Chase BA Companion Ticket $30,000 Spend

Old Aug 14, 2010, 6:49 pm
  #151  
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Originally Posted by Steve in Olympia
Not quite. The first line I quoted refers to redeeming the voucher, not the initial earning of the voucher:
"The Redemption Voucher allows the main BA/Chase account holder, when making a return flight booking using BA Miles, to book another seat on the exact same journey ..."

The second line I quoted refers to the time of actual travel, not earning the certificate:

"Members must remain eligible for this promotion at the time of travel."

Both quotes refer to using the certificate, not earning it. Neither sentence refers to earning the certificate. Yes, that is a big difference.

Folks are free to cancel their cards, based on the advice on this forum. My only point is that the Terms & Conditions are not back-and-white on this point, and the risks are not insignificant.


+1.
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Old Aug 21, 2010, 11:45 am
  #152  
 
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Stopover, Open Jaw & Mixed Travel Class worked with the voucher

Just booked a trip this morning for travel next summer (3 tickets - me, wife, daughter) using the BA Chase Companion Voucher to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Everything worked as advertised - though it took three phone calls. On my first phone call to the USA call center I was told that they couldn't book the vouchers on the phone - they had to be booked online, and that if I wanted open jaw I had to book two one way trips. That didn't sound right and the agent was adamant about it, so I politely said "thanks I'll try it", hung up and called again. 98% success with the second call (had to make a third call to get one of the tickets issued).

SFO-LHR in CW, stop 4 days in London, then LCY-ZUR in Club Europe. Return flight GVA-LHR-SFO in Club Europe & First. So Open Jaw, Stopover and mixing classes worked for me. Used 250K miles and the voucher to book this.

Total tax & fuel surcharge was US$402 per ticket.

A few of tips I picked up (you all probably knew this already):
1) My wife & I are bringing our 12 year old daughter. My wife & I already have a household account, but I needed to create an account for my daughter and add her to the household account before I could book the three tickets.
2) The agent had to do two bookings - a booking for two seats (me as the primary cardholder and the companion voucher). And then a separate booking for miles only. She couldn't put all three tickets on the same booking.
3) Make sure you get both a confirmation number and a ticket number. On the first booking for the miles + companion voucher, for whatever reason the ticket number wasn't issued. Once I printed out both itineraries from our accounts and looked at them, I saw the missing ticket number and had to make a third call to get it issued.

Thanks FT, Chase, ba.com helper and all of you that have contributed info to the various threads on this!
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Old Aug 21, 2010, 12:29 pm
  #153  
 
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As you had to call BA to make an open jaw trip, did they charge you the fee for making an award res over the phone?
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Old Aug 21, 2010, 1:42 pm
  #154  
 
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I don't believe they charged me the phone booking fee, but I didn't mention it, nor did they. The $402 fuel & tax surcharge per ticket is in line with what I saw if I tried to book it online, but I couldn't get an absolute reading on that number as it was open jaw and mixed class. I did check the e-ticket receipt and it shows the below for the booking of the two tickets (miles + companion voucher):

Fare Details: USD 0.00 + Tax/Fee/Charge USD 805.82 = USD 402.91
Fare breakdown: The price of your ticket includes a security and insurance surcharge and a fuel surcharge per sector levied by the carrier.

No mention of a phone service fee on the receipt.
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Old Aug 21, 2010, 3:00 pm
  #155  
 
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Splittin' Aces-

Wow-that really is splitting aces-I'm impressed!

I take it the 250k miles were one RT in F from US to Switzerland for 150k, another free ticket for same with the voucher and another 100k for a RT on the same routing. Correct?

Confirming that a layover is doable with a 30k voucher is great to have in hand, and so is the open jaw. I just went up to the BA website to try a few dummy trips and even the website invites lengthy London stopovers on both the outbound and inbound legs.

The $402 fee per ticket is the coup de gras-I don't know where that came from. I thought that a stopover in London added a lot of fees, especially in a higher class. One can pay almost $200 in fees for a coach award TATL on one of the US carriers.

Fine work, indeed. And yes, thanks again to BA.Com_helper for the guidance.
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Old Aug 21, 2010, 6:34 pm
  #156  
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Originally Posted by Mountain Trader
I take it the 250k miles were one RT in F from US to Switzerland for 150k, another free ticket for same with the voucher and another 100k for a RT on the same routing. Correct?
I'm guessing that

(CW) SFO-LHR/LCY-ZRH (CE) was 50K *2 = 100K; and
(CE) GVA-LHR/LHR-SFO (FC) was 75K *2 = 150K
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Old Aug 21, 2010, 11:03 pm
  #157  
 
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Originally Posted by pdb
I'm guessing that

(CW) SFO-LHR/LCY-ZRH (CE) was 50K *2 = 100K; and
(CE) GVA-LHR/LHR-SFO (FC) was 75K *2 = 150K
Roger that - 100K outbound and 150K inbound for 250K total, as you described.

