And hullo to you, A406toHeathrow, welcome to FlyerTalk and a particular welcome to the British Airways forum. Well done for taking the plunge, thank you for the question, and it would be great to see plenty more of you in the future. I also hope you have a great time in the United States when the time comes, at least you know the way to Heathrow. Welcome again.

Yes I would say there is a good chance that there will be RFS availability coming up to DUS, however the question will be when! It could be at any time, it could be in the final weeks and days, which may leave you uncomfortable. There are several ways around this. Maybe there is a Gold Card holder in your family? They get extra availability in ET and can use double Avios to force availability. How about going to Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover and taking the train? Obviously you are are at risk by having a separate booking, so make sure your insurance covers the specifics of this situation. Also - though it won't be a RFS - there is AB out of Stansted.

But at the end of the day you may want to relax knowing everything is sorted, and so a bit of cash may be required. Buying Air Berlin cash tickets is sometimes cheaper than BA.