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@Northernlass – Thank you for your advice and links. So doing me research, do I have this correct?
Using Peak for ease, Tokyo is 110,000 per person per leg (WT+ 77,500)
So, SK/BK on a 341 voucher booked on the day the flights come out – one way – 110,000
NK on a Comp Voucher so WT+ one way (for Club World upgrade) 38750
Then, on the return date release
SK/BK single WT+ tickets x 2 = 220,000
NK on Comp Voucher = 38750So, total Avios req = 470,500
Obviously ring after and comb bookings to get Avios refund of 110,000
Am i paying anything extra in respect of two bookings?
An the risk is after booking Outbound is I cannot get an Inbound, yeah? Then I have a problem with cancelling and paying fees?@Noodles34, there is indeed and this thread is it, as the name suggests! Lots of posts about securing seats to and from HND on BA, and NRT, on IB (though you can’t use the upgrade voucher on the latter, and they don’t guarantee to release more than 2 business class seats).
Also, e.g.
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/tokyo-reward-flights/
Also this and similar articles:
https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/03/11/how-to-use-ba-amex-241-voucher/
Thank you
@Ladyshopper, I don’t think I can absorb your entire post as it’s still quite early where I am, but you should have no problem getting the MAD-LHR leg added once it’s released, and it’s unlikely you’d need to do it at midnight for that route. It will be the standard price for an award seat, and shouldn’t cause the APD to increase as it would if you did it the other way around. Plenty of people have reported doing this since it became possible to use the 241 on IB.
Thanks Northern Lass. I appreciate it was a long post with a fair few questions on! Do you know if we would be charged an amendment fee for adding it on later, and if so how much that is? Not sure I’ve ever charged an avios booking before so have no clue.
@Ladyshopper here is some advice: For the inbound to MAD you probably don’t need to be on the phone during the night as Iberia flights are often released not until 10am – so you want to check a few days before you want to book when the award seat appear. For the MAD-LON leg you will need to phone again but there is no urgency as short haul usually have space. I think you want an Iberia flight, not BA as the BA flight may be much more expensive in Avios and fees. Also, we did the last leg MAD-LHR in economy, but which only saved us around 60£ in Avios (I assume). I now slightly regret it because it now uses the Iberia long-haul plane with a proper lie flat in Business. However, we may me seated in PE as there is usually no PE on the route.
My husband has been dedicated to the cause and studying all the release times etc. There was one night when the seats actually weren’t released until T-359 rather than T-360, but other than that they seemed to be released at midnight recently (I guess it will now be 1am following the clock change). Certainly on the night that he booked, he could see them released at midnight, although had some issues actually getting through to speak to someone (long story). There was then some sort of glitch as I mentioned in my previous post, whereby seats showed as available, then disappeared, then the agent was able to secure PE although they had disappeared, and then when he checked again at 4am the business class seats had re-appeared, so another call was made to secure those, so he got there in the end.
It does seem that in general, people don’t seem to be phoning at T-360 as seats are still showing as available for a few days afterwards, in fact usually until they appear on the BA site 5 days later (although the latest Tokyo-Madrid tickets released haven’t followed that pattern, but disappeared some time between last night and this morning rather than being available until Wednesday which would have been when they appeared on BA site at T-355).
We did think about economy home for the Madrid to London leg, but I think I’d rather do business just to make it easier with additional luggage. And a bit of extra comfort for the last leg home would be nice, even if it is only a couple of hours!
If you’re doing it via BA, there shouldn’t be a change or phone fee because the short haul leg wasn’t available when you booked the long haul, and you can’t do it online. Some agents get a bit confused about the rules these days, however, so you may get asked to pay. If they don’t back down, you’ll either have to pay up or HUACA.
Hello,
I am sure this has been answered somewhere in the previous 60-odd pages, so I’m sorry for re-asking, but it’s hopefully a simple enough request for advice: I have a household account with plenty of Avios. I have a companion voucher in my name, and another in my wife’s name. I will make two separate bookings, using household avios, one in my name and one in my wife’s name for outbound, plus our two children (one in each booking). It’s likely I can achieve this with two computers logged into respective accounts at 1am (BST!). So far so good.
But for the return, I’d rather call to ensure availability – what’s the best way to make sure my booking, as well as my wife’s booking, get sorted for the return leg? Force her to stay up until 1am as well, on a separate call? Or is there a better way? Many thanks!
