Upgrade voucher from London to Bali – can I do it?

[zxydxdm]

I have both upgrade voucher from Barclay and Amex.
what’s the most possible way to book businesses class?

[Froggee]

To use your Amex companion voucher to fly from the regions i.e. Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast etc to Singapore and then to book a separate flight with someone that flies to Bali (which BA does not). You get more availability from non-London UK cities.

From London to get seats (to Singapore) you’ll most likely have to call BA at midnight.

You could use the vouchers to get you to Doha (which is pretty easy) and then get a separate redemption with Qatar from Doha to Bali but this would necessitate building in a hefty buffer as you would need to enter Doha to collect and recheck your bags.

[NorthernLass]

You’ll probably need to find an airport in the region served by BA (for the Barclays voucher) or BA/IB/EI (for the Amex voucher) and get a connection from there. Best options might be Dubai/Doha/Singapore/Hong Kong.

As @Froggee points out, availability can be tricky and your travel date will have an impact on that as well.

[yorkshireRich]

I don’t have the Barclays voucher but I’ll share my route for when I go in September nevertheless.

We used the companion voucher from Man to LHR to Singapore on BA. Staying at CP in the airport on points then booked a separate flight to fly to Bali the day after.

Going straight back to Man (via Doh) on Qatar from Bali using avios.

[Aston100]

yorkshireRich wrote:

I don’t have the Barclays voucher but I’ll share my route for when I go in September nevertheless.

We used the companion voucher from Man to LHR to Singapore on BA. Staying at CP in the airport on points then booked a separate flight to fly to Bali the day after.

Going straight back to Man (via Doh) on Qatar from Bali using avios.

Do you feel you got good value from the companion voucher despite using it for only a one way journey?

[yorkshireRich]

Aston- good question, and the wife was on about this the other day for our next trip and she said “I’m not wasting the companion voucher only booking it for one
Leg”. I think I may have conveniently not informed her that”s what we were doing on this trip.

Without looking at the exact avios and GBP spent, I don’t recall there being a HUGE difference. A couple of factors:
It was peak date from Singapore to London also.
We are just holiday-ing in Bali so we would have to go back on ourselves somewhat. That itself is more cost and at the moment we generally have to pay for more luggage allowance, unless we are on certain one world carriers.
It saves time this way and saves money also, I.e not spending another night in a hotel in Singapore airport. To in short, it’s a lot more convenient for us.

If BA flew to Bangkok, and my final destination was
London, then the story may have been different.

[NorthernLass]

@yorkshireRich, could you use the inbound portion of your 241 on another trip? You have 12 months from flying the outbound.

[yorkshireRich]

NorthernLass wrote:

@yorkshireRich, could you use the inbound portion of your 241 on another trip? You have 12 months from flying the outbound.

ohh I’m intrigued?
We are looking at Japan in May 2025, so does that mean I could use it then?

[BBbetter]

yorkshireRich wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

@yorkshireRich, could you use the inbound portion of your 241 on another trip? You have 12 months from flying the outbound.

ohh I’m intrigued?
We are looking at Japan in May 2025, so does that mean I could use it then?

Distance between HND and SIN is less than either sector from LHR, so you can use the voucher to fly back.

[1958]

BBbetter wrote:

yorkshireRich wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

@yorkshireRich, could you use the inbound portion of your 241 on another trip? You have 12 months from flying the outbound.

ohh I’m intrigued?
We are looking at Japan in May 2025, so does that mean I could use it then?

Distance between HND and SIN is less than either sector from LHR, so you can use the voucher to fly back.

I think that you must fly the return leg within 12 months of the outbound flight (BA told me this) – so consequently, the time gap between your two planned flights may be too long.

[Froggee]

@Aston100 – here are some real life numbers as I’ve just been through this thought process with my 80 year old mother!

Option 1 – Using 241 both ways
2 pax BA Club using Amex 241 return EDI-LHR-SIN off-peak – 184,000 Avios + £1,420
2 pax SQ business using Virgin points return SIN-DPS – 70,000 points + £101.20
Total cost = 254,000 miles + £1,521.20

Option 2 – Using 241 going out but Qatar flying home
2 pax BA Club using Amex 241 one-way EDI-LHR-SIN off-peak – 92,000 Avios + £710
2 pax SQ business using Virgin points one-way SIN-DPS – 35,000 points + £76.80
2 pax QR business one way DPS-DOH-EDI off-peak – 160,000 Avios + £303.60
Total cost = 287,000 miles + £1,090.40

So 33,000 additional miles were used but resulted in a cash saving of £430.80

This was incredibly attractive for my mother + pal who wanted a few days in Singapore but you only really want to be going to Singapore once on such a trip and not twice. So she paid £70 to cancel the already-booked return leg with BA and rebooked with Qatar. It also avoids either spending the night in Singapore on the way back or spending several hours hanging around Changi given that you would need to build in a large buffer for the self-connect.

