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

[davet]

So just for absolute clarity, this weekend the seats would get released at 1am? I don’t think the route I am looking at will go within a minutes so hoping to snag 3 online and will do the return on the phone in a few weeks

[NorthernLass]

Yes – though I have previously waited up to 30 minutes after this for seats to load so if you don’t see them straight away, keep refreshing for a bit.

[Eggtastico]

davet wrote:

As of yet, there is no payment activity on my BA Amex account & the BA Voucher is still showing in my Avios account, but the 150,000 miles have been deducted along with both Outbound & Inbound flights showing on my booking page.

A while ago I spoke to BA about this.
They then took my voucher, but payment has still not been made.
Anyone advise? The seat is in my booking, but has no luggage assigned.
I was told at the time (late February) that payment will be taken once they get to my booking, but shorter notice redemptions are prioritised for payment.
Should I chase them again?

[Reney]

I need to book one of the unicorn/hens teeth flight the next couple of days. Can I just check the advice still is call the US East coast number at 12.45am? Thanks, I’ve read the whole thread and got confused by all the time changes!

[jontys]

Thanks to threads and HFP yesterday I booked the holy grail 4 club seats LHR-SYD. Am delighted. I have a 241 and so does my wife but I made the midnight call so could only use 1 voucher. My question is.. can I somehow turn this into 2 bookings and apply my wife’s voucher? And should I only do that after booking the return? I’m obviously keen to utilise both vouchers if there’s a way of doing so… maybe I cancel the seats and then immediately rebook? Risky I know… thanks

[Reney]

jontys wrote:

Thanks to threads and HFP yesterday I booked the holy grail 4 club seats LHR-SYD. Am delighted. I have a 241 and so does my wife but I made the midnight call so could only use 1 voucher. My question is.. can I somehow turn this into 2 bookings and apply my wife’s voucher? And should I only do that after booking the return? I’m obviously keen to utilise both vouchers if there’s a way of doing so… maybe I cancel the seats and then immediately rebook? Risky I know… thanks

Hi,

If I understood the thread correctly, you should have added yourself as an authorised person on your wife’s account and asked them to book you +1 and then your wife +1 and then when the return comes up, you call again.

Don’t cancel the seat and rebook as there is no guarantee that the seat comes back. Who was the 241 applied on? If it is you plus a kid, then I think the best thing to do is authorised yourself on your wife’s account. When the return opens, call to add a return for you and the kid and book one way for wife and kid 2 on her voucher (on the same call). This will ‘half waste’ your wife’s voucher but better than not at all and esp if you are short avois. If the 241 is used on you and your wife you can’t add the second voucher now, and no way to fix the out flight now. This is my understanding based on reading this thread.

Can I ask what time and which country you called as I need to make the call this week.

[jontys]

Reney wrote:

jontys wrote:

Thanks to threads and HFP yesterday I booked the holy grail 4 club seats LHR-SYD. Am delighted. I have a 241 and so does my wife but I made the midnight call so could only use 1 voucher. My question is.. can I somehow turn this into 2 bookings and apply my wife’s voucher? And should I only do that after booking the return? I’m obviously keen to utilise both vouchers if there’s a way of doing so… maybe I cancel the seats and then immediately rebook? Risky I know… thanks

Hi,

If I understood the thread correctly, you should have added yourself as an authorised person on your wife’s account and asked them to book you +1 and then your wife +1 and then when the return comes up, you call again.

Don’t cancel the seat and rebook as there is no guarantee that the seat comes back. Who was the 241 applied on? If it is you plus a kid, then I think the best thing to do is authorised yourself on your wife’s account. When the return opens, call to add a return for you and the kid and book one way for wife and kid 2 on her voucher (on the same call). This will ‘half waste’ your wife’s voucher but better than not at all and esp if you are short avois. If the 241 is used on you and your wife you can’t add the second voucher now, and no way to fix the out flight now. This is my understanding based on reading this thread.

Can I ask what time and which country you called as I need to make the call this week.

