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After my failed attempt outlined above, I spotted a single LHR to HND CW seat on 26 March 2026. But in my haste and weary 2:20am state I do not believe the 241 voucher was applied, it’s still visible and I paid 100k Avios. I still have 200k available so my question is, can I apply the 241 voucher when I can to book the return flight? Should I call tomorrow and see If they can retrospectively apply to this flight?
You can’t apply the voucher retrospectively; but you can cancel and rebook (free, if within 24 hours). At this stage, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the seat would reappear. You could also call and ask BA to do this as they will be able to grab the seat as soon as it reappears, however they might charge you the £15 phone fee.
This was the right call, thanks! A little nervous as agent said it was not a guarantee the seat would go back into the avios pool, but it did. Was able to cancel aviso flight and seat charge as within 24hr cool off.
She confirmed I could not have done it the other way around. i.e booked the return leg with CV and asked them to link and refund the outbound.
Had an odd experience yesterday for what I think is a popular route – Lon -> Kuala Lumpur for flights just released for March 27th 2026. Tried at 1am and didn’t see any flights released so presume they got snapped up quickly. Set up Seatspy alert which pinged at 8.40pm last night. Managed to grab 2 seats using 2 for 1 voucher. Still need 1 more seat but hoping 1 will be easier than 3. Seatspy sub paid for. Presume somebody who had booked changed their mind.
But maybe a good lesson to have alerts set up even on day they go on sale t-355.
The alert doesn’t always arrive until some time after the seats appear, unfortunately. I’ve seen award seats appear up to 30 mins after midnight/1 am, I don’t think they are all loaded up at the same time. Just my empirical 2 penn’orth. Not done midnight/1 am for a few years now, but when I was after those vital dates to coincide with school holidays AND annual leave, I spent quite a bit of time hovering over the computer in the dead of night!
Finally got a flight booked. I rang the Australian number (+611300767177) using Viber at just after 12.45am and went via the option for Executive Club – make a new booking.
The guy knew what I wanted to do and suggested that I ask him about something else whilst waiting, to occupy us for just over 5mins. I asked if he could take a look at hotels. I got a tad worried at almost exactly 1am when he was still talking about one of the potential hotel bookings, but he said he’d secured the flight for me about 30 seconds after 1am.
Took a little while to confirm everything but he was able to pull up my saved passenger info and take payment via me entering my card details using the phone keypad. Whole call was circa 30mins.
After the flight was all confirmed he got quite pushy about me booking a hotel and I did have to tell him a few times that I need to evaluate my options. I actually found the same hotel he’d quoted for around £500 less on another website. He claimed BA is better because they talk directly to the hotel, etc etc, but I’m not prepared to pay that much more. It wasn’t even a booking that was flexible or free to cancel. Not too fussed about this as he’s just doing his job and actually was very patient and helpful regarding the flight booking.
Flight info:
110k Avios
Taxes/fees of £605 including £30 charge for the call centre booking – totally worth it as there’s no way to be quick enough on the website. Note that you must pay with an Amex card if using the companion voucher
LHR-HKG in Business in t-355
Using a companion voucher. Return to be booked when available using the same method.
As a blue member it would have cost anywhere from £75-120 per passenger to choose a seat but I’m going to take a chance on that and hope that we sit together. If not, no big deal.Have seen various confusion about USA call centre closing at unexpected times and not available for the 1am summer time booking window. Could this not be because USA moves to summer time a different weekend to UK? 2nd Sunday in March rather than 4th SUnday? So there will be a 2 week window where the times don’t really line up
Russ
Finally got a flight booked. I rang the Australian number (+611300767177) using Viber at just after 12.45am and went via the option for Executive Club – make a new booking.
The guy knew what I wanted to do and suggested that I ask him about something else whilst waiting, to occupy us for just over 5mins. I asked if he could take a look at hotels. I got a tad worried at almost exactly 1am when he was still talking about one of the potential hotel bookings, but he said he’d secured the flight for me about 30 seconds after 1am.
Took a little while to confirm everything but he was able to pull up my saved passenger info and take payment via me entering my card details using the phone keypad. Whole call was circa 30mins.
After the flight was all confirmed he got quite pushy about me booking a hotel and I did have to tell him a few times that I need to evaluate my options. I actually found the same hotel he’d quoted for around £500 less on another website. He claimed BA is better because they talk directly to the hotel, etc etc, but I’m not prepared to pay that much more. It wasn’t even a booking that was flexible or free to cancel. Not too fussed about this as he’s just doing his job and actually was very patient and helpful regarding the flight booking.
