Open jaw advice

[Indy500]

Hi folks

I have a few trips this year but it’s next year’s USA flights that I’m slightly concerned about [Better half’s 60th so I had better not make a Horlicks of this….].

We plan to buy WT+ and upgrade with Avios to Club. Outbound is to Miami on May 16th and inbound is from New Orleans on June 7th.

My worry is waiting to purchase both flights as I have to wait 3 weeks until the New Orleans flights are available thereby missing the chance to get the upgrade on the Miami flight. I rang BA [got through in 15mins!!!] and their advice was to ring the USA number at midnight 16th May and book [with upgrade] the Miami as a one way [at a higher cost]. Do the same thing 3 weeks later for the New Orleans flights and then explain that this is a return booking and BA will then amalgamate the flights and adjust the overall price to a return price.

This sounds very sensible but is this a realistic scenario? I don’t want to be stuck with a pair of astronomic one-way fares.

Any advice? Thanks for your time.

Indy

[NorthernLass]

Is this possible with cash bookings? One way flights can be more than twice what a return is so I’m not sure how they’d recalculate it – this is usually done with complete award bookings.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

That doesn’t sound right to me.

It would be for straight avios and 2-4-1 booking but definitely not for cash ones and then upgrading.

[NorthernLass]

That’s what I’m thinking. @Indy500 needs to check this carefully or the result could indeed to 2 very expensive one-way trips!

[SamG]

They can sell you a ticket with return the same day, then you’re allowed a free change to the correct date (due to it being “out of range”) – though changes are free anyway currently

However this is likely to result in a much higher cash fare than you’d end up paying for a few different reasons (low fare buckets sometimes not released straight away, not meeting minimum stay rules)

What I don’t know is if you could book as a one-way, then call three weeks later and amend to a return and have it re fared & pay the difference, whilst holding the outbound seat with the upgrade on. I suspect though you’d be booked into “W” class (full fare) and I’m not sure if they could change you to one of the lower ones whilst retaining the upgrade.

What I will say is if you booked the two Miami seats with Avios, then cancelled them, it’s highly likely at that stage they’d become available again. So one option is to do that, then book the cash flight you want online, get the agent on the phone and have them cancel your Avios booking and then process the upgrade.
The downside is paying a cancellation fee, needing the Avios and risking them not coming back into availability.

[MattB]

I think for cash bookings you will have to wait until the return leg is available to book. I’ve been in the same position in the past and it’s unfortunately a risk. How fixed are those dates? It’s always advisable to have backups in terms of alternate dates or nearby locations.

[PGW]

MattB wrote:

I think for cash bookings you will have to wait until the return leg is available to book.

I think that’s right. Even if upgrade availability isn’t there then there must be a chance that some will crop up between then and what is almost a year later.

[Indy500]

Useful info everyone, thank you. Any other suggestions/advice welcome!

Indy

[NorthernLass]

MattB wrote:

I think for cash bookings you will have to wait until the return leg is available to book. I’ve been in the same position in the past and it’s unfortunately a risk. How fixed are those dates? It’s always advisable to have backups in terms of alternate dates or nearby locations.

No – you can book one-way flights but these are usually hugely expensive on long haul routes. Short haul doesn’t have this issue and can generally be booked separately at no extra cost.

[MattB]

NorthernLass wrote:

MattB wrote:

I think for cash bookings you will have to wait until the return leg is available to book. I’ve been in the same position in the past and it’s unfortunately a risk. How fixed are those dates? It’s always advisable to have backups in terms of alternate dates or nearby locations.

No – you can book one-way flights but these are usually hugely expensive on long haul routes. Short haul doesn’t have this issue and can generally be booked separately at no extra cost.

Fair point, I had discounted that idea to the likely high costs on a US booking.

[Indy500]

Update

I spoke to BA again yesterday and they again said that I should book outbound as soon as available as one way and then as soon as the inbound is available to call and book and they will add that leg to the booking and convert it to a return booking. Them seem certain that’s the way to go.

Indy

[SamG]

Indy500 wrote:

Update

I spoke to BA again yesterday and they again said that I should book outbound as soon as available as one way and then as soon as the inbound is available to call and book and they will add that leg to the booking and convert it to a return booking. Them seem certain that’s the way to go.

Indy

That makes sense. But what you want to know is how that’ll price. Will they be able to re price the whole thing to the best fare on sale that day for a return whilst maintaining the upgrade?

[memesweeper]

SamG wrote:

Indy500 wrote:

Update

I spoke to BA again yesterday and they again said that I should book outbound as soon as available as one way and then as soon as the inbound is available to call and book and they will add that leg to the booking and convert it to a return booking. Them seem certain that’s the way to go.

Indy

That makes sense. But what you want to know is how that’ll price. Will they be able to re price the whole thing to the best fare on sale that day for a return whilst maintaining the upgrade?

My hunch — no, they will not. Would be fantastic if they did! Please report back.

If I were approaching this I’d book the outbound award as a full award. On the day of release of the return seats, cancel the award. Then book the return WTP for cash when the award seats you need to are released for upgrade. Obviously, there’s a risk that someone else grabs the award seats ahead of you, but you can minimise that risk with a late-as-possible award cancellation, and a phone call at midnight to a far-off land on the night of release.