charles

Poking around the BA site looking for a decent use for the companion ticket. It appears that there is no availability, in business, ORD-LHR, from april 2nd until the middle of october, in either direction. Is this par for the course for BA? I've never redeemed on them before. First availability is a little better but still none to generous

JIMCHI

They seem to make very few business class seats available and first class isn't usually a lot better on certain routes. However, if you could somehow get to JFK or BOS, there seems like there is a fair amount of availability from there.

PNWBrit

Hi All,
Quick question about the 2-4-1 voucher that has no doubt been asked and answered already in this thread, but I couldn't find anything specific with my limited searching skills:

If I book flights using the 2-4-1 voucher and then subsequently need to either change the dates or, worst case, cancel the travel outright, what happens to the miles, the voucher and the money spent and what change fees/charges are involved?

Thanks in advance for the help.

halfcape

I had to reschedule a trip and it wasn't a problem, other than finding the new dates. I had to wait for my e ticket number as they needed to confirm the new dates were still within the voucher dates. I recently changed one flight on a voucher and I needed to call because the system wouldn't let me do it online. I gather this was because there was a connecting flight that I wasn't changing. I am still waiting for the e ticket number, but they did not charge me for making a change on the phone because I couldn't do it online.
I have never cancelled so I cannot address that question.
Hope this all makes sense.
I did have to pay the change fee, of course.

JIMCHI

Here's a link to a chart of the fees for changes or cancellation of award tickets. Note that the charges will also apply to the free companion ticket.

https://www.britishairways.com/trave...club/_gf/en_us

Steve in Olympia

The voucher, fees, and avios all get refunded (minus the change fee) if the cancellation is more than 24 hours prior to departure.

PNWBrit

Many thanks to everyone for the super quick replies. I was hoping it was the case that everything would be refunded (less the $40 per ticket change fees), but it pays to get confirmation from those who know!

jmw2323

inexpensive redeposit. Unlike UA

Boraxo

Just earned another 2-for-1 cert based on December spend, so it posted about a week after statement closed (and maybe 2-3 weeks after the transactions posted). Now my goal is to earn another one so I can fly the whole family for half the miles plus heinous "fees"

The chart is not entirely truthful with respect to change fees. Last year I called to change a flight from LHR-FCO and was told that the cost was $350 per person, which was more than the cost of simply purchasing a new ticket outright. The reason provided was that BA would need to recalculate the fees for my entire TATL/Euro itinerary even though none of the other flights would be changed.

So beware - you can certainly re-deposit for USD $40, but it may cost you a lot more to "change". Maybe the lesson is to use Avios to book cheapo one-way flights within Europe if you don't initially find the one you want, though that doesn't fly if you want the full benefit of the 2-for-1 cert.

mgs3354

looking for help on a trip using my comp ticket,flying first from east coast bos or jfk this fall,sept-nov,, best time to go? can i do a london and paris, or is there a way to do london,paris and rome?

thanks

SanDiego1K

Let me see if I understand this.

• I have already spent $28K on my Chase BA card in 2013.
• I will now put it away til December.
• Ideally, I would like my cert posted in Jan 2014.
• My statement closes the 6th of each month.
• I need to make my final spend after Dec 6. Does it matter whether it is Dec 7 or Dec 27 (or indeed, any date between)?
• I have now accomplished my $30K spend in calendar year 2013.
• My statement closes on Jan 6.
• I receive my cert sometime subsequently, most likely in late Jan or early Feb.

Are there any errors in this analysis? Is it safe in terms of getting the companion cert?

Steve in Olympia

I am a bit confused by your scenario....... the 1st and 6th bullets are not consistent.

Basically, if you want to delay issuance of your certificate to the latest possible date, you will want to hit your $30k spend in late December. If you hit your $30k spend on Dec. 7, it is entirely possible that your certificate could be issued a few days later, without regard to your statement closing date.

SanDiego1K

Ahhh, ok, thank you so much. You were clear in your post and I was confused in my interpretation of it. Thank you.

Boraxo

I went over 30k with a charge that posted in late December, and received the online cert in January. Be careful not to wait until the last minute as there is sometimes a delay of a few days in posting and you would not want to risk missing the deadline! I would do it in mid-December unless for some reason you absolutely positively need those few extra days on the expiration.

Stanford_1K

I'm thinking about a fairly complex 2-4-1 redemption, and I have a couple questions. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. (And let's set aside for the moment the question of availability on the routes I'm describing.)

First, has anyone had open jaw experience since the introduction of Avios? Older posts on this thread suggest that the companion certificate could be used not only for returns (per the T&C of the certificate), but also for open jaws, provided that the open jaw cities were within a single "zone." That zone limit apparently came from the BAEC T&C. Puzzlingly, it's still part of the BAEC T&C (Section 13.15 here), even though "zones" now refer to distances, not places. So can you still have an open jaw using a 2-4-1? Can the jaw now be any legal open jaw? Or is there still some "zone" limit?

To offer a concrete example that I'm thinking about:
JFK-LHR-SIN-LHR-JFK is obviously okay.
JFK-LHR-SIN/BKK-LHR-JFK would have been okay in the past. Is it still?
JFK-LHR-BKK/SYD-SIN-LHR-JFK would not have been okay in the past. Is it now okay?

Second, has anyone managed a stopover in SIN on a Chase 2-4-1? The web site offers a SIN stopover as an option if you just search LHR-SYD for one person. But things change when you select the Chase voucher -- the Chase voucher must be used ex-US (say, JFK in my example), and for whatever reason, the web site claims JFK-SYD is not flown by BA. I assume JFK-LHR-SIN-SYD-SIN-LHR-JFK would nonetheless be a valid trip for 2-4-1 purposes (BA publishes such a fare)...if I called, would I be able to book this, and book a stopover in SIN?