Sydney Return Trip

[TravellingPepper]

Hi

Grateful for any advice on this. I’m looking to book Heathrow to Sydney for December 2025 for 3 of us (2 adults, one 6 year old), leaving mid December onwards and returning at the start of January. I have the below to use. I want business both ways ideally.

320,000 avios
1 AMEX 241 voucher
2 Barclaycard cabin upgrade vouchers

What is the best way to book this?

I appreciate it’s going to need a lot of luck to get it booked, my thoughts were to use the Amex voucher for 2 + avios points by calling BA to book the outbound flight and then call when the return journey becomes available to add it to the booking and then book the other journey as a full price business non reward ticket? Can anyone think of a more cost effective way to do it and is there a way the cabin upgrade could be used on the way back? The AMEX and cabin upgrade vouchers are all on the same executive club account

Thanks!

[travelmonkey]

Sydney will be a tricky destination to do this on, but here’s a thread with someone who successfully booking using this combination of vouchers, albeit to a less competitive destination: https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/upgrade-voucher-adding-return-leg/

[travelmonkey]

Actually, you don’t have enough Avios for the 241 redemption if both dates land on peak dates. You’d be OK if either the outbound or inbound lands on an off-peak date. No way do you have enough Avios to get the third reward seat and a cash seat may be very expensive given it’s peak season on that route.

Qatar might present an alternative option, albeit only 2 business seats available at 180,000 Avios teach, return leaving you 40,000 Avios short and still needing to book a cash fare on the same flights. Qatar gives you much more schedule and destination flexibility (if it’s not specifically Sydney that you need – you could even make it an open-jaw trip).

[NorthernLass]

No way to use the upgrade voucher purely on the return – you could do this with the 241 though, and save the other half for a future trip.

This is definitely a tall order, and you’ve missed the off-peak dates in December now. If you leave it until around Jan 8th to return, you should be into off-peak again.

If using the 241, you will have different avios/cash options to choose from, but with the upgrade voucher you have to pay maximum avios.

If you’re set on going, price up a BAH for one of you, with a minimum of one night in a hotel (or car hire). It won’t be cheap but it might save a bit on a pure cash air fare, and you’ll have much longer to pay.

[NorthernLass]

The next outbound date to be released will be December 14th at midnight tonight, so ideally you’ll need to be on the phone then, and then tomorrow if you don’t get the seats tonight, and so on. The “booking the return leg at T-355” thread has a lot of useful info about numbers to call and what time to ideally connect with the call centre, if you haven’t checked it out already.

[TravellingPepper]

Thanks for your thoughts, interesting I hadn’t really considered the Qatar option. yep I had kind of accepted it will be an expensive option to pay a cash business fare for the third seat but as you say we definitely don’t have enough avios for all 3, we can be flexible so waiting until the 8th January onwards is definitely an option, however still a huge saving on 3 x business cash fares.

So do you think it would be more avios effective to do one booking peak going out in December using the 241 voucher as a single journey for 2 passengers. And then for the return journey book 2 x premium economy and use the cabin upgrade voucher? And then swallow paying the cash fare for the third person on a seperate booking?

[TravellingPepper]

NorthernLass wrote:

The next outbound date to be released will be December 14th at midnight tonight, so ideally you’ll need to be on the phone then, and then tomorrow if you don’t get the seats tonight, and so on. The “booking the return leg at T-355” thread has a lot of useful info about numbers to call and what time to ideally connect with the call centre, if you haven’t checked it out already.

Yep have keenly read this thanks!

[NorthernLass]

You can’t use the upgrade voucher for the return journey, it has to begin from the UK.

[Whisper2]

Maybe you could buy 20k more Avios using Avios boost (if you have managed to collect 5k in the last 30 days) or transfer some Amex points to get to 340k total which you need for the peak return on the 241. Then book child + yourself on the 241 and pay cash for 2nd adult.
If you can get more Avios then you can use the BUV for adult 2.

[travelmonkey]

NorthernLass wrote:

You can’t use the upgrade voucher for the return journey, it has to begin from the UK.

For clarity, the voucher can upgrade one person for the entire round trip. What it can’t do is upgrade only the inbound (towards UK) leg of an itinerary. I’m certain that’s what you meant, NL.