The ‘How to book the return leg with 2-4-1 companion voucher’ thread

[jontys]

So I managed the holy grail – 4xCW seats London – Sydney return in the Easter hols next year. 1am calls secured it. I had a companion voucher and so did my wife and I was a nominee on her account. Being a nominee though doesn’t mean you can put both vouchers on the same booking. So given that, I would have made two separate bookings using my voucher and hers, but the operator was rightly nervous by the time we had grabbed the first 2 seats the second two would have gone. (Following so far?!) So I have ultimately only got half the use out of the companion vouchers. By spending more Avios than I had calculated for I’ve ended up paying about 6.5k in fees and taxes. It’s still loads better than the full cash price, about 25k!! but does anyone have any suggestions on how I could make these bookings better value?!

[NorthernLass]

I’m confused, have you booked outbound and inbound? By calling twice? Using how many vouchers? £6.5 k sounds like an awful lot in surcharges though.
But the cash element has no bearing on whether you used a 241 or not as this only affects the amount of avios needed.

[jontys]

NorthernLass wrote:

I’m confused, have you booked outbound and inbound? By calling twice? Using how many vouchers? £6.5 k sounds like an awful lot in surcharges though.
But the cash element has no bearing on whether you used a 241 or not as this only affects the amount of avios needed.

Yes called 355 days before for outbound, booking all four seats and once and using my voucher, then called again a fortnight later for the return and used my wife’s voucher.

[NorthernLass]

I see, so you’ve used both vouchers as one-ways? Again this shouldn’t affect the cash element; what combination of avios/cash did you choose?

Unless you cancel, hope the seats go back into the inventory (which they probably would at this stage) and rebook, you’ll struggle to improve on this. The only thing you could do is to try and make another trip out of the other “halves” of your respective 241s, but open jaw rules would mean your options were quite restricted. It’s theoretically possible but would take more calls to BA, or booking online and requesting 50% avios back if you have enough to complete the bookings.

Tokyo or Singapore might fall within the open jaw rules but these can be as difficult to get as SYD!

[xefo]

Called BA today to get the bookings linked and avios refunded. Was bracing myself for the worst but 5 minutes later it was all done and avios back in the account, super helpful agent. Tokyo, here we come!

[Travel Strong]

My desired outbound tix for a LON-USA trip are being released next week. I’m more flexible on the inbound return, so happy to make an 8am call for the inbound return.

A full return prices at 180k avios + £900 for 2 people using the new 241 CV.

With all the oddities of BA’s pricing options I’m worried that by booking the first leg only I risk paying something else unexpected.

If I book the outbound only online (next week, using the 241, at 1am-ish) – will I still just pay 180k + £900 when I call to add a return??

[NorthernLass]

Yes – though remember you have to pay the same avios/cash option on both legs if you decide to change from the standard RFS fare for some reason.

Is your destination generally still available to book at 8 am (though US availability seems very good these days)? If I had the slightest doubt (and enough avios), I would book online at 1 am and request the 50% avios back later.

[Travel Strong]

NorthernLass wrote:

Is your destination generally still available to book at 8 am (though US availability seems very good these days)? If I had the slightest doubt (and enough avios), I would book online at 1 am and request the 50% avios back later.

I was under the impression I would pay more £ element doing it this way with a USA booking?
I think the return should be OK, I am flexible on date +/I- 1 day and departure airports around the west coast

[NorthernLass]

No – that all changed with the introduction of RFS on long haul – you might want to read Rob’e articles on this from last December.

[drawn_that_way]

Last week I was able to secure 2 X CW seats from London to Male for April 2024 using my BA Amex companion voucher. I’ve also used my Hilton Honours points for 10 nights at the Conrad Maldives.

My return date is fast-approaching and I’m stressed trying to figure out how many Avios I need for the return journey (I have quite a lot sitting in my Amex account but will need to transfer them soon and don’t want to over-transfer as I’m hoping the Virgin Voyages cruises come back).

My questions…

I would like to fly home from Sri Lanka so I can go there for 5 nights after the Maldives and do a safari but BA don’t seem to fly directly on that route – only with Qatar or Sri Lankan Air then BA. Is it possible to add one of them for the return using the companion voucher? I’m planning to call shortly before 1am.

Alternatively, I could fly back to Male at my own expense and try and secure another two CW seats – but this is a bit of a faff.

In my rush to book, I only booked LHR – Male and didn’t include the Edinburgh to LHR connection. Can I add this on when I call (both ways) and, if so, will it cost me more taxes and/or Avios?

[NorthernLass]

If you’re booking the return online you’ll need the full amount of avios for 2 people – so double what you paid with your companion voucher when you booked the outbound, then contact BA and request 50% of those back. If you’re calling to book, then you only need what you paid for the outbound.

You can only use the voucher on BA flights, and can’t add sectors on other airlines so you need to decide where you’re ultimately flying back from. You don’t need to fly back from MLE as long as you stick to the open-jaw rules.