Thanks for the reply. I had actually added myself as a nominee on my wife’s account. I think the issue was the operator believed he’d need to make two bookings – one booking per voucher – and as he could only do one booking at a time, it risked only locking in two seats and losing the other two while he completed the first booking if that makes sense! We hedged our bets and locked in all four but just used my voucher. Maybe he didn’t quite get what was possible…. It was USA

[No Longer Entitled]

This is consistent with what I have been told before. Authorisation allows you to book, but the agent still needs to make two separate bookings (one for player 1, one for player 2) and the second booking cannot be done until the first is complete. Will the seats still be there? Probably not worth the risk when you already have all four seats held somewhere as popular as Sydney.

[Reney]

Someone mind telling me what countries’ BA line do I have to call tonight and what UK time do I need to call please.

[No Longer Entitled]

Reney – someone may come back to you with a more definitive answer but going by what Jontys said today, they secured tickets at “midnight” using the USA number.

Personally, now that we are on BST I thought it was 1am but there is obviously no harm calling just before midnight and worse case scenario, the agent tells you to call back in an hour. There has also been some talk of the US line closing at 8pm Eastern which is 1am here, but again, looking at Jontys post they were still able to use the line so presumably if you are on a call before 8pm Eastern they will conclude the call. If you want some good news, the US don’t observe Good Friday as a public holiday so at least you have that going for you.

Finally, good luck!

[MattB]

I booked a few days ago for next easter, flights popped up online exactly 1am UK timr

[linden52]

I just tried this evening, and can confirm the US line closes at 8pm (I was on hold waiting to speak to someone and the line closed). So will be trying tomorrow albeit a bit earlier! I had done a test run before and the call was answered immediately so I thought I could cut fine second time round!

When I did my dummy run the agent said I could book online for the reward flights, I mentioned I have always called in the past as I was under the impression the agent could ‘hold’ the flights and then take payment. She told me this was incorrect and that she may just be a bit faster then me doing it online.
Just a bit confused by this, as someone has mentioned earlier about the agent holding flights?!

[No Longer Entitled]

Linden52 – you just got a lazy agent who has no desire to do the job that they are paid to do. It is the scourge of modern society.

When you book online the tickets are not withdrawn from sale until the payment has been processed. There may well be multiple users who have them in their basket but only the fastest will prevail. The agent however secures the tickets immediately and then is able to proceed to payment thereafter.

[Reney]

No Longer Entitled wrote:

Linden52 – you just got a lazy agent who has no desire to do the job that they are paid to do. It is the scourge of modern society.

When you book online the tickets are not withdrawn from sale until the payment has been processed. There may well be multiple users who have them in their basket but only the fastest will prevail. The agent however secures the tickets immediately and then is able to proceed to payment thereafter.

For a few days I have been checking online at exactly 1am UK time for the route I want. Every time the CW flights are gone at 1am. I just cannot imagine anyone is that fast, so if the agent aren’t getting it faster, some people must have instant internet connection and amazing finger speed.

Thanks to those who answered my question, also did a test run last night to check out how it works. Not feeling optimistic but will give it a go.

[Reney]

Failed…. called the US line 13 minutes before flights were loaded, and was on hold the whole time, so I decided to search for the flights too. They picked up the phone at 1 am, as shockingly the flight came on my screen, spoke to the lady whilst trying to book myself. She told me the phone line would cut off so do it myself online instead. The seconds it took to type in my 4-digit security number and then my 2FA email to arrive meant I lost the flight as it was processing.

Is there any way to add BA to my safe list in advance? I could try again in 2 days’ time but this is exhausting.

[NorthernLass]

Sounds like another lazy agent – there’s no reason for the phone line to cut off unless you’d been on to them for an hour.

You don’t say which destination you are after but seats for Easter weekend 2024 are now being released and it’s going to be even more difficult to get them. I think your best bet is to try calling again and hope you get a better agent.

Or have a backup airport – I wanted 3 CW seats to MIA last December but had the same experience as you with them disappearing as I was waiting for payment to go through. I did a second search and found F seats to IAD and started the trip there and ended up having a wonderful time, got connecting flights to Key West for our road trip.

