FEMW

We're planning to do the big rellies trip to Australia in May 2019. Taken out a BAPP last month in order to get the 2-4-1 BA voucher and planning to do it in Club World. We'd need to get that voucher/book by May 2018.


From reading various sources it looks like a near impossible task to get a 241 CW redemption to Sydney. We actually want to fly to either Cairns or Brisbane. For Cairns, we'd have to change at Hong Kong - this is not a problem as there seems to plenty CW redemptions to Hong Kong.


What's the best website to use for getting a Hong Kong - Cairns/Brisbane connection or am I best calling BA to ensure smooth connections. We'd want to spend a couple of days in Hong Kong on a stopover.


Alternatively, it may be best to try to get CW seats with Qatar with ex Europe.


We are just leisure travellers so not a frequent flyer on business! Bronze status on BA.

mikeyfly

Hey FEMW absolutely everything you need to know on using / utilising / booking a 2-4-1 is on this excellent thread.

Only valid on BA metal, and the likelihood is you'll only get the seats you want 355 days in advance at 00.00GMT

BA American Express 2-4-1 Voucher Discussion

devondan

Hi Femw,

I was looking at the exact same itinerary as you and actually ended up ditching the 241 and booking it as a multi partner redemption.

On the 241, off peak, I could get LHR-HKG-LHR for 150,000 avios. The CX connection to CNS was 240,000 return for two people in J - so 390,000 all in. By getting a multi partner reward for 200,000 each I could book LHR-HEL-HKG-CNS-HKG-LHR (or vice versa) for just 10,000 more Avios and save about £500 in taxes by not using BA. Other benefit was that connections are then protected as they're all on the same ticket.

The diversion to HEL is to ensure the award is multi partner. It's also possible to buy the LHR-HEL leg, which then means that for the same Avios points you could fly HEL-HKG-BNE-CNS-HKG-LHR...or in reverse.

If we had more flexibility, I would have looked at an ex-EU, as this is definitely not the 'best value' use of 400,000 Avios - but it let us do the flights we wanted to do with no hassle, and a massive saving still versus a cash ticket.

Hope that helps!
Dan

wb1969

How does one book a multi partner reward? BA only seems to allow straight forward o/w or return flights to a single destination.

Also is the 200k Avios a fixed price or specific to this route?

BA6501

This will also reduce tax by quite a bit per person.

Over the phone. It's a distance based figure. Click on Avios prices for two or more oneworld airlines.

devondan

Hi wb1969

It was a new experience for me which I researched here extensively! You have to do it via the call centre which I was dreading, as I'd read agents weren't very experienced with this type of award. I don't think the agent had done one before, but he put all the flights together and the computer did the rest.

I had already checked availability on the entire itinerary by doing one way Avios searches on BA.com, so was able to give him the exact flight numbers and dates, and I kept track of the mileage using gcmap.com.

200k Avios is for up to 20,000 miles in business class - any routing, though there are a few rules - this type of fare is well covered in this sticky

If you get creative, there can be lots of options available and though it isn't always better value, it can be. On this example, if I'd been looking at peak dates, it would actually have been less Avios than using the 241!

Dan

LostAntipod

Ditto. Enjoyed BA First to and from HKG on the 2-4-1, and redeemed miles on QF and CX for the rest of it. Great trip via PER and SYD and BNE.

After that trip however, her indoors only wanted to go direct to SYD without stopovers , and I found availability for this so hard, so I ditched the Amex card once i had to let a 2-4-1 expire. Then i ditched BA on long haul since I was regularly getting better fares and service through Asian and ME airlines. Then I ditched the wife....but that's a whole other story !

switch007

No stopover?! After my 3rd return trip to Australia in Y with no stopover in either direction, I vowed to stop being so masochistic and never to do that again.

LostAntipod

What's Y ?



Also, we had been to hkg, sin, bkk, kul a number of times and felt we didn't need to revisit those cities when the goal of the trip was to see friends and family scattered around Oz.

Mwenenzi

HKG-CNS non stop is limited to Cathay Pacific 103
Not a lot of international flights to/from CNS https://www.cairnsairport.com.au/
Going to CNS via BNE is backtracking
BNE CNS is 863 miles (For comparison LHR-FCO Rome is 899 miles)
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=HKG-CNS...SU=kts&RS=best

20Rothmans

I agree with you - it's ghastly.. I've been doing it for 20 years almost annually.
However, I appreciate what LostAntipod says - if it's not leisure you press on with it. Family comes first.

FEMW

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I do realise that it's quite a task to get a 241 to Australia. It may be that we get a cheap Qatar J ex-EU. We're not avios rich so frantically putting everything onto the BAPP so to do a 241 to HKG and then pay for HKG-CNS in Y may not be financially viable. I'm in Scotland so Finnair fly EDI-HEL so can do the ex-EU route no bother. Also can fly out of INV which has lower taxes than EDI/GLA if we have to go via LHR. We enjoy travelling so the 241 can be used another time.


Thanks for the link to the 241 forum mikeyfly.