(Nearly) Round the world for 240,000 Avios + £340 in Biz. Help make it better?
Jul 11, 2017, 3:05 pm
#61
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci, BA, AF
Posts: 10,129
I assume that you are referring to this language in the BAEC Terms & Conditions:
"Rewards are based on round trip travel between origin and destination using the most direct route possible. Rewards may be for more than one flight sector. On no more than one occasion per Reward may a flight sector commence at a different point from the end of the preceding flight sector. It is possible to combine flights on British Airways and Service Partner airlines to make a round trip journey of up to a maximum of 8 sectors."
I'm not saying that you are wrong, but a distance-based, multi-partner redemption does not necessarily have to be for roundtrip travel, and I'm pretty sure that it does not have to use "the most direct route possible," since the award price is determined by total distance. So it's not clear to me whether the quoted language is what actually applies to such redemptions.
Perhaps someone from BA who sees this thread could post the rules applicable to multi-partner redemptions -- if they are different.
"Rewards are based on round trip travel between origin and destination using the most direct route possible. Rewards may be for more than one flight sector. On no more than one occasion per Reward may a flight sector commence at a different point from the end of the preceding flight sector. It is possible to combine flights on British Airways and Service Partner airlines to make a round trip journey of up to a maximum of 8 sectors."
I'm not saying that you are wrong, but a distance-based, multi-partner redemption does not necessarily have to be for roundtrip travel, and I'm pretty sure that it does not have to use "the most direct route possible," since the award price is determined by total distance. So it's not clear to me whether the quoted language is what actually applies to such redemptions.
Perhaps someone from BA who sees this thread could post the rules applicable to multi-partner redemptions -- if they are different.
Jul 11, 2017, 4:42 pm
#62
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
Sep 2, 2017, 8:33 am
#63
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAGGL, A3G, Accor Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, LHW Sterling
Posts: 1,308
So just to feed back on this process if it is helpful for others, I did manage to get one of these booked in the end.
A few false starts, but once I got the right agent and the rules such as they are understood by both parties it wasn't too bad. What I learnt was:
- The 8 Segment rule seems to be hard and somewhat limits how much you can do (thanks BA6501 for this tip, this caused an early fail when I exceeded this, but the agent didn't communicate this).
- No rules on backtracking or land based segments
- Can use GUFs on these for the BA segments.
So what I ended up with which suited me was as follows (BA sectors upgraded using a GUF 1. I booked with BA both to use the voucher and the GGL team, at a cost of higher YQ etc.
Segment 1 LHR - HND - JAL Business
Segment 2 HND - LHR - JAL Business
Segment 3 LHR - GRU - BA - First
Segment 4 GRU - BOG - TAM - Business
Segment 5 BOG - GRU - TAM - Business
Segment 6 GRU - LHR - BA First
Segment 7 LHR - DME - First
Segment 8 -PEK - HND - JAL Business
This came out towards the top of the 25-35k banding, so ended up being 280k avios and just over £900. I think if you booked all of this individually depending on peak etc, it would come out at around 500k avios so some savings to be had.
I will do something similar to do the second half of my RTW to get me home from Tokyo.
A few false starts, but once I got the right agent and the rules such as they are understood by both parties it wasn't too bad. What I learnt was:
- The 8 Segment rule seems to be hard and somewhat limits how much you can do (thanks BA6501 for this tip, this caused an early fail when I exceeded this, but the agent didn't communicate this).
- No rules on backtracking or land based segments
- Can use GUFs on these for the BA segments.
So what I ended up with which suited me was as follows (BA sectors upgraded using a GUF 1. I booked with BA both to use the voucher and the GGL team, at a cost of higher YQ etc.
Segment 1 LHR - HND - JAL Business
Segment 2 HND - LHR - JAL Business
Segment 3 LHR - GRU - BA - First
Segment 4 GRU - BOG - TAM - Business
Segment 5 BOG - GRU - TAM - Business
Segment 6 GRU - LHR - BA First
Segment 7 LHR - DME - First
Segment 8 -PEK - HND - JAL Business
This came out towards the top of the 25-35k banding, so ended up being 280k avios and just over £900. I think if you booked all of this individually depending on peak etc, it would come out at around 500k avios so some savings to be had.
I will do something similar to do the second half of my RTW to get me home from Tokyo.
Sep 2, 2017, 1:39 pm
#64
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,573
So just to feed back on this process if it is helpful for others, I did manage to get one of these booked in the end.
A few false starts, but once I got the right agent and the rules such as they are understood by both parties it wasn't too bad. What I learnt was:
- The 8 Segment rule seems to be hard and somewhat limits how much you can do (thanks BA6501 for this tip, this caused an early fail when I exceeded this, but the agent didn't communicate this).
- No rules on backtracking or land based segments
- Can use GUFs on these for the BA segments.
So what I ended up with which suited me was as follows (BA sectors upgraded using a GUF 1. I booked with BA both to use the voucher and the GGL team, at a cost of higher YQ etc.
Segment 1 LHR - HND - JAL Business
Segment 2 HND - LHR - JAL Business
Segment 3 LHR - GRU - BA - First
Segment 4 GRU - BOG - TAM - Business
Segment 5 BOG - GRU - TAM - Business
Segment 6 GRU - LHR - BA First
Segment 7 LHR - DME - First
Segment 8 -PEK - HND - JAL Business
This came out towards the top of the 25-35k banding, so ended up being 280k avios and just over £900. I think if you booked all of this individually depending on peak etc, it would come out at around 500k avios so some savings to be had.
I will do something similar to do the second half of my RTW to get me home from Tokyo.
A few false starts, but once I got the right agent and the rules such as they are understood by both parties it wasn't too bad. What I learnt was:
- The 8 Segment rule seems to be hard and somewhat limits how much you can do (thanks BA6501 for this tip, this caused an early fail when I exceeded this, but the agent didn't communicate this).
- No rules on backtracking or land based segments
- Can use GUFs on these for the BA segments.
So what I ended up with which suited me was as follows (BA sectors upgraded using a GUF 1. I booked with BA both to use the voucher and the GGL team, at a cost of higher YQ etc.
Segment 1 LHR - HND - JAL Business
Segment 2 HND - LHR - JAL Business
Segment 3 LHR - GRU - BA - First
Segment 4 GRU - BOG - TAM - Business
Segment 5 BOG - GRU - TAM - Business
Segment 6 GRU - LHR - BA First
Segment 7 LHR - DME - First
Segment 8 -PEK - HND - JAL Business
This came out towards the top of the 25-35k banding, so ended up being 280k avios and just over £900. I think if you booked all of this individually depending on peak etc, it would come out at around 500k avios so some savings to be had.
I will do something similar to do the second half of my RTW to get me home from Tokyo.
Sep 2, 2017, 1:44 pm
#65
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAGGL, A3G, Accor Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, LHW Sterling
Posts: 1,308
I never really got to the bottom of what would happen with a mixed redemption, although the agent/ticketing implied the higher rate would be charged for the all segments, but wouldn't necessarily take that as true.
Sep 2, 2017, 2:03 pm
#66
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,573
In any event, sounds like you got good value for your Avios. Congrats!