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

[MarkR]

NorthernLass wrote:

@MarkR, you need to do the following:

1. Book outbound leg WITH voucher, whichever cabin, doesn’t affect the return.
2. Book inbound when it is released, again, whichever cabin, doesn’t have to be same as outbound. If it was already available when you booked the outbound, BA won’t add it or refund you any avios. You are usually required to use the same cash/avios option as for the outbound. Someone on here has got away with not doing that, but I wouldn’t count on it.
3. If you’ve booked the inbound at full avios price, then request the 50% refund.
4. IF other cabin availability appears, call BA to upgrade. You will need to pay the difference in avios and surcharges, plus £35 pp change fee.

This is the only order which will work using the 241.

Thanks for clarifying, not booking return for a couple of weeks as not available yet, so will follow this advice, will book the currently available economy outbound for now with 241 voucher and see what’s available in a few weeks for the return, and set up an alert for any potential upgrades, thanks so much for the guidance

[Simey]

Simey wrote:

Quick question..

I can see that UK lines are open until 23:59 according to BA.

IB releases seats at midnight UK time, so basically at the same time as it closes. Is it worth calling UK BA and hoping the agent stays on an extra 10 minutes to complete the booking, rather than go through the US hoops?

Or, will the line cut out at 23:59 regardless of what happens automatically? How should I expect this to go?

Would anyone know or have any experience on this please?

[NorthernLass]

It’s probably going to depend on how amenable the agent is that you get, tbh. Clocks change on the 27th so it’ll be midnight release after that.

Also, I thought someone posted recently that IB doesn’t always release the seats at midnight though? But I may be confusing that with another airline.

[Simey]

NorthernLass wrote:

It’s probably going to depend on how amenable the agent is that you get, tbh. Clocks change on the 27th so it’ll be midnight release after that.

Also, I thought someone posted recently that IB doesn’t always release the seats at midnight though? But I may be confusing that with another airline.

I checked on the IB website and the next day becomes available exactly at midnight our time currently, that’s why I ask!

Surely if they are helping someone they won’t disconnect the call mid-assistance I hope – that would be quite odd practice. So I guess it’s worth a try there first, then US I guess.

[NorthernLass]

There a few posts on this thread saying that agents have refused to make bookings which would take them past their finish time, though I think that might have been the US office.

So is it 1 am release in Spain, currently? They change the clocks when we do, as well.

[Simey]

NorthernLass wrote:

There a few posts on this thread saying that agents have refused to make bookings which would take them past their finish time, though I think that might have been the US office.

So is it 1 am release in Spain, currently? They change the clocks when we do, as well.

It must be – just that 1AM for Spain is midnight for us currently, so this is where I had this idea from. People always mentioned doing this at after midnight for BA flights hence why they go directly to US, but if I call up at 23:45 and get talking to someone and explain what it is, maybe it’ll work as a first try.

Just wanted to see if anyone done something similar with BA.

I guess trying it will hurt nobody, can report back just in case anyone is curious.

[EmmaL4]

I am trying to book my returns from Tokyo to Heathrow having booked my outgoing with my 2-4-1 voucher. I don’t have enough Avios to book 2 tickets and then get half returned. I have seen on here that there are mixed results from calling the US number (which is actually based in the UK!) so I rang the UK number to find out what was the best thing to do. I spoke with a very nice man who said they weren’t supposed to advise calling US number but wouldn’t tell me not to but he also suggested that I book using less Avios and more cash and then calling the UK office and they would link the booking to my outgoing, take the correct amount of Avios and refund the cash. He said it was definitely possible to do this. Having read into it, I didn’t see anyone suggesting this so I called the office again spoke to a different agent who gave me completely different advice. He said I couldn’t do this and suggested ringing the US office which is infact exactly the same office as the UK, just on a different shift!!
Has anyone tried using less Avios and some cash and then getting it refunded later when it is linked to voucher booking?
Also, do you need to put 00 in front of the 1 for the US number and the 03 for the Japan number?

[Simey]

Simey wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

There a few posts on this thread saying that agents have refused to make bookings which would take them past their finish time, though I think that might have been the US office.

So is it 1 am release in Spain, currently? They change the clocks when we do, as well.

It must be – just that 1AM for Spain is midnight for us currently, so this is where I had this idea from. People always mentioned doing this at after midnight for BA flights hence why they go directly to US, but if I call up at 23:45 and get talking to someone and explain what it is, maybe it’ll work as a first try.

Just wanted to see if anyone done something similar with BA.

I guess trying it will hurt nobody, can report back just in case anyone is curious.

Looping back to this. The line that closes at midnight UK is for bookings and holidays only – Executive Club and Avios related line closes at 8PM. So I was told to call the US, which I did.

I called, got on the line but 1 minute past midnight (1 min past release) 1 business seat was taken, so no good to us. Hung up.

Then I checked this morning, 2 were available. Called to try to book, lady said she can’t and it’s maybe phantom availability..

