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Okay, this is an audacious plan that I wanted to run past people who are more experienced.
At the moment, ideally I don’t want to bother upgrading to a premium BA card.
I’d like to go to Australia in October 2024 with my partner, exact dates are flexible.
I would complete the voucher so that it arrives on roughly, say, 10 October 2023 and it would therefore expire on 10/10/24. I would then call BA to book the outbound leg for 355 days later (1/10/24 ish). Then I would have to call up again 2/3 weeks later to add the return leg.
Because of the 365 day expiry vs the 355 flight release schedule, I should have 10 days to get onto an outbound leg, which I predict will be fairly easy especially as we’re only flying Economy and not CW/BC/FC/etc.
Financially, it would be 105k points and £600 fees for two people. Cash will be c. £2k for similar flights, so £1400 saving = 1.33p per avios, which I’ll take.
Questions:
1) Would that work? What are the risks, if any?
2) I understand that only the outbound leg need be within the expiry date of the voucher in order to apply it, correct?
3) Is it fairly painless to add the return leg later? I understand I’d have to call up perhaps at midnight to be sure I grab the spot I want.
4) If I reach £11k on the Economy card and upgrade, does it instantly trigger a voucher (as spend is over £10k)?A couple of things to consider.
Firstly finding ant reward availability TO or FROM Australia is next to impossible.
Also I don’t know the reward points cost and taxes to Australia but it is rarely worth wasting points on economy even using a 2-4-1 however that might be different due to the current high prices I’ve seen to SYD
There are actually several days next Feb with economy avios seats to SYD, plus one with PE. It’s the CW seats which are like mythical creatures.
Yes you would trigger the voucher if you upgrade after spending £10k, but there’s an IT glitch which means you might get the economy/12 month voucher in your BAEC account which then had to be amended by BA or Amex (can’t remember which) to the better one.
Also remember to include in your calculations the Avios
that each of you would earn for paying cash (I think 5-10k depending
on the class)For 2k in economy, you should be targeting SQ. if you give it some time, fares will fall as airlines add more capacity. CX and Chinese airlines are slowly adding capacity.
MH – you can easily get for 900 and they’re probably in same class as BA.
Unless you value the flexibility of the avios ticket. But then you need to fly before voucher expiry.The other thing to think about – not sure if BA allows booking on to a later flight at their SIN stop. Whereas with a cash economy ticket, you can choose one with a longer layover, rest at a lounge or even sleep for sometime before the next flight.
There are actually several days next Feb with economy avios seats to SYD, plus one with PE. It’s the CW seats which are like mythical creatures.
Yes you would trigger the voucher if you upgrade after spending £10k, but there’s an IT glitch which means you might get the economy/12 month voucher in your BAEC account which then had to be amended by BA or Amex (can’t remember which) to the better one.
is it not 12k spend on the BA blue card?
Yes but £10k on the BAPP, which OP would have spent. The error with the voucher doesn’t seem to be related to the actual spend.
Yes but £10k on the BAPP, which OP would have spent. The error with the voucher doesn’t seem to be related to the actual spend.
apologies completely misread the OP and your reply. Should’ve had some more coffee before replying.
Hi all,
Cheers for replies. From what I can tell, cash prices are not going to be under roughly £2k for flights with one stop that don’t take 35 hours, so I’m okay with spending 105k avios to save £1400. Personally, I’m not really fussed about flying Pre Econ/Business, so I’d rather save the avios and simply get a really discounted flight. As long as I’m getting HfP’s 1.1p valuation, I’m happy with it.
As for the plan, I think I might have been scuppered. From what I’ve read on the Ts and Cs etc., if you are booking a return flight that takes place AFTER the expiry of the voucher then it must be booked at the same time as the outbound flight, which I won’t be able to do due to the demand for spots (even for economy).
So I think I will upgrade my BA card when I’m near to £10k spend, get a premium voucher and call them near the time. That way at least I can always try to get a Club World ticket too and if I can’t I’ll just go economy.
Thanks for all the help – will let you know if it works out…
Thanks,
From what I’ve read on the Ts and Cs etc., if you are booking a return flight that takes place AFTER the expiry of the voucher then it must be booked at the same time as the outbound flight, which I won’t be able to do due to the demand for spots (even for economy).
In practice, BA knows that return flights aren’t available sometimes, so as long as you book the return leg before flying outbound, you are ok.
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