[Noggins]

ZoeB wrote:

Good news Noggins, will see you on board. Have you been assigned to deck 14? Looks like it might be noisy so planning contact VV and move down a couple of decks. We have also booked the £200 option with priority boarding, champagne etc.

A quick call this morning and a move organised to deck 12 where ‘there is lots of availability’. All very efficient.

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NorthernLass wrote:

@Noggins, Norse doesn’t have the best track record in terms of cancelling routes, although £359 is a great price if it includes your luggage!

Yes, price includes luggage (but not seat selection etc etc…). It does seem tempting – and Rhys’s review was positive.

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Hbommie wrote:

Noggins wrote:

…we are Miami bound again in January and have a return from Lima. That is sorted with a 241 and IB for the return.

Forgive me if I’ve misunderstood but is this trip one booking or two, if it’s two could your MIA to LON be combined with the BA section and leave the IB as a separate one way?

If it’s one multi carrier booking please ignore.

A second standalone trip. But thanks!

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ZoeB wrote:

Good news Noggins, will see you on board. Have you been assigned to deck 14? Looks like it might be noisy so planning contact VV and move down a couple of decks. We have also booked the £200 option with priority boarding, champagne etc.

Yep, deck 14 – and I was planning the same call! And we’ve booked the thr priority boarding / champagne thingy. Are you following the current cruise critic thread by ‘rogueperson’……? He seems to be having a pretty good crossing…..

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Thank you everyone for your suggestions and comments – especially the ‘book another cruise’ idea to get me to my next 241….!
As NL may remember (yes, her help again) we are Miami bound again in January and have a return from Lima. That is sorted with a 241 and IB for the return. I know I must be daft but I’ve paid for upper deck, front cabin, window seats for the outbound on the 380. Friends we’re travelling with (and ‘paying for’!) will be having their first experience of CW and we want it to be as positive as we can make it.
I’m actually considering Norse in premium from MIA for £359pp and saving the 241 for another day.

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ZoeB wrote:

We have opted for Premium Economy Via Madrid using a 241. We are not currently swimming in Avios and managed 15 hours back from Mumbai in Premium Economy at the end of our Multi Carrier Redemption to Australia, so are going to suck it up.
Are you doing the Barcelona Miami one? If so we are on the same trip.

yes, the very same! we sent our son and DIL on last year’s offer and they reported favourably – so we thought we’d give it a go this year. we’ve always enjoyed TA’s although VV daytime activities may be very different to what we’ve been used to! see you on board.

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NL to the rescue again! Boy, it’s hard to keep up with all the details. Thanks!
All I’ve got to decide on now is what I need for £10,000….. (I’m assuming more flight availability will open up with a 241 than I can see currently without a valid voucher. I’ve set a SeatSpy search up)

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Sorry Nike85 but Virgin have spotted their error and asked me what code I have used so they can cancel the other. Boo!

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Got my access code this afternoon and have booked 14 day TA. Then this evening I have had another email from VR with a different access code. Tempting to give it a try as well!

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The end of the saga today…..
A Warrington area based agent (they work from home, of course) re-checked the issues for my final LHR – ABZ leg. She got it booked and at a charge of £33.42pp – which is a fair saving on the £950pp I was quoted the other day!
The agent did say that the different call centres try not to deal with each others cases but in her experience if something has gone wrong it often seems to be from either the S Africa or the Delhi call centre.
Never was HUACA a more appropriate course of action!
Clearly mixing IB and BA metal on a 241 is causing some issues – be warned. (Our friends, who are travelling the identical route (less ABZ), are still being charged £’00’s more than me and have been put in Eco for the Mad – LHR leg.)
Thanks for the comments and advice here.

