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My situation is a bit complicated and would need advice here. Advised by BA if i booked outbound using avios and inbound using 241, then try to merge them together the total tax will be increased £150 due to the inbound tax is lower (£185) originally, now after repricing it will be £320.
I thought booking separately will enable me to have the different in avios refund (outbound) but without changing in tax. It seems that BA is repricing everything. Is this correct.
I was also thought to have a bit of flexibility for the inbound if needed to come back to UK for work early that allow me to cancel it and reuse the inbound 241 in the future, after flew the outbound. BA advised that i can cancel the inbound but wont be getting avios and tax back. Would be helpful your experience on this.
Fyi, my outbound destination and inbound departure airports are totally different but all in asia. TIA
Fyi my outbound is PE and inbound is CW due to limited availability on outbound
Is this a case of lower taxes returning from HKG? Is this still the case, I’ve lost track!
If you were booking the inbound at T-355, you could book it separately at full avios and whatever tax and just ask for 50% of the avios back. If not, BA may well refuse due to policy only being to refund the avios if the inbound was not available when the outbound was booked.
If not T-355, you’ve not really got any option other than to suck up BA’s charges. You can still change the inbound if you need to, for £35pp, as long as there’s avios availability.
Just read this again and what you’re proposing would actually be 2 separate bookings anyway so I’m not sure why BA are even talking about re-calculating taxes.
You wouldn’t be able to have this as one booking if only using the 241 one-way. But BA doesn’t “merge” these bookings anyway, so you wouldn’t be losing anything.
It is from KUL and not T355 afraid.
I am trying to use the 241 as return journey due to travel solo. Admitted i should have called BA for the entire booking but was assuming if booked 2 separately and merged them using 241 i can have the flexibility in cancel and reuse again the inbound in case i need to buy cash ticket to return back home early.
So you’re using the 241 for a 50% discount on the avios? Have you already booked the outbound? It would be helpful if you could give your itinerary and approximate dates.
On one PNR, you can change the inbound once you’ve flown the outbound, but if you cancel it you get nothing back. I linked to a recent article about this on another thread yesterday.
If 2 PNRs, BA will not merge these, and you will remain with 2 separate bookings. All discussed exhaustively in the dedicated 241 threads!
@cercwc76 – the bottom line is that BA’s informal/unpublished policy of refunding 50% of the Avios if you make a second booking for the return because the the flight wasn’t open at the time of booking the outbound isn’t intended to be a back door way of getting lower taxes or a refund of an unused return or in any other way giving you an advantage over a passenger making one return booking/PNR. In practice, it can work in your favour in unintended ways, but that’s only because some agents aren’t too clued up. The taxes you mention seem quite low – did you maybe use a higher Avios/lower cash combination before?
The outbound yet booked but the inbound only due to over Xmas time. Outbound is to shanghai around Nov while inbound is from KUL after xmas.
I have read the 241 threads and have purposely asked BA 2PNRs and merger them into one 241 but somehow the agent said if merge i would still require to pay extra tax as it will merge into under 241.
I have thought to book the outbound with avios now and call BA to merge it, i think regardless the avios shouldnt be valued less than 1p but to suck up the extra tax fee 🙁
The outbound yet booked but the inbound only due to over Xmas time. Outbound is to shanghai around Nov while inbound is from KUL after xmas.
I have read the 241 threads and have purposely asked BA 2PNRs and merger them into one 241 but somehow the agent said if merge i would still require to pay extra tax as it will merge into under 241.
I have thought to book the outbound with avios now and call BA to merge it, i think regardless the avios shouldnt be valued less than 1p but to suck up the extra tax fee 🙁
BA can split but cannot merge PNRs. What you are talking about is adding a return flight to an existing booking which will almost always result in a recalculation of the whole fare and taxes and it will give you the benefit of the 241 for the whole itinerary. I wouldn’t expect them to agree to book you on two PNRs as there is no legitimate basis for that in your circumstances.
Unfortunately my trip will be this year and both seats were available while i booked the inbound. You did suggest me last week to call BA for the booking but i thought 2PNR would gives me some flexibility for the reasons mentioned earlier.
Im using the normal avios and cash for the inbound booking.
I am more than happy to have 2PNRs as long as i can get the outbound 50% avios refunded by make use of the 241 for travel solo.
Just want to make sure
1) it can be done and without incurring extra tax but maybe £35 admit fee.
2) i guess the agent might have confused if i want them to book the inbound via phone and get whole journey into one under 241 that leading to recalculation of tax. However i have purposely asked if i booked the inbound with full avios and get the different avios refund.Both @JDB and I have already said this but it’s very likely that they’ll refuse to refund you the 50% avios for the inbound leg under these circumstances, but there’s nothing to stop you from asking!
It may just be easier to cancel and rebook, which will cost you £35.
The pitfalls of these bookings are discussed endlessly on here so you may want to do some more research before making a decision.
Thanks for the advice. It is kind of lesson learned for me and always appreciated that Rob have such a useful forum and you guys are always being helpful to share the experience over here 🙂
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