Originally Posted by
jplondon
Thus far I thought I can only start the return flight after 5 nights at destination. Just reading below Q&A, does this indeed mean as long as I book 5 nights, I can check out say 7pm after 4 nights at destination and take an overnight flight back landing LHR the next morning. So I will have been five nights away, but 5th night on airplane, even though I did have hotel booked for 5 nights? Thanks for confirming!
Q: I will fly to XXX on day 1 and will fly back from XXX on day 5. The flight on day 5 is late in the evening, e.g. 2230. Accordingly I have booked a hotel in XXX for 5 nights and will not check out until e.g. 2100 on day 5 - well into the hotel's night 5 period but before midnight. Does this count?
A: You do not physically need to be in the hotel room at midnight for it to count. But you need to have booked over the midnight.
Strictly no this won't count. The hotel has to be "within" the flight dates and you have to use it for the full booked duration. Since this would be impossible with your flights it would be very easy for someone at BA to look at the booking and see it doesn't count. You might get lucky but since many bookings do end up needing chasing and therefore someone to actually look at it don't count on it if it is essential to getting over a threshold.