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Hello all. I need the communities help please. We are wanting to go from LHR to LIM and see the sights. My sad question is that my Father is unwell and I may need to return to the UK at really short notice. My thoughts are – if we use a 2 4 1 voucher/avios to get to Lima are we better purchasing our own flights to say Miami? Can I use the same voucher to get home to the UK? If my Father is still ok we would like to do road trip in the South of USA and pick up a return flight further North of Miami still using the avios on the 2 for 1 voucher? Is this possible using a voucher/avios? My thoughts are that we stand a better chance of getting home quickly in the USA. Thank you
Iberia flies to Lima and you can use an Amex voucher with them. This is probably your easiest option.
Frustratingly LATAM just dropped the direct Heathrow to Lima service.
Thanks. Can I mix and match and use BA to get me back to London?
You might need to read a few articles and threads on here, but you could book your outbound and inbound legs separately (subject to a few conditions), and this would make it easier for you to change or cancel the return section if you needed to abandon the trip at short notice.
Hopefully this won’t be necessary and your father will be ok, in which case you could book your return from the USA (subject to open jaw rules, which again you might need to read up on). You are restricted to using the voucher on BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus, so you need to bear that in mind when deciding where you want to fly home from.
A few years ago we had booked lhr- MIA return using a BA 241 avios voucher, then a separate return cash ticket to Lima on American airlines It all got cancelled as Covid got in the way. Voucher and avios returned , AA held the cash to be used when we wanted
You might need to read a few articles and threads on here, but you could book your outbound and inbound legs separately (subject to a few conditions), and this would make it easier for you to change or cancel the return section if you needed to abandon the trip at short notice.
Hopefully this won’t be necessary and your father will be ok, in which case you could book your return from the USA (subject to open jaw rules, which again you might need to read up on). You are restricted to using the voucher on BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus, so you need to bear that in mind when deciding where you want to fly home from.
Thank you. I am hoping my Father will keep on fighting!
Our wish list is to use our 241 avios and fly from London to Lima then maybe fly back via Miami to London instead of Madrid. Is this possible to use 241 even though we are coming back via Miami? I have checked the mileage and we are still ok I think. If worse case scenario happens I can drive to other airports near Florida to get home quickly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated before I call BA to book.
Yes you can fly back from MIA using the same voucher as your outbound.
But any flight to MIA would have to be on a separate booking,
If you are going to use your 2-4-1 in this way your flight home needs to be booked before your outbound.
Once the outbound has been flown it’s not possible to cancel the return flights and get a refund but if there is avios availability you can change the date of the MIA-LHR flight.
Yes you can fly back from MIA using the same voucher as your outbound.
But any flight to MIA would have to be on a separate booking,
If you are going to use your 2-4-1 in this way your flight home needs to be booked before your outbound.
Once the outbound has been flown it’s not possible to cancel the return flights and get a refund but if there is avios availability you can change the date of the MIA-LHR flight.
Thanks so much for your help!
@Flyer/Stayer, I’m not sure that third sentence makes sense!
But anyway, @NYAnni – if you have enough avios, and you’re booking the MIA leg at T-355 because it hadn’t been released when you booked the outbound flight to LIM, you can book the MIA-LHR leg separately then claim 50% of the avios back. By doing this you’re not subject to the restriction mentioned above, i.e. you could cancel the flight if you needed to abandon the trip and fly home early. You can do this online so wouldn’t have the stress of having to call BA as well.
I think what you really need is travel insurance, and inform them of your father’s situation. Otherwise you are at the whim of the airlines, and last-minute tickets aren’t usually cheap. Travel insurance will cover all your costs (car hire, hotel, airfare, etc.)
OP hasn’t asked about insurance, but most policies exclude cover for existing conditions and her father is already unwell.
OP hasn’t asked about insurance, but most policies exclude cover for existing conditions and her father is already unwell.
The ‘existing conditions’ exclusion relates to the insured for medical coverage, not relatives (or associates) if something happens to them which would trigger cancelling or shortening a trip. That aspect of policies has an ‘unforeseen circumstances’ condition which is very different. I am specifically conscious of this unwell father situation…
I meant existing conditions of family members not travelling, obviously. You are normally covered if a close relative is suddenly taken ill, or dies unexpectedly, but a medical condition which was already known about would probably result in a policy not paying out for new flights home.
I meant existing conditions of family members not travelling, obviously. You are normally covered if a close relative is suddenly taken ill, or dies unexpectedly, but a medical condition which was already known about would probably result in a policy not paying out for new flights home.
I covered that in my post which was written advisedly.
I meant existing conditions of family members not travelling, obviously. You are normally covered if a close relative is suddenly taken ill, or dies unexpectedly, but a medical condition which was already known about would probably result in a policy not paying out for new flights home.
I understood that you meant the pre-existing conditions of the relative of the insured but those relatives are not excluded by the same pre-existing conditions as the insured. Your relative can have say high blood pressure, die of a related condition and you, the insured, still be covered. The difference between pre-existing conditions and unforeseen circumstances, as stated in my earlier post is critical.
So you’re saying that if your relative is in a hospice with the priest standing over them and you fly away on holiday then insurance won’t generally cover getting you back in a hurry if that relative dies?
But that if your relative has had a couple of heart attacks in previous years and then dies of a heart attack while you’re away you probably would be covered?
So you’re saying that if your relative is in a hospice with the priest standing over them and you fly away on holiday then insurance won’t generally cover getting you back in a hurry if that relative dies?
But that if your relative has had a couple of heart attacks in previous years and then dies of a heart attack while you’re away you probably would be covered?
That’s broadly the idea, yes. As ever, it will depend on the precise circumstances and “foreseeable” probably won’t cover eg someone dying of old age even though it has elements of foreseeability.
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