Retrospective application of companion voucher

[tomahawk]

Can I do this……?

Book 2 return flights today using full avios and then call up in, say, 2 months and get them to apply a (yet to be earned) companion voucher to the booking so that I get half the avios returned.

I ask because there are flights available on the route I’m looking at now but there may not be a couple of months down the line.

[Amy C]

Unfortunately not no.

[tomahawk]

Thats a shame. Thanks for the quick reply.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

When you do get the voucher you can check to see if rewards are available and cancel and rebook.

[Rob]

Or take a big gamble and cancel to see if they return to inventory …..

[tomahawk]

I think I am going to have this problem a few times having gone berserk on the recent amex offer to get an additional 4 cards for wife and kids hence going to end up with 5 companion vouchers to use

[NorthernLass]

You know they are all going to have to travel on their respective companion vouchers, right?

[tomahawk]

Yep. They have mostly already planned that……

[louie]

I can’t remember if it was on here or on Flyertalk, but I have read of a few instances where this was allowed. I think you’d be very lucky if you found an agent who could / was willing to do so though.

[phantomchickenz]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Or take a big gamble and cancel to see if they return to inventory …..

I’ve seen a few people talking about doing this. Has anyone actually been successful?

[No Longer Entitled]

Do you have enough avios to book twice the number of seats you need?

Cutting a long story short, I recently had need to cancel and rebook some reward flights to apply a 2-4-1. The seats returned to inventory immediately allowing me to do so. But I had two bookings meaning that if they didn’t return I still had the original booking to fall back on.

There would be a cancellation fee to pay, but you may decide it is worth the punt. I think it very much depends upon the route, your flexibility with regard dates, and if you would have an alternative use for the voucher before expiry.

[rashomon]

Hey there – I was in a similar situation.

I secured a CW return to Mumbai using just Avios – but wanted to make use of a companion voucher later once I earned it. I value Avios higher currently as I’m no longer eligible for signup bonuses so wanted to have 50% Avios back for a future trip.

A couple of months later after booking, my 241 was issued and although there was availability on the same flight schedule I didn’t have enough Avios in my account to book directly again.

I rang up BA and got through to a friendly agent – he cancelled my existing booking and credited the Avios back instantly. I could see the Avios land in my account while I was on the call to him.

I then rebooked the same flight using my voucher and 50% of the required Avios … and the £35 change fee.