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So is it still a case of calling Australia? We are into US daylight saving so the US line is open until 1am, but does that mean you can call at 10 to and they will still do it?
If I manage to book LHR to wherever online at 1am, could I then call up in the morning and add the Manchester connection free?
You can book your outbound from MAN, no need to call. It’s the inbound which causes issues.
If you do call to add it, they’ll probably charge you a fee because it was already available and you could have booked it online.
Just realised I’m talking Barclaycard not Amex. When we booked for Delhi we had to call as it would not allow us to book both flights online. Just thinking about making a plan to try and get a Tokyo outbound but was going to aimlessly try online before I give up and do the 1am call!
To use the Barclays voucher for CW, yes you need to call to add the domestic leg.
Report back!
I’ve booked an outbound flight to HND with a 241 CV in Club World. I’m looking at a future 3-4 day window to attempt booking my return leg. If I had enough points could I… Book whatever cabin I can get on night 1/4 as a fallback. Then try the next three nights for a business seat, and if successful, call another day to both cancel the fallback flight and request the later CW ticket is linked to the outbound CV?
To use the Barclays voucher for CW, yes you need to call to add the domestic leg.
Report back!
Will do, just stayed up till 1am to try snag 2 to Tokyo only to find out 9th April 26 is peak – poor research from me. Not worth the extra 55000 avios though, pretty flexible on dates just want to fly on a Thursday. Off to bed late for no reason!
I have a Household Acc and my wife has a CV. If I ring the Australian number at 1am, will I be able to use this or does she have to be present?
You’ll need to be a nominated person on her account to use her voucher, regardless of the HHA, so you should set this up before you call so she doesn’t have to stay up with you!
I’m looking at booking the ever popular London – Tokyo route with a Barclaycard cabin upgrade voucher for my wife and I. We’re quite tight on dates for travel (she has allocated leave) but can flex a day or two. Outbound likely to be around 16-19th May. I’m hoping (praying?) that being later in May will mean slightly less demand – maybe I’m dreaming?
My plan base don this forum is to call the Australian/Japanese customer service number around half hour before 1am whilst also having the website details up and ready just in case.
Is it wishful thinking aiming for a specific date or will we do better as it’s not blossom season?
Does feel a little reassuring seeing some(!) success here.
You won’t know until you try. Someone has to get those seats!
I managed to successfully add my return flight from Orlando for 10 April calling the Australian number (+61 1300 767 177) just before 1am this morning so wanted to add my experience as hopefully helpful for others like me doing this for the first time.
I ended up calling 3 times using Rebtel app on my phone (total cost for calls of £1.96 for c35 minutes of call time), each time connecting to an agent in India – the first I had to hang up because there was a bad delay on the line; the second I called at 0048 and got through to someone at 0050 and took about 3 minutes to clear security but when I explained I wanted to add a return flight that would be released in about 7 minutes, they advised they wouldn’t be able to wait on the line. I then called back at 0055, got through security at 0058 and explained what I needed. The agent advised they couldn’t see availability. I explained that was because flights would only be released in a couple of minutes. When 0100 ticked over, I asked them to check again but they advised they still had no availability showing and were looking to hang up but I checked quickly myself online and saw they were available so asked them to do one more check which they did and confirmed the flight I wanted. They then were able to hold these immediately (checking online immediately after I could see all availability for both flights that day had now gone) and said they would need to confirm the avios required but also advised there would be a £35pp change fee and £15pp admin fee. I queried the fees and they said they could request to waive the admin fee but not the change fee. As I wanted the flights, I said I’d accept paying these (in the expectation of trying to get refunded later). I was then put on hold for approximately 15 minutes while they checked the charges. When they came back, they confirmed the number of avios and cash that I was expecting (exactly same as the outbound cost) and also that they wouldn’t charge the change or admin fees in these circumstances. Then took some time to provide payment details etc and they’ve advised it will take up to 72hrs for the new ticket to be issued but the full return trip is at least already showing on my BA account.
The agent was very polite and while they didn’t appear to have dealt with this scenario before or know about reward flights being released at 0100, it all worked out well in the end! Hope others are as lucky as I’ve been with this.
I’m just here to report that yesterday I went on the BA website, booked both outbound and return at the same time using a 241 voucher for my preferred location on dates that I was more than happy with. That’s all!
Hi, I’m hoping someone can advise.
I want to book a return flight for next Easter. I have already managed to book the outbound with our companion voucher for 4 economy tickets on a very popular route. My question is, can I book the return flight on the app rather than calling Australia/Usa, using miles plus money? I have enough miles for the return flights in economy (90k) but no spare miles, so would they refund me the difference if I paid a higher fare for the return? I had to go through the calling USA route in 2023 for a return and I think I still have PTSD from the stress of it!! Thanks!I’m looking at booking the ever popular London – Tokyo route with a Barclaycard cabin upgrade voucher for my wife and I. We’re quite tight on dates for travel (she has allocated leave) but can flex a day or two. Outbound likely to be around 16-19th May. I’m hoping (praying?) that being later in May will mean slightly less demand – maybe I’m dreaming?
My plan base don this forum is to call the Australian/Japanese customer service number around half hour before 1am whilst also having the website details up and ready just in case.
Is it wishful thinking aiming for a specific date or will we do better as it’s not blossom season?
Does feel a little reassuring seeing some(!) success here.
