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I’m usually the one among family/friends giving credit card advice, but this time I’ve let a 2-4-1 voucher expiry creep up on me – for some reason I had it in my head that I had to book something before the expiry, whereas of course you need to have flown outbound before. My voucher expires Jun 24 whereas I want to book a big trip for Jan 25. It looks like I’ll have to “waste” this current one and then target another voucher in the next few months.
So a couple of quick questions:
1) Has anyone ever had success with Amex extending the expiry? I’ve already cancelled the associated BAPP, but do still hold a Platinum.
2) Both me and my wife have held some form of Amex BA credit card within the last 2 years, and so neither qualify for the sign-up bonus. I also understand that the old sign-up to BAPP and downgrade for a pro-rata refund no longer applies? Therefore no use in trying to rush through £10K of spend quickly on a new card then downgrading.
3) If so, what is the collective wisdom on “triggering” the new-style voucher? I’m thinking more cash-flow here, as I’d rather not pay the £250 membership fee right now. Do I sign up for the free card, reach £10K spend, and then suck-up the membership fee for the upgrade?
Many thanks as always!
@squawk7700 – I think there is zero prospect of getting the voucher extended. In respect of downgrading from the BAPP to the free card, we don’t know yet. While there will be no pro-rata refund for cancellations from 2 October, when that rule was introduced in the US, they did and still do offer pro-rata refunds on downgrade and there is nothing in the new UK terms to exclude this, but time will tell. It would appear they are getting a bit funnier about this being done on a regular basis.
Could you use the 241 for an outbound flight before the expiry date and then use it for the inbound in Jan 25 (subject to open jaw rules)? You could consider getting the Barclays avios card and triggering the upgrade voucher for your outbound leg in Jan 25, and look for an alternative way to get home from the first trip. I’m planning to do this at some point with a combination of 241, Barclays and Virgin vouchers.
Wasn’t there talk previously of doing LHR-CDG one way in one month, then do LHR-SIN return few months later with 241?!
There may have been, however that would breach the open-jaw rules.
There may have been, however that would breach the open-jaw rules.
I think the OP must have meant CDG-LHR such that there is no breach of the open jaw rules (and the post was actually a breach of the doubling back rules) as the ‘surface’ sector is London to Paris and the pax might as well tack on the LHR-CDG anyway but CDG-LHR-SIN-LHR is fine on its own as a device for effectively extending the voucher. The pax does of course need to fly that first leg before expiry of the voucher, but then has a year of ticket validity to complete the rest.
Well that’s interesting – I assumed that the eventual destination counted as the outbound leg and therefore you’d have to get there by the expiry date.
Very interesting!
Are you suggesting I could hop on a simple MAN-LHR (or CDG-LHR) before expiry June 24, then tag on a LHR-JFK (for example) the following Jan 25?
I just did a dummy MAN-LHR in June 24 followed by LHR-JFK in July 24 and the BA website says “outbound travel must be before the voucher expiry date”.
I do however have a FNC-LHR RFS booking in November of this year and am wondering whether I could retrospectively apply the voucher to that booking and then keep it active for a tag-on long haul trip later next year.
As a slight aside, is it still the £35 admin fee per person to phone and book a reward trip with the voucher that’s not possible to book online?
Very interesting!
Are you suggesting I could hop on a simple MAN-LHR (or CDG-LHR) before expiry June 24, then tag on a LHR-JFK (for example) the following Jan 25?
I just did a dummy MAN-LHR in June 24 followed by LHR-JFK in July 24 and the BA website says “outbound travel must be before the voucher expiry date”.
I do however have a FNC-LHR RFS booking in November of this year and am wondering whether I could retrospectively apply the voucher to that booking and then keep it active for a tag-on long haul trip later next year.
As a slight aside, is it still the £35 admin fee per person to phone and book a reward trip with the voucher that’s not possible to book online?
I know this has been done recently (starting in Nice before expiry and on to Tokyo after expiry) when an extension on compassionate grounds was refused. I’m not entirely surprised that it doesn’t work on a domestic. People will be wanting to do this particularly if trying to squeeze two trips out of one voucher. I’m not sure how enthusiastic BA will be about these sort of things, so it may not last although the new style vouchers are still relatively new and first ones only just coming up to expiry. One aspect of introducing RFS was to discourage some of the ex-EU bookings that various people here remarked had been noticed by BA telephone staff so they do watch these things. .
I do however have a FNC-LHR RFS booking in November of this year and am wondering whether I could retrospectively apply the voucher to that booking and then keep it active for a tag-on long haul trip later next year.
Unfortunately you cannot apply a 2-4-1 retrospectively to an existing booking.
Can you not book an out bound trip departing by June 2024 with the inbound after Jan 25 and then use a second voucher booking in the other direction in Jul 24 returning in Jun25?
That way you get two trips.
Otherwise just use tge 2-4-1 expiring in Jun 24 to go somewhere in Europe? Better than just letting it lapse.
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