I guess the key in this example is the desire to spend some time in Singapore but only once, not twice.

The fees/surcharges are higher with Qatar from EDI-DOH-DPS than from DPS-DOH-EDI. Which leads me to option 3:

Option 3 – screw Singapore, just go straight to Bali
If you didn’t want to go to Singapore at all then a return from EDi-DOH-DPS with Qatar for 2 pax in in business would be 320,000 Avios + £1,035.62.

If you value an Avios/Virgin point at one pence then there is little difference in price between option 3 and option 1, particularly given that you kind of need to price the actual Amex 241 voucher at £250 unless you’re still doing the downgrade/upgrade thing.

So my conclusion is don’t let the tail wag the dog. My mum has not maximised the value from the Amex 241 voucher but it has saved her 92,000 Avios and she has got the perfect itinerary for her.

[BBbetter]

Thanks for the detailed calc, Froggee. Glad that your 80 year old mom is not only interested in these things but also keeps her mind active at that age with calculations.

I would say there’s not much difference between options 1 and 2 either, just that option 2 is cheaper by approx £100.
For me its not a big deal as in option 1, SIN is probably the best airport in the world and in the other option, you still need to change planes at DOH, but just without bags. For old people, that makes it a no brainer, but I’d prefer connecting in SIN. Horses for courses.

Apart from above, it comes down to whether you are avios rich or cash rich and reward seat availability. I wish I bought avios in the booster offer at 92p.

[Froggee]

Remember my dear old ma lives in Edinburgh so she has to connect at Heathrow and Singapore if using British Airways. And the Singapore bit is non-protected which can go (badly) wrong!

If you’re based in London then the Doha option would be markedly less attractive as you have to connect once to get to Bali from London and I’d agree Singapore is more pleasant than Doha. Whereas from Edinburgh the only single connection routes (I think) are Turkish and Qatar.

[zxydxdm]

NorthernLass wrote:

You’ll probably need to find an airport in the region served by BA (for the Barclays voucher) or BA/IB/EI (for the Amex voucher) and get a connection from there. Best options might be Dubai/Doha/Singapore/Hong Kong.

As @Froggee points out, availability can be tricky and your travel date will have an impact on that as well.

I find that Cathy fly from Hong Kong to Bali directly, but it’s a five hours flight. Can I use my companion amex voucher on it as well?

[The real Swiss Tony]

zxydxdm wrote:

I find that Cathy fly from Hong Kong to Bali directly, but it’s a five hours flight. Can I use my companion amex voucher on it as well?

No, as @NorthenLass points out the companion vouchers are only available to use on BA (Barclays) or BA, Iberia & Aer Lingus (Amex). If you fly BA to Hong Kong using a 2-4-1, you will then need to make a completely separate booking from HKG to Bali.

[Erico1875]

Froggee wrote:

Whereas from Edinburgh the only single connection routes (I think) are Turkish and Qatar.

You could do this with KLM which also opens up the possibility of Virgin points or Flying Blue

[Froggee]

Ish. Except you need to get off the plane in SIN (as well as connecting in AMS) which puts a dampener on it and it is a really poor value redemption compared to the Amex 241 with BA or Qatar off-peak options.

[Erico1875]

Ah. I thought it was a direct flight from AMS

[NorthernLass]

@yorkshireRich – if you have used your 241 for outbound to SIN in September, then you can use the inbound portion to fly home from Japan the following May, as long as you can get the avios seats, of course. This an example of when the 241 works well with the upgrade voucher.

Next week were are returning AGP-LHR-MAN on the inbound portion of a 241 I needed to use up after Covid – we flew the outbound MAN-LHR-GIB last April!

[Wiseoldman]

We are doing Bali for two people using;

Outbound; Ams to DPS 160,000 points on Qatar Club Class all the way

Return; paying £2200 cah to return from Jakarta to LHR

It is last minute booking with no advance planning.

[NorthernLass]

Is that £2200 for 2? Which cabin? Does QR not penalise you for booking one-way with cash like BA does?