Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Can you cancel the return leg of an Avios redemption after flying outbound?

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

I thought it was worth digging out an interesting story which we first ran a couple of years ago and which highlights a quirk when it comes to cancelling Avios reward flights.

A reader had flown to Australia with his girlfriend for an extended trip.  They decided to stay for an even longer period and no longer needed their return flight.

The couple had paid 250,000 Avios for a Club World redemption to Sydney, using a British Airways American Express 241 voucher.

Can you cancel the return leg of an Avios redemption flight after flying outbound?

Don’t ask how he managed to snag the seats, given how tough Sydney is to get.  He didn’t say!

The outbound had been flown.  They wanted to cancel the return flight and get 125,000 Avios back.  The BA agent said ‘No’.

Was this correct?

My first thought was that the call centre agent was wrong.

You can definitely CHANGE the date or time of your return Avios flight after the outbound has been flown.  I have done this myself.  It is a handy feature if a better-timed flight opens up at the last minute, or your trip is going very well or very badly.

It seemed logical to me that full cancellation would also be possible.  I was wrong.

You cannot CANCEL the return leg of an Avios ticket, after the outbound has been flown, for a refund.

One reason you may need to cancel – apart from if you decide not to return at all! – is if you want to change dates but there is no Avios availability. In such a scenario you may decide to pay cash for a return ticket on a different date and refund your existing Avios return leg, or use miles via a different loyalty programme.

Can you cancel one way Avios redemptions

When should you book an Avios flight as a return trip?

It’s not really clear! All of my short haul Avios travel is now booked as separate one way tickets.

This means that changing a flight is easy. If a better timed inbound or outbound flight opens up, I can simply make a new booking for that leg and cancel the original flight online.

As for other possible reasons for not booking your trips as one-way flights:

  • you don’t book a return flight to save on cancellation fees, since BA appears to be keeping cancellation fees – at least on short haul – at 50p per person for now (this only applies to BA redemptions, not partner flights, and note that this could end at any point – the T&C still say that Avios cancellations are £35 per person)
  • you don’t need to do it if you are using a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 companion voucher – it is now possible to book each leg separately although the process is fiddly as I explain below
  • you don’t need to do it because surcharges are higher when booking 2 x one-way tickets, because this no longer the case unless you are booking First Class

Booking two x one-ways flights can even save money

Booking a trip as two x one-ways can, in some cities, also save you a substantial amount of money.

Sao Paulo and Hong Kong are two cities where local rules on surcharges should make two x one-way tickets cheaper than a return. This still applies despite the launch of Reward Flight Saver.

Here is a one way Club World flight from Hong Kong to London for example, with just £36 of taxes and charges:

Low Avios taxes from Hong Kong

How can you use a 2-4-1 voucher whilst still booking each leg separately?

If you want full flexibility to cancel the return leg of a flight booked with a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher, this is what you do.

You book the outbound leg as a one-way flight, using your 2-4-1 voucher.

You book the return leg separately, paying the full Avios cost. This requires you to have enough Avios in your account to do this.

You call British Airways Executive Club and ask for half of the Avios for the return flight to be returned to you. This will be done without a problem. Note that BA will charge a £35 per person amendment fee for doing this unless you are booking right at the edge of the window, at 355 days before departure.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (111)

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

  • Matt says:
    12 Jun12 June 09:31

    I was unaware you got charged £35 per person if you book the 2nd leg separately with reward flight in full and then ask for your Companion voucher to be reduce the Avios via a phone call later.

    I may just scrape this year’s voucher to book turkey next year at school holidays so was going to do T-355 for both legs and then simply call BA when they open on T-355 to apply my CV to the 2nd leg.

    If I then get charged £35 per person (x3 of going) then it wipes the value of the CV out in zone 3 redemptions.

    Anyone got experience of doing this.

    • Rob says:
      12 Jun12 June 10:22

      £35 is the call centre change fee, so clearly you should pay it. However, if you do it at 355 days before travel then they waive it, in the same way that they waive the £35 fee if you call to add the return to an existing 241 outbound – but ONLY if done at 355 days before travel.

      • Owen says:
        12 Jun12 June 10:32

        Sorry, new to 241 vouchers. If I book a one way 355 days before outbound, then call to add a return to it 355 days before the return flight, would I be able to use to 241 right away or would I need to pay full Avios for both tickets then ask for the refund? Asking because I probably won’t have enough Avios for both flights at that time…

        • Rob says:
          12 Jun12 June 10:44

          You DON’T need extra Avios if you want to add the return to the outbound ticket.

          You only need ‘extra’ Avios if you want to keep the return flight on a separate ticket and have the call centre refund 50% of the Avios to you after booking the flight online.

      • Russell G says:
        12 Jun12 June 10:47

        I’ve spoken to the call centre about this before. The official rule is you don’t have to pay the £35 fee if the return leg is unavailable at the point you book the outbound. So it’s actually a tiny bit more lenient than 355 days exactly.

        • Rob says:
          12 Jun12 June 10:51

          I meant 355 days on the return – it wouldn’t make sense otherwise, unless you were booking a day trip!

          However, if by ‘unavailable’ you mean ‘all the Avios seats were booked up but six months later they released some more so I tried to do it then’ you’ll find you pay the £35.

          • OxfordDoc says:
            12 Jun12 June 16:45

            Not sure this is completely true now. I’ve been asked to pay the call centre fee twice now when booking with the US office 355 days out for the outbound flight (‘as it can technically be booked online right now’).

