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HI
Starting to plan a trip to Patagonia next April. Using a companion voucher, is it possible to fly Madrid to Buenos Aires and then from Santiago to Manchester UK? I live near Manchester but want to start in Madrid to save the taxes.
thanks
My understanding is that you can’t do it that way round, as Santiago would be further away than BA. I think you could do it the other way round though but others may be able to confirm.
For example, on an upcoming trip I’m flying MAN – LHR – LAS – DEN – LHR – MAN and that works as Denver is nearer than Vegas.
HI
Starting to plan a trip to Patagonia next April. Using a companion voucher, is it possible to fly Madrid to Buenos Aires and then from Santiago to Manchester UK? I live near Manchester but want to start in Madrid to save the taxes.
thanks
Yes because the open jaw distance distance between Buenos Aires and Santiago is shorter than that of either of the long haul flights.
However there have been some hiccups with booking flights back to the UK via MAD which have been reported in the main 2-4-1 thread.
My understanding is that you can’t do it that way round, as Santiago would be further away than BA. I think you could do it the other way round though but others may be able to confirm.
For example, on an upcoming trip I’m flying MAN – LHR – LAS – DEN – LHR – MAN and that works as Denver is nearer than Vegas.
Im afraid that is incorrect. The open jaw rules which apply in the OPs case don’t work in the way you think they do.
Your trip doesn’t appear to be an open jaw with any land segments.
This would count as an open jaw, and you just need to make sure that the distance between the outbound destination airport and return departure airport (ie Santiago and Buenos Aires) is shorter than the shortest long haul flight distance (ie Madrid to Buenos Aires). No problem in this instance, and indeed I’m doing something similar, but you do need to call to book.
This would count as an open jaw, and you just need to make sure that the distance between the outbound destination airport and return departure airport (ie Santiago and Buenos Aires) is shorter than the shortest long haul flight distance (ie Madrid to Buenos Aires). No problem in this instance, and indeed I’m doing something similar, but you do need to call to book.
Since about Feb BA has been applying an additional rule re pricing zones. There’s no issue about the EZE/SCL surface sector, the problem is with the origin in MAD and return to the UK.
But it’s not the end of the world if OP books MAN-MAD-MAN separately (an overnight in Madrid may be necessary at either end anyway, depending on the flight times). It doesn’t even have to be on IB, there are a couple of LCC options. Just build in enough time for IB’s messing around with schedules!
*Or book on IB with avios for more flexibility; do this via BA as they are easier to engage with in the event of any disruption.
I will add that if a separate booking is made, also with IB, your luggage is checked through on the return, well in the case of MAD-LHR, I wish I had known this in January on my return BOG-MAD-LHR, it would have saved me a lot of time.
Good to know!
I booked a return to South America using 241 voucher the day before IB Avios changes MAD-PTY-LIM-MAD-LHR. I looked on BA website at number of Avios required for CE London to Madrid and thought when looking at roughly equivalent amounts of cash/Avios, IB worked out cheaper. When I went to book today I found it is now slightly less when flying BA than IB when using BA website. Is that a change?
IB has always been more IME, than RFS pricing.
Ok. Thanks for that. I wasn’t sure.
I have been told by customer relations that you can do the booking ex Madrid return uk. However, no one seemed to agree with her. She gave me 10k Avios compensation and promised that they would
Be briefing staff. However, this is BA and I don’t hold out lots of hope!I have been told by customer relations that you can do the booking ex Madrid return uk. However, no one seemed to agree with her. She gave me 10k Avios compensation and promised that they would
Be briefing staff. However, this is BA and I don’t hold out lots of hope!I’m sorry you had issues. As you can read from my post above, I booked last week MAD-PTY-LIM-MAD-LHR using a 241. I had 3 phone calls, all with different agents last week, as I wanted to confirm different options. They all gave me quotes leaving from MAD and returning to LHR without any problem. So seems like they have briefed staff.
My understanding is that you can’t do it that way round, as Santiago would be further away than BA. I think you could do it the other way round though but others may be able to confirm.
For example, on an upcoming trip I’m flying MAN – LHR – LAS – DEN – LHR – MAN and that works as Denver is nearer than Vegas.
If you don’t know the answer, it’s probably best that you don’t post.
Do you think people post questions in the hope of getting a bunch of guesses in response?
But it’s not the end of the world if OP books MAN-MAD-MAN separately (an overnight in Madrid may be necessary at either end anyway, depending on the flight times). It doesn’t even have to be on IB, there are a couple of LCC options. Just build in enough time for IB’s messing around with schedules!
*Or book on IB with avios for more flexibility; do this via BA as they are easier to engage with in the event of any disruption.
It’s a complete pain not to have your bags checked though at Madrid, requiring you to pass through the border, train, the inevitable long bag wait, (re)check-in, followed by security, train, passport control again. You need to add many hours to your journey and of course have no protection in the event of cancellation or delays so it actually is the ‘end of the world’ in practical terms, particularly after a long overnight flight. How to spoil your journey home.
IB has always been more IME, than RFS pricing.
Have you actually booked a trip to or from SAm with Iberia and or BA? It’s considerably cheaper sticking to IB flights.
But it’s not the end of the world if OP books MAN-MAD-MAN separately (an overnight in Madrid may be necessary at either end anyway, depending on the flight times). It doesn’t even have to be on IB, there are a couple of LCC options. Just build in enough time for IB’s messing around with schedules!
