drwilliams

First two things, welcome from a fellow Canadian who is a BA fan, and yes, this is a great thread!

As to the search, there does seem to be a fair amount of availability this fall and even some decent space in the winter / spring, but once summer hits it is terrible. That said, maybe this fall is a good indicator for next fall, here's hoping.

As to BA points in general in Canada, one thing to consider is the BA Visa card from RBC. If you can spend $30,000 in a calendar year, you get a 2-4-1 ticket on points, but must pay the taxes, fees, etc for both tickets, which is high, normally over $1000 per ticket in business or first (same as booking points on BA any other way). There are some rules (must be on BA metal, same flights, member must be travelling, etc) but I find it to be a good deal. I mainly earn points through Amex MR, but think the BA Visa has probably been good for about 300,000 points due to the 2-4-1 tickets.

2 round trips to London from Calgary would be 250,000 points off-peak return, so a 2-4-1 would be worth 125,000 points in a situation like this.

If you can get to Vancouver, you could book First Class for 170k each, or Toronto at 136K. I have done first and it is really good, especially the lounge in Heathrow, which you would need to plan to spend at least a couple of hours in to get a real shave and great Champagne!

Lastly, remember if you are planning to move around Europe a bit, flights that terminate (or stopover more than 24 hours I think) in the UK pay higher fees, so if you fly to somewhere on the continent the taxes and fees should be about $200 less per ticket.

Steve in Olympia

Today, I phoned a BA call center to book a redemption flight, and two things occurred that I thought were unusual, in a good way.

Background: Yesterday, at exactly 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, reward seats were released for SEA-LHR for Sept. 20, 2018. I was on-line, and was able to secure two seats in J.

Today, also at 5:00 PST, I called the Japan call center, wishing to add the onward segment, LHR-BCN, at the moment the seats were released.

Unusual event no. 1: Although I never saw the seats appear on-line, the CSR could see the seats, and snagged them for me. Is there availability that CSR's can see that we mortals cannot?

Unusual event no. 2: As I thanked the CSR for her help, I casually mentioned that I would be calling back in 12 days to secure the inbound seats, and the CSR responded, "Oh, just tell me dates and flights you want, and I will call you ten minutes prior to the release, so that you will be on the phone with me, and I will put a hold on those seats for you." Does it really work that way? In twenty years of booking BA reward flights, I have never had such an offer.

Both events were pleasant surprises......so not complaining!

memesweeper

Me either... a new policy perhaps? :-)

testycal

Cash ticket = $1035 USD earnging 10500 Avios

I can reduce price by $144 USD using 17000 Avios (I view this as the amount being earned on the flight plus a top up of 6500 from my own Avios)

Avios ticket = $420 CDN ($350 USD) + 52500 Avios (low season)

What is the rule of thumb as to value obtained? Which option do I choose?

If my calculations are correct....$1035 - 350 = $685 USD savings by spending 52500 Avios

I save $144 USD by spending 17000 or $237 by spending 33000

$685 52500
$237 33000
$144 17000

doudou91

Can we remove a UuA from a ticket?

Globaliser

I notice that the current T&C are no longer explicit about this.

But historically, the answer has been that if this is the only change you wished to make, then it was not allowed: a UuA could only be cancelled if the reservation for the flight was cancelled, either by a cancellation of the entire booking or by changing the reservation to another flight.

Because of the latter alternative, you could always engineer the cancellation of the UuA by changing to a flight which had no award availability in the upgraded cabin, thus forcing a change back to the original cabin with a refund of the Avios used for the upgrade. All cancellations and changes were also subject to the original fare conditions, and refundability of the Avios was also basically subject to the normal only-if-at-least-24-hours-before-the-first-flight-in-the-itinerary rule.

ESFLYER95

Not sure what current situation with this is but I have definitely done. Wanted to change a ticket but had to remove the UUA first and then change the ticket. vWs maybe 18 months ago now.

vikasr

I am booking a business class award using the Oneworld award chart from India to USA and back and the itinerary is in the 14000 to 20000 miles band with a few thousand miles to spare for which i would like to make some domestic US bookings. However, at this time only my outbound and inbound flights are finalized.

Can I just book the India - US and US - India flights now and later add the domestic sectors to the same booking? Will there be any fees for the add ons later?

ExpatSomchai

Valuations for an Avios range from around 1 to 1.5 cents. Sometimes it is feasible to earn significantly more.

bofc

Question about using avios for car rentals......if my plans change and I need to cancel the reservation will the avios be returned to my account? Is there a fee to do so? I read that using avios for car rentals is similar to using avios for hotel stays - which I understand can be cancelled and refunded. Is the same true for car rental reservations? Thank you.

Gig103

I think a coworker is getting bad information from the (UK) call center. Last week he found CW availability on different (better) dates than he booked so he paid the change fee. One was ticketed and the other is not (nor has the fee been charged to his credit card).

When he called they told him the "unticketed reservation will stay that way until just before [you] leave."

Edit: He called back and "So I got a British person...very nice. And yes, same story...everything is OK...it will get ticketed eventually. I'm not on standby."

I think that is totally false since they already charged him the change on the first. I recommended he call back but if there's advice about how to insist on the ticketing now instead of waiting until next May to find a problem at the airport ....

BA6501

It's totally normal unfortunately, and best to keep an eye on it. It can't be pushed through the system until 48h before departure.

Gig103

Okay, I'm sure that will reassure him. I found it odd because his original ones (and one of the changes) were immediate. Does that also mean he can't buy seat assignments until T-48h (at which point he'd wait until OLCI)?

BA6501

Some changes can be done automatically, but once the booking has been messed with a couple times, or the change couldn't be calculated automatically, or if there's a Y in the day of the week then the system falls over and it has to be sent to get manually reticketed.

You can call up to pay to select seats.

Just make sure you check 48 hours before departure, and ring up. If he tries to check-in online but it has not been reissued, then it won't work and he'll know why. Don't leave it until getting to the airport!

jediwho

I am trying to use my first companion certificates. Is (are) there a thumb rule for best use of companion certs? What I am seeing is that taxes on RT are much more (almost 50% more, so around $2250 vs $1500) than buying separate one way tickets. Also, taxes are much lower inbound Europe to USA than inbound LHR to USA. So, it makes seems to make sense flying VCE to LAX than LHR to LAX.

Correct me if I am wrong, but if one has an option, it seems optimal to not buy RT tickets -- even if one has companion certificate -- and not fly out of London but some other European city.