Hi all,

So I'm in a situation where I have to fly out short-haul to Europe next year in April, with the inbound being set in stone for Monday evening, and the outbound likely on Friday but potentially on Thursday. I will only know two weeks before.

I can think of a few options:

• Book 2 outbounds and 1 inbound on Avios. Pay ~21,000 Avios and £52.50, cancel one, get 7,000 Avios back. Total cost (assuming 1 Avios=1p) fixed at around £200.
• Book a Friday-Monday return on BA. Pay £100 and pray, potentially cancel and book another return two weeks before. Total cost £100 to potentially quite a lot more.
• Book two one-ways on BA. Pay £150 and pray, potentially cancel the outbound and book another one two weeks before. Total cost £100 to potentially a bit more.
• Any combination of the above.

Ideally I'd grab the £100 bargain return and book another outbound for Thursday on Avios. But in this scenario BA would still cancel my inbound if I don't make the outbound on Friday, correct?

I also saw the "Plus" option. Flying Friday morning at 7am would be okay, so I could book the outbound with that option... But I would 100% need the flight and finding out at midnight that the 7am is fully booked would be a complete disaster.

Am I missing any other obvious options here? Has anyone got a secret trick up their sleeves for a scenario like this?

Cheers!