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Lol, I did that all the time when it first appeared!
YES – they can see the extra availability on the phone BUT it’s not guaranteed to be released at T-355, unlike the standard avios seats. That said, it’s still worth a shot as when I booked my GCM flights for next June as soon as the inbound was released, I got the message that my 241 had unlocked extra availability. This could be because we are departing from MAN, though!
I need to book the return leg of a 241 voucher booking and wondering about the logistics of doing it.
As there are 3 of us travelling my husband, the voucher holder, booked himself and our daughter online on release, and I booked myself online separately.
For the return I plan to book mine online and for my husband to phone to book for himself and our daughter.
The difficulty is that the seats are popular and will likely go very quickly. We have a number of flights to choose from (location and time), but obviously all want to be on the same flight.
When phoning would the agent be able to hold the three seats needed? Then process as two separate bookings?
I don’t think it can be done as one booking as we looked at that when booking the outbound and it wouldn’t allow more than two people on the voucher booking.
The voucher should have additional availability but is that guaranteed on all flights? If I were to book mine online and the other seats are gone would an agent still be able to book using the extra voucher availability?
For info the flights would be from any Florida airport to London in club on the last Saturday in August.
Any advice would be great, thanks.
The extra availability isn’t guaranteed, but if it’s there, the phone agent will be able to see it. From what other people have posted, they seem to have to do these bookings separately, so it might be worth booking your flight while the agent is making the 241 booking. If the 241 booking isn’t successful, you can cancel your seat within 24 hours for no charge.
**This bit is slightly complicated and the agent may not be aware, but if you’re booking standard award seats, as opposed to extra availability, you CAN have 3 people on the booking. I have done this previously when OH and I flew to IAD in F, and booked to return in Y from MIA (we didn’t take this leg in the end, but that’s irrelevant for the purposes of making a booking!) Our teenager flew out in J on a separate booking, but I made the return booking for all 3 of us and BA refunded one lot of avios, so this would be perfectly within the rules. The problem comes when the 241 “sees” the extra availability – you can only have 2 people on this type of booking.
The extra availability isn’t guaranteed, but if it’s there, the phone agent will be able to see it. From what other people have posted, they seem to have to do these bookings separately, so it might be worth booking your flight while the agent is making the 241 booking. If the 241 booking isn’t successful, you can cancel your seat within 24 hours for no charge.
**This bit is slightly complicated and the agent may not be aware, but if you’re booking standard award seats, as opposed to extra availability, you CAN have 3 people on the booking. I have done this previously when OH and I flew to IAD in F, and booked to return in Y from MIA (we didn’t take this leg in the end, but that’s irrelevant for the purposes of making a booking!) Our teenager flew out in J on a separate booking, but I made the return booking for all 3 of us and BA refunded one lot of avios, so this would be perfectly within the rules. The problem comes when the 241 “sees” the extra availability – you can only have 2 people on this type of booking.
Thanks. Hopefully it’ll all work out and I won’t need to cancel but it’s good to know that’s an option. We could fly back a day later if need be so I think I’ll book online straight away and hope that both bookings go through, if not we’ll try again the next day.
Thinking about an open jaw flight using 2-4-1 voucher and wondered what would be the best method.
Plan is outbound LHR – Dalaman booked online at T-355 Days online.
Return Istanbul- LHR.
Would I be able to book this online at T-355 and then call up and get the avios credited back for the 2-4-1.
Or would I need to call up to get booking with the return of the 2-4-1
Or would I have to wait for the return at T-355 days (and hope that outbound reward seats are still available) and call BA
The extra availability isn’t guaranteed, but if it’s there, the phone agent will be able to see it. From what other people have posted, they seem to have to do these bookings separately, so it might be worth booking your flight while the agent is making the 241 booking. If the 241 booking isn’t successful, you can cancel your seat within 24 hours for no charge.
**This bit is slightly complicated and the agent may not be aware, but if you’re booking standard award seats, as opposed to extra availability, you CAN have 3 people on the booking. I have done this previously when OH and I flew to IAD in F, and booked to return in Y from MIA (we didn’t take this leg in the end, but that’s irrelevant for the purposes of making a booking!) Our teenager flew out in J on a separate booking, but I made the return booking for all 3 of us and BA refunded one lot of avios, so this would be perfectly within the rules. The problem comes when the 241 “sees” the extra availability – you can only have 2 people on this type of booking.
If it helps I did something similar just now, but in separate bookings as dh has the Barclaycard voucher. Was booking just turned 1 on iPad and phone grabbed 3 CW return from Orlando. I saw 2 had also been taken on the early flight so will be tough, although Tampa still has 4 CW as I checked just after so could be an option?
Hi all
I have booked outbound using companion voucher, inbound using just points.. I’ve been trying to get a refund on the points for the inbound flight but having no luck via the phone. I understand I can do this via Twitter as well? Do I just give them the flight details and ask for a refund of points?What do you mean by no luck, you can’t get through or you have been refused?
But yes, if you use BA web chat or Twitter, explain what you want to do then they will ask for booking and security questions and take it from there. With Twitter it can take a few days to get sorted but you don’t have to sit and wait for a reply like with chat.
The extra availability isn’t guaranteed, but if it’s there, the phone agent will be able to see it. From what other people have posted, they seem to have to do these bookings separately, so it might be worth booking your flight while the agent is making the 241 booking. If the 241 booking isn’t successful, you can cancel your seat within 24 hours for no charge.
