Help with Avios booking

[Flying Pharmacist]

I am struggling to book a reward return flight from Manchester to Tokyo next June. I have a 2 for 1 Amex voucher and I have been able to locate 2 business class seats for the outward journey. But, according to BA.com, there are no inward reward seats available. Strangely enough, 2 magically appear when I try and book a one way flight from Tokyo to Manchester with another 2 for 1 voucher.

So, I looked at using the 2 for 1 on the flight out (75000 Avios plus approx £950 tax) and a partner airline with Avios for the journey home. Qatar Airways had several seats on various flights in business available (206000 Avios plus around £150 tax) so I went ahead to purchase. I got as far as paying, only for the website to display an error message. Heading over to Qatar’s site, and after linking accounts, it only offers BA rewards seats. (Or do I need to transfer Avios to Privilege?)

Any helpful advice? I am pretty new to this, so am I missing something? I really don’t want to waste hours on the phone waiting for BA to cut me off.

[memesweeper]

There are lots of possible issues here at play. Three things I’d point out:

– different 2-4-1 vouchers show different availability on BA — try all the ones you have
– you need the Qatar points in your Qatar account to see all their options, which may be more expensive in Avios than BA
– you can’t mix 2-4-1 out and Qatar return, it doesn’t work , you’ll need to make two bookings on BA.com

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[Flying Pharmacist]

Thanks for the reply. I should have pointed out I was looking at two separate bookings. I’ll convert my Avios to Privilege and see what happens – maybe this will resolve the problem. I did try both 2 for 1 as well (one is the newer version) but there was no change in availability for a return flight. Although, annoyingly, the inbound flight option appears when using either voucher for a one way trip.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[AJA]

If you see availability on the return on a different voucher then call BA to book the return and link it to your existing 2-4-1. Or if you have enough Avios to book the return online do so and then call BA to have half the Avios refunded. They should waive the call charge as it is an error on BA

[Flying Pharmacist]

Sorted it. Got through to the call centre (no waiting). The Qatar flight has now been booked (no fee) and my Avios balance has taken a hit 🙂

Thanks to the above for useful information.

[slidey]

Which number did you use to get through to BA with no waiting?

[Flying Pharmacist]

Called 4pm yesterday. 03444930747. Very helpful and given the recent vitriol I was pleasantly surprised. Still, it doesn’t make up for losing/delaying my luggage 3 years on the trot when flying domestic from Manchester to London (and no, it couldn’t go as carry on). On all 3 occasions had no help for BA staff and had to fight to get insurance to cover the cost of the replacement small carry on suitcase for the return flight (paid for new suit etc, but couldn’t fathom that I needed the suitcase to take these new items back with me).