Help – No idea what to do!

[Stephr123]

Hi, looking for some advice as we have a bit of a head scratcher of a situation and trying to figure out how to maximise value and experience…me and my partner and our 3 year old are going (from UK) to Thailand for 6 months (June-Dec 2025). We have saved Avios for a long time and tried to maximise BA credit card bonuses so have 2 Amex companion vouchers (one expiring in June 25) and a Barclaycard upgrade voucher. We’re wanting to fly Business class each way as a fitting start/end to this adventure – but not sure how best to maximise value for the 3 of us. We’ve jumped in and booked a direct BA business class flight back for Dec (BKK-LGW) using one of the companion vouchers as there was redemption availability and we didn’t want to miss it, but as that flight is in Dec we’ve still got the companion voucher that expires in June to use. Ideally we’d want to book both outbound and inbound flights using one companion voucher but we just haven’t seen the suitable availability for our outbound June flight – we’re keen to do an open jaw route as would like to spend a couple of days in Doha on the way to Thailand. Can anyone advise whether we’re able to amend our booking to cover both legs with one voucher if we find availability for the June outbound flight(s) in the coming months? Also happy to take any advice on how best to maximise the value that we might not have thought of! Thanks

[NorthernLass]

To use the same voucher you’d either need to cancel your December booking and start again (risking losing the seats, though the voucher may unlock extra availability), or book a “return” flight beyond December. So, your December flight is the outbound leg, the inbound can’t be earlier than that, if that makes sense! You have 12 months to fly the inbound leg, though, so you could feasibly use the other “half” of the voucher on another trip.

I think BKK might be a seasonal route on BA which would be why you’re not seeing any availability for the summer.

You could use your other voucher to book to DOH on BA (there’s usually good availability), then see if you could continue your journey to BKK on QR if you have enough avios.

Again, you’d have 12 months from flying the outbound with your older voucher to fly the inbound, so you could feasibly get another trip out of it.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

“Advice on companion voucher use travelling as 3” – there you go, that’s the topic title you needed.

HfP is full of really helpful people, often commenting asap when someone experiences imminent or current travel disruption. Using melodramatic titles like this just diminishes the willingness to intervene when used by those who have yet to contribute to the community.

[masaccio]

Seatspy has very little for 3 in CW as it’s a very popular route. There is just one day in the next 355 and that’s a return Christmas Eve. I think you are unlikely to find availability though it’s hard to tell as there is no way to find 241 availability without looking at specific dates on the BA website.

You could look at indirect through India but it is more complicated if you have checked luggage.

[BBbetter]

Lots of availability on BA to DOH in June. What are you waiting for?
Book QR to BKK from DOH using Avios. You won’t be able to use the voucher for this leg and you may not find availability in business, but atleast you won’t have to shell out much cash. You also won’t have any other direct option to BKK.
If business is a must, check options on QR and UL via CMB or QR and MH via KUL.

[Stephr123]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

“Advice on companion voucher use travelling as 3” – there you go, that’s the topic title you needed.

HfP is full of really helpful people, often commenting asap when someone experiences imminent or current travel disruption. Using melodramatic titles like this just diminishes the willingness to intervene when used by those who have yet to contribute to the community.

Thanks- yes it’s my first post, and my first time on the site in a long while, hence I’m not as familiar with what would be an appropriate title! I just want to do what is best in a situation I’ve not been in before- we’ve saved these avios long and hard so really want to maximise them. Utterly appreciate all of the expertise on here, trying to work out what to do and the logistics of it hurts my head and confuses the life out of me to be honest. Thanks everyone 🙂

[marks7389]

Stephr123 wrote:

Thanks- yes it’s my first post, and my first time on the site in a long while, hence I’m not as familiar with what would be an appropriate title! I just want to do what is best in a situation I’ve not been in before- we’ve saved these avios long and hard so really want to maximise them. Utterly appreciate all of the expertise on here, trying to work out what to do and the logistics of it hurts my head and confuses the life out of me to be honest. Thanks everyone 🙂

There are 6 seats available flying out to Kuala Lumpur on 24th June in business class using companion vouchers (extra availability). However your problem is that it’s extra availability linked to the voucher and each voucher only unlocks up to 2 seats. So you would have to cancel your return to release the other voucher for 3 seats and hope that they are released back to allow you to book them as part of a return, with the risk that they won’t be.

It would though give you much better value for your Avios as using the two vouchers on return bookings means all three seats only require 50% of the normal Avios rather than two out of the three

That was just a date picked at random (Tuesdays and Wednesdays are more likely to yield something useful) – to find the additional voucher availability you’re limited to the standard Avios search, making sure that you’ve selected your voucher at the search page. You won’t find anything for Bangkok as BA doesn’t fly there over the summer. Both KL and Singapore are worth trying, but it is highly likely that you’ll need the extra voucher availability to get the 3 seats and hence have the same issue.

Otherwise CW to Doha using the voucher might not be a bad option, but you would almost certainly only get 3 redemption seats Doha-Thailand in economy unless you’re very lucky and have enough Avios to cover it all.

[NorthernLass]

OP would need 2 separate bookings, though, with the extra availability, which might be messy on an itinerary like this.

Not having a go at OP, but an awful lot of people seem to come here at the point of booking, having amassed loads of avios and vouchers, but having done minimal research on how to actually use them to best advantage!