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

[NorthernLass]

Was this a call to book the outbound at T-355? I’ve not seen anyone post this previously, but I suppose technically they are correct in that you COULD have booked online (if you were fast enough). It could be a new policy to enforce the rules, or just an agent who unilaterally took the decision. They can vary a lot in what they are able and willing to do with these bookings.

[oxforddoc]

Yeah, booking Singapore.

[volauvent]

Hi – I booked inbound reward flights using a 2-4-1 voucher some months ago and resolved to wait and see for outgoing reward availability. Some reward seats were released yesterday so I booked using the other half’s 2-4-1 voucher with the intention of linking both bookings and getting his voucher ‘refunded’ I’ve spoken to two customer service people today with no resolution so I’ve resorted to Twitter. I had thought that this would be quite straightforward. Seems that I have to pay a charge of £35 per person and a £15 admin fee to ‘amend’ my original booking. Sure I could just leave things as they are but I’d quite like our other 2-4-1 voucher back if possible. There is still reward availability on the outbound flight but none for the inbound. Any advice most gratefully received!

[NorthernLass]

BA is right, you can’t do this. You can’t book the inbound first, and you can’t link 2 separate bookings, especially if you’ve used 2 different vouchers. If you really thought this was going to be straightforward, you haven’t digested the oodles of information and advice on here.

You’re easiest option is going to be to retain the outbound leg which you’ve booked with your OH’s voucher, and cancel the inbound, hope the seats go back into the inventory and then re-book it. If you do this on the phone, BA will charge you the £15 admin fee, but this might be the simplest option.

If you cancel online, you’ll be charged the £35pp fee. Read this thread and Rob’s excellent articles on the best way to rebook your inbound leg, using the rest of your OH’s voucher.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/01/03/how-do-british-airways-american-express-2-4-1-vouchers-work-2/

[NorthernLass]

*Just re-reading your post, I’m now thinking this isn’t a T-355 booking, so you may struggle to get BA to add your inbound leg or refund 50% avios, in which case you will either have to stick with what you’ve got, or start from scratch and hope there’s availability.

Remember you can use the other half of each voucher on another trip, as long as it’s within 12 months of each flight. Read the full rules on this though before making any decisions!

[leeannewu]

Could someone please kindly help to confirm the following for me?

Outbound London to HKG, avios/cash options below:

100000 avios + £550
84000 avios + £740
75000 avios + £ 850
66000 avios + £1100
54000 avios + £1720
37500 avios + £2140

Inbound avios/cash options are below:

200000 avios + £71.94
168000 avios + £261.94
150000 avios + £ 371.94
132000 avios + £621.94
108000 avios + £1241.94
75000avios + £1661.94

For the outbound if I am going to go for the third option 75000 avios + £850 using 241 voucher, then on the inbound for full avios redemption, I will need to go for the third option 150000 avios + £371.94. Am I right?

[Aardvark]

Yes that is correct if you book the outgoing leg before the return has become available, you then book the return online (when available) at the full avios (but choosing the same option), then phone up to get the companion voucher allocated and then part of the avios will be refunded.

[trueneutral]

Wanted to provide a data point as I have read through this thread and found it immensely helpful.

I first booked an outbound one-way for 2 with a companion voucher online, NOT at T-355 (flight is only a couple of months away from booking). At that time I could not find a suitable return yet so thought it is best to secure the outbound first.

After a few weeks, seatspy notified that availability opened up (again, not at T-355, just the availability that pops up randomly). I then booked the return leg online at full avios.

I reckoned that the next step is to attempt to get 50% of the avios back for the return leg (although the forum suggested this might be a hit/miss). Being painfully phone-shy, I first twitter DM, who said this can’t be done as they claimed that the companion voucher need to be applied at the point of booking. They did make a suggestion for me to cancel the return, and should there still be availability after the cancellation, add the return leg to the outbound PNR but this will require the associated change fee.

I then tried the live chat, who mentioned that the refund of avios option is possible, but cannot be done via chat and asked me to call the hotline. Resigned to having to make that phone call, I got connected to an agent who managed to perform the refund of 50% avios after some tinkering with multiple systems. The bookings remained as separate PNRs, although apparently the bookings have been “linked”.

Hope this helps someone out there!

[e14]

trueneutral wrote:

Wanted to provide a data point as I have read through this thread and found it immensely helpful.

I first booked an outbound one-way for 2 with a companion voucher online, NOT at T-355 (flight is only a couple of months away from booking). At that time I could not find a suitable return yet so thought it is best to secure the outbound first.