**This bit is slightly complicated and the agent may not be aware, but if you’re booking standard award seats, as opposed to extra availability, you CAN have 3 people on the booking. I have done this previously when OH and I flew to IAD in F, and booked to return in Y from MIA (we didn’t take this leg in the end, but that’s irrelevant for the purposes of making a booking!) Our teenager flew out in J on a separate booking, but I made the return booking for all 3 of us and BA refunded one lot of avios, so this would be perfectly within the rules. The problem comes when the 241 “sees” the extra availability – you can only have 2 people on this type of booking.
If it helps I did something similar just now, but in separate bookings as dh has the Barclaycard voucher. Was booking just turned 1 on iPad and phone grabbed 3 CW return from Orlando. I saw 2 had also been taken on the early flight so will be tough, although Tampa still has 4 CW as I checked just after so could be an option?
That’s great, I did see they all went quickly the last couple of days.
What number did you call for the phone booking? I’m tempted to try the one I have the day before just so that I know it’s definitely open at the right time.
I did try to call the US number shown on the app when I was having issues getting my online outbound booked, I was in US and UK was obviously closed, but that number was closed too, stated it closed at 8pm so guess it was east coast somewhere as it was 5pm where I was.
Just the one on the executive club only issue is with the Barclaycard voucher as had to cancel my initial booking and rebook the open jaw return. Thankfully did it enough time to get CW. She was fine avios points all been refunded back.
Just the one on the executive club only issue is with the Barclaycard voucher as had to cancel my initial booking and rebook the open jaw return. Thankfully did it enough time to get CW. She was fine avios points all been refunded back.
I just had a look and the number listed is the one I called that closes at 8pm eastern.
1800 452 1201
Maybe because you called before 8pm they have to take the call. I called just after 8pm when the site kept returning an error message.
I rang this morning on normal UK call centre as I booked online last night.
This thread contains discussions of the best call centres to contact for this. It’s been rumoured in the last few days that the US one is going to stop processing these bookings.
I rang this morning on normal UK call centre as I booked online last night.
Ahh, I assumed you’d called at 1am.
This thread contains discussions of the best call centres to contact for this. It’s been rumoured in the last few days that the US one is going to stop processing these bookings.
I’ll take a look, thanks.
I need to book Monday night so I wonder if it’s even worth trying US.
Just checking before I book using my 241. Booking to Rio next year which has just been released. I can see the one way for 110k Avios and £275pp. When I do a dummy booking for the one way return the taxes are £20.72pp. However if I do a dummy return the taxes are £550pp. Is this one of the routes where it is better to book 2 one ways and have them refund Avios?
Doesn’t Brazil have legal restrictions on how much airlines can charge in departure taxes/surcharges? If so then you may well be better off with separate bookings. Only issue might be that if you book the return online you won’t be able to access the extra availability in CW if that matters.
Im getting the impression that there are practically no taxes leaving Brazil so booking 2 one ways would save a fair bit. Fair point about availability though if I use the 241 on the outbound….I’m pretty flexible on dates so might just chance it. Might even look at ex-Madrid too for the first time, from the regions whether we transit in Madrid or London makes little odds.
Doesn’t Brazil have legal restrictions on how much airlines can charge in departure taxes/surcharges? If so then you may well be better off with separate bookings. Only issue might be that if you book the return online you won’t be able to access the extra availability in CW if that matters.
Question (Hope it makes sense)
I want to change my return trip for my 2-4-1 companion voucher booking – Checking BA’s availability, on a normal redemption the availability doesn’t show up. When I attach my new companion voucher (I have a second sitting in my account), the availability shows up because of the extra seats for voucher holders.
When I rang BA to change the booking, they couldn’t see the extra seats available and refused to change the booking.
Should the BA agent be able to see the extra seats when amending a 2-4-1 booking?
They possibly can’t see the seats unless they cancelled the original booking and released the voucher (though they seem to be able to pick them up when adding a return leg so possibly the agent you got just hadn’t be trained how to do it?)
You would have to pay a change fee anyway so there’s always the option of just cancelling your whole booking and starting from scratch with your new dates?
They possibly can’t see the seats unless they cancelled the original booking and released the voucher (though they seem to be able to pick them up when adding a return leg so possibly the agent you got just hadn’t be trained how to do it?)
You would have to pay a change fee anyway so there’s always the option of just cancelling your whole booking and starting from scratch with your new dates?
Cancelling could be an option, but a messy one as it involves Iberia outbound. I’m not sure if they get added back into the inventory?
I think I’ll try calling a few times over the next day or two to get different agents and see if they change their ability.
Im getting the impression that there are practically no taxes leaving Brazil so booking 2 one ways would save a fair bit. Fair point about availability though if I use the 241 on the outbound….I’m pretty flexible on dates so might just chance it. Might even look at ex-Madrid too for the first time, from the regions whether we transit in Madrid or London makes little odds.
Doesn’t Brazil have legal restrictions on how much airlines can charge in departure taxes/surcharges? If so then you may well be better off with separate bookings. Only issue might be that if you book the return online you won’t be able to access the extra availability in CW if that matters.
I booked with Virgin this week a return to GRU and the total taxes/fees in upper were £258, think I recall seeing that of that figure Brazil was £11.
@AmyC, that’s a great tax amount….I am debating between EZE and GRU for the other stop…decisions decisions. Iguazu falls will be in the middle of the trip.
@AmyC, that’s a great tax amount….I am debating between EZE and GRU for the other stop…decisions decisions. Iguazu falls will be in the middle of the trip.
I’ll be doing Iguazu too, been looking into the options for that. I was going to fly from MAD to Brazil using Iberia (as I see you’ve been contemplating). It’s such a comparative bargain to BA it’s worth considering saving your voucher for something else. Finding reward seats isn’t as easy as it was when I first looked about 9 months ago.
@AmyC, I’m still trying to get my head around all the possibilities of the new style 241, only ever used the old style one 😂
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