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

[NorthernLass]

@zapato, IB don’t guarantee any seats unlike BA, from what I’ve gathered it’s lucky to even find 2!

[0 post]

zapato1060 wrote:

When you book at midnight 355 days ahead. Can you book 3 biz seats? Every time I’ve found award availability on IB biz on random days it only shows a max of 2?

I checked for weeks prior to booking IB biz from madrid to Santiago there was mostly 2 at midnight, rarely there was 4, but I assumed someone booked them on the phone. Maybe just random, but mostly atleast 2

[MarkM]

Don’t think I’ve been paying attention recently as there seem to be far more seats available.
Just booked the outbound flights in business class to Cape Town on 14th March next year, these are normally all snapped up at midnight from previous experience.
Is it simple to amend the booking online in a couple of weeks for the return flights or is this better done on the phone at midnight?

[NorthernLass]

You can’t amend a booking made like this, you either have to book the inbound at the full rate and request 50% of the avios back or call BA – though there are reports (possibly in this thread) of BA quoting people very high surcharges to book by phone.

[TedL]

Booked MAD-EZE on the 9th March using a 2-4-1, 51k Avios and £203. Early this morning booked SCL-MAD, 150k Avios and £200 (this was a Peak day unfortunately). Just called the Bronze line and have the PNR’s linked and 75k Avios returned. Less than 20 minutes from dialling to having the Avios in my account.

[NorthernLass]

You probably did well to get this out of the way before the strike chaos starts at the end of the week and everyone with an Easter flight booking tries to call BA!

[MarkM]

NorthernLass wrote:

You can’t amend a booking made like this, you either have to book the inbound at the full rate and request 50% of the avios back or call BA – though there are reports (possibly in this thread) of BA quoting people very high surcharges to book by phone.

Ah. Thank you. Am I better off cancelling and rebooking over the phone then?

[NorthernLass]

No, don’t cancel your outbound, do it as @TedL describes above if you have enough avios.

[MarkM]

Just had the chance to read the thread, yes will do the same. Thanks for your help!

Why do BA have to make it so difficult…

[Cal]

Are people being charged an admin fee for adding the return by phone? As I understood it, they are not supposed to charge the £35 as this is not something that can be done online. Still trying to decide whether to book the return separately online and then phone up get half the avios refunded or just phone up to add the return. Would the former be less likely to incur an admin fee or would both be susceptible? Thanks!

[zapato1060]

So just to get this correct. If I book outbound say 68k plus £198 in tax for example, first category. On inbound 2 weeks later I MUST book return in same first category of points and taxes to then get the Avios refund?

[NorthernLass]

Yes, according to what some of us have been told recently, it seems to be a feature of the new RFS pricing structure. If you go back through this thread there are several examples and I also found this to be correct when claiming back avios on a recent return booking – the agent told me that it was a good job I had booked the same option on both legs (old RFS pricing rather than more avios and less cash), as otherwise he would not have been allowed to process the refund.

[zapato1060]

NorthernLass wrote:

Yes, according to what some of us have been told recently, it seems to be a feature of the new RFS pricing structure. If you go back through this thread there are several examples and I also found this to be correct when claiming back avios on a recent return booking – the agent told me that it was a good job I had booked the same option on both legs (old RFS pricing rather than more avios and less cash), as otherwise he would not have been allowed to process the refund.

ouch. thank you.

[No Longer Entitled]

Cal wrote:

Are people being charged an admin fee for adding the return by phone? As I understood it, they are not supposed to charge the £35 as this is not something that can be done online. Still trying to decide whether to book the return separately online and then phone up get half the avios refunded or just phone up to add the return. Would the former be less likely to incur an admin fee or would both be susceptible? Thanks!

If you book online you are linking two separate bookings (and they retain unique PNR’s) so it’s not an amendment and there is no fee for doing it this way.

If you call and add the return leg you are effectively amending the original booking so BA would be entitled to charge but you would be able to argue your case. It may well depend upon the agent.

All things being equal if you have the Avios I’d opt for online and then call at your leisure. Although both ways should work, this has less variables (i.e. call agents).

[Roker]

I booked LHR > Singapore for end-February using a 241 voucher and ‘Rung 2’ of the ladder and I’m trying to book the return leg from Tokyo > LHR for mid-March. I think the only way I can do this is to book using full Avios as soon as availability appears then call for a 50% refund. However, I only have enough Avios for a ‘Rung 3’ return. Will BA really refuse to return 50% of my Avios if I book using Rung 3? Can they tell immediately what rung I used on the outbound leg? Even I’m not 100% sure any more if I did use Rung 2 for outbound and as availability has gone, as has my voucher, there seems to be no way to check (I know how many Avios I used and how much cash I paid)

[NorthernLass]

Yes they can tell which payment option you’ve chosen! There doesn’t seem to be anything official which anyone can point to, but there are enough examples of this having happened to people here that you would be taking a real risk with this.