Flight info:
110k Avios
Taxes/fees of £605 including £30 charge for the call centre booking – totally worth it as there’s no way to be quick enough on the website. Note that you must pay with an Amex card if using the companion voucher
LHR-HKG in Business in t-355
Using a companion voucher. Return to be booked when available using the same method.
As a blue member it would have cost anywhere from £75-120 per passenger to choose a seat but I’m going to take a chance on that and hope that we sit together. If not, no big deal.Great insight, thanks for this!
Finally got a flight booked. I rang the Australian number (+611300767177) using Viber at just after 12.45am and went via the option for Executive Club – make a new booking.
The guy knew what I wanted to do and suggested that I ask him about something else whilst waiting, to occupy us for just over 5mins. I asked if he could take a look at hotels. I got a tad worried at almost exactly 1am when he was still talking about one of the potential hotel bookings, but he said he’d secured the flight for me about 30 seconds after 1am.
Took a little while to confirm everything but he was able to pull up my saved passenger info and take payment via me entering my card details using the phone keypad. Whole call was circa 30mins.
After the flight was all confirmed he got quite pushy about me booking a hotel and I did have to tell him a few times that I need to evaluate my options. I actually found the same hotel he’d quoted for around £500 less on another website. He claimed BA is better because they talk directly to the hotel, etc etc, but I’m not prepared to pay that much more. It wasn’t even a booking that was flexible or free to cancel. Not too fussed about this as he’s just doing his job and actually was very patient and helpful regarding the flight booking.
Flight info:
110k Avios
Taxes/fees of £605 including £30 charge for the call centre booking – totally worth it as there’s no way to be quick enough on the website. Note that you must pay with an Amex card if using the companion voucher
LHR-HKG in Business in t-355
Using a companion voucher. Return to be booked when available using the same method.
As a blue member it would have cost anywhere from £75-120 per passenger to choose a seat but I’m going to take a chance on that and hope that we sit together. If not, no big deal.Well done! I’ll see you on the flight as I managed to nab the other two CW seats using my companion voucher. I didn’t call though. I tried my luck on the website, managing to get the flight booked in about 45 seconds after 1am. It was a very nervous wait whilst watching the page load as it was taking payment and confirming the booking.
Need some help to make sure we’re not going mad!
Have booked Madrid to Tokyo on Iberia using companion voucher. Yesterday morning we added the inbound leg of Tokyo to Madrid. Were told that it would be sent to ticketing to calculate the additional taxes we need to pay. We haven’t received those details yet.
The Tokyo to Madrid leg doesn’t get into Madrid until after the last Iberia flight to London leaves, so this morning we have phoned up to add the Madrid to London leg. Ended up spending almost an hour and a half on the phone, almost an hour of that was the agent disappearing to calculate the taxes. We were quote £404, which would be the taxes from Tokyo all the way to London (bearing in mind as I said that the Tokyo to Madid section is still with ticketing). That isn’t right – we are doing Tokyo to Madrid in premium economy (couldn’t get business), and the business taxes are around £190, so presumably premium economy should be lower (the system was playing up yesterday morning so didn’t display the taxes)? Then the Madrid to London flights are 15000 each (so 15000 as have the companion voucher) plus £49 taxes all together. So nowhere near £404.
We queried the cost, so the agent then went to speak to his team leader. He came back and said that the Madrid to London leg couldn’t be added to the Tokyo to Madrid leg using the companion voucher, as it was like a second outbound flight which wasn’t allowed. Didn’t listen to our reasoning, just continued to state that that was the case.
We then told him to leave it, and asked if he could give us the figures for our Tokyo to Madrid leg, which went to be calculated by the back office. He said he couldn’t, as they were still with the back office. So how on earth could he give us a price in the first place if that part hasn’t been calculated? He said he wasn’t allowed to send the whole lot to the back office as the system was giving him a figure.
I’m sure plenty of other people have been able to add on the Madrid to London leg using the companion voucher and I’ve read it on here. Did we just get a bad agent, or was what he said correct?
TLDR
Can you do Madrid to Tokyo as the outbound flight, then Tokyo to Madrid to London on the inbound flight (all on Iberia) using the companion voucher (when the 2 inbound flights are separated by an overnight in Madrid because the flight from Tokyo gets in too late to Madrid to fly straight to London the same night)?
Assuming yes, are we better to wait until ticketing have come back with the details of the costs for the Tokyo to Madrid leg and we’ve paid it before then trying to add on the Madrid to London leg?
