Process for booking -355 , with Limited Avios pot ,no 241 , and adding return

[Jill Kinkell]

I am shortly hoping to book a LH business class seat for someone who doesn’t have a huge pot of Avios or a 241. I can book the out bound but need to wait for the inbound to become available. Is booking just like using a 241 and phoning up to add on the return? Do I halve the Avios pot for the outbound and pay the cash , and when I phone up will CS tag on the return with the other half of Avios and cash? Given there will be a domestic connection as well, It’s never available until the following day, So another call is required to add that on.
Or, do I chance it and just wait until I can book it all together. I might lose seats if I have to wait!
Aiming to use 241 for myself and OH, Family member wants to come on trip with us trying to plan flights

[NorthernLass]

Hi @Jill – where are you going, some destinations are much more likely to be available when waiting for the inbound to become available?

But yes, you’re just making an avios booking without a 241, it’s the same process. If you do book separate legs your friend will retain 2 PNRs, but you’re not losing anything by making separate bookings online as soon as the long haul sectors are released, and then you’ll only need to call once to add the domestic connection.

However – if you haven’t made your 241 booking yet, you can use it to book for 3 of you on one booking – as long as your seats aren’t coming from the “extra availability” pot opened up by the new-style vouchers. The 3rd person would need to be in a HHA with you or on your friends and family list.

Hope this makes sense lol.

[Jill Kinkell]

NorthernLass wrote:

Hi @Jill – where are you going, some destinations are much more likely to be available when waiting for the inbound to become available?

But yes, you’re just making an avios booking without a 241, it’s the same process. If you do book separate legs your friend will retain 2 PNRs, but you’re not losing anything by making separate bookings online as soon as the long haul sectors are released, and then you’ll only need to call once to add the domestic connection.

However – if you haven’t made your 241 booking yet, you can use it to book for 3 of you on one booking – as long as your seats aren’t coming from the “extra availability” pot opened up by the new-style vouchers. The 3rd person would need to be in a HHA with you or on your friends and family list.

Hope this makes sense lol.

Thanks…I thought this would be it . Aiming for PHX My 241 is the new style so extra availability comes up. 3rd person is on friends and family . Just going through weather better to book PE and UUA. Research and dummies required!

[Jill Kinkell]

hate predictive text. whether

[NorthernLass]

If you book at T-355 the extra availability may not have been released and if so you’d be able to book 3 standard seats with the 241, sorry if that wasn’t clear! If you leave it till later and only “extra availability” is there, you can only use the the voucher for 2 people.

If you used the voucher for you and person 3, could your OH book a BA holiday and get double TPs? Thinking EDI-LHR-PHX might get them at least to Bronze if no status already. We did this in 2019 and due to Covid extensions and BA IT my OH only went back to blue last month!