Amex 2-4-1 expires end of Aug 11, want to book for Aug 12
 

Hello. I've been lurking on here for ages and taking advantage of the sage-like advice the threads contain. I have finally managed to build up 117k miles and an Amex voucher. I used BA Amex, Amex Gold and a bit of Tesco - it took me 18 months. I'm now itching to book a Club return to the west coast of the USA. I've learned that this is a 'good use of miles' as it's a decent length of journey. Anyway - thanks all for the great info on here but I think I've slipped up.

I want to go LHR-SFO and return LAS-LHR. I know that these tickets are difficult to get so I plan to go early Aug 2012 and book soon. Problem is my 2-4-1 expires 31/08/11. As far as I can work out, flights for Aug 2012 won't be released until a day after my voucher expires. Have I made a clanger of a newbie error?

As far as I know you need to have your first flight before the voucher expires, not book before then...

Yup, the voucher deadline is for the flight, not the booking

That is one annoying cock up then... Sorry about that.

That is very unfortunate set of circumstances, there is nothing can be done about for your planned trip next year with the 241, the expiry cannot be extended.

In the circumstances you can either: try for MFU with the miles already in the account when the seats are released and earn some more miles from the WTP tickets and from the Amex for making the purchase; or start spending to trigger another 241 quickly.

Another option is to get the Premium Plus card where the 241's have a two year life, you also earn 1.5miles/£, but have to pay the annual fee.

I missed out being able to use my first Amex 241 voucher many years ago before I fully understood the system, but have never allowed it to happen again. In fact our two 241's/ year generally get used as soon as they are triggered.

you could try making a booking starting at JER connect to LGW "stopover" for 11 months than continue your journey on from LHR no idea if it will work but the first flight is before the voucher expires, so it should :cool:

oops.

SOL I'm afraid.

Clever thinking. ^

Can't be done any more.

All outbound travel has to be completed by the expiry date of the voucher.

http://www.lifewithoutpants.com/wp-c...3396802045.png

BAd luck indeed...

DOH!!! mid you have you actually tried it, some of there tens and conditions can be bent.

It used to be very common (when vouchers were only valid for 1 year) to book MAN-LHR-big gap-XXX, with MAN-LHR before the 1 year was up and the rest later. BA wised up to this. However, to be fair, the voucher validity was then pushed to 2 years for the Premium Plus card.

Feel free to try it ex-JER online and see what happens. Nothing to lose, but unlikely to work unless ba.com gets itself confused.

Just thought the JER leg first might work as its not a domestic connection, but still counts as UK for voucher purpose would try it but my vouchers are all tied up in bookings and one not quite issued yet, just moving to Europe for 6 months for work but it it does work please let me know.
thanks

All - thank you so much for the replies. I might try the ex-JER plan, but as I want to fly in August it'd almost be a 12 month+ layover. Blimey - what a plum I've been.

I think I will be able to trigger another Amex voucher by November so maybe I should just take it on the chin and try my luck in Oct/Nov for a decent US flight in Aug 2012.

Annoying to let the Amex jobbie go. Am tempted to use a tiny bit of mileage and book a ver short haul ex-LHR (terrible waste I know) and just drown my sorrows in the lounge rather than let the 2-4-1 go totally to waste.

Don't forget you'd end up paying the taxes etc for two people. This may not be insubstantial, depending on where you're going. So if you don't want to do a trip, my advice would be to let it go. The miles won't expire for a long time (and not at all if you keep earning). Just use the next voucher when you can.

I think I had to throw away my first two Amex vouchers, and nearly had to throw away one that was expiring this month, too - which would have made my Amex voucher use a measly 50%.