-
Three weeks ago, we booked three J flights to Los Angeles (LAX) for 18th September 2025, using Barclays upgrade vouchers. Our return flights are from Shanghai (PVG) on 14th October 2025. The plan is to take advantage of Royal Caribbean’s transpacific cruise from Los Angeles to Tokyo, followed by a short hop to Shanghai a few days later.
While the Avios and vouchers have been deducted, we’ve yet to receive any e-tickets or documentation. The agent mentioned the booking would need to be entered manually but didn’t seem concerned. The flights do appear in the BA website and app, but I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy about the possibility of a cancellation or change, especially as the cruise is already fully paid for.
I’m aware of the rule regarding the distance between arrival and departure airports, but from what I understand, this only applies to the 2-4-1 voucher and not the Barclays upgrade voucher. If I’m mistaken, do let me know. That said, nothing was flagged during the booking process. Could anyone kindly help put my mind at ease?
The rule re the surface ‘sector’ not being longer than either flight is not a voucher rule or even a BA rule, it is an IATA fares and ticketing rule. If the unflown transpacific sector exceeds either flight which I think it does, you have two one way tickets rather than an open jaw which is what you were hoping for.
Unfortunately this wouldn’t necessarily have been notified to you during the booking process as most telephone agents aren’t ticketing trained and it’s at that stage that the problem arises. A competent call centre agent should intuitively have known that the routing might not be allowed and checked it for you. It’s possible BA will issue the ticket, but that will be a matter of luck. If they won’t issue the ticket, I think they will offer you the opportunity to pay the extra Avios rather than just cancelling your booking.
As @JDB states, this doesn’t meet the requirements for an open jaw ticket and BA might not be able to ticket it. Los Angeles to Shanghai is 5635nm which is longer than both flights. I’d get back in touch with BA and see what is happening, it may be that it needs booking as two singles and how that works with the requirements of the Barclays flight starting in the UK I’m not sure.
https://www.airmilescalculator.com/ is good for this
London to LA – 5456 miles / 8781 kilometers / 4741 nautical miles.
LA to Shanghai – 6485 miles / 10436 kilometers / 5635 nautical miles.
Tokyo to LHR – 5975 miles / 9615 kilometers / 5192 nautical miles.
As an aside – I booked the same two flights (LHR/LAX and PVG/LHR) with Virgin Atlantic on a reward ticket for travel in Q1 2025.
Of course, Virgin have different rules regarding “open jaw”, etc – and in due course, Virgin cancelled the PVG service.As an aside – I booked the same two flights (LHR/LAX and PVG/LHR) with Virgin Atlantic on a reward ticket for travel in Q1 2025.
Of course, Virgin have different rules regarding “open jaw”, etc – and in due course, Virgin cancelled the PVG service.Virgin is subject to the identical international ticketing rules as BA, so doesn’t have a different interpretation of ‘open jaw’ but did previously allow vouchers to be used in halves, such that a booking containing two one way sectors was possible although this flexibility has apparently been removed in the changes associated with dynamic pricing. If not using a VS or BA voucher, there is no issue anyway.
https://www.airmilescalculator.com/ is good for this
London to LA – 5456 miles / 8781 kilometers / 4741 nautical miles.
LA to Shanghai – 6485 miles / 10436 kilometers / 5635 nautical miles.
Tokyo to LHR – 5975 miles / 9615 kilometers / 5192 nautical miles.
OP is flying back from PVG which is 5755 miles.
On a different note, I was surprised LAX to PVG is longer than both. The Pacific Ocean is just massive! Someone start a petition to stop using maps based on Mercator projections!
https://www.airmilescalculator.com/ is good for this
London to LA – 5456 miles / 8781 kilometers / 4741 nautical miles.
LA to Shanghai – 6485 miles / 10436 kilometers / 5635 nautical miles.
Tokyo to LHR – 5975 miles / 9615 kilometers / 5192 nautical miles.
OP is flying back from PVG which is 5755 miles.
On a different note, I was surprised LAX to PVG is longer than both. The Pacific Ocean is just massive! Someone start a petition to stop using maps based on Mercator projections!
Yes! Commenting on East Asia flights when in the US recently, I was stunned to learn Seattle-Seoul takes longer than from LHR!
Sorry – I should have said that my Virgin Atlantic flights were for two people (in Upper), using a voucher. Very glad to have got some good value from my stash of Virgin points.
–
Couldn’t be repeated.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