After a few weeks, seatspy notified that availability opened up (again, not at T-355, just the availability that pops up randomly). I then booked the return leg online at full avios.

I reckoned that the next step is to attempt to get 50% of the avios back for the return leg (although the forum suggested this might be a hit/miss). Being painfully phone-shy, I first twitter DM, who said this can’t be done as they claimed that the companion voucher need to be applied at the point of booking. They did make a suggestion for me to cancel the return, and should there still be availability after the cancellation, add the return leg to the outbound PNR but this will require the associated change fee.

I then tried the live chat, who mentioned that the refund of avios option is possible, but cannot be done via chat and asked me to call the hotline. Resigned to having to make that phone call, I got connected to an agent who managed to perform the refund of 50% avios after some tinkering with multiple systems. The bookings remained as separate PNRs, although apparently the bookings have been “linked”.

Hope this helps someone out there!

So in a nutshell, if you had picked up the ‘phone to add the return legs onto your booking, you’d have saved yourself some grief and you had to phone in in the end anyways.

[slidey]

I have a 2for1 outbound LHR-HND, can I open jaw the return LAX-LHR?

Does the HND-LAX distance have to be less than both the LHR-HND and LAX-LHR distances or just less than one of them?

[JDB]

slidey wrote:

I have a 2for1 outbound LHR-HND, can I open jaw the return LAX-LHR?

Does the HND-LAX distance have to be less than both the LHR-HND and LAX-LHR distances or just less than one of them?

The ‘surface’ sector must be less than either flight.

[xefo]

MAD-NRT on Iberia and HND-LHR on BA return, does this work in theory using a 2-4-1?

[NorthernLass]

Yes, there are examples within this thread.

[1958]

xefo wrote:

MAD-NRT on Iberia and HND-LHR on BA return, does this work in theory using a 2-4-1?

Yes, this works – but phone BA to book the return leg. (I used a 241 to fly MAD/SCL on Iberia, then BA back from Buenos Aires.

[Dark Horse]

1958 wrote:

xefo wrote:

MAD-NRT on Iberia and HND-LHR on BA return, does this work in theory using a 2-4-1?

Yes, this works – but phone BA to book the return leg. (I used a 241 to fly MAD/SCL on Iberia, then BA back from Buenos Aires.

I have a question on booking this same route if anyone can help?

I have booked MAD SCL Business Class for 2 pax with a 2-4-1 outbound for 6 Feb 25, booked last month. Just about to book the return in early March and link to the 2-4-1 (I think this goes on a new PNR but they are linked?). I live in Edinburgh so thats departure point and ultimate return destination.

Outbound I will buy a cheap flight to MAD with a full day’s contingency. On the way back I am looking at departing Buenos Aires to MAD. I then thought why not route right through to the UK (LHR then EDI) on the same booking from Buenos Aires, benefit is business class all the way and baggage checked through. BA agent quoted the price through to EDI for 2 pax as 86,000 avios +£400, instead of 51,000 +£274 for EZE MAD only (both these are the total 2-4-1 avios amounts for 2 pax). Am I being too cute to think that I could book the MAD EDI sectors separate to the EZE MAD, on a new PNR, and link to the original reward flight booking PNR and benefit from the 2-4-1 benefit to this too. On this basis if I look at a separate MAD EDI on the same flights it would be 35,000 avios +£2 so saving £124 (and I would also flex the 35,000 avios to a smaller number which is actually better value and I could so with saving the avios).

I think I probably can do this but a concern would be – would they check the baggage all the way through to EDI even though on 2 bookings (as I would have about a 2hr transfer in MAD and would like to just transit no baggage re-check in).

It seems the taxes go up quite a bit if you book all the way to EDI because there are UK sectors involved, despite the same sectors stand alone coming in at less for some reason?? I’d be interested if anyone thinks I could do this or better to just make the simple full booking EZE EDI? (By the way I discounted EZE LHR on BA as it puts down in Sao Paulo adding 5 hrs and the price and taxes are way higher on BA)

thanks!

[NorthernLass]

So you want the return to be EZE-MAD-LHR-EDI? One of the issues here is that you’ll be charged for MAD-LHR as this isn’t a domestic connection.

You can certainly book the inbound leg yourself and request 50% avios back, but you will be left with 2 PNRs and the flights won’t be linked. Also be aware that some BA agents refuse to refund the avios if the inbound was available to book when you booked the outbound.

[NorthernLass]

Also very unlikely that they’d check your bags through if it was on separate bookings – official policy is not to, so you can’t assume you’ll get lucky.