Then I checked an hour ago, seen them and called again to try. The 2 seats were available and booked them.

All in all, great success but absolutely no bloody idea how it changed so much and things appeared, gone, booked, not booked, available and whatever else. Makes no sense!

[NorthernLass]

@Simey – glad your persistence paid off!

@EmmaL4 – most agents won’t touch a return booking if you’ve used a different cash/avios option, so I would not advise that – this thread has a few examples of agents refusing to refund the avios if you do that. What the agent may have been getting at was that if you make the booking, then cancel it, the person on the other end of the phone could then grab the seats IF they go back into the inventory (not 100% guaranteed so a bit risky), and book them at the right price.

I think the issue with the “US” office is that they are there primarily to serve US customers, so may be dissuaded by their supervisors from helping out with UK-based callers.

With a very popular destination like TYO you just have to develop a strategy based on all the advice here and keep trying!

*I personally try to avoid booking by phone whenever possible as it always seems to take an inordinate amount of time compared with doing oneself on line, and often seems to throw up complications. Fortunately I manage to keep a fairly high balance of avios so I can book return legs at full avios price and request 50% back later.

[cwong]

Just wanted to report on my experience and thank everyone on the forum for the guidance and top tips

We were looking to use our voucher for business return flights from London to Singapore in Sept/Oct 2025 to catch the F1 race
We had about 200k point

Outbound
This was relatively easy – we booked online as soon as it turned 1am and got two business class flights. We decided to go a day earlier to increase our chances

Inbound
This is where it got tricky
We did not have enough points to book and claim back
We did a test run the day before

We called US number (00 1 800 452 1201)
12.37 – too early
12.45 – she said the centre was closing in 15 mins and so I could not stay on to book the tickets
12.53 – went through to a very helpful lady who knew what we needed and gave us a quote for business class return

It took 2 minutes to complete the selection (we used 1,1,1,1,1) and a further 3 or so minutes to pass security

The next evening we called the US number again

12.48 – disconnected
12.51 – the lady’s computer crashed
12.57 – by the time we cleared the general selection line were now closed

We then tried Australian number (00 61 1 300 767 177)

By the time we spoke to someone all bar 1 of the business flights had done so we settled for PE tickets instead

All very frustrating as to why they make it so hard to get the return flights. We are now keeping an eye out to see if business class becomes available later to upgrade (subject to a change of booking fee)

[NorthernLass]

Getting the return flights is no more difficult than getting the outbound – it’s that fact that you can’t use the 241 in 2 separate halves that causes the issue, compounded by not having enough avios to book the return online.

What you could also do (if you don’t have another 241 in your account) is to ask someone you know who does, or on here, to check whether any “extra” availability has opened up in CW. Then if you explain that to a phone agent, they should be able to find those seats for you.

[pilotpoints]

Anyone else only seeing award availability upto 17th sept 2025 instead of oct!? BA systems issue?

[NorthernLass]

@cwong – What date were you looking for? I’ve just had a look with my 241 and there are 2 CW seats on Oct 4th available on the 23:20 from SIN. You may have to travel to MAN though if you have checked bags!

@pilotpoints, do the search then change the date when you get to the results page. Lots of mentions yesterday!

[HampshireHog]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Simey – glad your persistence paid off!

@EmmaL4 – most agents won’t touch a return booking if you’ve used a different cash/avios option, so I would not advise that – this thread has a few examples of agents refusing to refund the avios if you do that. What the agent may have been getting at was that if you make the booking, then cancel it, the person on the other end of the phone could then grab the seats IF they go back into the inventory (not 100% guaranteed so a bit risky), and book them at the right price.

I think the issue with the “US” office is that they are there primarily to serve US customers, so may be dissuaded by their supervisors from helping out with UK-based callers.

With a very popular destination like TYO you just have to develop a strategy based on all the advice here and keep trying!

*I personally try to avoid booking by phone whenever possible as it always seems to take an inordinate amount of time compared with doing oneself on line, and often seems to throw up complications. Fortunately I manage to keep a fairly high balance of avios so I can book return legs at full avios price and request 50% back later.

I do this for the return with the Amex voucher but I still don’t know whether I can book the return as a single with the Barclays voucher

[annew57]

I have booked outward flights to Tokyo and want to add a return for October 25. I am planning on phoning the US number but also was thinking of just booking online with Avios and reclaiming the 50% points. Problem is that when I click book with Avios BA website won’t show flights up that have been released. So for example today flights are released up to 7/10/25 but website only allows me to search for pay Avios flights up to 18/09/25. Has anyone else experienced this – could it be a problem with my browser? Any guidance would be much appreciated.

[annew57]

Ignore my post above. Have just realised that this issue has already been raised and that I can change date on results page.

[rosswill]

@annew57 I think if you select the last date the website allows you to select (18th sept) you can then scroll along to see up to 7th Oct.