I’ve managed to book online my outbound journey for 2xCW Newcastle to Singapore flights for Easter 2026. I’m aware I’ll need to call at 1am hopefully the US number to get my return flights added on to fully utilise the CV. When I’m looking online to practice scoping out availability the return flights from Singapore seem to be released online one day later than the outbound journey – so today I can book T-355 which is 2nd April for Lhr-Sin but looking at the inbound journey Sin-lhr it’s only available on 1st April. Does anyone know if this is always the case for the Singapore flights? Any advice or insight much appreciated! First time using companion voucher and want to make sure I phone up on the correct day and only have to get up at 1am once! Thanks
Your NCL connection is likely to be the following day, so you need to book SIN-LHR when that’s released at T-355, then call BA and ask them to add LHR-NCL once that’s released. It’s extra work but at least you won’t need to stay up till 1 am for that one! If you end up booking the return with full avios and requesting 50% back (you may need to be prepared to try this if you can’t get through on the phone), you can do it at the same time.
I flew from NCL last autumn, what a lovely little airport!
Hello – first time poster here, we have been saving our avios for quite some time now (currently around 210k avios). We already have a reward flight booked to Rome this year but have a companion voucher due to expire september 26′ and are looking to book a return flight to florida next year in business as we are going on a one week cruise in April next year so thought we would tag on a few days before or after to spend some days in Florida.
In an ideal world we are looking to fly out from London on 5th or 6th April 26′ to Orlando and then return from Orlando to London on either 18th or 19th April 26. I appreciate this is in an ideal world and not having as much flexibility is not great for us.
I have done my research and am also going to sign up to rewardflightfinder this evening BUT can I just check my understanding is correct;-
– Currently flights are released until 2nd April 2026 so if we want to book our outbound flight for 5th April 2026 then I either need to phone on Tuesday (going in to wednesday) at midnight OR go online to BA’s website and to try and secure 2 business class reward flights using the companion voucher?
– For the return trip on 18th or 19th April 26′ I would need to phone or go online on 28th or 29th April 2025?
In order to add some sort of flexibility we could possibly fly in or out to Miami or Tampa international airports then hiring a car to drive across to Florida – I feel like that could be a possiblity for us?
I also did see that we could possibly fly to Dublin and then get on a BA flight from Dublin to Florida if that may open us up to more seats.
I feel a little stressed about this as it’s all come around so soon – I am trying to do my own research but wondered if someone could sense check the above?
Thank you so much in advance!
D&D.Your NCL connection is likely to be the following day, so you need to book SIN-LHR when that’s released at T-355, then call BA and ask them to add LHR-NCL once that’s released. It’s extra work but at least you won’t need to stay up till 1 am for that one! If you end up booking the return with full avios and requesting 50% back (you may need to be prepared to try this if you can’t get through on the phone), you can do it at the same time.
I flew from NCL last autumn, what a lovely little airport!
Thank you NorthernLass, that makes total sense! Newcastle airport is great and only 30mins from home so really convenient for us!
@dalendan, there will be a lot of competition for FL flights, especially on your outbound dates as that is Easter weekend next year. Definitely consider MIA and TPA as well, you can also fly into one and out of another, although you may end up mixing and matching LHR and LGW if you do this. ATL is another option which is driveable from Orlando, or you could get a connecting flight.
You can do a dummy booking to track which will be the next date to be released. Don’t rely on SeatSpy as the alerts aren’t always sent until several hours after the seats appear.
Aer Lingus doesn’t release as many seats as BA so availability from DUB is likely to be even tighter than from LGW/LHR. BA doesn’t fly from there directly – you’d need to connect back to London so would still be booking from the same inventory as going direct.
Thanks to the solid advice from derbydave and goldenface I managed to snag three seats in club for the return flight from Orlando. I initially got through at 12.56am and the agent refused to wait so it was a mad dash to dial back but once through, seats were secured whilst the booking process took place. All I would say is make sure you know how many Avios you need as they called back twice saying ‘apologies,‘it’s actually this much’. All in all, a successful 1am booking!
Great news, but make sure you’re ticketed properly. There should be numbers starting 125 for each of you on your booking confirmation email.
How many avios have you actually been charged? BA call centre staff seem to get less reliable by the day at the moment!
Great news, but make sure you’re ticketed properly. There should be numbers starting 125 for each of you on your booking confirmation email.
How many avios have you actually been charged? BA call centre staff seem to get less reliable by the day at the moment!
