My father has this year amassed 3500+ tier points for British Airways which have entitled him to 2 x 2-for-1 Gold Upgrades that expire May 2006 & June 2006.

He would like to forfit the 4 person that maybe entitled to the upgrade, and fly himself, my mother and younger sister out to Australia using the upgrades to get from WT -> WT+ or WT+ -> CW. After lengthy discussions, BA have told him that allocations for these tickets are released 11.5 months in advance of the flight, and there are now no more allocations for any BA flights in the whole of April 2006, nor does there seem to be any allocation for flights going to Tokyo, Hong Kong etc.. that would allow for his air miles to be used on one world partner to get him to Australia. Has anyone else had a similar problem and been able to overcome it? We cannot believe that for circa 30 days, between the 3-BA operated-flights a day that depart heathrow and arrive either sydney or melbourne are completely allocated for April.

On a seperate note, they are now looking at booking a DONE3 ex-CAI, but aren't thrilled at the idea of having to fly in, or out of Cai at the beginning and end of their journey. Is it possible for an ex-CAI itinery to be ticketed, couried over to the UK and then for the first (CAI-LHR) and last (LHR-CAI) segments not to be flown without penalty?