Booking a reward flight for my solo traveler wife

[tommorgan754]

Hi,

I hold all the Avios (+2 companion vouchers) and Amex Membership Points, both with plenty of points for the purpose of this discussion.

I am wanting to fly my wife and daughter (under 1 year) to Riyadh from Heathrow (I will already be there). Direct options are BA or Saudia, plenty of other options with 1+ stop but ideally want direct and premium/ business cabin.

In terms of booking a reward flight, I am assuming my best and only option is to transfer her the Avios to make the booking? And that the companion vouchers are redundant in this scenario as it would need to be me travelling with her?

I know this is a BA forum but I’m also assuming there are no ways to get membership points to Saudia?

I would be grateful if someone could confirm my assumptions are correct, if there are any avenues to look at that’d be much appreciated.

Tom

[ekposh]

You don’t have to transfer the Avios to her. You can set up a Household account by adding her membership to yours and then essentially redeem off that. You’re correct that vouchers are redundant.

If you have Amex points you should be able to transfer these to Virgin Flying Club and redeem those on Saudia.

[Reney]

you don’t have to set up a household account. You can just add her to friends and family list and book for her directly. per previous post you cannot use amex voucher. But if you have the Barclays one, you can.

If there are many opportunities in the future where your wife will travel alone with your daughter. You might want to consider whether she also earns some vouchers in her own name.

[marks7389]

If you’re not already in a household account I believe you can book redemptions from your account for anyone. That certainly used to be the case (though my knowledge of that dates back a while and potentially might have changed for security reasons).

If you are in a Household account then you’re restricted to booking for members of the household account or people on your friends and family list.

[AJA]

@marks7389 is right. You don’t need to add anyone to friend and family lists or create a HHA. And no need to transfer Avios to her BAEC.

You can simply book the reward flight from your own BAEC for anyone.That would have to be a BA flight.

You won’t be able to use the BA Companion Voucher as that needs the voucher holder on the booking.

As for points Saudia is a member of Skyteam so a cash booking could earn points in Virgin Atlantic or FlyingBlue. And conversely if you have enough points you could use them to book a reward seat if there is availability. Not sure if you can book online via Virgin or need to call.

[tommorgan754]

Fantastic thanks all- glad I asked!

I already transferred my wife’s Avios to me with the £50 fee last year.. good to know about family / friends account. Set up this morning!

[aq.1988]

As mentioned above, the direct options are BA or Saudia. For Saudia, you could transfer MR points to Virgin (I think there’s still a 30% transfer bonus), and book on the Virgin website.

IIRC, for 1x adult to Riyadh, it’s 60k Virgin points. For lap infant, I think it’s 10% points.

Virgin are also starting the route next year fromm March 30th, so if you’re planning for after that, VS is also an option.

[aq.1988]

aq.1988 wrote:

As mentioned above, the direct options are BA or Saudia. For Saudia, you could transfer MR points to Virgin (I think there’s still a 30% transfer bonus), and book on the Virgin website.

IIRC, for 1x adult to Riyadh, it’s 60k Virgin points. For lap infant, I think it’s 10% points.

Virgin are also starting the route next year fromm March 30th, so if you’re planning for after that, VS is also an option.

I should caveat my above point re Virgin Atlantic, just remembered they’re moving to dynamic pricing at the end of the month, so unless you book now, their prices might change, although not sure what it means for partner airlines.