          • Russell G says:
            13 Jun13 June 14:41

            Nah, by unavailable I mean that the inbound is more than 355 days out when you book the outbound. So it doesn’t necessarily mean a day trip. For example, if (for some reason) you book an outbound in 343 days time, you then wait 341 days and decide to add an inbound that is 13 or more days after your outbound, then no fee should be charged as the inbound flight seats were not on sale at the time you booked the outbound. This is how one of the most clued up BA call centre guys I’ve spoken with explained it to me anyway. However, I’ve also had the situation that OxfordDoc described where they try and charge you fees anyway. I find that calling during UK opening hours generally gives you a higher chance at being put through to someone who knows the system like the back of their hand rather than a “computer says no” bod. Still, afaik, these are all private rules and aren’t in any public T+Cs anywhere right?

  • Richard says:
    12 Jun12 June 09:47

    Can I just clarify this as I have never done it before. If you book the outbound on a 241 you then make a whole new one way booking for the return sector and contact BA (via X seems easy) and then they will refund you 50% of the Avios paid but the outbound and inbound remain as two independent bookings so the return can be easily cancelled until 24hrs before departure and you get a full refund! I thought the inbound got merged in to the outbound PNR so it all stayed on one booking.

    • Mark says:
      12 Jun12 June 10:00

      No, they are not merged. They will link them so that staff can see they are part of the same trip, but in practice that probably means very little. The downside is you could end up paying double cancellation / change fees (unless on short haul and you get away with only paying 50p) and the other potential issues noted in the comments immediately above.

  • P4D says:
    12 Jun12 June 10:01

    Note that Barclays upgrade voucher flights must depart from the UK. This is one reason I’ve been forced to book return. Otherwise (given low cancellation fee) I book short haul legs separately

    • Mark says:
      12 Jun12 June 11:06

      The unanswered question is whether you could book the return separately (having already used the voucher one-way for one person on the outbound) and then call afterwards for a refund of difference in Avios between the booked and next lowest cabins on the return , in a similar way someone requesting a 50% Avios for an Amex 2for1 booking.

  • dinagray says:
    12 Jun12 June 10:18

    Interesting that this is today’s topic as this affected me on Friday. I had an outbound and inbound flight booked from Heathrow to Faro in November. On Thursday BA cancelled the inbound flight to Heathrow and moved it to Gatwick. I called to be told that I couldn’t change the outbound flight as it was a separate booking, unless I wanted to pay £120. The call centre agent was very unhelpful. So I had to cancel the outbound flight from Heathrow and rebook from Gatwick – fortunately there was still availability.
    BTW the call agent never suggested I do this, just wanted to charge me for her to do it!

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      12 Jun12 June 15:50

      And the agent was absolutely correct.

      You have two separate bookings and they remain separate.

      If you wanted to change the ex LHR flight to be ex LGW then you would indeed be charged the change fee.

      That you can cancel the ex LHR for minimal cost is a feature of using avios.

  • Steve says:
    12 Jun12 June 11:03

    Took out a AMEX card to utilise the Avios points, i now have over 100k and companion voucher, i wish to fly to Japan in March (ish) next year but im finding almost impossible to find a flight on the BA website ( check availability then no availability) only three days search. i try another method but Return comes up max three days later, are BA making it almost impossible to aim these flights?
    Also we wish to fly into Japan but come back thru either Sth Korea or Philippines is this possible? many thanks in advance.

    • Rob says:
      12 Jun12 June 11:08

      On BA, no, because it doesn’t fly to Korea or the Philippines.

      To be honest, if you think you can book super-super-peak season Avios tickets to Japan without booking 355 days out (or at very short notice) then you’re mistaken.

      Do what we did five years ago. Fly out to Hong Kong or China (China is VERY easy for redemption seats), do a few days there, transfer into Japan on JAL / Cathay using Avios and then come back via somewhere else, using JAL / Cathay / Malaysia etc to get out of Japan.

      Qatar is likely to open up more seats as they go along, as they tend to release Avios seats in waves, but clearly you’re taking a risk waiting for that.

    • Alan says:
      12 Jun12 June 11:09

      That I believe is callled open jaw and you have to call to book. It’s ok as long as the distance between the 2 non uk airports is less than the distance from uk to both of them.

      Some destinations reward availability can see on day of release. Some can be released later, but when…..

    • Mark says:
      12 Jun12 June 11:13

      You can only use the voucher on BA, Iberia or Aer Lingus flights (so South Korea and Philippines are not currently possible). Standard redemption availability for Japan for next March will be long gone. Which Amex card did you earn the voucher on (Blue or Premium Plus), and which cabin are you looking to book?

  • BJ says:
    12 Jun12 June 11:21

    You mean you redeemed on AY via AY+ and picked seats at time of booking or you redeemed on AY via BAEC and then selected seats via AY MMB? If the former then thanks for tip, if the latter did you select middle pairs or window solo? I believe you are supposedly able to select middle pairs for free but in my last booking all were priced as free but I couldn’t select any. Hopefully that was just a gremlin that’s subsequently been fixed.

  • Domo1915 says:
    12 Jun12 June 11:23

    How it’s 50p to cancel and not the £35 per person. When you pay most cash option. I’ve definitely been charged 35 historically.

  • Charlie says:
    12 Jun12 June 12:56

    You may also want to book a return to get a higher baggage allowance for the whole trip if either the outbound or return is in a different class

    • Mark says:
      12 Jun12 June 13:31

      I know that used to be the case but thought it no longer applied. Do you still get the higher allowance for the lower class sectors in that case?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      12 Jun12 June 15:56

      That is no longer the case and has been for several years.

      You get the allowance applicable to the cabin class of the individual flights

      The only exception would be if there is a connection on a lower class in which case the highest allowance does apply but it doesn’t roll over to any other flights on the booking,

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!