gottaluvNW

Apologies in advance if this has been asked before - but if I understand correctly, with a 2 year validity of vouchers, the maximum you can technically collect and redeem simultaneously (if you time your purchases right) is 3 vouchers.

We are 4 adults. I want to redeem miles 3 others using companion certificates simultaneously? I had once asked this of the BA executive club and they said yes - but a call to them earlier this week got a clear "no" instead without allowing me a chance to have this query reviewed by a supervisor.

Has anyone successfully redeemed multiple vouchers on a single booking?

HilFly

There has to be one full avios paying passenger for each 2-4-1 (or travel together ticket) used. So for 4 passengers two would have to pay the full avios redemption amount and two 2-4-1s could be used. Taxes and fees have to be paid for each passenger.

abcpp

I don't have a question, I have only exclamations: HOW this TTT could be a good value to me??? I looked up prices SEA-DME and back with a stopover in London (I assume, the only point of flying BA?) and it rings up to 190K miles + $1234 in taxes (double that for 2 persons)!!! This is nuts! And this not including cost of doing the 30K spend on the card. How that's a value to anyone? For that amount of taxes you could manufacture twice that many points in Chase or AA and still keep avios!

Why?????????

A rhetorical question, I assume. Apologies for venting out...

golfmad

First of all I recommend you have a look at this very informative thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...tart-here.html

I rarely use our Travel Together tickets but you might like to take note of the following:

1. 190K in J is for peak dates. If you were able to choose off-peak it would be 159K.

2. The normal taxes/fees per person would be $1,010. I suspect the additional taxes you're seeing are related to the stopover in London.

3. The cheapest business class fare in July 2017 on any airline according to Matrix is approximately $5,000 per ticket. These are not direct to London from Seattle. The proposition is then either $10,000 in cash or 190K Avios + $2,468 and a Travel Together ticket. Not a bad deal. The price of BA is currently considerably higher.

I'm not sure what you mean about the cost of doing the $30K spend. Surely the cost is $30K? Unless you're buying stuff you would not have bought had it not been for attempting to the obtain the Travel Together ticket. I for one would certainly not recommend that approach at all.

IMH

In this redemption scenario the voucher is worth 190,000 Avios, which most people on the BA board would regard as a pretty decent return for $30,000 of credit card spend.

Obviously this won't appeal to everyone. For many travellers based in the US it makes more sense to collect and redeem miles with airlines that have much lower fees and carrier charges.

nmenaker

there are plenty of threads here about how much the TAXES and FUEL surcharges are for a BA AVIOS mileage ticket. For your trip, its a combination of TAXES, FUEL SURCHARGES and the 250$ UK stopover fee.. I really hate that one. It's seems pretty counter intuitive since one would think the UK would WANT people to stop over. Two people traveling together pay 500$ in fees just to stop over and pay MORE money in the UK. . silly.

That said. If one can earn the miles easily through a card spend (like a lot of business or personal spend) or get another card on a household account with a 50k-100k bonus, or do the 1.5 x bonuses for AMEX membership points, getting the miles is nearly cost free (even opportunity cost free).. so one is really just paying say 1000$ a ticket to get a first class ticket that would normally cost about 10,000$-15,000$ each way sometimes.

In the past five years we've done four trips, to India, South Africa, London and we'll do another back to Africa next February. Total fees and taxes (with stopovers) are about 3000$ (two to India), 4200$ (two to africa), 1800$ (two to London) and 4000$ (two to africa) all first class, great service, great experiences and it would have cost at least 2-3 times that to buy Business.

Yes, it's hard to find dates and times that work, but there are ways to work it, track it, book and change it, etc.

But, we'd never have been able to do any of it and have the same experience without this option.

allset2travel

Wish you all the best of luck.

I tried to use 1 voucher and resigned to let it collect dust. From my home port, I found hardly any availability (sometime just 1 seat and is just to LHR that is not my final destination; I tried to be flexible on my travel dates within reason). From other cities I did find very limited availability in J (not F), but I would have to position to. After adding up the costs (avios + $), I concluded that I can travel in paid J for less with other carriers to get to where I want to go (which is not LHR). With a paid J, I collect miles (or pints or whatever per airline of choice), not spend them!

OP, don't be discouraged by my experience, I am sure there are better experience out there.

toadman

It's definitely not as easy as it used to be to use the 2-4-1 Chase vouchers. I like to use them over the winter months for ski trips to the Alps. Used to be no problem to cash in the vouchers. Sometimes with just a few months advanced booking. But past two years, I noticed it was very difficult to find much of anything a few months out. Especially for F and J. Plus I have finally gotten fed up with the surcharges. Like they say, "vote with your wallet."

So, I have one voucher left, that I am using, and I was able to unload a big chunk of my Avios points for a trip this fall SEA-LHR-SEA. I'm paying in fees/surcharges/taxes for two biz class seats on BA, what it normally costs for two Y seats. So, you can justify it at some level. But you are still paying quite a bit in currency to do so. I have only used my Chase BA branded CC once this year, and it was to pay for the fees/etc. for the plane tickets. I will cancel the card at the end of this year, and put my spend on two different CC's going forward. Doesn't mean I won't fly BA, but the chances are much, much less likely in the future.

Steve in Olympia

I have personally redeemed nine vouchers since the 2-4-1 program began, and each redemption was an excellent value. Yes, the fees/surcharges are not ideal, but that is a feature of the underlying Executive Club and is not unique to the 2-4-1 program. The 50 percent reduction in Avios needed helps to offset the fees. The seat availability issue is also not unique to the 2-4-1 program. The key is advance planning.

CKBA

I've used them a few times from the US - but they only seem to work to the UK - and not beyond; I've tried doing WAS-SYD, but no availability in any class at any time. I haven't been able to find anything that states that it is US-UK only.... .

Steve in Olympia

All nine of my redemptions were for US-LHR-continent, no problems. Sometimes it helps to search for the segments separately, and then calling to make the reservation.

nmenaker

I've done many too, seven across two parties. Fees are fees, but damb it sure is nice up in F and the overall travel experience. I prefer it to private actually.

everything goes through LHR, but we've gone to india, south africa, continent, eastern europe and a couple I was with last time headed to singapore. That's the long way round for sure.

I just booked SFO_LHR_EDI MUC_LHR_SFO.. in biz 120K miles, 2-4-1, 2000$ bucks for TWO

eugene19

Can someone provide me with a screen shot of some information as to where the Travel Together Ticket posts on ba.com? I've hit my $30,000 spend and it's been 4 weeks and still don't see it. Thank you in advance.

golfmad

It's sandwiched between the Welcome to your Executive Club Mr. Golfmad section at the top and the My upcoming flights section. In between those two there should be a My eVouchers section and it looks like this:

golfmad

Also, once you've achieved the required spend you should receive a congratulatory email from the BAEC informing you you've earned a Travel Together Ticket. I just checked back and I can see I typically receive the email about 10 days before the voucher posts to my account. Have you received this email?