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Just wanted to share my experience booking the return leg of our Orlando to Gatwick trip in Business Class with our companion voucher.
I first downloaded the Rebtel app and signed up for the free one week trial of their Global Unlimited plan, so my calls to British Airways didn’t actually cost a penny, though I must now remember to cancel this. The call quality was great and there did not appear to be any lag on the call.
I called the BA Australia number (+61 1300 767 177) at 12:50am and got through to someone in about three minutes. I explained I was looking to book our return leg using the companion voucher, and before I even finished, the agent reassured me they were familiar with the process and knew exactly what to do. I gave them the booking reference for our outbound flight, but then we hit a snag as the agent said their system had just gone down and they couldn’t access any existing bookings.
The agent advised me to either book online (which wasn’t possible since I didn’t have enough Avios without the voucher) or to call back in about 30 minutes and try again. By this point, it was already 1:25am.
I called back straight away at 1:25am, but could already see online that the Business Class seats were no longer showing as available. Still, I stayed on the line and spoke to a lovely agent who again explained the system was still down. I explained how important it was for me to get the return booked and asked if there was anything at all she could do. She kept me on the line for about 10 minutes, then came back to say the system was back up and she could now proceed. She confirmed there were still two Business Class seats available on our preferred date and time, held them for me, and manually deducted the Avios. She let me know the back office would take care of the payment and I should get the amended booking confirmation 48 hours. As of now, the flight shows in my BA app, though the taxes haven’t yet been charged.
Overall, it was a pretty stressful evening. If the system hadn’t gone down, I think I would have had everything sorted by around 1:15am, but instead it was closer to 1:50am by the time I ended the call.
Not sure if it made a difference, but although I called the Australian number, I believe the call was routed to the India call centre. In any case, both agents I spoke with knew exactly how to handle the return booking & companion voucher and were genuinely helpful.
If you go to book ticket with avois put in details then use that calendar scroll right through the months and it will arrive at the latest date you can book, it’s yet another quirk of BA systems.
Yeah this is exactly how I do it. What I mean is there are simply neither of the 2 daily BA services showing at T-355 and only a handful of JAL connections a mere 2hrs after the 01:00 tickets refresh, so I dont know if I’m being an idiot and missing something, or the inbound Rewards seats really are completly gone on both BA flights and the bulk of the JAL connections that soon after 01:00
Inbound from HND is very popular right now. I lucked out and got an inbound CW seat on the first night of 4 I had earmarked to try, I then tried the next three nights with the idea to cancel the first and extend my trip by a few days. I’m very fast through the online booking process but all CW seats were gone sometimes at the stoke of 1am, a couple times I got to payment which failed at 1:01.
I had no luck on the phone; calling the US at around 00:52, by the time you get through the menus at 00:55 it says they’re closed.
I spoke with the Indian call centre three times, and they were never of any help. First time the agent didn’t seem to have a clue about reward flights appearing in a couple minutes and just said do it online because she couldn’t see availability. The next two times the agent said they didn’t deal with BA Club bookings, cash only, and gave me the number for the Australian call centre, which was exactly the one I was calling on. I used Rakuetn/Viber so I don’t know if there is some odd routing quirk that will always forward you to India rather than AUS.
It was a stressful few nights, If you have outbound I’d be prepared to go a cabin down if you have a small window of when you can return. I was initially disappointed not to get the A350 flight with club suite but now I’m just happy I got anything!
Keep checking for cancellations, a surprisingly number of people book these kind of flights speculatively then cancel when their plans are firmer.
I’ve been wondering whether you’re an martial arts practitioner from Burnley, btw 😂
Out of curiosity, why is booking the return leg so much harder than the outbound? Is it just because you have to call the call centre in most situations (if you do not have enough avios to buy in full and then get a refund). Or is there more to it than that?
I don’t think any more to it than that. Experience seems to suggest that making these bookings by phone is getting harder.
BTW to comment above, I think the Australian number will always connect you to the Indian call centre and their understanding of the process seems quite limited. I read elsewhere that BA only actually has 2 call centres now (UK and India) so while the numbers for different geographies are open at different times, whichever number you use, you will ultimately connect to one of those call centres.
