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Lots of one-way British Airways Club Suite Avios seats to Sydney on 23rd / 24th December

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This is an odd one which I can’t easily explain, but the seats are definitely there.

ba.com is currently showing a LOT of one way business class Club Suite redemptions between Inverness and Sydney for 23rd December and 24th December.

(EDIT: the comments show that Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow also work, albeit you pay Air Passenger Duty)

If you fly on 23rd December you will land at 7am on Christmas Day.

This is why it is weird:

  • there is no availability from London, only from Inverness (think about how you will get to Inverness in mid December before you book!)
  • there is no easy way to get back in Club Suite – you’d need to find a route back in Economy or Premium, or hope for a last minute Club seat, or come back on another British Airways partner using Avios

Whilst there are a LOT of seats available, you can only book for one or two people using the voucher. You cannot access the extra availability to add a 3rd or 4th ticket at full Avios price. (Obviously if you have two vouchers you can book for four people.)

Here is proof they exist – the lack of a ‘4 left’ or whatever notation under the words ‘Business Class’ means that there are at least NINE seats available:

Taxes and charges are £850 for two people plus 150,000 Avios for the two tickets. A solo traveller would pay 75,000 Avios (one person travels for 50% off using the new-style vouchers) and £425:

Remember that this is one way only …. Christmas on the beach in Sydney could cause you issues later if you need to get back for work in January!

The seats may do also show if you try other connecting points to London. However, one benefit of Inverness is that there is no Air Passenger Duty to pay which is why the taxes and charges number is so low.

PS. If you want to know why this is happening …. the extra seats in Business Class made available to British Airways Premium Plus American Express cardholders are triggered when roughly 8-10 heavily discounted tickets are available for cash. BA is not discounting this route for cash from London (it thinks there are people around who will pay more) but IS discounting it from other starting points – assuming you call £2,500 each way to be ‘discounted’. This is why the extra seats do not appear when searching from London.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (54)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Ryan says:
    18 Nov18 November 13:38

    Why is it only from INV?

    • Rob says:
      18 Nov18 November 13:48

      Manchester works too, see other comment.

      It’s because BA is selling cheaper I-class cash tickets from Inverness, Manchester etc but NOT from London, where people will pay more.

  • will says:
    18 Nov18 November 13:47

    Managed to book Manchester to Sydney for 4 of us!
    Just need to hack a route home now.

    Many thanks

    • NorthernLass says:
      18 Nov18 November 14:34

      Could be interesting! Are there any options using avios of returning via the US, e.g. SYD-LAX-UK? I can’t think whether LAX-UK would work as an open jaw with the other half of a 241 but there is plenty of ordinary avios availability for January.

      • NorthernLass says:
        18 Nov18 November 14:37

        Also, did you use 2 vouchers (the article says you can’t add 3rd or 4th person to the same booking)?

        • Rob says:
          18 Nov18 November 14:39

          You can do 4 with 2 vouchers.

        • will says:
          18 Nov18 November 15:40

          Used 2 vouchers, slight quirk being one is an infant so classified me as a solo traveler for a 50% avios discount.

          Not the best use of the voucher as a one way but tickets to that part of the world seem to be very hard to come by this year.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      18 Nov18 November 16:36

      Will – I see availability back in club on 10/1, 11/1, 15/1, 16/1, 17/1, and 18/1 to MAN.

      • will says:
        18 Nov18 November 17:51

        Thanks a lot, it is a pain when you’ve used your vouchers one way and now cannot see the return availability.

  • Chris L says:
    18 Nov18 November 14:35

    Edinburgh and Glasgow also showing as available.

  • BlueThroughCrimp says:
    18 Nov18 November 15:12

    Quite a few F redemptions appeared to have been loaded for February/March on Wednesday too.

  • Lady London says:
    18 Nov18 November 15:34

    BA sent me a marketing email earlier this week reminding me that the BA 241 voucher on the BA Amex can now be used just for one person on a return trip and is no longer required to be used for 2 people travelling.

    I interpreted that BA may be getting rattled by the competitive threat of the more flexible voucher available from Barclaycard, which is perfect for a solo traveller, which is something BA has till now refused to do for years despite feedback.

    Perhaps putting up a few more avios seats in a highly restricted way on the most sought-after avios ticket route , available to use with the BA voucher, is BA making another effort to compete?

    I’d also suggest to take a look starting at other destinations (does the BA voucher allow this?) and not just UK starting points just in case it’s working for any other married segments, or belfast or jer

    • meta says:
      18 Nov18 November 15:53

      With the new voucher you can start anywhere. No APD and lower taxes from some destinations, although not from Hong Kong anymore. I don’t get why people here still continue to complain about high surcharges. If you have two 241 vouchers just nest two separate open-jaw trips so they align. This is very easy to do with no fuss at all.