You can check the pricing by finding a date with availability (ok that’s not easy for SIN!) and do a dummy booking. You can then match that against the info on your confirmation email.

But they can see what you’ve paid so it’s important to keep records now this pricing system is in operation.

[Reeferman]

Just booked the return leg of my Amex 2-4-1 – on Iberia flights to S Am. This was the first time using Iberia flights, so wanted to share the experience:
– Outbound flight (MAD/EZE) booked on-line in the usual manner
– I rang today (BA Gold line) to book the return flights (GRU/MAD/LHR) – having checked on-line that the net cost for the return leg was 55,250 AVIOS and £213.
– The call took 40 minutes (even though it was answered within 2 minutes) and involved lots of delays and double-checking by the agent. The end result being a quote in excess of £2000 for recalculated taxes! I was told this was as a result of recalculating the whole journey. Despite me saying I didn’t want the journey dealt with in this way – just the return leg booked in isolation etc – I was told this couldn’t be done.
– I hung up and booked the return journey on-line for 110,500 AVIOS and £213 and then rang-back for 50% of the AVIOS to be refunded.
– The second call was also answered within 2 minutes and dealt with promptly, taking 10 minutes in all. The 55,250 AVIOS are already back in my account. No change to the £213 taxes, of course.

So it seems the 50% refund system is still in place – working the same way for Iberia flights as it always has (for me at least) for BA flights. Of course, you need to have sufficient AVIOS to operate this way – otherwise, I guess it’s a case of HUACA if the agent quotes the crazy prices I was quoted.

[CherylD]

NorthernLass wrote:

I totally get that! You’ve still got the possibility of more I class seats being released with the extra CW availability – someone needs to develop an alert for those!

Not quite sure what you mean by pre populated Amy? Were you on a laptop rather than using the mobile app?

[CherylD]

Has anyone used a second companion voucher to
access the extra seat availability for a return trip then successfully got the voucher refunded but the two bookings linked or the seats otherwise added to their booking ?

[CherylD]

Just a heads up if anyone is waiting to book a return flight from Cape Town 355 days out next year. Last flight to Gatwick is apparently 25/3 and Heathrow drops to 1 a day from 26/3. So down from 16 or 17 a week to 7. Don’t understand BA’s logic particularly next year with an early Easter. This has consequences as we found out to our cost when we were downgraded from Club to WT+ last week (first week of one plane a day this year) due to an overbooked plane. CT BA Manager couldn’t offer later flight as all flights last week apparently the same.

[NorthernLass]

@Cheryl – they won’t refund the second voucher if you do that, it would be classed as a separate trip. You need to either book the return with full avios or call to get it added – I think they can “see” the extra availability if you call them.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Something to bear in mind that next year the clocks change (and hence the start of the summer flight season) and Easter are on the same weekend so can create some illogical scheduling issues.

[salim7869]

Hi All,

Not sure if this has been asked but im new to Avios. The companion voucher, is it for only one leg or a return flight?

[Nath4n]

salim7869 wrote:

Hi All,

Not sure if this has been asked but im new to Avios. The companion voucher, is it for only one leg or a return flight?

Hi Salim, I suggest having a good read through the plethora of Avios articles on this site (including dedicated ones on the Amex vouchers), as well as the master thread(s) on the FlyerTalk BA forum. That should all hopefully get you up to speed.

To quickly answer your question, an Amex companion voucher can be used for a full return journey (for 2), or to half the Avios requirement for a single traveler.

[BJ]

Nath4n wrote:

salim7869 wrote:

Hi All,

Not sure if this has been asked but im new to Avios. The companion voucher, is it for only one leg or a return flight?

Hi Salim, I suggest having a good read through the plethora of Avios articles on this site (including dedicated ones on the Amex vouchers), as well as the master thread(s) on the FlyerTalk BA forum. That should all hopefully get you up to speed.

To quickly answer your question, an Amex companion voucher can be used for a full return journey (for 2), or to half the Avios requirement for a single traveler.

Probably start here and then proceed to other articles and forum as recommended by @Nath4n. Forum discussions can get a little complicated with people trying to be creative so best to get a grip on the fundamentals first.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/01/16/how-do-british-airways-american-express-2-4-1-vouchers-work/