henley

So we thought next Xmas we would attempt a trip to Australia. I'm aware this is not well served by Avios but have looked around and I'm not too sure how to start planning, whether to book segments now or wait for the whole trip.

Needless to say there are no/super limited BA flights during the year to redeem to SIN/HKG/STD/MEL.

Anyhow would anyone be able to help or provide guidance or is it best to simply phone up BA? Here's my info:

500k Avios silver member 1 Amex241

Departure anytime after 10/11th dec returning 1-6th jan
Stopover both ways 1-3 days DXB/HKG/SIN
Destination MEL or SYD
Business or first class

David-A

There are a couple of different questions here, need to be considered in turn.

Spending Avios points to on flights of some kind to SYD or MEL (from London? or?) is one thing, and not necessarily that difficult. You have the whole of oneworld.

Getting BA own metal redemption seats to SYD, in sufficient number for a group, in a specific and popular date range is more of a challenge!

You have a budget of 500k Avios, how many people do you have? Is it just two adults?
You also don't mention the cabin (class) you are looking for?

You mention that you have a BA Amex 241. This is the thing that introduces the restrictions. As you probably know, you can only use the 241 on BA metal flights (flights BA operate themselves, not partner flights with a BA code stuck on them).

[Just for clarity, is it a BA Amex 241? Or are you talking about a 241 from an Avios.com creditcard (this is a separate scheme, with its own credit cards, but you can move the Avios points between them).]

Now, the only BA metal to reach australia lands in SYD and it only comes in via SIN. These flights are available under either a direct straight through flight number, or as separate flights.

darthlemsip

If you don't mind not using the 241, you have enough Avios to book on Cathays excellent J using the cash+Avios option. That should give you a bit more flexibility

henley

Good points you raise

From LHR
2 adults 1 child
I am trying to redeem the 241 either direct or via somewhere else

henley

How can I do that? When I try that search (book with Avios upgrade with cash) ba.com only searches for ba flights and CX isn't an option (if I just search for regular Avios I do get CX) - so do I book economy the upgrade using mmb?

chris1979

I am also planning on going to SYD next winter and my strategy is via 5k TP, CCR and this GGL for jokers but I appreciate that that's not the sensible / sane / easy / most cost effective / efficient way to get to SYD. ;-)

Globaliser

I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can do that.

If you want to fly CX, it'll be a full Avios redemption only.

If you're flying BA (or AA or IB - but irrelevant here), you can buy a cash ticket for the cabin below the one you want to fly in, and then upgrade to the next cabin using Avios.

If you're flying BA to/from Europe, you can buy a cash ticket for the cabin you want to fly in but reduce the cash needed by using some Avios.

Otherwise, it's full redemptions only AIUI.

Overall, the best advice I can add is to be flexible, be flexible, and be flexible. For example, you might theoretically find that the best thing to do is to get a 2-4-1 redemption to HKG or PVG and then get another ticket (award or cash) from there to SYD.

To illustrate that, the last time I went to SYD it was using a 2-4-1 in First, but I had to do LHR-SYD / HKG-LHR using that, and then get a separate SYD-HKG ticket. Similarly, I have recently put a trip together for another couple all using Avios, with SYD-LHR in QF F on one ticket, LCY-FRA-HKG in BA J and CX F on a second ticket, and HKG-SYD in CX J on a third ticket.

David-A

So, the most simple option to describe would be to fly:
LHR-SIN-SYD return, BA all the way under the direct flight number. You could use the 241 against the whole thing.

If there is no availability when you want, try the flights as their separate numbers. (On a pure redemption it makes no difference). Again, all BA flights, so 241 against it.

If you can't get straight through availability same day, then try adding a stop over in SIN, to let you pair up availability.
You could stop over in SIN, be flying BA metal all the way, and make use of your 241 on the whole thing.

If you want to go somewhere else for a connection (and stop over) in one of the directions, e.g. DXB/HKG or you want to fly into or out of MEL, then you would need to spend some of your Avios on flights operate by another oneworld airline.