[NorthernLass]

I do wonder why people post problems here then don’t bother to check back. I hope someone’s made use of those SIN CW seats!

[Flying Moonwards]

Hi, I’d be grateful for any guidance on the issue below please!

I have a Nov 2024 outbound flight booked using a 241 voucher.

The date for my intended return leg was released today for Oct 2025 and I booked it using 100% avios.

I called up BA to ask them to apply the 241 to the return leg but they said they can’t do it because the two legs are too far apart. However when I asked what the maximum gap would have been the representative was incredibly rude and started shouting at me, and then hung up.

Is this correct? Or do I need to just HUACA?

[Gordon]

Flying Moonwards wrote:

Hi, I’d be grateful for any guidance on the issue below please!

I have a Nov 2024 outbound flight booked using a 241 voucher.

The date for my intended return leg was released today for Oct 2025 and I booked it using 100% avios.

I called up BA to ask them to apply the 241 to the return leg but they said they can’t do it because the two legs are too far apart. However when I asked what the maximum gap would have been the representative was incredibly rude and started shouting at me, and then hung up.

Is this correct? Or do I need to just HUACA?

What office did you call? That is unacceptable behaviour, don’t forget that the calls are recorded, should you need to complain! the answer according to many is HUACA.

I have had a look through the comments, as I have a similar situation, I need to book either with BA or IB with a 2-4-1, outbound to BKK (or any SEA destination) approximately November 2025 and return around 3 to 4 months later.

[NorthernLass]

This is why I hate having to call BA – you just never know which attitude you’re going to get!

The terms are that the inbound has to be flown within 12 months of the outbound so you should be ok – hopefully HUACA will get you someone both competent and courteous!

[MarkM]

Booked my return flights from Cape Town on line at midnight last night.
Need to call to get the booking merged into the outbound flight that used the companion voucher.

I did need to top up the avios needed to enable me to do this, what was helpful was that I was able to boost the same transactions twice on both mine and my partners avios accounts which made this a little more cost effective.

[MarkR]

MarkR wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

@MarkR, you need to do the following:

1. Book outbound leg WITH voucher, whichever cabin, doesn’t affect the return.
2. Book inbound when it is released, again, whichever cabin, doesn’t have to be same as outbound. If it was already available when you booked the outbound, BA won’t add it or refund you any avios. You are usually required to use the same cash/avios option as for the outbound. Someone on here has got away with not doing that, but I wouldn’t count on it.
3. If you’ve booked the inbound at full avios price, then request the 50% refund.
4. IF other cabin availability appears, call BA to upgrade. You will need to pay the difference in avios and surcharges, plus £35 pp change fee.

This is the only order which will work using the 241.

Thanks for clarifying, not booking return for a couple of weeks as not available yet, so will follow this advice, will book the currently available economy outbound for now with 241 voucher and see what’s available in a few weeks for the return, and set up an alert for any potential upgrades, thanks so much for the guidance

Hi, so I managed to book my return flights (Hong Kong to London) in CW last night, I did try the phone route first, called the 9297 USA number at 11:50 got through OK but lady said I needed to call the Executive club number, so dialled the 1202 number , by now it was 11:58 when I got connected and the lady said her systems were down! Had already logged in online as a back up, when I got through to selecting dates, even after midnight (12:01 by now) it only showed the 20th October still for availability, but when I clicked through was able to roll forward to the next day, and after what seemed an age after clicking the complete payment button I finally got the confirmation booking reference, I checked out of interest and all the CW seats had gone by 12:06. Only got Economy for now on outbound but hoping to upgrade at some stage to CW or Premium as I have plenty of Avios, so fingers crossed. thanks for all the useful advice here

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

MarkM wrote:

Booked my return flights from Cape Town on line at midnight last night.
Need to call to get the booking merged into the outbound flight that used the companion voucher.

.

For the umpteenth time bookings are NOT merged.

When you call BA will refund the 50% avios but they can not merge the bookings.

[Simey]

Following up on my recent 2 for 1 experience..

Decided to not deal with the stress that a BA booking would involve to Tokyo (all premium seats gone a minute after midnight) so I opted for Iberia’s new direct route.

I didn’t stay up until midnight the second time, as someone potentially cancelled and I noticed availability on Iberia’s website.

Called BA Avios line today around 10, met with an agent who was very clued in. Instead of 2 separate bookings, he said he will just adjust everything, charge me companion voucher Avios the second time and rather than doing full price and refund, he merged everything. So I am now left with 1 booking reference, that was turned into a Round Trip on behalf of this guy.

This made it so that I did not need to have extra Avios in my pot.. but better safe than sorry.

All in all, far better experience and a lot cheaper on fees and Avios – my round trip came in at 147K Avios and £400 or so in fees for 2 PAX, as opposed to BA’s option of at least 200k Avios plus £1100 in fees or something! A short economy hop over to Madrid from Dublin and we’ll still be saving money and points.