A surprising number of people will also happily travel in PE or even Y on a day flight, but want a flat bed overnight. I don’t know how the timings work for HND, however.
two nights in a row I have called the Australian number to be told that they do not deal with Avios bookings and to compound that, the search on booking by Avios just keeps coming up with this?
Error
There was a problem with your request, please try again later.I do not understand what the error is?
So maybe releasing two out bound CW seats tomorrow.
whats Finnair and JAL business class like?
@Noodles34, BA IT is notoriously unpredictable, try changing browsers, clearing cookies, etc.
4 CW seats should be released at 1 am tomorrow as usual.
Call centres do seem to be becoming less cooperative about phone bookings, so it may come down to fastest fingers.
Keep checking for cancellations, a surprisingly number of people book these kind of flights speculatively then cancel when their plans are firmer.
I’ve been wondering whether you’re an martial arts practitioner from Burnley, btw 😂
Half right, former stuntman and Burnley fan! Up the Clarets!
If you go to book ticket with avois put in details then use that calendar scroll right through the months and it will arrive at the latest date you can book, it’s yet another quirk of BA systems.
Yeah this is exactly how I do it. What I mean is there are simply neither of the 2 daily BA services showing at T-355 and only a handful of JAL connections a mere 2hrs after the 01:00 tickets refresh, so I dont know if I’m being an idiot and missing something, or the inbound Rewards seats really are completly gone on both BA flights and the bulk of the JAL connections that soon after 01:00
Inbound from HND is very popular right now. I lucked out and got an inbound CW seat on the first night of 4 I had earmarked to try, I then tried the next three nights with the idea to cancel the first and extend my trip by a few days. I’m very fast through the online booking process but all CW seats were gone sometimes at the stoke of 1am, a couple times I got to payment which failed at 1:01.
I had no luck on the phone; calling the US at around 00:52, by the time you get through the menus at 00:55 it says they’re closed.
I spoke with the Indian call centre three times, and they were never of any help. First time the agent didn’t seem to have a clue about reward flights appearing in a couple minutes and just said do it online because she couldn’t see availability. The next two times the agent said they didn’t deal with BA Club bookings, cash only, and gave me the number for the Australian call centre, which was exactly the one I was calling on. I used Rakuetn/Viber so I don’t know if there is some odd routing quirk that will always forward you to India rather than AUS.
It was a stressful few nights, If you have outbound I’d be prepared to go a cabin down if you have a small window of when you can return. I was initially disappointed not to get the A350 flight with club suite but now I’m just happy I got anything!
Tell me about it! After a few more strategic checks it became obvious I wasn’t being a total moron, rather just they are selling that quickly! I’m assuminh this is a wave of Sakura returns and hopefully, Golden Week getaways, so the 30th April and subsequent couple of days into May I have earmarked will have seen the bulk of mad dash out of Japan.
I did manage to get 2 x CW on the morning A350 in my basket this morning and wasn’t even as rapid on the refresh as I was when I got the outbound.
But who knows who is having the exact same plans though eh!?
I have CW seats book Lon-Tokyo with a CV but only managed to to get Tokyo – Frankfurt- London returns with JAL/BA.
Am I correct in thinking that I cannot use my voucher to combine return?You are right, the voucher can only be used on BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus. Iberia does fly to NRT but those seats also tend to be in high demand.
You could try doing an open jaw return from another Asian city if that fits in with your travel plans and you really want to use the other half of the voucher.
Do I need to pay a change fee if I am just calling to add a return flight to my existing 241 companion voucher booking?
The agent quoted me 2 person for around £404 extra in taxes and fees plus 35×2 change fees for the return flight HND-LHR while a one way flight for 2 person should cost only £372.1 in taxes and fees.@ANA-Zennikku – the taxes/fees/charges for a return will rarely be the same as adding the two one ways. You shouldn’t really be charged the change fee if the seats hadn’t been released for the return when you booked the outbound.
To add to the above, my outbound flight MAD-NRT Premium Economy class which was correctly deducted avios and confirmed ticket, was charged a total of 44250 avios + £144 for 2 person. Of which 9/4/2026 is a Iberia off peak date.