      Using one voucher for two trips is another matter… it’s complicated and involves a lot of thinking, but doable too

      • Scott says:
        18 Nov18 November 16:42

        Re “I don’t get why people here still continue to complain” – can you really not understand why many people might not be happy? If your preferred destination is US and you previously paid an already very high (for what’s supposed to be a ‘reward’ flight) £600 per person surcharge, and that’s now more like £900, can’t you empathise with people who find that too costly? Most people don’t have multiple vouchers; most people don’t want/can’t commit/can’t afford to book multiple nested holidays at the same time; most people want to go where they want to go, not where there happens to be cheap availability; most people don’t want the additional cost/time/hassle of flying and staying over in a third country before starting their holiday. Do you believe that everyone thinks the same way as you, that everyone wants to experience their holiday in the same way you do?

        • BlueThroughCrimp says:
          18 Nov18 November 16:52

          The points game has always been about flexibility.
          Nothings changed. Just need a bit more.

        • meta says:
          18 Nov18 November 17:30

          Half of the things you mentioned are not true.

          You don’t need to stay in a third country to do nested vouchers. You can start all your holidays in London and nest the vouchers. The two holidays don’t have to be in the same year either.

          If you are collecting BAPP voucher it will be valid for two years anyway and you can collect another within next 12 months so you can plan two holidays over three years.

          And no I cannot see why people complain if there are easy options and people don’t want to think of them.

        • KevinS says:
          18 Nov18 November 19:14

          I get all of that but I think if someone doesn’t like BA then they should use other options.

          There’s generally another option. I live near Heathrow and only fly BA when it’s the best (not necessarily cheapest) option. There’s other airlines to choose from.

      • Max says:
        18 Nov18 November 17:29

        What does it mean to nest open-jaw tickets?

        • Rob says:
          18 Nov18 November 19:19

          Let’s assume you travel to Paris monthly.

          First trip you book as a return, with the return leg 11 months away. To come home, you book a ticket starting Paris, going Paris – London – Paris, with the return being used to start your next trip. Rinse and repeat. This makes sense if Paris – London return is a lot cheaper than London – Paris return.

          • meta says:
            19 Nov19 November 00:35

            Paris is a bit simplistic as RFS, so cost will always be the same. It works well on long-haul to Asia, South America, Africa, but in generally not to the US.

    • Rob says:
      18 Nov18 November 15:55

      I agree. I get a sneaky feeling the same will apply to other routes at certain times, especially from outside the UK where may BA may discount for locals.

      EDIT: Just had a dig and it works. This is big. As long as you start outside London, the difference in availability is huge – literally jumps from zero to 9+.

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:
        18 Nov18 November 16:12

        Wish I could edit a comment. That would be big.

      • riku says:
        18 Nov18 November 17:00

        >>As long as you start outside London, the difference in availability is huge

        This concept is known as “married segments” and has been used by airlines for a long time, perhaps now also for redemptions

        • JDB says:
          18 Nov18 November 17:06

          Iberia has done this for redemptions for a while; very useful for late bookings.

        • Rob says:
          18 Nov18 November 17:17

          This isn’t about married segments, or it would work without a new 241.

          The extra availability is triggered by a level of I-class cash ticket availability. BA will be making I-class available for certain Points of Sale outside London.

          • will says:
            18 Nov18 November 17:52

            I’ve seen it recently too as a Gold, EG LHR to dubai no tickets, MAN-dubai and you see the extra economy seats that only golds get loaded onto the route.

      • Lady London says:
        18 Nov18 November 18:19

        Has solidly been the case for award tix in short haul on BA in the past. For years and years. eg Par to Lon – no avios seats available. But Par to Man – available.

        BA is just making seats of the required class available to holders of the Amex card they earn a % from every time a cardholder spends on it. And, as Rob says, only married segments, at least which have a routing through London, as BA will have few to none routing through anywhere else.

        @SamG will have an advantage here, as might the resourceful @lumma, as the thing with married segments is that they must ‘have a fare’ published for that specific start and end point (eg Man to Par has to have a ‘published fare’ by BA), otherwise they don’t exist.

      • Lady London says:
        18 Nov18 November 18:51

        Could be “big” spelt “bug” too I suppose

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:
    18 Nov18 November 16:20

    Manchester – Singapore available in Business every day in August using the new style voucher. Return is more spotty but is there.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      18 Nov18 November 16:26

      Christmas/New Year from Manchester > Dubai or Manchester > Cape Town also wide open. I suspect same is true if you replace Manchester with another regional departure point.

  • Lady London says:
    18 Nov18 November 17:54

    So what class(es) does the Barclaycard voucher book into?

  • John H says:
    18 Nov18 November 18:07

    This is Effing huge !!

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