Issues with BA refusing to merge return flight refund for 241 booking
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Need advice please, a bit of a long story so please bear with.
Husband booked outbound flight using his 241 voucher as soon as the flight is available 355 days before departure. He and I are the passengers for this flight. Avios came from our household account.
2 weeks later, when the return flight is available for booking, he tried to book but failed. The next day, we both tried together using our separate accounts, again he couldnt book it, but I was able to using my account. Similarly, the Avios came from our household account so both his and my avios.
He called the BA customer service yesterday merge the 2 bookings and get half the Avios from the return flight refunded. And they said no! Because the outbound was booked by him, however the inbound was booked by me, they cannot merge. I’m so confused… the passengers of both flights are the same people (he and I), the Avios points also come from the same household account. Why are they being difficult?!?!
Any experience or advice on what we can do, I would really appreciate!
Could you cancel, allow redemption seats to go back to inventory and have your husband quickly book them? I think its not guaranteed but high likelihood and very doubtful someone would beat you to it if you are coordinated.
The voucher can only be booked from the account of the person with the voucher.
What you are asking is simply not possible.
Whilst the avios are in a HHA they still come from your individual BAC accounts. Having a HHA does not make your own accounts interchangeable.
In any case the bookings can’t be merged even if he managed to book both sets of flights but the avios would be refunded. They remain as separate bookings.
Could you cancel, allow redemption seats to go back to inventory and have your husband quickly book them? I think its not guaranteed but high likelihood and very doubtful someone would beat you to it if you are coordinated.
We could try this as last resort. But it’s risky like you said. It’s ridiculous that we have to do it though, I think BA is being extremely unreasonable.
The voucher can only be booked from the account of the person with the voucher.
What you are asking is simply not possible.
Whilst the avios are in a HHA they still come from your individual BAC accounts. Having a HHA does not make your own accounts interchangeable.
In any case the bookings can’t be merged even if he managed to book both sets of flights but the avios would be refunded. They remain as separate bookings.
Ok then not “merge”, but I want half of the Avios used in the return flight refunded. If he was able to book the return fight himself using his account, but would have been the case, now BA refuse to refund the Avios on ground of technicality ie it was booked by me. But it’s silly, because both flights have the same 2 passengers, Avios came from the same household account where both his and mine are deducted.
As BA flyer says a booking using a voucher has to be made by the account holder. The terms have always been very clear so it’s perfectly reasonable that you can’t align bookings from different accounts. The fact that you have two separate bookings which happen to be for the same people doesn’t change that.
What you are effectively asking for is half of ‘your’ Avios to be returned against someone else’s voucher, which you can’t do. The HHA makes them shared Avios but I’m afraid that is coincidental.
We could try this as last resort. But it’s risky like you said. It’s ridiculous that we have to do it though, I think BA is being extremely unreasonable.
I think BA are being perfectly reasonable. The 241 voucher is already used, and can only be redeemed by the named voucher holder. Just cancel the return tickets and re-book them on the correct account.
Why was your husband unable to book the return flight? If there’s a technical issue, he can always call BA and ask them to add the inbound – are there any seats left on the route? If not, you’d need to cancel your booking first and the likelihood is that the seats would go back into the inventory at this point. You’ll be on the hook for £35 cancellation fee each, sadly (unless it’s a short-haul route and you’ve paid less than this).
As others have said, BA is being perfectly reasonable here; you wouldn’t be able to book any kind of return journey half from one account and half from another so it’s quite logical that you can’t do it with the 241.
I would normally book the outbound on the Internet and then book the inbound via the call centre as soon as they released. You are technically ammending the one voucher. It sounds like you’ve now used two voucher.
I didnt give the extra details but they may provide a bit more context so here goes:
Its an extremely popular route during the peak season (Japan during April is Sakura season), the booking for these tickets is like a bloodbath, tickets are snatched within seconds they became available.
We did try to call the BA in the first instance (calling their US line as the UK line is closed at this point), which is what adviced by HfP. And couldn’t get through, in fact they closed the line 5 mins before their normal closing time, which is also 5 mins before the tickets become available. There had been widespread report of similar cases on Reddit and HfP.
