Combine redemption with BA Holidays

[Olly]

Is it possible to add a hotel/car hire to an existing (Avios) flight booking?

[yonasl]

No

[Olly]

Thanks for the swift confirmation

[yonasl]

And it wouldn’t really change anything if you were able to.

Your avios flight is very valuable as you have the flexibility to cancel for only £35 pp.

So why add hotel/car and make it a BA holiday that cannot be cancelled (unless you wanted double TPs which you cannot get on an avios redemption).

Best website for cars is Expedia as it allows you to cancel up to 6 hrs before pickup (usually matching the prices of Avis, Europcar, etc.)

If Expedia doesn’t work the booking.com is quite good (they use rentalcar) but their interface is better and you can have car and hotel on the same website which makes things easier.

[NorthernLass]

You don’t have to have a flight on a BA holiday booking to get the low deposit option, if that’s what you’re after. Hotel plus car, hotel plus another hotel, car plus another car, they all work!

[FatherOfFour]

NorthernLass wrote:

You don’t have to have a flight on a BA holiday booking to get the low deposit option, if that’s what you’re after. Hotel plus car, hotel plus another hotel, car plus another car, they all work!

Indeed.
We booked a Gatwick hotel for 1 night alongside our 7 nights abroad. Not only did it give us the deposit option, it reduced the price to less than the 7 nights abroad booked on its own!
I did email BA holidays and ask them to add my flight bookibg reference to the notes on my hotels. Not sure if it would have helped in anyway, but it cost me 2 minutes of my time only!

[Olly]

NorthernLass wrote:

You don’t have to have a flight on a BA holiday booking to get the low deposit option, if that’s what you’re after. Hotel plus car, hotel plus another hotel, car plus another car, they all work!

Thanks, that is indeed what I was thinking

[yonasl]

Unless you find very cheap prices I cannot a reason to do hotels/cars without a flight in BAH.

– indeed you pay a small deposit but then cannot amend/cancel (so pay for the whole package or lose it all)

– you can book hotels with last minute cancellation in plenty of websites

– you can book at same prices as BAH and cancel up to 6hrs before pickup with Expedia

– BAH main benefit remains the extra avios (which you can get through the avios shop if you use booking/hotels.com)

[NorthernLass]

Soemtimes it’s genuinely the best price. You also get 3 avios per £1 if you pay on BAPP, or more if there’s an offer like the one earlier this year which required 3 separate payments as it was valid multiple times. I’ve also found that Hilton will honour most status benefits on BAH bookings as well, and you often get added extras with AVIS bookings.
I don’t do this a lot, but it can be worth it when you know that you’re only going to cancel the trip for reasons your travel insurance would cover anyway.