cancellable? If yes and you have something from the hotel saying you cancelled, you might ask for the refund! They can’t have it both ways. But that site seems to have become more and more unreliable, I very much see it as a “nice if it happens” thing now. I certainly don’t factor it in to my decision-making like I once did. I earned £1800+ from it I’m my first year, and less than a further £100 in the 4 years since.

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