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I have booked HKG-LHR-NYC with 1 week stopover before (BA-BA) in business class for amazing value. Can I do HKG-(BA)-LHR-(BA)-DUB-(EI)-NYC for extra value with stopovers in London and Dublin now that EI is eligible for voucher use?
I have booked HKG-LHR-NYC with 1 week stopover before (BA-BA) in business class for amazing value. Can I do HKG-(BA)-LHR-(BA)-DUB-(EI)-NYC for extra value with stopovers in London and Dublin now that EI is eligible for voucher use?
Yes, you can have up to eight sectors including stopovers as long as you comply with all the other fare construction rules. Seats in business DUB-JFK may not be as easy to find as they are from LHR.
Indeed it will be the almost certain dearth of business class rewards on the EI DUB-JFK leg that will stop you booking this and that’s before any of the other voucher restrictions come into play.
You’ll find better availability on BA ex LHR flights.
Depends how wedded you are to trying the EI service over just getting to NYC using avios and the 2-4-1
You may find the surcharges somewhat messed up as well as EI doesn’t have RFS pricing.
Let us know how you get on booking this, presumably it’s going to need a phone call?
Are you using the 241 for 2 pax or 50% off?
Yes, you can have up to eight sectors including stopovers as long as you comply with all the other fare construction rules. Seats in business DUB-JFK may not be as easy to find as they are from LHR.
Max 8 sectors on an award booking, but 6 sectors if using a voucher.
Unfortunately they priced it as avios + taxes (incl YQ of each flight as if it were a cash booking). This resulted in a quote of over £2,000 for the cash element, using the maximum avios option.
Buying each flight individually would result in around £300 as the cash element. They have sent it back to ticketing to be priced again.
So they are ok with this kind of itinerary using a 241? I have been wondering whether they would refuse to add the return leg and should I wait until all the flights are available and book it online, but that would significantly limit the options available.
I’d like to book something like MIA-LHR-DOH then return, say, DOH-LHR-GCM, using the DOH points as transit to e.g. Seychelles, on QR, effectively getting 3 trips from the voucher (or parts thereof!) The rest of the trips could then be completed with Barclays/Virgin vouchers.
Seems they have tightened up the rules. My routing was rejected as it wasn’t the most direct routing.
They also quoted taxes of £1,600+ per person, using the maximum avios amount. Booking individual flights without the 241 came to £143.15 so it was a no brainer in the end. Adding an Aer Lingus transatlantic flight and mixing with BA resulted in the taxes being calculated as if it were a cash booking. They would not budge on that despite the fact that the website uses the avios pricing to calculate the cash element for DUB-LHR-NYC on EI/BA.
So fell back to HKG-LON-(1 week layover)-NYC
So is it that you need to take the most direct route between A and B available on the airlines on which you can use the 241?
Though often with BA it’s more about the rules not being applied consistently!
So is it that you need to take the most direct route between A and B available on the airlines on which you can use the 241?
Though often with BA it’s more about the rules not being applied consistently!
The most direct routing rule isn’t specific to companion vouchers. It’s a BAEC rule for all redemptions and it applies alongside IATA fare construction rules.
Yes, apologies if it wasn’t clear. I meant the direct routing possible on BA/IB/EI because those airlines can be booked with the 241. Other airlines may offer other routing options which would qualify without a 241.
So would the work around here be to book to somewhere like Hartford, CT rather than a New York area airport?
So would the work around here be to book to somewhere like Hartford, CT rather than a New York area airport?
Hmm, that’s an interesting idea! It might work, rather depending on how the BA fares agent interprets the most direct routing rule which, in IATA terms, can involve just cities but sometimes regions so as to avoid circumvention of construction principles.
Most fares work off mileage but some have routing restrictions instead and I’m not sure how BA applies this for Avios tickets. If BA were to allow the routing to Hartford instead of New York, the taxes/fees/charges problem will likely remain.
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