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Hello NL – and thanks for keeping an eye on this!
There is no direct service to LHR from Lima – our options were essentially AA to MIA and MIA – LHR on BA or the IB routing via Madrid. LATAM have pulled their short lived direct route – at least for now. THe KLM LIM – AMS – ABZ routing remains a potential option (quickest journey time) using V miles but it will be another 2/3 weeks before flights are in date.
The (UK based) agent I spoke to the other day told me RFS rules would apply but today’s (India CC – despite my still using the bronze h/l number) agent thought otherwise – although it took them 45 minutes of checking / questioning me before deciding, so it was clearly not a routine they’re used to dealing with!
I’ll look for that other thread!

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So, the next chapter in this saga….
The other day I called BA and a very helpful agent arranged for 50% refund of avios for the return Iberia leg. No problem, Unfortunately I had , stupidly, wrongly calculated the day for the release of my LHR-ABZ leg to complete the home bound journey. So, she couldn’t help me with that but told me that there would be no avios charge but there might be a few pounds of extra tax – or maybe nothing.
Today the flight is in range and the today’s agent booked the required 2 seats and confirmed no avios necessary but that the tax calculation could not be done immediately and someone would have to call be back. I’ve had that call and the charge is £950 per person. Yes, £950 per person to add a LHR – ABZ leg. ‘The wole flight – LIM – ABZ has to be recalculated’. I have had the final leg removed from the booking – and will try again tomorrow.

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I understand, NL – and thanks for the thoughts.
Today, two more friends we are travelling with tried to do their own identical return open jaw / Iberia thing. They have been able to use their 241 return but have been charged over a £1k more than me for taxes etc… I’ll be sure to use your HUACA suggestion – now I’ve worked out what it means!

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goodness, do you think??!
I certainly think there is an issue to be flagged widely. Of course, I had picked up on the Iberia 241 useage on HfP but I don’t recall ever seeing pointed out the complication caused by IB working to, is it, 350 days rather than 355 and the impact that has to the whole deal? (if you don’t have enough avios to book ‘full price’ before, hopefully, getting an avios refund. If no refund is possible then it’s a huge hole in the ‘improvement’.)
I’ll be sure to report back…..

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Thanks NL – appreciate your response. Yes, they see and access the IB availability. The issue was that an open jaw return leg is added to an existing booking and, apparently, such an update can only be done with the 355 rule. But it was fine to create a new one way booking – with no use of the 241 return leg.
It’s actually going to get a bit more complicated! Outbound starts from ABZ but I couldn’t get the return to go beyond LHR as BA have yet to get to 355 for my date. I’m hoping to add that last leg for no extra avios.
To complete the story (do you have a moment?!) we are travelling with friends. I booked their outbound with an upgrade voucher and booked their return necessarily as a new booking. 4 seats were showing at the outset but by the time the painfully slow agent completed the first booking the other seats had gone. So now we’re not even travelling on the same day. These friends are not into our avios world and cannot believe the complexity and the hurdles to navigate!!

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No, BA call centre booked the flight. They had no difficulty seeing and accessing the inventory. They just couldn’t add the return to my existing 241 outbound booking – they could only do it by making a new one way booking.

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I have just experienced a rinky-dink I have not read about before when booking a return leg using a 241. The outbound was booked 355 days out using BA metal to MIA. Return I wanted was from Lima to LHR using IB. Their seats released tonight for my date – 26/1/25. BA exec club helpline told me I could not book the return leg using IB as it was sooner than 355 days despite it being acceptable to use IB metal. So, I have made a new booking for the return leg and paid full avios. Having tracked IB reward seats for some time there is no chance seats would have still existed at 355 days. Will I be able to get a refund of half the miles at 355 days? The agent could not confirm.
(seems crazy that there is no consistency between carriers!)

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NorthernLass wrote:

I have replied to this in the chat thread! Probably best to just post it once to avoid confusion.

But pretty much as @Sam G said.

Oh no! I didn’t mean to post twice…. Originally I did set out to post on today’s thread – thought I had done – but when I checked back the text was still sitting in the draft box. Having ruminated on Rob’s instructions on what to use the daily forum for I decided that the BA thread was probably the correct one and was glad my first post hadn’t posted. Now look what’s happened…

Many thanks for the advice!