Now I am trying to add the return flight 24/4/2026(BA off peak date) HND-LHR Business class, the agent tries to charge me an extra of 117000 avios + £404 + £35×2(change fees) instead of only 100000 avios + fees(no change fees), so I hung up and trying to call again.@ANA-Zennikku – the taxes/fees/charges for a return will rarely be the same as adding the two one ways. You shouldn’t really be charged the change fee if the seats hadn’t been released for the return when you booked the outbound.
You’re lucky your seats are still available – if this for T-355, you could just book it online and request half the avios back (if you have enough avios to do this). You may find the surcharges are lower as well …
It is indeed T-355, and obviously I do not have 200k avios hanging around for a book and refund.
I called this morning at 1am and asked one of the agent Shivangi to save the BA flight HND-LHR in business class for me, since the outbound and return flight are operated by IB and BA respectively they need some time to let the back office do the calculations of fees and told me to call back in 24hrs. I have made multiple calls today (total of 150+mins) back and forth trying to get the right person to understand the whole situation instead of overcharging me.
And finally I have an agent Emmanuel who is familiar with the process that finalized the booking for me within 25mins, charging only an extra of 100000 avios + £400.4 for 2person BA Business class HND-LHR, on top of the IB Premium Economy class MAD-NRT 44250 avios + £144.
Hi all, please can someone help clarify the rules around claiming back 50% of the avios on an inbound leg when booking after the outbound was booked?
I’ve been monitoring availability for a popular long-haul route for this November (so well within the 355 days) and, happily, the outbound popped up last night, so I quickly booked it one-way for 2 passengers using my Amex Premium Plus Companion voucher.
Currently I cannot see any inbound flights in my preferred date range (this December, so within T-355 when I made the outbound booking). My plan is to continue to monitor and when (hopefully) seats appear for the return leg, book them online for full Avios, then call BA to get them to refund 50% Avios on the inbound leg. I have sufficient Avios in my account to allow this.
Will this approach be acceptable, or could BA refuse to refund 50% on the return leg, given that it was well within the 355 days when I booked the outbound?
I’d prefer to book the inbound online as soon as it becomes available and call BAEC for the 50% refund, but if your advice is to call to add the return then I will do that.
thanks
@andyshez there is no published rule about getting the 50% returned even if the inbound date wasn’t yet available when the outbound was booked, it’s essentially done on a goodwill basis. However as you suspect, it’s been reported that agents are less willing to do this when the inbound date was already available.
If seats do become available you’d be best to phone up and get an agent to nab them and apply the voucher, rather than you making a separate booking and hoping they oblige with a 50% refund.
@andyshez there is no published rule about getting the 50% returned even if the inbound date wasn’t yet available when the outbound was booked, it’s essentially done on a goodwill basis. However as you suspect, it’s been reported that agents are less willing to do this when the inbound date was already available.
If seats do become available you’d be best to phone up and get an agent to nab them and apply the voucher, rather than you making a separate booking and hoping they oblige with a 50% refund.
This assumes you can get through, and have a Skype equivalent.
I’ve never had a problem claiming avios back. I claim the day of booking, I book at midnight (UTC) T minus 355 and claim back when I get up in morning .
Yes you can get a helpful agent , but you can also from what has been said be in queue until to late . Or get an agent who won’t hang on . So I believe it’s 50 : 50 as to success online or on phone. But getting avios back if you are successful is not a gamble.
@Garytgegeery, you haven’t read the post, this isn’t a D-355/call at midnight situation.
Thanks Scott, so calling is my best bet and even then I am at the discretion of the BA call handler!
Thanks Scott, so calling is my best bet and even then I am at the discretion of the BA call handler!
To clarify, if phoning BA to make the booking, there should be no issue.
The agent/goodwill thing is only an issue where you’ve made an online booking and you then ask them to restrospectively apply the voucher/refund Avios.
The agent/goodwill thing is only an issue where you’ve made an online booking and you then ask them to restrospectively apply the voucher/refund Avios.
Thats reassuring – thank you!
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