Honeymoon 2-4-1 redemption advice
 

Hey guys,

my partner and I are getting married in August next year and we have applied for a BA amex premium card in September, we are really trying to trigger the 10k spend by putting some wedding expenses on the card so we can get the 2-4-1 voucher. We are currently half way through and hoping to get it by march/april.

Is it too late to book any redemptions for end of august/september time if we wait until then? I was thinking to take at least one leg in first class to either Tokyo (so we can visit Japan and maybe take a flight to Bali before coming back) as I'd like to experience first class (flown on J).

I'd be very grateful to have some suggestions from you guys on the best/easiest routes to redeem seats. and also, I'm looking for ideas on great places to go for a honey moon. We are thinking somewhere in South east asia, far east but open to suggestions.

My partner was REALLY into the idea of going to NZ, but we will only be able to redeem seats for a flight to Sydney with the voucher, and I heard they are incredibly hard to get anyways....

Look forward to read some of your replies :D thanks in advance

Congrats on the forthcoming wedding.

You can only redeem a 241 on BA flights so that does limit your options unless you book separate tickets using avios or cash to take you on elsewhere. For example you can use Avios but not a 241 to fly on Cathay or Malaysian to Bali. Remember to account for the risk of misconnections if doing this.

i think it is unlikely, but not impossible, that there will be many redemptions still available for August / September at the time you'll have the 241 voucher, especially to Tokyo or Singapore. May be a few options still for Hong Kong. September, once the school holidays are finished, could be a little easier than August. As a data point I booked in January 2015 for August 2015 and there were only a few flights on random dates left.

I also suspect that for such an important occasion you will not be keen (or you will not be allowed?) to hold off booking after April on the small chance that redemptions do become available later.

If you can afford to buy revenue tickets keep an eye on the premium fare deals thread for reasonably priced biz class tickets to Asia and Australasia.

Congratulations!

Yes, quite frankly, F awards are not largely available and if it were my honeymoon, I'd rather choose a destination I want to visit rather than where there is award availability! For instance you could keep an eye on QR sales as one will presumably come in January and they can be very good value.

I'd add that August-September is a very bad season in much of Asia so your choices might be further constrained. For instance you mention Japan, it is a country I absolutely love, but for much of it, August-early Sept is one of the two worst periods of the year to go there and extremely wet.

Paul, thanks for your reply!

I was thinking to book 2-4-1 say to Tokyo, visit japan for 10 days, buy a ticket to Bali, stay over and chill for 4 days there, and then do another 5 days in Japan before flying back to London.

regarding the time of booking, we will have to get the flight sorted 2-3 months before. but we are quite flexible on the date I guess, It'd be ideal to go right after the wedding, but if we have to wait a week or 2, then so be it.

If we don't find any redemptions (it'd be a right treat to fly first at least one way) then we will consider ex-EU J class to Asia or Australasia for sure, and then use the 2-4-1 for another occasion

Thanks orbitmic! I guess you are right about F for the honeymoon, I guess it'd be a right treat as we can't afford to fly F... it's so expensive! J is another story, but you are right about deciding a place we would like to visit...

Do you know anything about New Zealand in August/September? Is it really bad then?

Agree with orbitmic ... a honeymoon is far too important to hang on BA reward/2-4-1 availability.

We had to use a 2-4-1 in CW earlier this year, as we couldn't find any F availability anywhere in the Caribbean.

New Zealand would be fine! A bit cool in August especially in the South island, but already spring-like in the North island in September.

You also mentioned Bali and it will be dry season then and very pleasant. Both are much better choice than Japan for the season IMHO.

I understand your point about F, but remember that after the honeymoon there will be anniversaries! ;) Maybe secure something for the honeymoon with cash, and if you earn your 2-4-1 later in the year you can use it to early-book a 1st anniversary trip in F?

Very true about the anniversaries, I guess if we don't manage to spend it now, we will eventually use it later for another trip...as you said possibly an anniversary! :D

thanks about NZ :D

congrats on the upcoming wedding.

as I tend to joke at weddings (when I am allowed to speak), you only get married a few times in your life so make the most of each! ;-)

so, if you really wanted to use the 2-4-1 rather than just go for whatever destination you would like, my advice would be to be flexible. i.e. be prepared to fly to any Asian destination that has F redemption rather than just hoping for Tokyo. I personally would then also try to incorporate that into travels, i.e. rather than just connect via place ABC to Japan, why not try to make a mini city break of it there (assuming you have enough time) so the connection isn't just a travel chore but part of the experience.

that could be an idea, we can always try and fly say to HKG (we love it there) stay there for a couple of days, then fly to Japan or Bali or whatever we decide to go (buying the tickets with CX or JAL) and spend our honeymoon there for a few weeks, then go back to HKG for a few days before departure to make sure we don't miss the flight back to London.

My partner wants to be comfortable on a long haul flight, so it has to business class at least. I can't seem to find the BA flights routes to asia. can anybody help me find out how I can check the BA only flight destinations? :confused:

You can find them listed via Find Our Cheapest Fares on BA.com. There aren't so many. HND, NRT, ICN, PEK, PVG, CTU, BKK. But the 3 that really matter are HKG, SIN and KUL. I would be starting with HKG.

Indeed. Another more generic tip is that the Wikipedia page of any airport systematically seems to include a table with the destination list by airline. Very handy if anyone wants to do similar checks from, say, AA or QR hubs etc.

Resurrecting this old post, we are pretty much set to go to South Africa... just wondering if anyone knows if there's lots of availabilty on this route. we almost got the points together, we have the 2-4-1 and we are pretty flexible (or will try to be as much as possible). Roughly we would like to go for end of August/beginning of September and do 14-20 days.

We are going to use the 2-4-1 to go to Johannesburg, and then eventually go to cape town but book that separate and paying the fare

We are going to book in a month I think, but wold be great to know if anyone knows if there's lots of seats available in club/first with say 2-3 months in advance.

I think you're being extremely optimistic here. At the moment there's nothing available in F or CW for 29/8 until the end of the first weak in September (I didn't look any further out) and I'd be surprised if anything opens up now until much closer to the flight date (i.e. not until during the week before travel).

Basically, no, there isn't much availability in J/F to South Africa at all. It is in fact extremely limited to CPT, slightly less but still not great to JNB. The LGW flights might be the exception I don't know.