The Old Chesnut – Booking return flight using 2 4 1 Voucher

[DJP31]

A little help from those more experienced would be greatly appeciated. I’ve booked the outbound using the voucher and am waiting for the 355 days to tick over for the return flight to appear. BA UK phone lines open at 07:30 and I’ve noticed the Business seats have gone before 07:30. I’m assuming that’s due to the below options being used – although if I’ve missed something very happy to be educated

I’ve read a couple of articles on the HfP site and the options seem to be:

1. Book at midnight using Avios and then ring BA and get them to merge, with a return of the extra Avios. This seems to work except a later article suggested BA do you for the taxes – and the flight in question is to NA so chunky taxes.

2. Ring BA US at midnight GMT – that’s something I’ve never done before and don’t know the number

I appeciate any help means one more person “in the know” but it’s good to share 🙂

[Gary]

Would say ring US line 30-40 mins or so before midnight if you are hoping to grab the seats at stroke of midnight. I have had to wait close to an hour or 10 mins to get through. It’s luck of the draw if you get through at an appropriate time as CS can’t just wait around for midnight if it was too early.

Seen reports here people ringing Japan call centre which opens at midnight.

Log into your BAEC and all numbers are under “contact us” and scroll down to “Executive Club queries”, then there is a drop down menu to select the various countries. Good luck!

[NorthernLass]

I can never be bothered to call to book the return leg. Nowadays my strategy is that on routes where the “taxes” aren’t really an issue just book the return online then request the refund of avios via Twitter, or for the USA, return on a RFS fare in Y or PE. If Y, grab the extra leg room seats which on an overnight flight is fine as we don’t tend to eat or drink much so J or F would be a waste really. I’m about to test whether claiming the avios back on a RFS route will work!

[Robm]

I did this recently and did it online as one way. The return was YVR – LHR – the ‘hit’ in ‘taxes and fees’ (by booking 2x 1 way vs return) was £125pp – which was not ideal – however I did not want to faff with a call centre and managed to book within 2 minutes of midnight. There is a benefit for having 2x one ways as it means you can cancel the return flight after the outbound – e.g. if you want to extend your trip and return with a different airline.

I’d be interested in hearing what experience is like with BA US and BA Japan when trying to book at midnight – I had heard stories of them refusing to do it based on the customer not being based in US or Japan. No idea it this is true or not.

If the return is from USA then the taxes/ fees for doing it as 2x 1 way are obscene.

[NorthernLass]

@Robm – only obscene of you want J or F, see my post above about RFS.

[DJP31]

NorthernLass wrote:

I can never be bothered to call to book the return leg. Nowadays my strategy is that on routes where the “taxes” aren’t really an issue just book the return online then request the refund of avios via Twitter, or for the USA, return on a RFS fare in Y or PE. If Y, grab the extra leg room seats which on an overnight flight is fine as we don’t tend to eat or drink much so J or F would be a waste really. I’m about to test whether claiming the avios back on a RFS route will work!

I must admit my laziness makes me inclined to agree, but in this case the taxes look ridiculous. £600 on a “normal” return flight, turns into £385 outbound and $1,000 inbound thanks to VAT.

[DJP31]

NorthernLass wrote:

If the return is from USA then the taxes/ fees for doing it as 2x 1 way are obscene.

As I have just discovered!

[masaccio]

All these shenanigans become somewhat redundant on most routes with the new ‘plus’ vouchers though? I only have one datapoint of LHR-MIA in the summer but zero availability turned into availability when I called.

Anyone know if it’s made the slightest difference for the ever-elusive MLE flight?

[ChrisC]

DJP31 wrote:

I must admit my laziness makes me inclined to agree, but in this case the taxes look ridiculous. £600 on a “normal” return flight, turns into £385 outbound and $1,000 inbound thanks to VAT.

There is no VAT on flights.

And stop conflating BA surcharges – which is the bulk of that $1000 – with proper government imposed taxes.

[Robm]

@northernlass – good tip on a return one way from USA in Y or PE to avoid fees. I hadn’t bothered looking at how much the fees/taxes go down.

[NorthernLass]

Only if the route offers RFS. You still get shafted otherwise!

[Robm]

@masaccio I was looking 355 days out and the new BA 241 didn’t seem to help with LHR – YVR. I don’t believe there is yet any easy way to find out if the new voucher ‘unlocks’ availability.

[DJP31]

Robm wrote:

There is no VAT on flights.

And stop conflating BA surcharges – which is the bulk of that $1000 – with proper government imposed taxes.

This is the result of my search:

Fare
$4,069.00
$1,057.80
Additional Charges (Adult)
Vat – Barbados
$712.10
Passenger Service Charge – Barbados
$27.50
Security Fee – Barbados
$3.20
Airport Passenger Service Charge – Barbados
$70.00
Carrier imposed charge
$245.00
ba.com booking fee
$0.00
Total
$5,126.80
Total
$5,126.8

How do you explain this then? Am I doing something wrong?

[DJP31]

@robm I don’t know why my reply above quotes you when it was @chrisC who’s taken me to task on VAT.

[NorthernLass]

Presumably that’s Barbados VAT, not UK (though it sounds insanely high)?

[DJP31]

NorthernLass wrote:

Presumably that’s Barbados VAT, not UK (though it sounds insanely high)?

I guess so but presumably I’d still end up paying it.

[masaccio]

Robm wrote:

@masaccio I was looking 355 days out and the new BA 241 didn’t seem to help with LHR – YVR. I don’t believe there is yet any easy way to find out if the new voucher ‘unlocks’ availability.

Don’t know if this helps but when I booked MIA I just used ITA Matrix to uncover I Class fares and then called up BAEC and said I’d found I Class fares and they converted a revenue seat into a reward seat. I have no idea if I just got lucky. You need “BA /f bc=I” as the routing code on each sector.

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