I think to add on the EDI leg you’ll need to call and BA will cancel and re-book IF the seats come back into the inventory. This is risky so you need to decide if it’s worth it, though at this stage the likelihood is that they would. Otherwise you could book it separately but would pay the full price either as a cash fare or award fare. This would men=an you’d need to collect your bags and re-check them at LHR though. I’m not 100% sure about this though (cancel and rebook) as there were a couple of conflicting posts on this yesterday – I thought the domestic leg could just be added but someone more knowledgeable than me said not!

For future reference, you can book all the way through from EDI online with the voucher.

It sounds as though you might be new to this and might find it useful to read the articles on here about avios and the 241 voucher.

[strickers]

Short hop from Colombo to Chennai, you’d need an Indian E-visa (assuming you have a UK passport) and beware the brutally early flight time so fly the day before. Sri Lankan economy is fine, reasonable value and includes 30Kg luggage.

[MilesOnPoint]

Data point / 1AM Bingo success

Successfully booked SYD-SIN-LHR in Club Worked over the phone in the early hours.

Range the US number at 00:45, got through around 00:50. By the time I’d cleared security there was about 5 mins to go, the agent (based in the UK) was happy to try and snag the seats and to stay on until they were released.

145,000 Avios (off-peak) + £375pp (£750 total)

The fees for the inbound have definitely gone up since RFS rolled out, was more like £600-ish total before from Sydney. Ho hum.

That’s all our Avios for now, otherwise I would have opted for QR @ 180,000 Avios + £389 total for SYD-DOH-LHR.

Very happy to have this ticket in the bag though 🙂

[KE]

I have booked the outbound, but I won’t have enough points for inbound, will that be a problem? I was just planning to pay for the required Avios over the phone.

[BB8]

KE wrote:

I have booked the outbound, but I won’t have enough points for inbound, will that be a problem? I was just planning to pay for the required Avios over the phone.

If you have (for example) paid 75k Avios + £450 for the outbound then that is what you have to pay for the return. You can’t have another variation of avios + cash wen you add the return.

If you mean purchase Avios I’m not 100% sure if you could do that on the call but that would take time and you’d be better off purchasing in advance IMO.

[NorthernLass]

@KE I don’t think you’d be able to buy avios by phone as it’s a separate company which sells them. How many avios are you short? Would you consider returning in a lower cabin if it’s not cost effective to buy the number of avios you need (not sure if there’s still an offer on)? You can mix and match cabins on award bookings, as long as you stick to the same ratio of cash/avios on both legs as @BB8 says.

[KE]

Normally you just pay more if you are short on Avios during a reservation online. Seems like I’ll have to buy additional Avios elsewhere then. It’s not by much I’m 15k short. Any suggestion on where to buy?

[NorthernLass]

That’s not buying avios, it’s using more cash and less avios, which is different.
It wouldn’t work for your 241 booking under the new system because it would mean you’re not using the same option on both legs. If you go to ba.com there’s an option to buy avios in the menu bar at the top of the home page, under “collecting avios”. This takes you to another site where you can choose how many to buy. Unless there’s a bonus currently running I think it’ll be around £300 for 15k avios.

[KE]

Thanks @NorthernLass

[chris.cdm]

Hi, Does anyone know how long after the outbound flight date can the inbound flight take place on a 241 voucher
Is there a time limit of say 365 days after the outbound flight

Thanks

[Rob]

chris.cdm wrote:

Hi, Does anyone know how long after the outbound flight date can the inbound flight take place on a 241 voucher
Is there a time limit of say 365 days after the outbound flight

Thanks

Has to be within a year, yes. Any attempt to change an existing booking so the return is more than a year after the outbound will be rejected.

[zapato1060]

NorthernLass wrote:

That’s not buying avios, it’s using more cash and less avios, which is different.
It wouldn’t work for your 241 booking under the new system because it would mean you’re not using the same option on both legs. If you go to ba.com there’s an option to buy avios in the menu bar at the top of the home page, under “collecting avios”. This takes you to another site where you can choose how many to buy. Unless there’s a bonus currently running I think it’ll be around £300 for 15k avios.

For only 15k. Wow. Take note though.

Once signed in, you can make purchases from 2,000 Avios up to 200,000 (per calendar year) which are usually available to spend right away but may take up to three working days.

[tblank19]

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but does anyone know whether you have access to the additional I class availability when calling up BA to change (change of dates and destination) an existing companion voucher booking?

[chris1922]

tblank19 wrote:

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but does anyone know whether you have access to the additional I class availability when calling up BA to change (change of dates and destination) an existing companion voucher booking?

This is exactly what I need to know ! Trawled through this thread, but didn’t find a definitive answer. I’ve asked via a new thread, and also posted on FlyerTalk, but no responses. I secured 4 CW seats outbound, using 2 x 241, and would like the same for my return, but when I call to add the return, will the agent see additional I class inventory and know I used premium card 241 s ?

[tblank19]

Just trialled this over the phone and was successful. I was able to access the additional I class availability over the phone but had to push the agent after initially being turned down as there were no standard Avios seats available. They checked with someone else for 5mins or so and then confirmed I could access it on a premium plus companion voucher booking and a few mins later successfully changed my booking (pending ticketing)