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I booked a flight from London to Sydney on 12th August 2021 to fly out on 1st August 2022 with a 241 voucher.
I have now tried to add a return today, 22nd June, for a flight on 11th June 2023 (just released).
I have been told this is not possible. As the flight was booked on 12th August 2021 I have to fly back by 12th August 2022.
I challenged this twice but given the same answer.
I thought I could return anytime within 12 months of flying out. Is BA correct?
Many thanksJohn
Isn’t it to do with the expiry date of the voucher – have you checked the Ts and Cs? You have to fly the outbound by the expiry date, then possibly the inbound within 12 months, but I might be wrong as I’ve never done that. BA agents are notorious for getting this stuff wrong though so it’s worth HUACA. If you turn out to be right, though, you could always just booked the returns online if you have enough avios and it doesn’t require a huge amount of extra surcharges, then request the 50% avios back.
This has got me thinking – I can only see here that it says that inbound travel can take place after the voucher expiry, and not a specific time frame. I would definitely want to see where the CSA got their info from, however of course the longer you wait, the more likely the seats are to go!
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/offers/terms-and-conditions/amex-companion
The rule re inbound for 241 vouchers says:-
“Outbound travel must take place before the expiry date of the Companion Voucher however inbound travel can take place after the expiry date of the Companion Voucher, provided it is booked at the same time as the outbound travel.”
The overall Avios redemption rules allow the return to be up to 12 months from the date of the outbound flight.
Tricky one then. Possible work-around would be if the OP also has a new-style 241 and can book the inbound with that, maybe doing some sort of nesting options to get full value out of both vouchers?
Also – it’s a lot of avios, I know, but just booking it separately would generate a separate PNR and then it’s not technically the return! You might even get someone willing to refund the 50% avios.
June 11th is peak, travelling the next day would save a ton of avios.
Many thanks for your replies. In my case the return journey is after the expiry of the 2 4 1 voucher. So, this time BA is correct.
I had missed that I should have booked the return at the same time as original booking. This could not be done as the voucher was due to expire and the return flight was to be 23 months later and not therefore available.I don’t think the issue is booking them together as in practice lots of people don’t do this. @JDB pointed out that the normal policy for an avios booking would apply, which is that the inbound has to be flown within 12 months of the outbound, and looking again at your dates (your post is a bit difficult to unpick, to be honest!), that’s what you want to do, i.e. outbound 12/8/22, inbound 11/6/23.
So I think the CSA was giving you the wrong reason for refusing. If the seats are still there (or they release more overnight), I would definitely HUACA as a different CSA might be more accommodating. I would also bet that if you did book it online they would refund the 50% avios as they would just see that you’re returning within 12 months and probably wouldn’t even know when the 241 expired (if that was in fact the issue).If I have read the original post from John correctly and I’m not missing something then NO, this is absolutely not correct, the CSA is wrong and it’s bonkers. If it was correct then we would never be able to add return journeys to our T-355 bookings at a later date, and we all know that we can. When you said you challenged this twice, was that with same CSA or others? One thing they might not be so happy about is the duration between your outbound and return flights. I seem to recall from way back suggestiins that this is maybe best kept under 6 months.
If I have read the original post from John correctly and I’m not missing something then NO, this is absolutely not correct, the CSA is wrong and it’s bonkers. If it was correct then we would never be able to add return journeys to our T-355 bookings at a later date, and we all know that we can. When you said you challenged this twice, was that with same CSA or others? One thing they might not be so happy about is the duration between your outbound and return flights. I seem to recall from way back suggestiins that this is maybe best kept under 6 months.
@BJ There are two elements to this – the BAEC Avios redemption terms do state at 15.10:“For return journeys, outbound and return flights must be booked at the same time. Travel to one destination from a point of origin and returning from another city to the same point of origin (or vice versa) is permitted.”
although we all know that in practice this is currently not enforced.
However, for the instant case, the issue is the expiry of the voucher and the rule there is as cited above. The problem is that if you come to book the return after the outbound and that return falls after the expiry, the BA system blocks it. I don’t know if CSA can override this, but the original information given to the OP was correct, albeit for slightly the wrong reasons. If the OP calls again they may get a more user friendly answer and equally, if they make a separate booking and ask for the 50% Avios back, it is possible this might bypass the block. To the extent one can overcome the rule, if the ticket needs to be changed in the future, that might be tricky.
I follow what you are saying JDB and get that it is at the interface of rules, practice and systems. We know the rules and the practice and I don’t doubt there are grey areas where systems limitations or CSA interpretation may come into play. However, there is also some history of readers who have reported making return reservations beyond the expiry date of vouchers, and without issue if my memory serves me right.if tgere is a systems block that can be navigated as you suggest that would be a good result in mist cases but not all. If John did nit challenge this with different CSA already, I certainly see no harm in him trying again.
If John is still coming back to this – unless he booked the 2 CW seats for 11/6 last night, someone else has (not surprisingly) snapped them up, and the CW seats for 12/6. There are still however, 2 PE seats for the 12th according to SeatSpy, which off peak are 65k avios each. John may well be able to book these as a separate journey if he’s willing to do the journey in that cabin! (There are 2 PE seats left for the 11th as well, but at peak 100k avios each which is a big difference). Even if he claims the 50% avios back, the trip will remain on 2 separate PNRs, so changing in future might not be an issue.
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