DannyBoy73

Hi all,

I'm saving up my points/miles to book the wife and I a CW ticket to the US next year, I'll be using 100,000 and 2-4-1 voucher.

I've read a few comments regarding limited space on flights for people paying with purely points?

If this is correct, how far in advance do I need to think about booking to ensure we get space in CW on a flight?

If I wait til 2 months before we want to go I should have all 100,000 points, but if I have to book earlier then I might have to buy some miles

Cheers all

SouthOxon

Book as soon as you can. The flights open a year in advance; that is when I book, and even then there are some flights with no availability!

Cap'n Benj

It will depend a lot on where you are planning to go as to what the availability will be like at any given time.

Have a look at availability know for your detination, in two months time, this will likely reflect (as close as you can work out now anyway) what availability will be like, although its is also likely to be effected by seasonality, so you should take this into account too.

Raffles

It depends where you are going and how flexible you can be. If you must travel Saturday to Saturday or must travel during peak school holidays then be prepared to book well in advance. If you are flexible on dates or routes (ie if you want San Francisco but would be happy to go to LA, Pheonix or Vegas instead and pay for a connecting flight or drive) then you have a lot more flexibility. Some routes (eg Cape Town in Winter) always need a lengthy pre-book.

You are also not 100% guaranteed to get seats even if you ring on the first day they are available - BA often decides not to release seats on a certain day on some route, for instance. But this is usually easy to spot if you look at what is currently available for next June/July.

I am currently sitting on what are, without any doubt, some plum redemptions - Cape Town over a January long weekend and (on BMI miles) Dubai for next Easter, flying out on the Thursday night. These were both booked a year ahead and Cape Town is now basically unavailable in January 2010 in J.

Aerotec

Yup,

Let us know where you are thinking of going and when and we can at least tell you our experience of making bookings.

Also with ba.com when you make a dummy BA Miles booking it now tells you how many seats are left to make a redemption booking.

I have made bookings a month out to SFO and IAD but Miami/Orlando and LAX in peak holiday season will need to be booked bang on the year out. If it is school holiday season then other destinations likely get booked up quickly.

Rich

Need4Speed

Redemption availability differs across routes and zones for various reasons.

As you may be aware you can purchase BA miles through your Exec Club account. You are limited to purchasing 19,000 miles per calendar year. If you haven't already done so, open a household account within your Exec Club account for your wife. This would allow you to purchase 19,000 BA miles X 2, so potentially 38,000 BA miles.

I use a 2-4-1 every year and although I fly the same route long haul CW [BGI], availability has increased over the past two years, probably due to the decrease in premium revenue passengers. In fact this year was so good; I was able to 'upgrade' the family into First!

DannyBoy73

Cheers all, lots of good info there ^

Am planning going from London to Chicago. Dates are very flexible but my 2-4-1 voucher expires 29th May 2010. Does this mean our rerturn flight needs to be no later that 29th May? or just outbound flight?

We want to go for a month, ideally start of May to the end of May. But if its middle of April to the middle of May then thats fine. No restictions on days or dates

Thanks in advance

Cap'n Benj

I'd have thought you should be fine booking 2-3 months in advance with that much flexibility.

Sixth Freedom

Availability to the US is normally pretty good although it is true that BA exercise capacity control on mileage redemption bookings which book into U class and cannot be seen on Expert Flyer. You can probably to a number of destinations there tomorrow on CW redemption if you like. But as the others have said there are no guarantees on the dates you want.

If you are totally inflexible and do not need too many miles then buy the miles, ease your mind and book now.

If you have some flexibility then I would just wait until 2 months prior to departure.

It might help if you told us where and when you want to go.

Enjoy the flights!

DannyBoy73

Cheers all, thanks for the info.

I'm flying to Chicago (see above).

Reckon I'll keep an eye on the dummy booking from now til New Year and see how it goes ^

toothy

It's just the outbound flight that needs to be taken before your voucher expires.