JK

Hey guys,

I have a friend who works at BA and can get us the Friends & Family Hotline tickets. I have no idea if there is a limit to the number she can buy for people in a year, but she's kindly offered to help on this occassion!

We're flying out in WT(!) on LHR -> MIA on 11th Sept and back on 16th Sept.

• Direct through BA.com is £1,299.50
• With Avios, it came to 100k points and €837.98 / ~£709 (feels like a bad deal?)
• Through Hotline - £989.50! Bargain!

My question - does anyone have any idea how Hotline tickets work? Are there any restrictions? Can I still earn Avios and receive BAEC Gold benefits etc? If an upgrade become available, would I still be in the preferred waiting list etc with other Gold's... Or upgrade to Club with Avios etc?

Any insight as always would be much appreciated. Ideally I'd love to fly the route in Club, but I just can't part with that number of miles when I still have to pay so much cash!

Cheers,
JK

nux

You cannot upgrade WT to CW directly, only to WTP. And then you would need to be in a Y,B,H fare bucket. I believe you do earn avios/TP's on a hotline ticket, I think it is just 10% off, and they cannot be upgraded.

Using avios for a WT ticket is almost always poor value.

shorthauldad

Redeeming Avios for WT is often a poor use of Avios, apart from some very specific circumstances (e.g. one ways or maybe right at the last minute). It might might be worth reading this post if you haven't already:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...tart-here.html

Looks like you can't upgrade using Avios on Hotline tickets
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...snt-worth.html

NB: You can't upgrade from WT to Club with Avios anyway, you can only upgrade one level i.e. WT to WT+, or from WT+ to Club, or from Club to First.

BingBongBoy

Just to point out...

Yes, you do earn TPs and Avios on Hotline bookings... However, under the Terms and Conditions of the Hotline scheme, you CAN NOT upgrade the booking using Avios. You may still be offered a PUO upgrade as it is treat as a regular commercial fare.

JK

Thanks folks - appreciate the advice.

I figured the WT Avios was poor value. My only issue is that a CW redemption isn't available anywhere near my preferred dates. They only offer connections with AA through EWR or BOS, and I'm not really into flying with AA. I wanted the direct BA flights. Mind you, the cost for Club comes out at 195k Avios + €1260.80 (for 2 people) which seems MUCH better value (but only if it were for the direct flights).

Sounds like I should trouble my wifes friend to find out how much those flights would cost in WT+ (incase it magically does let me use points to upgrade to CW) or CW directly.

Thanks again!

BingBongBoy

Please do be mindful that the booking made by your wife's friend will be linked to her, as in a record will be there that it was booked as a Hotline booking with her staff number as a reference. And, if you do make any changes to the booking which are against the T&C's, then it will fall back on your wife's friend.

Forewarned and all that.

JK

Thanks BBB - absolutely, I wouldn't want her to suffer any grief as a result - hence asking all my annoying questions here first! I see at least a little light with the fact that there may be a PUO at a reasonable price, but I know that's never guaranteed.

I may just ask her friend for a quote in WT+ and just take my chances...

Out of interest BBB - is there a limit to the number of Hotline tickets you're able to book for your friends? Not that I ever would, but why shouldn't I book ALL my flights through her (presuming she was willing to help).

BingBongBoy

We have an allocation of 30 bookings per calendar year.

If the company is pushing sales, then, as they did last year (or maybe the year before, I can't remember), they will lift the limit and let us book as many as we want. Sometimes they are great, sometimes they are absolute rubbish, and sometimes cost more than ba.com.

JK

Excellent, thanks a lot!

Polomarc

Do people get fewer TPs on Hotline tickets? I remember I was looking at an old booking to Dubai and I thought it was very few TP's I got it was around 2009/0.

BingBongBoy

Nope. Same as applied to regular commercial bookings. However, remember that most WT fares offered on Hotline are the most restricted and cheapest fares, so that will tie in with the TPs awarded for the lowest fare buckets as if booked through ba.com.

Polomarc

Thanks BingBongBoy
One day at an FT DO I will need to ask you about a few of the CC's I used to know

TomK81

Agreed Hotlines are very hit and miss, although I have fairly often got some good deals flying CE for not much more than a ET seat. Also some fairly reasonable prices for CW compared to the WT+ price. These have mostly been on busy routes with several flights a day, e.g. Barcelona, Geneva.
So I would always get your friend to check the prices in other cabins for you too.

JK

Hey Tomk81 - that's exactly what I did. She checked last night in all 3 cabins:

WT: £1,008.90 (price for both of us)
WT+: £1,780.90
CW: £5,436.90

CW feels a little on the heavy side for me, but I think WT+ might be a reasonable option, and then I can cross my fingers for the PUG to CW (at a reasonable price, of course).

TravellerFrequently

I assume that this rule also applies to the GUF2 voucher?