They won’t stay on the line if you call half an hour before – try at 10 mins before the release and you should have cleared security by 1. Maybe do a dummy run the day before to see how quickly you get through.
My wife and I are travelling to South America over Easter next year using a 2-4-1 companion voucher.
I booked my outbound:MAD-LIM on IB, and then booked the return GIG-LHR on BA earlier this week when the tickets opened up – booking done online as I had enough Avios in my account.
Called BA earlier today to ask for a refund of 50% Avios, as the return leg was not available when I booked the outbound. The agent went away to talk to someone and came back to say the return leg could not be added to the companion voucher as LHR is not in the same zone as MAD – the only options are to return to MAD (which is a bit of a pain + no business class availability) or amend the outbound leg to add an LHR-MAD leg (which increases the taxes significantly.)
Is this right – have others faced this when they are flying out from MAD and returning to LHR, or do I need to keep trying till I find an agent who’s willing to apply the necessary changes. I’ve read that sometimes they can be reluctant esp if taxes are low – which they are for both legs when compared to a return ticket from LHR.
@Scanduck – This was being discussed yesterday in the chat thread and another dedicated one (plus a few posts back here. as well, I think). Are you travelling to and from the same South American airport or different ones? They now have to be in the same zone, basically, but adding a short-haul leg at the end should be ok.
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/calling-ba-to-book-an-iberia-flight/page/2/
@Scanduck – This was being discussed yesterday in the chat thread and another dedicated one (plus a few posts back here. as well, I think). Are you travelling to and from the same South American airport or different ones? They now have to be in the same zone, basically, but adding a short-haul leg at the end should be ok.
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/calling-ba-to-book-an-iberia-flight/page/2/
I’m flying from Madrid to Lima (Iberia), but back from Rio to LHR (BA), it’s an open jaw booking.
Reading that other thread you linked to, sounds like I need to return to the same airport (Madrid) but then add a MAD-LHR leg to the companion voucher. Have I got this right?
@scanduck – if you already have MAD-LIM//GIG-LHR booked, hang on to it!
The new policy would appear no longer to allow you to book that routing, but also wouldn’t allow you to return from Rio via Madrid to London. The basis BA is giving for disallowing a routing such as this is a requirement that origin open jaws need to have the origins both in the same pricing zone and for this routing Madrid and London aren’t.
@scanduck – if you already have MAD-LIM//GIG-LHR booked, hang on to it!
The new policy would appear no longer to allow you to book that routing, but also wouldn’t allow you to return from Rio via Madrid to London. The basis BA is giving for disallowing a routing such as this is a requirement that origin open jaws need to have the origins both in the same pricing zone and for this routing Madrid and London aren’t.
Thanks @JDB. The problem was the agent I spoke to a couple of days back refused to refund the 50% Avios on the return booking because of different zones, but this morning I spoke to a different agent who executed the refund. Not planning to change this booking now!
Had a positive if not slightly tiring experience booking a return leg this week. Phoned the Australian number at 12.50am and was through to someone in the Delhi call centre very quickly – then my Skype credit ran out but the agent called me back! He grabbed 4 Club World seat. I wanted to make two separate bookings as we had for the outbound (two companion vouchers).
Mine went through fine, and as my wife’s was being processed, the BA IT bug hit! Agent said he’d phone me in an hour – which he did but still the system was down. He then promised to keep trying and after an hour called back again with the good news that the IT problem had been resolved and proceeded to finalised the booking.
Went to bed at about 4am!!!
Throughout the process, the flights were held for me which I thought was great and kudos to the agent for phoning back as promised.
@scanduck – if you already have MAD-LIM//GIG-LHR booked, hang on to it!
The new policy would appear no longer to allow you to book that routing, but also wouldn’t allow you to return from Rio via Madrid to London. The basis BA is giving for disallowing a routing such as this is a requirement that origin open jaws need to have the origins both in the same pricing zone and for this routing Madrid and London aren’t.
Thanks @JDB. The problem was the agent I spoke to a couple of days back refused to refund the 50% Avios on the return booking because of different zones, but this morning I spoke to a different agent who executed the refund. Not planning to change this booking now!
Great; better buy a lottery ticket! Sometimes, lack of staff training or people WFH so not up to speed with changes can work in your favour. The 50% back strategy raises fewer questions and keeps the booking away from those ‘in the know’ (i.e. fares/ticketing) and also works better with a BA long haul return which, unlike Iberia, can be booked online at release.
Just thought I would let everyone know just how simple it all was for the following. using Amex 2 4 1 All flights in business via Iberia & I used https://www.flighttimecalendar.com/ to check for availability.
They were booked 360 days out
MAD – MIA 28 March 26
MIA – MAD 8 April 26
MAD – LHR 9 Apr 26Phoned BA UK call centre 3 April Booked the 28th. 14th April phoned again booked the inbound & next day phoned for the MAD – LHR leg
Staff were super helpful, despite a few IT issues
Total cost 122750 Avios & £530 taxes & fees all under one booking reference
A very good return given we got the 60k bonus Avios with Amex
Thanks to everyone who helped, when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
(Rob, getting slightly more than 1p per Avios!!)
Well done on getting willing and able agents each time! Was this a mix of peak and off-peak pricing? It looks either a bit high or a bit low depending on which side you’re looking at it from!
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