So again we rushed to the website and he tried to book them but all tickets are fine gone at this point (1 minute after they became available). At this point both he and I are logged in and we keep refreshing the page (also very common practice) and luckily 2 tickets showed up on my screen, so I grabbed them immediately and paid quickly and got it. At the same time no ticket showed on his search.
So that is why. Anyone who ever tried to book Japan, Hongkong, Singapore during peak season will understand exactly what we had to go through to get these tickets.
Anyways, I’m going to try BA again, see if they can help, maybe to cancel my ticket and rebook using his account but with the agent on the phone see if they can help…but I find this very silly…just on a technical point since same 2 passengers and avios from same household.
If agent refused to help, I will just keep the inbound as is, at least we got the reward flight, and put down the waste of an extra of 110k avios down to experience.
@leeloy88 looking at the advice above, I would chalk it up to experience rather than potentially lose the seats that you seemed to work very hard to get (unless you are now looking at different dates).
There are no guarantees those seats would go back into the inventory and if they do, they might be snapped up by someone else – probably another HfP’er 😉
@leeloy88 looking at the advice above, I would chalk it up to experience rather than potentially lose the seats that you seemed to work very hard to get (unless you are now looking at different dates).
There are no guarantees those seats would go back into the inventory and if they do, they might be snapped up by someone else – probably another HfP’er 😉
Yes, may have to end up doing that. Waste of 110k is still better than having to buy those tickets cash, just checked this morning J seat is £3k.
You can still use the other half of the 241 on another trip within the limits of the Ts & Cs. It would be nice for a lot of us if BA would bend the rules but I wouldn’t hold my breath!
I’m sorry to say, but as folk above have pointed out, BA aren’t being unreasonable, they’re simply following the rules of the voucher.
I appreciate you’re fired up by this right now, but if you take some time to think it through I hope you can see that asking BA to apply a voucher held in one person’s account to a booking made by someone else just isn’t feasible. Even if they wanted to bend the rules for you, the IT systems aren’t setup to do something like this.If not able to use the 2-4-1 for the inbound consider Qatar, I think it’s 80k per person avios in business Tokyo to London (other airports in Japan maybe too!) so less avios for you and a better airline! Obviously has a stopover though.
Good luck.
If not able to use the 2-4-1 for the inbound consider Qatar, I think it’s 80k per person avios in business Tokyo to London (other airports in Japan maybe too!) so less avios for you and a better airline! Obviously has a stopover though.
Good luck.
Thank you, you just gave me some ideas… I just created now some alerts for JAL and CX flights. I love Qatar and have traveled with them many times. But the 2 back to back long hauls (>6 hours each flight) will be tough.
Yes save the 241 for a different date. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable of BA. I called and got 50% Avios back yesterday following the script. Buy inbound with same account as outbound.
If not able to use the 2-4-1 for the inbound consider Qatar, I think it’s 80k per person avios in business Tokyo to London (other airports in Japan maybe too!) so less avios for you and a better airline! Obviously has a stopover though.
Good luck.
Thank you, you just gave me some ideas… I just created now some alerts for JAL and CX flights. I love Qatar and have traveled with them many times. But the 2 back to back long hauls (>6 hours each flight) will be tough.
Where could you create CX/JL avios alerts?
Thanks!
As an update, I’ve called BA again and they have linked the inbound with the outbound under the same 241 voucher and refunded us 110k Avios :).
As an update, I’ve called BA again and they have linked the inbound with the outbound under the same 241 voucher and refunded us 110k Avios :).
HUACA works!
Great result, well done.
As an update, I’ve called BA again and they have linked the inbound with the outbound under the same 241 voucher and refunded us 110k Avios :).
Wow, never heard of that being done before, you got lucky – nice one!
As an update, I’ve called BA again and they have linked the inbound with the outbound under the same 241 voucher and refunded us 110k Avios :).
Well done! Sometimes the lack of agent competence can work in your favour.
This was a lucky outcome, but definitely not to be expected for future.
Also keep an eye on MMB as BA has been known to cancel bookings which they later realise contravene their rules!
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