Use of the 241 voucher must originate in your membership country, which I am assuming here is UK?
But you can book an 'open jaw'. So you could, for example, fly BA LHR-HKG outbound, then return to London from (say) Tokyo flying on BA metal NRT-LHR, using the single 241 against the whole thing.
But it needn't be Tokyo (that was a random and probably expensive pluck).

[You could not 'open-jaw' between DXB and HKG because the distance between the open jaw points DXB and HKG is actually greater than the shorter of the two legs.]

If you did something like that, you could then use Avios points for flights with other oneworld airlines, say Cathay Pacific from HKG to MEL (or SYD), or Qantas from SYD to NRT.

That is keeping things simple with a BA open jaw, and two other flights into and out of Australia. Because the 241 would need to be a separate booking, it is good you are having a stop over to protect against flight delays.

But if SIN is one of your stop over options, then you could use the 241 against three of the four legs obligator legs to Australia doing:
BA LHR-SIN(stopover)-SYD
BA ***-LHR (where *** is HKG, or ....).


This is all thinking about things in terms of using the 241.

But if your objective is to minimise cash, then you might also look at options for non-UK departures (where you can't use the 241) to bring taxes down. In that case, loads of non-BA options too.

henley

Thanks for all the advice. I just called ba and it seems I have missed the boat to use the amex241

The very helpful operator told me people phone up -355 days for their out bound leg, book that then phone back 2 weeks later to book the return.

Stupidly I thought the whole trip had to be booked so I was awaiting -355 on my return dates

She checked all dates from 1st-20th dec for both SIN and HKG for any type of Avios redemption and there was nothing


At least I know for next yr

David-A

As others have alluded to (or possibly said outright and I have missted) The reason you are not seeing the Cathay flights is probably that you have ticked to use the 241, that is BA metal only - nothing else can be in the booking.

David-A

More seats might come available.

And remember, you could fly 3 legs on the 241 with an open jaw:
Outbound BA LHR-HKG
Inbound BA: SYD-SIN-LHR (with stop over if you want it).

Then book a Qantas or Cathay HKG-MEL, or HKG-SYD using Avios points.

And those inbound flights have probably much more recently been released.

henley

I like the open jaw thing

There's literally zero Avios availability inbound or outbound in biz or first to HKG or SIN for any date in dec or jan 2015 for ba flights

darthlemsip

You most certainly can do a cash + Avios on Cathay, I'm doing it on Wednesday



If you can't find the availability on BA.com, look on Cathay and when you find it there, call BA to book. Although looking on BA now, there are 2 seats in CX J for LHR-HKG available on 10th Dec and back on 6th Jan - 240k Avios + about £700, plus flights from HKG to MEL on various dates in between, also on CX in J for about 200k Avios + about £400

Tim_T

It is very likely that BA have not released seats yet or in full. If you can't see anything in dec or jan to HKG or sin then this would point to this. It is unlikely that they have all gone. BA did not release summer 2014 seats until mid October.

I have done as suggested. I had a 241 and looking for three seats. I have out to HKG and return via sin from syd on BA metal. I then used other miles (virgin in my case but avios would work on CX) for the HKG to syd leg. This is for summer 14.

Incidentally, when I was booking this I also was thinking about Christmas 13 instead. There was plenty of availability when I was looking in August / September, which is why in my view the seats are not yet fully released.

easterisland

You have not missed the boat as the boat did not arrive.

I have stayed up until midnight for weeks (without success) chasing Xmas/New Year BA first class seats from LHR-SIN-LHR.

The big question is will the boat arrive (I do not think so) BA can sell every seat on the SIN-SYD-SIN route over Xmas/New Year, they are even very tactical with the release of A class seats on this route so are they going to give any Z seats away?

If you want to use the 2-4-1 to SYD you will have to be very very flexible and maybe plan your trip nearer to the Northern Hemisphere Summer. Everything changed on this route when the BA/QF JSA ended.

I would not wait around for BA award seats I would grab the CX ones as suggested up thread.