Redemption connections from the regions
 

Hi, was looking for some guidance please.
I'm looking to cash in some Avios for an east coast TATL May 17, leaving from Glasgow. The F and/or J availability I want is there, but the connections offered are entirely unsuitable, in most cases it is LCY offered for an LHR departure, or up to 10 hours connection in LHR, on both legs of the journey.
Is there any way to improve upon this, are better times likely to appear in future months ?
The only options I could think of are booking a revenue ticket for the connection, or perhaps a flight saver. Or LCC to Gatwick ? Unless you wonderful people can help me out with a better suggestion ? :)

Thanks all in advance.

I sometimes find rhat if you select that you want to stopover in london then pick an onward flight on the same day it offers up more connection options
Ive managed a few times to get a better connection this way
Hope this helps

Hmm, that sounds counter intuitive, but then that doesn't surprise me with BA's IT ! Actually, your username has reminded me that I could also try a connection from Edinburgh, despite being based in Glasgow.

Thank you !

EDI has a huge amount of redemption seats going so yes that's a good choice. NCL connections can only go via LHR, though that's probably too far.

Would a call to the call centre of any use, or You First if I book an F redemption ? Or is it simply a case of the domestic redemption seats don't exist ? Is this likely to change at any point, nearer the time ?
In the meantime, I will try both of your suggestion and feed back as to how I get on.
NCL is too far TBH, I'd be more inclined to go by train if it came down to it, I get 1st Class train travel free through my employer.

In the past i have called up (they will charge you if you make an offline booking) - but they appeared to be able to access domestic redemption that was not showing online to make decent connections.

This was 2-3 years ago however - might have changed since then.

I could not get the domestic flight without going to LCY or at crazy times. I called up - they booked the long haul (Vancouver) and then spoke to someone - called me back and added on the domestic leg.

Yes the Contact Centre staff can rig up other connections. So if you do a dummy booking for the domestic flight and see availability, which doesn't manifest in a connection, then call up and you shouldn't have to pay a fee. For WTP and above on the longhaul it gets more complicated since the domestic connection should come out of a more generous fare bucket which won't show on dummy bookings.

Just come back from a trip EDI-LHR-DEN.

Booked it last year and took the only available flights EDI-LHR and LHR-EDI. Something like a six hour wait in LHR on the return.

Six months before flight, minor schedule change to DEN.

This now allowed a shorter connection on the way back (which originally fell foul of Minimum Connection Time by about 5 minutes!) so, although no avios redemptions now showing for that flight, phoned You First and asked if I could get the earlier connection.

Answer was Yes, and they didn't charge for a change fee!

I would say, although no extra Avios for connections to long haul, LHR fees mean that the cost of the connecting flight plus a change fee is almost the same as just buying a flight to LHR.

So rathen than book a flight you would rather not have and then change it, it might be best just to buy the connection.

I believe - but please check - if BA to LHR and then BA onwards, you will be protected if on separate bookings.

I've had the call centre open availability on domestics in this situation on J reward bookings when the LH availability was there on two occasions. Once as gold, it was done there and then and once as silver they did a dummy booking as it was sent to some office for approval. I was called back a couple days to say it was opened up and they took payment. Def worth a call to BA to ask.

So, an update for those that are interested. Edinburghgirl’s advice was spot on, hitting the nail bang on the head. I tried my itinerary again, this time choosing a “stop over”, and low and behold almost all London Airport shuttles were available to choose.
As it turned out the one I wanted on the return was only 1hr 45mins connection, so I couldn’t book online, but a quick call the call centre sorted that out, and the offline booking fee was waived.

The trip in question was a GLA – LHR – BOS return, F on the way out and J on the return, middle of May next year.

Thanks to all for your input, especially Edinburghgirl, this is exactly the spirit of the forum and why I usually lurk here ! I hope the advice given can be of use to others, from “the regions”, in future.

Good trick to know... and a little annoying. I have 4 hours between flights next month as it was all I could get on the LHR-EDI. Got T3-T5 transfer to do but nothing that will make time go a little quicker!