Mountain Trader, I think the fees are higher if your destination is London. If you are doing a stopover there and moving on you don't have to pay some sort of a London tax. I'm sure one of the BAEC experts here knows the details.

You can do a quick check on the BA website - plug in a Club World or FC flight from North America to LHR and return, and then plug in a CW or FC flight to Europe 1 (Zurich, Paris, etc.) and return and see what the surcharges for both are. I tried to do it myself just now, but the system wouldn't let me becuase I don't have enough miles left in my account anymore
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Old Aug 22, 2010, 12:10 pm
  #158  
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Originally Posted by nologic
It is posted very prominently at the top center of the BAEC page after you log on.
Just to make sure I don't miss this when it's posted, is it above or below "Welcome to the Executive Club, Mr ___ "? Is it above, below or within "My Statement"? Thanks in advance for the help.
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Old Aug 22, 2010, 12:45 pm
  #159  
 
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Originally Posted by prh
Just to make sure I don't miss this when it's posted, is it above or below "Welcome to the Executive Club, Mr ___ "? Is it above, below or within "My Statement"? Thanks in advance for the help.
It's not subtle. You won't miss it.

Right under "Welcome to the Executive Club, Mr X", there is a large yellowish band that says: "You have the following eVouchers" and then below that it says: "1 Companion Voucher(s)" with a click thru for "more information." I don't know if that implies one could have earned more than one Companion voucher by spending $30,000 more...I don't think so.

Anyway, It's so prominently displayed that I never knew about the promotion to begin with, or even knew that I qualified, until I logged on for other purposes (thankfully the NFL only takes Visa or I would have used my SPG AMEX).

Last edited by nologic; Aug 22, 2010 at 12:55 pm
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Old Aug 22, 2010, 1:45 pm
  #160  
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Thanks!

I suspect one way you could have two vouchers is that you can get a voucher a year and have two years to spend them.
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Old Aug 22, 2010, 2:24 pm
  #161  
 
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You can have two vouchers if you received one last year and one this year. And it will say that you have two vouchers. It is very clear.
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Old Aug 22, 2010, 5:09 pm
  #162  
 
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Originally Posted by W-B
You can have two vouchers if you received one last year and one this year. And it will say that you have two vouchers. It is very clear.
That's correct. I have two - one earned for 2009 spend and another for 2010. And even though you're allowed to redeem two vouchers on the same booking, to obtain award flights for four passengers for the miles-price of two, do note that you cannot currently redeem both of your certificates for one booking on BA.com. The website only allows you to choose one or the other of your two, not both.
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Old Aug 23, 2010, 8:43 am
  #163  
 
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Utilization of Companion Voucher when Account Holder is not flying

I've reached the spend requirement for the Companion Pass, but generally fly solo for my trips. My parents, on the other hand, are headed to Barcelona to pick up a transatlantic cruise and I would like to utilize my BA miles and companion pass to fly them in Club class to Barcelona. Can this be done or does the account holder have to use the companion pass?

Thanks in advance and if this has been answered, I apologize. My rather limited searching skills are showing.
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Old Aug 23, 2010, 9:48 am
  #164  
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Originally Posted by Sosiouxme
I've reached the spend requirement for the Companion Pass, but generally fly solo for my trips. My parents, on the other hand, are headed to Barcelona to pick up a transatlantic cruise and I would like to utilize my BA miles and companion pass to fly them in Club class to Barcelona. Can this be done or does the account holder have to use the companion pass?

Thanks in advance and if this has been answered, I apologize. My rather limited searching skills are showing.
From the terms and conditions:
1. The Redemption Voucher allows the main BA/Chase account holder, when making a return flight booking using BA Miles, to book another seat on the exact same journey for a companion without having to pay the BA Miles flight price for that Companion. Taxes, airline, government, or other separately charged fees and charges must be paid by Member redeeming the Redemption Voucher and is payable at time of booking.
2. The Redemption Voucher will be issued in the name of the main BA/Chase Credit card account holder, who must travel on any Redemption Voucher booking.
# The Member and their Companions must travel together at all times and therefore must be booked onto the same flight and cabin class when travelling using a Redemption Voucher.
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Old Aug 23, 2010, 10:37 am
  #165  
 
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Originally Posted by jerry a. laska
Thank you and curses!
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