[No Longer Entitled]

Reney wrote:

Is there any way to add BA to my safe list in advance? I could try again in 2 days’ time but this is exhausting.

Not sure which credit card you have, but the easiest way is to make a purchase from BA in advance. BA offer free cancellation online within 24hrs so I would book a cheap domestic flight that includes a cash element, add BA to the safe list, and then cancel a few hours later.

[NorthernLass]

It’ll be a feeding frenzy at the moment, as a lot of schools will break up on March 27th/28th next year for Easter, and the 29th is Good Friday, seats for which will be released at 1 am tomorrow.

[Gary]

NorthernLass wrote:

It’ll be a feeding frenzy at the moment, as a lot of schools will break up on March 27th/28th next year for Easter

In addition, 28 Mar 24 is the last off peak day until 2/3 April 24 which wouldn’t have helped matters.

[Reney]

hi @NorthernLass. What is even worst is that the Japan Cherry Blossum season completely clashes with Easter next year. It would have been marginally better if Easter is later. No alternative airport, as I think BA only flies to HND now. I am extremely flexible on dates (the trees are much less flexible on their schedule). Also I really don’t want to take the 8.55am flight and the 11.45 one is only every other day 😣.

On the agent, when I did the trial call, they did say they go home at 8.15pm and any call that gets in before 8 they will take. So if she was willing we could have got it done but by the time I explained it, it would have been too late as I was already paying when she picked up.

When I paid last night I clicked add BA to safe list (which probably added to slowing me down, as was correcting my phone number), but it looks like doing that has added me to amex safe list. I have also now updated my phone number so removing as many little obstacles ahead of next attempt.

Will try calling earlier next time, but run the risk of calling too early and they won’t wait with me.

[NorthernLass]

@Gary – there are often off-peak dates through the school holidays, usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We’ve saved a lot of avios returning from GCM on a Tuesday in August this summer, though unfortunately we have to fly out at a weekend which meant peak pricing!

@Reney – if you can possibly leave it another year, Easter is around April 20th in 2025. I have checked this because it will be the first full year that we will completely free from school holidays and I want to avoid it at all costs 😂

[BB8]

I have secured x3 outbound using a 2 4 1 & Barclaycard upgrade voucher.
I now need to book the return, I don’t have enough Avios to just book online.
The day/route I’m on, there is a chance I can still secure these seats If I am not through on the phone at 1am however, given that the US line closes at 1am (BST) does anyone have any experience of phoning a different country to book after this time?
The other issue is I need to make this call on a Saturday morning, so if I’m not picked up by 1am and looking at eastern countries they have to be open on a Saturday.

[BB8]

Can anyone advise on this please?

Next Saturday I have to do the 1am thing to book a return on a 2 4 1 and Barclaycard upgrade voucher.
If I don’t get answered by 1am (8pm EST), does anyone have any suggestions of which office can then be called?
From what I can see the Eastern offices seem to be closed on a Saturday.
I’m hoping I can still nab seats on this route if I miss a 1am call, it’s a popular route but not SIN/SYD/MLE popular.
It is over Easter but for once living in the North means our kids break up a week earlier than those in the south.

[YFP]

Wow. This is an extreme sport. There’s no way anyone could have clicked faster than i clicked on the website, got to payment screen under 30 seconds, but seats had gone. We try again tomorrow.

[Reney]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Reney – if you can possibly leave it another year, Easter is around April 20th in 2025. I have checked this because it will be the first full year that we will completely free from school holidays and I want to avoid it at all costs 😂

@NorthenLass, I have certainly considered it, also considered skipping the blossom all together and do the fall season instead. 2025 is a big birthday for me too and my birthday is around the blossom season, in fact I booked this for 2020 which was a mid point big birthday (whatever you call on the ones that ends with a 5!) and that had to be cancel for lockdown. The problem is I take my mum on a trip annually, as a break from caring for my dad, and as part of that I have to arrange for my sister to look after my dad. So there are a lot of moving parts, 2025 might be even more complicated to land all the moving parts so I rather make it happen when I’ve arranged cover. Also my new brother in law is a school teacher so I am afraid I have by marriage got trapped into the school holiday cycle 😅.