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Hi,
I’m planning to book a BA open jaw for 3 using a 1 x companion voucher, annoyingly now understand can’t use 2 voucher for 3, but that’s another story. We want to do LHR – MEX and return CUN – LGW. The return flight is more date and route critical as we could vary the outbound date or route to one of the Texas routes if necessary. As the return is more critical can I book a one way CUN – LGW as soon as they release, then call BA to add the outbound flight on with the companion voucher or is this going to effectively cost me more avios than doing it all at the same time. I don’t quite have enough avios to book both legs when the critical returns are released but should have with a month or so. My understanding is the open jaw booking should be 140k avios in all but worried if I do it separately it’s going to cost me 105k for the returns and 70k for the out bound (175k in total) Sorry for the long drawn out question, hoping the answer is simpler. Many Thanks
It seems as though you are over one misconception about using a voucher, only to hit another.
Initially it isn’t the cost you need to worry about but the fact that you can’t book the return part of a 241 first.
There won’t be any overall difference in cost if you book the 241 in one go, or call to add the return later.You need to read the articles and threads on all this, there’s loads of information in those in respect of what you’re trying to do.
I still have doubts about whether BA will allow you to add an outbound leg when the inbound has already been booked, people have posted about being refused this previously, although some things with BA are definitely dependent on the agent you get!
They won’t apply a companion voucher to a booking you’ve already made (booking the return is different).
Agree with @NorthernLass that you might get an agent who would do this, but you definitely shouldn’t be relying on it. No way would I be planning a trip around this.
Have I understood correctly that you won’t have enough avios to book both flights so want to lock in the important one first? Is that the reason for wanting to book the return first?
Do you have any avios to “boost”? At the moment that seems to be the cheapest way of adding to your stack quickly.
Edit: and yes, read the threads!Hi,
or route to one of the Texas routes if necessary.
Not sure what you mean by this but if it’s say fly BA to say DFW then AA to CUN then that’s not possible using the 2-4-1. That leg would have to be on a separate ticket with all the attendant risks.
And it needs saying again that when you book the outbound and inbound separately the bookings aren’t added together or merged – you have two separate bookings.
Thanks for the replies. With a boost may be able to scrape an off peak outbound which isn’t a day which we’d fly but if booking a return first isn’t a reliable option I may look to book the outbound on an off peak day and pay the £35 each to change it to the actual day we want when I’ve sorted the avios (assuming I can do that).
You’ve also got the option to use fewer avios and more cash on the booking, but you’d need to do the sums and decide if that would make sense.
Also, this is going to be an open jaw booking so will require a call to BA to book, so you need to plan your strategy if you want to bag the inbound seats at midnight. If you don’t have enough avios to book the inbound at full price then ask for half to be refunded, you’ll need to be on the phone at the crucial time – see the “booking the return with the 241” thread for this.
One more thing, though – SeatSpy is showing good economy availability from CUN in July and August so far, so unless you’re totally inflexible with the return date I think this might be easier than you’re anticipating.
As a last resort, if all the seats do go, it should be fairly easy to get connecting flights to MIA or another US city and return from there.
@sr1985 “I may look to book the outbound on an off peak day and pay the £35 each to change it to the actual day we want when I’ve sorted the avios (assuming I can do that).”
You will only be able to change if there are redemption seats available on a chosen date. I know you’ve said you are happy to do an outbound to DFW etc.but this plan of a date change is not automatic.
We are here to help, but I urge you to spend time reading Rob’s articles, tbe avios university series etc.You need to read the articles and threads on all this, there’s loads of information in those in respect of what you’re trying to do.
I still have doubts about whether BA will allow you to add an outbound leg when the inbound has already been booked, people have posted about being refused this previously, although some things with BA are definitely dependent on the agent you get!
They won’t apply a companion voucher to a booking you’ve already made (booking the return is different).
A BA agent is almost certainly not going to be able to add an additional sector onto a booking that predates the first sector on the booking if it has already been ticketed, the system just won’t let them rearrange the order of the sectors.
There seem to be some strange perceptions around how these vouchers work, no idea where these are being perpetuated from.
That’s my current understanding, however someone asked this on the chat thread a couple of days ago and there was a dissenting voice!
Actually, if the two legs were booked separately, I think it would in theory be possible for an agent to manually refund the 50% avios, regardless of when each sector was booked, because they will be on 2 separate PNRs. But as @zio says, it’s not something you’d want to rely on.
You need to read the articles and threads on all this, there’s loads of information in those in respect of what you’re trying to do.
I still have doubts about whether BA will allow you to add an outbound leg when the inbound has already been booked, people have posted about being refused this previously, although some things with BA are definitely dependent on the agent you get!
They won’t apply a companion voucher to a booking you’ve already made (booking the return is different).
A BA agent is almost certainly not going to be able to add an additional sector onto a booking that predates the first sector on the booking if it has already been ticketed, the system just won’t let them rearrange the order of the sectors.
There seem to be some strange perceptions around how these vouchers work, no idea where these are being perpetuated from.
@e14 – the pre-dating issue isn’t an obstacle. The more common example that demonstrates this is someone booking a long haul flight and then calling to add a domestic sector to connect on to that long haul.
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