lighting

Hi,

I've been planning my wedding and honeymoon for a while. We decided a 2 week trip to Canada (Vancouver) straight after the wedding for honeymoon flying BA 1st (241 and air miles) at end of June 2013 would be best.

The perfect flights have been available for months, even yesterday so this morning i went to book them after our wedding venue confirmed our date. The inbound fight has now gone messing everything up.

My question is this, is there any point in phoning BA and seeing if there is anything they can do for me and/or is there any chance this flight might re-appear in the next few days?

Appreciate some advice before we start looking for another honeymoon destination to fit in with our dates.

Regards

irishguy28

Can you not budget for an extra day, or a day less, and take the inbound flight the day before/after? Or are you saying that all inbound flights have now disappeared?

lighting

My g/f can only get a specific amount of time off in one go. We are getting married in Portugal which takes up some holiday allowance and she has to be back at work for a minimum of a month before taking more than a week off again.

Our only option at the moment is to cut honeymoon to just 11 nights or have it a couple of months later, neither of which is ideal.

BA say the flight might reappear but they never know.

I was 1 day out.

dubbin

The award availability seen by the phone agents is the same as what you see on the website, so little point phoning. It is unheard of for an operator to open up additional award availability by request. Gold and GGL premium passengers can sometimes do tricks to improve award availability.

Award availability does often open up, but it is very unpredictable and often occurs in the days before the flight as the load becomes clear. Probably not something you want to rely on for your honeymoon.

Your options are

1) Be flexible with dates
2) Fly indirectly in reward seats
3) Pay for premium seats
4) Change destination
5) Book what's available now, making sure you can upgrade later by getting a flexible fare, then check Manage My Booking daily.
6) Consider asking for a paid upgrade at the airport - these are often cheaper

Good luck

malkie

Have you checked for CW availability ? ie First outbound and CW inbound ?

LondonAndy

I'm afraid that with flights using miles/Avios it is difficult on many routes to be picky about what specific dates you want. If I were you I would have booked the flights I thought I'd want and pay the fee to cancel if I needed to (and there is no fee for Gold members).

If you can't change the dates, can you change the airport? Seatle and Vancouver aren't too far apart and MrsLA and I had a very pleasant two centre holiday a few years ago.....

If you were a Gold BAEC member it may be worth calling up, but otherwise I think they are unlikely to release any additional seats.....

Globaliser

Is there a flight back one or two days earlier? If so, book your ideal outbound date and the not-so-ideal inbound date now. Then, if the ideal inbound date comes free, change the booking. This flexibility is one of the advantages of a pure redemption, and the fee you have to pay to change is negligible given the context.

It's too late now, but in retrospect what you should have done was to book the ideal flights when they were available, even though your venue had not yet confirmed the date. Cancelling the redemption tickets, if you'd needed to, would also only have incurred the same small fee.

lighting

I've looked at doing the flights in CW and nothing and also looked at flying to Calgary or Seattle instead and at the moment, nothing.

I thought once you had booked flights using 241 and air miles that that was it, no changing. Wish i had known. Thanks for the help everyone. Might book the flights for 12 nights and hope a flight 3-4 days later turns up.

lighting

What is the charge for this and how long before travel can you cancel?

Globaliser

Off the top of my head, I think £25 per person (same as the change fee), and any time up to 24 hours before travel.

It's all in the BA T&C: http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_gb (see section 15). Also see the Amex 2-4-1 T&C: http://www.britishairways.com/travel...blic/_gf/en_gb

lighting

Thanks very much for all comments. I have now booked flights in 1st that only shave 1 night off our intended trip. If the extra night becomes available i will book that, but nice to know our flights are done and at least have a 13 night honeymoon in Vancouver and surrounding areas with 1st class return flights.

Now, which seats are the best in 1st. We have been allocated 5E and 5F - Our outbound flight is a day flight so i might keep these seats but as our return flight is over night, are we best getting two seats either side?

charlesrhona

Depends how close you want to sit to your new wife These seats are at the back and in the middle of the 1st class section with. I prefer either 2 and 3 A & K whch means my wife is in the seat in front of me. They are more private and also are window seats.

simonspear

I think there is a whole separate multi page thead on F seating for others opinions but when traveling as a couple on the 747's we like 5E & 5F and also 4E & 4F although you do feel a little more exposed in those. However if 1A and 1K open up before you fly then grab them as there are no better seats for a couple IMO.

Best Regards, Simon

Globaliser

I think that this may be the thread, with a lot of collective wisdom, for which you were searching: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ies-first.html

lighting

Thanks guys, got 5E and 5F on the outbound flight (day flight) and 2A + 2K on the return (night flight). Will probably stick with these and see if i can grab 1A and 1K closer to the time.

Really appreciate the help.