BA 241 – Booking inbound post RFS

[moonman]

I have new style BA 241 vouchers. 2 weeks ago before the RFS announcement I booked an outbound to Dubai at 355 days. I was wondering what my best approach was now:
– Should I cancel my outbound and rebook using RFS with the return? (Would my outbound flights go back in to the Avios pool?)
– Would I get RFS on the return if I just booked it separately? Presumably I can book online and ring up to get it linked to the 241 and get 50% refunded?
– Is there a material difference in approach or will I end up spending ages with agents in an attempt to save a few quid?

Thanks!

[marks7389]

So, I guess the first question is whether you’d rather keep the existing terms on the outbound booking. If you cancel it you risk losing the seats, but if you call them to add a return they may be able to / insist on repricing the outbound.

Assuming it is an off-peak booking, the options now include:

*80K avios+£175 (one way) / 160K avios+£350 (return) or
*50K avios+£358 (one-way) / 100K avios+£716 (return)

I’m assuming the latter is about what you originally paid… if so, you’re probably not going to loose anything but you have the option to save £732 across the two tickets for an extra 60K avios if you wish, and so obtain 1.22p/avios on them.

This is the same band as New York. Interestingly, although the base 160K avios+£350 is fixed for the band, the lower avios/higher cash differentials obviously vary by route, presumably to given an option that approximates to the previous pricing.

[marks7389]

Thinking about it, on the old pricing the outbound taxes and fees were probably more than half the return… In which you might want to see if you can get it repriced anyway since you’ll otherwise end up paying more than you originally expected even at the 100k Avios level.

[Magarathea]

I am interested in some of the cash pricing figures in this example for Dubai.

Two weeks ago, before the RFS announcement, I booked return seats using the “old style” 100k avios and cash of £715 per person option. Then in Rob’s RFS part 2 article, he listed the cash element for the 100k avios option as £853 before RFS and £850 after RFS. From this I saw an apparent increase in the cash element of £135 for return Dubai flights and like many others felt “stuffed” by BA for future bookings.

However, this thread above, I think, shows the cash element of the 100k avios reward flight at £716 comparable to what I paid 2 weeks ago. This price looks correct on ba.com on a dummy booking this evening.

I’m confused. Can Rob or anyone shed any light on the correct cash element for a Dubai 100k avios reward return flight going forward? Was the £850 figure in the Part 2 figure incorrect?

[marks7389]

Yes, that’s what I mean when I said the lower avios/higher cash differentials vary by route.

The £850 example you’ve quoted from Rob was for New York off-peak (and, it would appear, all the US and Canadian destinations in that band). The figures I quoted above are for Dubai off-peak (other Middle Eastern destinations in that band are also coming out at £716 off-peak).

The cash charges at the £160k avios level are the same (£350 in all cases), but the cash charges at the £100k avios level are not.

[Magarathea]

Thanks for your reply to my post which seems to confirm that the cash element for a 100k avios reward flight will be £716 with RFS pricing. I have checked the RFS part 2 article and in addition to the New York flights being £850, Rob also showed the Dubai flights to also be £850. Perhaps Rob can confirm that this was an error if he reads this. This completely changes my view on RFS pricing and I’m no longer feeling stuffed!

[marks7389]

I see what you mean… If it was £850 for Dubai when the changes first went in, it clearly no longer is!

[alexho]

I booked an outbound from LHR to SIN pre the RFS changes with a new 2 for 1. I called up this evening to add the return leg. The agent only offered the old Avios rate (87,500) and an addition of £580 of taxes for 2 persons. The return taxes come to around £800pp which would have been the pre RFS return rate, so having one way booked pre-RFS changes seems to at least lock in taxes if the inbound is added later.

[The real Swiss Tony]

Looks like this might be redundant but my experience – which tallies with that reported elsewhere – is that if you cancel an award seat which came from the initial inventory release (at 355 days or whenever the flight was loaded) it will consistently go back into the award bucket, regardless of how the rest of the flight inventory sits. Saw this with a booking for GCM in J (always difficult to get) and SZG at the start of Feb half term (ditto). When cancelled, they were available as awards again.

[ahmandrews]

alexho wrote:

I booked an outbound from LHR to SIN pre the RFS changes with a new 2 for 1. I called up this evening to add the return leg. The agent only offered the old Avios rate (87,500) and an addition of £580 of taxes for 2 persons. The return taxes come to around £800pp which would have been the pre RFS return rate, so having one way booked pre-RFS changes seems to at least lock in taxes if the inbound is added later.

I am jealous – We booked our inbound LHR to BGI and the agent charged us more Avios (as per new RFS) and more taxes?! Trying to sort this out now and it doesn’t seem like their agents are very helpful!

[Anna]

I booked MAN-LHR-NAS for next December when my outbound date was released the other day at T-355. I decided to stay as near to the old pricing as possible as that tends to fit both my avios and cash budget. I paid 62,500 avios plus £840 in surcharges. I can’t remember what I’ve paid previously when booking the same flight to GCM but the cash amount definitely isn’t higher. A dummy booking is showing that the nearest PE pricing on the return is 50k avios (peak) plus £520, my feeling is that that has gone up slightly for the cash element. But as this is a very expensive route and I’d expect cash prices to be £2k+ pp for CW out and PE back, an award booking still makes sense. I’ll be booking the inbound in a couple of weeks so it’ll be interesting to see if they will then refund the 50% avios without quibble.

[pelicanicecoffeeolaf]

alexho wrote:

I booked an outbound from LHR to SIN pre the RFS changes with a new 2 for 1. I called up this evening to add the return leg. The agent only offered the old Avios rate (87,500) and an addition of £580 of taxes for 2 persons. The return taxes come to around £800pp which would have been the pre RFS return rate, so having one way booked pre-RFS changes seems to at least lock in taxes if the inbound is added later.

Indeed, to add to this, I just called to see if I can change the inbound on my 241 booking to RFS (pay some more Avios, get some cash back). I was told the whole booking would have to be changed to RFS, they couldn’t change just a single flight, but besides, one of my outbound flights is in First which doesn’t allow RFS, so I couldn’t change the whole booking to RFS if I wanted to keep the flight in First, which I definitelyo do.