Hi everyone, just booked the outbound leg with a companion voucher. Not super flush with Avios but wonder if we made a one way Avios +cash booking for the return, could the BA exec club team apply the two for one voucher the following day via some form of rebalancing?
Hello,
I am sure this has been answered somewhere in the previous 60-odd pages, so I’m sorry for re-asking, but it’s hopefully a simple enough request for advice: I have a household account with plenty of Avios. I have a companion voucher in my name, and another in my wife’s name. I will make two separate bookings, using household avios, one in my name and one in my wife’s name for outbound, plus our two children (one in each booking). It’s likely I can achieve this with two computers logged into respective accounts at 1am (BST!). So far so good.
But for the return, I’d rather call to ensure availability – what’s the best way to make sure my booking, as well as my wife’s booking, get sorted for the return leg? Force her to stay up until 1am as well, on a separate call? Or is there a better way? Many thanks!
You need to be a third party nominee for her account and have a password set up you can give them (well some random letters from it). I would also have her credit card nearby as if using a companion voucher I have found you can’t pay for the flights with my own card when it was my husbands voucher.
Hi everyone, just booked the outbound leg with a companion voucher. Not super flush with Avios but wonder if we made a one way Avios +cash booking for the return, could the BA exec club team apply the two for one voucher the following day via some form of rebalancing?
Only if you’ve paid the same balance of avios and cash on the outbound, why not call them to add it on? Or is a super popular route?
Hi everyone, just booked the outbound leg with a companion voucher. Not super flush with Avios but wonder if we made a one way Avios +cash booking for the return, could the BA exec club team apply the two for one voucher the following day via some form of rebalancing?
Only if you’ve paid the same balance of avios and cash on the outbound, why not call them to add it on? Or is a super popular route?
I’ve been told before that the Avios/cash balance can differ across the two flights, but that seems to be agent dependent…
Hi everyone, just booked the outbound leg with a companion voucher. Not super flush with Avios but wonder if we made a one way Avios +cash booking for the return, could the BA exec club team apply the two for one voucher the following day via some form of rebalancing?
Only if you’ve paid the same balance of avios and cash on the outbound, why not call them to add it on? Or is a super popular route?
Definitely a popular route and seems like with BST now in, the USA call center can be hit and miss. No clear answer if it actually is open past 1am. I did just do the standard Avios price
Similar issue.
I’ve already booked an outbound to BKK on BA using a companion voucher. And I’ve booked a reward flight back home from Phuket with Finnair.
One of my daughters is now considering moving to Perth for a year in January and we’re considering how we might tag on a trip from Thailand at the end of our March trip.
I have enough avios to add a return from BKK using the other half of the companion voucher and I’ll need to book that in about a week to 10 days time.
However if I call BA to do this and the outbound and inbound to/from BKK are combined would I be able to cancel the inbound separately if the plan changes and we decide to fly back from Phuket on Finnair and not go to Perth at all.
Obviously I need to keep the outbound whatever, but this gives me the option of 2 ways home depending on the outcome of my daughters arrival timing in Perth.
Thanks
If you’re booking the inbound at T-355, you can book it online and ask BA for half the avios back. You’ll then be left with 2 separate bookings and can do what you want with the inbound, including after you’ve flown the outbound, which you can’t if it’s all on one PNR.
Hello,
I am sure this has been answered somewhere in the previous 60-odd pages, so I’m sorry for re-asking, but it’s hopefully a simple enough request for advice: I have a household account with plenty of Avios. I have a companion voucher in my name, and another in my wife’s name. I will make two separate bookings, using household avios, one in my name and one in my wife’s name for outbound, plus our two children (one in each booking). It’s likely I can achieve this with two computers logged into respective accounts at 1am (BST!). So far so good.
But for the return, I’d rather call to ensure availability – what’s the best way to make sure my booking, as well as my wife’s booking, get sorted for the return leg? Force her to stay up until 1am as well, on a separate call? Or is there a better way? Many thanks!
You need to be a third party nominee for her account and have a password set up you can give them (well some random letters from it). I would also have her credit card nearby as if using a companion voucher I have found you can’t pay for the flights with my own card when it was my husbands voucher.
Thank you! I can manage that and better than both of us being knackered next day. So a single call to one advisor and I could manage this. Thanks
Hi Team — Apologies if this has been asked before regarding a BA companion voucher.