*Or book on IB with avios for more flexibility; do this via BA as they are easier to engage with in the event of any disruption.
It’s a complete pain not to have your bags checked though at Madrid, requiring you to pass through the border, train, the inevitable long bag wait, (re)check-in, followed by security, train, passport control again. You need to add many hours to your journey and of course have no protection in the event of cancellation or delays so it actually is the ‘end of the world’ in practical terms, particularly after a long overnight flight. How to spoil your journey home.
Ok, but you’ve overlooked NL’s caveats: that the hassle can be mitigated by an overnight in Madrid, and possibly using a LCC to fly home direct the next day.
That’s how I approach it, as it’s preferable to having to fly via LHR.
But it’s not the end of the world if OP books MAN-MAD-MAN separately (an overnight in Madrid may be necessary at either end anyway, depending on the flight times). It doesn’t even have to be on IB, there are a couple of LCC options. Just build in enough time for IB’s messing around with schedules!
*Or book on IB with avios for more flexibility; do this via BA as they are easier to engage with in the event of any disruption.
It’s a complete pain not to have your bags checked though at Madrid, requiring you to pass through the border, train, the inevitable long bag wait, (re)check-in, followed by security, train, passport control again. You need to add many hours to your journey and of course have no protection in the event of cancellation or delays so it actually is the ‘end of the world’ in practical terms, particularly after a long overnight flight. How to spoil your journey home.
Ok, but you’ve overlooked NL’s caveats: that the hassle can be mitigated by an overnight in Madrid, and possibly using a LCC to fly home direct the next day.
That’s how I approach it, as it’s preferable to having to fly via LHR.
That’s additional hassle and cost! Try the journey and assess the costs. It’s not a good compromise and it’s suggested by someone who hasn’t flown these routes.
…
That’s additional hassle and cost! Try the journey and assess the costs. It’s not a good compromise and it’s suggested by someone who hasn’t flown these routes.For me it’s not a compromise but a preference.
I’ve flown xxx-MAD-LHR-EDI in one go, and I prefer direct from MAD-EDI on Eastjet the day after xxx-MAD. I presume this is what NL was suggesting for the OP who’s in MAN.
Yes indeed. It’s very subjective as to what is a good option and what isn’t. Using IB to get to the north of England is a completely different kettle of fish to returning to London – there’s only 1 flight per day and it’s subject to significant schedule changes, e.g. a few months ago they changed the winter schedule by 8 hours.
So you can’t assume that a through booking with them is going to be the easiest option, or even viable. Recently a reader was flying XXX-MAD-LHR-MAN because the IB schedule was so inconvenient.
My understanding is that you can’t do it that way round, as Santiago would be further away than BA. I think you could do it the other way round though but others may be able to confirm.
For example, on an upcoming trip I’m flying MAN – LHR – LAS – DEN – LHR – MAN and that works as Denver is nearer than Vegas.
If you don’t know the answer, it’s probably best that you don’t post.
Do you think people post questions in the hope of getting a bunch of guesses in response?
You seem nice.
But it’s not the end of the world if OP books MAN-MAD-MAN separately (an overnight in Madrid may be necessary at either end anyway, depending on the flight times). It doesn’t even have to be on IB, there are a couple of LCC options. Just build in enough time for IB’s messing around with schedules!
*Or book on IB with avios for more flexibility; do this via BA as they are easier to engage with in the event of any disruption.
It’s a complete pain not to have your bags checked though at Madrid, requiring you to pass through the border, train, the inevitable long bag wait, (re)check-in, followed by security, train, passport control again. You need to add many hours to your journey and of course have no protection in the event of cancellation or delays so it actually is the ‘end of the world’ in practical terms, particularly after a long overnight flight. How to spoil your journey home.
Ok, but you’ve overlooked NL’s caveats: that the hassle can be mitigated by an overnight in Madrid, and possibly using a LCC to fly home direct the next day.
That’s how I approach it, as it’s preferable to having to fly via LHR.
That’s additional hassle and cost! Try the journey and assess the costs. It’s not a good compromise and it’s suggested by someone who hasn’t flown these routes.
For me it’s not a compromise, it’s my preference. MAD-EDI direct, and preferably the day after xxx-MAD is much better than xxx-MAD-LHR-EDI. I’ve tried it both ways.
The OP is MAN rather than EDI, but I presume it’s the same issues having to go via LHR, and that this is what NL was getting at.
We did this trip in March/April this year using Avios and a companion voucher. We flew from Heathrow to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro. Our return was from Santiago direct to Heathrow. WE travelled separately “overland” from Buenos Aires to Santiago, using a mixture of internal flights and actually on the ground between Argentina. We are also SAS Eurobonus members (having got a status match from BA thanks to an HfP notice), so we got the Eurobonus status benefits, like extra baggage allowance. We got the flights credited to our Eurobonus account. In Chile we flew with Latam and credited those to our BA account.
In terms of timing, we went from Mid-March to early April. We were warned that the Patagonia region can have high rainfall in March/April – parts have rain 245 days out of 365! If you can plan you trip earlier than April it would be good as weather for us did get distinctly less good as the trip progressed. We were very fortunate and had mostly great weather with only one rainy day which was fine as it was a travelling day. Let me knew if you’d like me to outline our itinerary
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