I had to read your post a few times to work out exactly what you’re asking, but no, they wouldn’t link EZE-MAD together with a separate MAD-UK booking for 241 purposes.

[Dark Horse]

NorthernLass wrote:

So you want the return to be EZE-MAD-LHR-EDI? One of the issues here is that you’ll be charged for MAD-LHR as this isn’t a domestic connection.

You can certainly book the inbound leg yourself and request 50% avios back, but you will be left with 2 PNRs and the flights won’t be linked. Also be aware that some BA agents refuse to refund the avios if the inbound was available to book when you booked the outbound.

HI – thanks very much for your comments – Yes to EZE-MAD-LHR-EDI. The inbound wasn’t available as +355 days out when I booked outbound. But I think for the sake of simplicity and safety I will book EZE-MAD-LHR-EDI with the BA agent and accept the price as it is still a good deal. (just for future reference do you know if you can book 3 sector avios bookings like EZE-MAD-LHR-EDI with BA online? availability isn’t showing when I try even though I know the reward flight availability is there) Will I have to pay then a booking fee to book over the phone do you think?

This March there is an Iberia MAD-EDI operated by Iberia Express so that may come online later in the year in which case I could cancel MAD_LHR_EDI and pay the change fee as MAD-EDI is far better option. I hope i could tack it onto the whole booking, otherwise pay cash.

Thanks!

[NorthernLass]

I don’t know if you can use the 241 on Iberia Express.

Some itineraries are just too much for BA’s IT, especially for reward flights! If they try to charge you, point out that you can’t do what you want online.

I think for a few extra £ it’s worth the convenience of having one itinerary and the bags checked through.

[1958]

My advice (regarding booking a return leg on Iberia by calling BA) is to do a dummy booking before you call.
I did this for EZE/MAD/LHR, and the price was about 70,000 Avios. However, when I called BA, I was quoted 110,000 Avios (Flights all on Iberia).
I questioned the quote, and after a hold of about 20 minutes, the agent agreed 70,000 Avios.
– What a way to run an airline!

[TH]

Here’s my (mostly) positive 2-4-1 open jaw booking experience (LHR-HKG and SIN-LHR).

Booked the outbound flight online at 355 days, applying my voucher, and then added the return online as soon as it was released. I called BA the next day to get the 50% Avios refund for the return. The agent understood exactly what I wanted and knew that it was possible, but struggled to get the system to accept her request. After some minutes trying various options, she said she’d refer my booking to her team and I would be refunded within 72 hours.

I really didn’t hold out much hope and was prepared to have to go through the whole palaver again, but in fact the Avios were back in my account in just over 24 hours.

[NorthernLass]

That’s good to hear, is SIN one of the routes where you benefit from cheaper charges as well?

[TH]

NorthernLass wrote:

That’s good to hear, is SIN one of the routes where you benefit from cheaper charges as well?

Sadly, no! Would have been cheaper to book the flights the other way round, but unfortunately that didn’t fit the holiday plans.

[Aardvark]

I like to think that I am quite experienced in using Companion Vouchers etc. Just recently booked my outgoing flight to Capetown using a voucher at midnight and got Bus. Waited for the the return to come up (30 days later). Booked on line at midnight and grabbed Bus again using the full Avios. Then rang up in the morning and got the Companion Voucher allocated to the return and was refunded half of the Avios back.
However, I have just recently hit the £10k on Amex and got another Companion Voucher. I knew that when you search with a voucher you get increased availability but of course when I am searching/booking my return (as above) I don’t see it. So if I have missed getting those seats I think maybe I have to settle with Economy, but course I don’t as now I can see for my return date there are at least 6 extra Bus seats. So I suppose i need to phone each day and wait for the extra availability on that day or maybe close to that day. It was only getting the Companion Voucher early that I realised this. Maybe this will be obvious to some but you can learn something everyday!

[HampshireHog]

1958 wrote:

xefo wrote:

MAD-NRT on Iberia and HND-LHR on BA return, does this work in theory using a 2-4-1?

Yes, this works – but phone BA to book the return leg. (I used a 241 to fly MAD/SCL on Iberia, then BA back from Buenos Aires.

Why ring BA rather than book online and call in for a refund of Avios? I intend adding BA HKG-LHR to my IB MAD-NRT so double open jaw. The other question is does the mix of points matter for each leg as the options are quite different? Hey Ho thought I was pretty well versed on use of the 241 but there’s always another wrinkle!