All ticketed too, thanks for the reminder though! The companion voucher might have confused things but they started on 150k, rang back and said 180k and rang back again, settling on 200k avios which is what I expected in the first place.
travelwell
Congrats – what number did you call to book?
Finally got a flight booked. I rang the Australian number (+611300767177) using Viber at just after 12.45am and went via the option for Executive Club – make a new booking.
The guy knew what I wanted to do and suggested that I ask him about something else whilst waiting, to occupy us for just over 5mins. I asked if he could take a look at hotels. I got a tad worried at almost exactly 1am when he was still talking about one of the potential hotel bookings, but he said he’d secured the flight for me about 30 seconds after 1am.
Took a little while to confirm everything but he was able to pull up my saved passenger info and take payment via me entering my card details using the phone keypad. Whole call was circa 30mins.
After the flight was all confirmed he got quite pushy about me booking a hotel and I did have to tell him a few times that I need to evaluate my options. I actually found the same hotel he’d quoted for around £500 less on another website. He claimed BA is better because they talk directly to the hotel, etc etc, but I’m not prepared to pay that much more. It wasn’t even a booking that was flexible or free to cancel. Not too fussed about this as he’s just doing his job and actually was very patient and helpful regarding the flight booking.
Flight info:
110k Avios
Taxes/fees of £605 including £30 charge for the call centre booking – totally worth it as there’s no way to be quick enough on the website. Note that you must pay with an Amex card if using the companion voucher
LHR-HKG in Business in t-355
Using a companion voucher. Return to be booked when available using the same method.
As a blue member it would have cost anywhere from £75-120 per passenger to choose a seat but I’m going to take a chance on that and hope that we sit together. If not, no big deal.Tried exactly this last night for our return leg from UVF-LGW. Agent was adamant he had no access to my account and could only do it for NZ/Aus account holders so it goes to show it’s very hit and miss.
Got online at the stroke of 1am and while I didn’t manage to bag the 4 x CW I ideally wanted I did get 2 x CW and 2 x PE so still a good result given school holidays!
travelwell
Congrats – what number did you call to book?
The Australian number. If you are looking for Orlando, some days have two flights which will help your chances as you’ve got double availability!
Hi
Thanks to the arrival of children, I haven’t had to book a 2-4-1 since 2017 (Cape Town). However, we are now in a position where we have two vouchers, sufficient Avios, and a special occasion to justify all of us travelling in business. I have booked the out leg, London to Dubai, and now I’ve been researching the best strategy to book the return leg 355 days in advance (school holidays) but its unclear if I should:
– Book return leg online and then phone later to merge the bookings (i have the avios needed); or
– Phone the call centre to book the return leg, if so which call centre (Australia, USA, etc)Any advice would be appreciated and whether booking online would mean I cant use the RFS prices as I wouldnt be using a voucher (initially) when making that booking.
Thanks
The best method these days is to hedge your bets, get in the phone just before 1 am as per lots of posts on this thread, but also try and book online simultaneously. It’ll still be RFS pricing (you can check this with a dummy booking).
They won’t merge the bookings if you manage to do it online, you need to state your outbound reservation details plus use of the 241, then request 50% of the avios back. You’ll be left with 2 separate bookings but this doesn’t need to cause any issues.
I think there are 2/3 daily DXB services so you should be ok.
Need some advice please..
I have managed to book my outbound leg for flight to Tokyo with my Amex companion voucher. I then used a evoucher for young adult and child, to make our family of 4 on the outbound..waiting for the dates to book the return flight, will be Easter time 2026. I will be flying to New York JFK on the day the return is released. I land at 17:30 and by my calculations the flighs will be available at 8pm local time (1am London)
Question is, would I be able to go to the ticket office in New York airport and book the flight. On experience, I’ll be waiting for an HR or so to get through security. If I can book flights at the ticket office in the airport, does an know where it is, more importantly will it be open at 8pm local time.
Much obligedJust try and do it online, or make sure you can call from your phone. I doubt that even if there is some sort of customer service desk they’d be willing or able to do this.
Just do it online? I doubt that even if there is some sort of customer service desk they’d be willing or able to do this.
If I do it online and miss the return leg, I’m a bit snookered..I would have thought.. do I need to snag the rewards flight. If I have the outbound I pay 40k avois (peak for the return leg) not sure on the cost for my kids. They’re flight is non-refundable, so in deep. If I don’t get the return flights
Well I hope you get your seats, but you’re taking a massive risk on Tokyo even if you were sitting at home with your phone! You might be ok with economy seats, which the number of avios you’re quoting looks to correlate with.
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