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Hi all, so I have 2 outbound LHR-JNB club seats booked on a 2-4-1, and a seat spy alert set for return seats hoping they open up… looking for best option to get returns IF they open.
A; phone and try and get through and add to booking
B: cancel original booking online, hope seats reappear as available, or even better, more outbound availablity opens too, and 241 reappears nearly instantly, rebook whole online as normal, swallow the £70 fee
C: book returns online separately, I have enough Avios, then call to combine bookings and refund extra Avios.C would seem most reliable route given present issues calling BA. Any other options anyone could suggest?
Have you priced up C to see what the tax/surcharge differential is on two singles Vs a return?
If not cost prohibitive then C is your best bet, else A (call Japan or Singapore in the middle of the night). No other secret tips I can think of.
B. You still can’t cancel online, you’d need to call BA to do this.
C. This is what I would do, unless the return attracted excessive surcharges as in US bookings. You can get the avios refunded via Twitter (v slowly), but BA doesn’t combine bookings so you’d be left with 2 separate ones – this doesn’t have to be a problem though, I do it quite a lot.Thanks, C it will be, if any seats get released…
Will BA charge £35 for adding return leg by calling?
No, they won’t charge if it couldn’t have been booked online, or couldn’t be booked at the time of the original booking.
I did this recently ,called at around 3pm on Sunday , I’d miscalculated days and thought the flights were released the next day, cue panic when I realised they’d been released and 2 had already been taken!. I called 0207 949 3086, all completed in 20 mins which included waiting time and exploring a few hotel options too. I know I’ve probably just been very lucky but every time I’ve called this number (about 4-5 times) I’ve never been on hold more than 10 minutes . Flights were ticketed this morning.
Can WTP bookings be upgraded online with Avios? If so you could see if there is WTP availability, book that via the call centre and then if CW appears do it online. Of course WTP redemptions are rare too, but at least you’d have seats that were not economy
I’m in a similar situation but I am restricted to Option A. I’ve booked outbound leg to Far East for 2 CW seats using enhanced 241 availability. My question is when I phone up at silly o’clock T-355 to add the return flight will the agent know that I have/had the enhanced voucher and therefore extra availability will be shown or will he/she just see the (probably) 2 CW reward seats that might have been nabbed by someone minutes before? A first world problem I know but I daren’t risk waiting til 8am to find out the hard way! Any advice welcome
There’s no guarantee of extra availability on your route – how many seats were showing for your outbound?
My flight outbound is fast approaching, and no sign of any extra availability return yet, so have booked a cash return in case, but just now wondering if I should add an Avios return for a years time so if availability appears whilst away I could change dates of the return, as I presume once the outbound is flown with no inbound booked I could not add it? Risk is I believe the return is only changeable not refundable after outbound is flown….
Northern Lass – I seem to recall that when I clicked on the Business seats ‘button’, it turned green and I booked the outbound leg. I did not see any specific numbers of seats on view. I booked it mid afternoon on the day of release as I had been monitoring the week leading up to it doing dummy ‘what ifs’ using my enhanced 241. Looks like it will be a 0100 call with my lucky rabbit’s foot for my chosen return date then! Thanks anyway.
Further to my 21st & 23rd February posts about adding return leg for 2 ppl, now it can be told! Having phoned BAEC Japan at 0001hrs (UK) 0901hrs (Japan) I saw 4 CW reward seats available, so far so good. Phone answered 30 mins later by which time 3 of the 4 seats had disappeared – this was confirmed by the agent (tried to be a brave boy). Tried again the next night and the 4 had disappeared as soon as the clock went past 0001hrs. This was for BKK btw.
To cut a long story short, looked at going SQ Business, cost reasonable but increased by £1000 24hrs after looking online (demand? fuel increase? who knows). Looked at going AY both ways and dumping BA one way booked but eventually opted to keep BA one way outbound and purchasing AY one way BKK-HEL-LHR. Hopefully will be able to experience the new Business seat as both legs are the A350-900.
I’m getting too old for this ‘adding 2nd leg at midnight’ nonsense. I’ve been lucky over the years with BA LHR-JNB-LHR (3 times) but BKK defeated me. As I said before, 1st (One) world problem given the situation 1200 miles to the East.
Is BKK one where you’d have to pay a lot more surcharges if you booked online? I’d do pretty much anything to avoid actually speaking to BA, so my redemptions are mainly ones where both legs are available or individual bookings to destinations where the surcharges inbound are reasonable. Then book the inbound online when it’s released and ask for the 50% avios back on Twitter.
I agree with you NL on your strategy but I’m never going to put myself through this nonsense again! Fed up with BA and chasing Avios for 241 redemptions. Still got 4 more BA flights booked to endure in the next year. Our last big long distance jaunt to NZ in 2024 will be SQ in F. Can’t wait 😁
It would seem taxes on flights for Joburg and Cape Town are the same. I managed to price up a CW return on that route at £1490 for 2 tickets whereas two one ways come in at £1615 so £125 more. I think for me £62.50 a ticket for the certainty of securing the seats is a price worth paying
Irony of ironies given my efforts as outlined above! My outbound LHR – BKK BA flight for February ’23 (obtained via a 2-4-1) will probably end up being cancelled judging by today’s news about BA and Bangkok for next winter. Hope to be re-routed onto QR or AY when they finally issue the cancellation email – heaven knows when THAT will be, probably the week before knowing my luck.
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