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Is it possible to create a booking where the long haul leg is with an Amex companion voucher, but the itinerary includes a further connecting flight? Now that Alaska is part of One World, some interesting destinations in the USA have become available, but I don’t want to create two separate bookings in case the schedules change and I’m left needing to reorganise the second flight.
I’m imagining something like LHE-SEA with a voucher, connecting to a smaller town in the Rockies like Boise, Bozeman or Jackson. I appreciate that the voucher couldn’t be used for the second leg.
I’m imagining something like LHE-SEA with a voucher
Sadly BA will not allow this. You cannot use your companion voucher for part of an award where any part of it is on a non-BA flight. This is a real shame for the more imaginative miles collector.
I’ve had a to ‘risk it’ with unprotected onward connections in the past. It’s never gone wrong, but it did get very tight once, with a complete family in tow. We were HBO which helped, and through BKK which is well set up for this kind of connection, but it was a little stressful.
I’m planning a dicey connection off a UK-origin redemption, through SEA as it happens, in a few weeks. Virgin (+upgrade voucher) -> Alaskan. I’ll be travelling solo so there’s no-one to get upset except me if it goes wrong, and I have a decent, but inconvenient plan B.
Depends on your time available but you could plan to stay overnight at the first entry point (eg SEA) which removes a lot of the angst on arrival. Even if travelling on the same ticket, you have to retrieve your luggage and go through immigration and customs at your first point of entry in the US, so staying overnight (or a couple of days as part of your trip) reduces the anxiety waiting in the immigration line.
As above, I would build in a mini-break at your first destination.
Thanks for the relies, even if I don’t like the answer.
I suppose that the alternative is to be willing to cancel if things don’t turn out, as Avios concellation fees aren’t huge. I could even book a couple of routing options as a fallback and cancel the less preferred option a few days ahead.
All theoretically possible, however at the moment you are stuck with the cancellations options of getting a voucher online or trying to get through to BA on the phone for a refund. (Twitter responses are taking about a week atm). It’s not clear how long this ridiculous situation is going to last, but BA doesn’t seem in any hurry to do anything about it, despite what Mr Doyle says!
Hello – somewhat of a thread resurrection and I’ve read the recent AA related US domestic threads too which are related to my query.
So.. we successfully booked 4 x CW using 2 Companion Vouchers to travel over Christmas to visit relatives in NYC.
The relatives are looking at relocating further south (NC/SC) within the next few months as they’re fed up of the weather and it looks like the closest Intl airport to them will be Charlotte which is served by 3 x AA flights daily.
Booking 4 x Biz class AA with Avios via BA.com only shows up flights with connections and charges something like 800k Avios & £4k (scary!) with no option to get on to those direct AA services at all.
Are BA agents allowed to add on an AA domestic connection on to BA reward bookings or is this impossible (ie confirming above thread albeit time has passed and policies may have changed?). Or do I book via BA.com using Avios as a separate booking albeit allowing sufficient time between flights to avoid missing any connections (66k Avios plus £35 for four of us!).
Bit bummed out by the schedule changing after having booked us all on the 4 x CW reward seats, but we did it knowing they were fully flexible so all is not lost. It may just be we need to spend time in a hotel at either leg of the trip to avoid any missed flights but it is what it is.
Thanks so much for your advice!
Even if you could add sectors to an existing booking, you couldn’t do it on your existing booking as your 241s cannot be used on AA metal. You could however change your existing booking to somewhere closer with availability, like Atlanta. Of course that depends on the likelihood of them actually moving!
@ukpolak – have you looked at LGA-CLT on AA? You don’t need to be in business class on a domestic hop, should be 8250 avios plus $6 each way. Multiple services per day.
Of course, availability may not be great over Xmas, though IME lots of seats tend to re-appear nearer to travel dates as Americans tend to do a lot of speculative booking due to the low taxes.
Many thanks for both responses – very helpful.
On the outbound, we arrive at EWR at 21:45 (they currently live in north east PA so a 90 min drive from EWR) and I guess from the above and the other US connection threads, if we retain the LHR-EWR club flights then it would make sense to have hotel accommodation that night before a connection to CLT the following day. Trapsing across NYC to either of JFK or LGA won’t be much fun but that’s life I suppose. Top tip for waiting to book until closer the time too – never realised this.
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