I don’t have enough Avios for two separate reward bookings, which I would combine with the corresponding Avios reimbursement.
If I book a one-way outbound online flight using the companion voucher, can I call the telephone line and add the return flight without paying double Avios and getting a reimbursement?
Thank you!
If you call to add, you would only be charged avios that’s due after taking the voucher into account.
I wondered if anyone has had any recent success calling at 1am since BST and recent comments around the USA call centre closing at 1am. Is there another solution?
Hi all,
just wanted to double check and confirm I have it right before I book my outgoing (and eventually return flight) in the next few weeks.So book the outgoing flight I want using my avios and companion voucher when it becomes available at midnight. AND I only book the outgoing flight (so for example if I wanted to fly out April 1st 2026 I only book that flight and not the return). Pay and complete that booking using my avios and any taxes etc.
Then for the return flight (lets say 2 weeks later for April 14th 2026) I phone up BA customer service on around 28th April 2025 (355 days as that is when the flight goes live) and ask BA to amend my current booking adding on the return flight I want. That flight will still be valid to use with the companion voucher and will cost me about the same avios/cost (taxes etc) as the outgoing flight.
Is there anything else that I should be aware of or any more tips that would be good to know ahead of doing this method/strategy?
Thanks all 🙂
I wondered if anyone has had any recent success calling at 1am since BST and recent comments around the USA call centre closing at 1am. Is there another solution?
All I can share is my experience of booking MEX-LON a couple of years ago (I’m about to repeat this in a few days for our next trip):
– It was easy to do, having booked outbound LON-SJO a couple of weeks before hand online: advisor knew what I wanted to do, and hung around for 5 minutes for the 1am BST ticket release
– I did NOT call the US, or Japan. I called the Australian number: at either 9 or 10 hours ahead (AEST / AEDT), it would be firmly in office hours
– The call was picked up within a minute, I explained what I needed, the operator was knowledgeable and reassuring, and everything was sorted(to answer the above post as well at the same time: yes you’re correct. You book outbound using companion voucher(s), you wait the holiday period, you call up some time before 1am BST, you explain, they say fine, and everything is put together for you (companion vouchers applied to inbound / return, Avios calculated correctly, tickets placed on same booking)
I do not know if my experience was particular for its smoothness: it’s entirely possible you have to wait longer for someone to pick up; you read stories about certain call centres not accepting this kind of call from other countries; agents not really understanding what you want to do and so on. But based on my anecdotal evidence I’ll be happily staying up late again in a week or so
Hi all. When calling the US do you call the avios number ((855) 585-8264 ) or do you call the executive club number (1 800 452 1201) if you are trying to secure 2-4-1 voucher seats? I note the Tokyo and Sydney numbers do not work on weekends. I thought it was the executive number but now I’m confused.
I think that’s the number for Aer Lingus?! You can only use the 241 via BAEC. This is one of the issues with calling at 1 am, not all offices are open at weekends, so I think you’re stuck trying your luck with the US number.
Hi, can anybody help please. I want to add a return leg to a 2-4-1 voucher. I called 1-800-247-9297 in the USA and after spending a while having my credentials checked they told me they could do an avios booking and I should call 1-800-452-1201 but when I rang that (1.05am UK time), it was closed. Any help for a reliable number (anywhere in the world) that can process an avios booking on release of seats would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.
Are your seats going at 1 am every night? Have you tried booking online? The BAEC contact page should have numbers for Tokyo and Sydney which may work, or you can trawl a few pages back through this thread as various numbers are mentioned.
This is an impossible situation – the website doesn’t process the info quick enough to let you book. The “Australian” call centre said they aren’t allowed to book Avios flights – I spoke to two different people about it. The USA number is closed well before 1am. I know there’s limited availability for a lot of routes but there isn’t actually a way to make a booking. I may try again tomorrow but it’s frustrating having to stay up so late to do it.
Which route/cabin? As someone posted yesterday, this is only really an issue with a handful of high-demand routes; BA doesn’t guarantee to make anything other than 8/2/4 seats available for avios so the more flexible you can be, the more chance of success.
This is an impossible situation – the website doesn’t process the info quick enough to let you book…
There’s something of a self-contradiction there. If the tickets aren’t available by the time you (try to) complete the transaction it’s precisely because someone else has managed to get there first – so by definition it is possible one way or the other.
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