FeedbirdNiner

About to call to try and grab seats and combine with an existing outbound leg...waiting for the midnight GMT release.

Am I best to call USA just before midnight GMT (the published closing time of the call centre) or Tokyo just after midnight (the published opening time).

I think I'd prefer USA as I deal with them from time to time and they've been good. But will they be unable to help (or hate me!) as it goes past their close time?

Anyone have any experience?

(I'm in the UK, so 1am BST is midnight GMT flights are USA open jaw).

Matthew Brown

Which did you call in the end? Any success?

toothy

I find Tokyo good (it actually routes you to India).

T

FeedbirdNiner

I started ringing USA before midnight (1AM UK) but it wasn't answered by an agent by 12.01 GMT, so I became worried that it would never be answered as they had gone out of hours (to use a crew expression...), so I diallwd Japan and go through to an agent in about 2 mins.

First agent was unsure about the process and it took 10 mins before she handed me over to a colleague, during which time the number of Club seats from PHX went from 'available' to '7 left' - and I needed 4. However the next agent was brilliant. He knew exactly what to do and he understood the time critical nature, and so sped through the first booking and then quickly grabbed two more seats to combine my wife's booking.

So yes, Japan was a good choice in the end.

FeedbirdNiner

I agree now - see above

CharliesAngels

I'd like to use 2 x 241 vouchers so I can book my family of 4 into club world.

I can make a booking using a single 241 voucher via the BA website, but I can't see how to book using two vouchers at the same time. The website asks me to select the voucher I want to redeem, but it only allows a single voucher to be selected.

I know it is within the rules to use more than one voucher on a single booking, but I'd be very interested if anyone knows how to make this type of booking via the website so I don't need to bother the call-centre.

CharliesAngels

Ah.... should have continued experimenting before starting the thread! Here is the update it in case it helps anyone else.

You first pick a single voucher (which is where I was getting stuck). But if you then set the number of people to 4 and search for availability, you can then select more than one voucher. So quite easy, if I had persevered!

cuteusmaximus

Hi All. Thanks to Globaliser and Obduro and every one who has provided useful information.

Last night at the exact second the clock struck 1:00AM BST I phoned the Japan office. It answered and I immediately hit 1 for English. Then I had to wait an agonising 7 minutes on hold.
When I got an agent (Indian call centre surely), I quickly explained what I wanted to do. She seemed to understand me. The Club World seats I wanted were still available so she "reserved" them or something.
I then got put on hold for five minutes. She came back with a price on taxes. I said great, go ahead. Hold another five minutes. Then she asked for my CVV from the reserved Amex. I gave that. Hold again.
Back and then she said it was all done. I was elated, although a 30 minute phone call to Japan will not have been cheap!

Today I see some things which worry me. I do indeed see the return leg added to my booking reference.
However:
1 - The new receipt came to my partner's email (we are both travelling on the 241) rather than mine, the original booker and voucher holder
2 - New receipt has taxes identical to the original outbound leg - no indication I was charged extra for the return leg taxes (which she quoted £168 per person for, seemed right connected with outbound)
3 - New receipt does not have a baggage allowance assigned for our Club seats (it does outbound in Prem Econ).
4 - The Avios for the return leg booking should have cost 75000 in total. She said on the phone the cost was 32500 each. I didn't want to argue so I just said OK. In any case, no avios have been debited from my account!
5 - In "Manage My Booking" I am given the option to advance purchase seats for outbound Prem Econ, but for the return in Club it reads "Seat Choices only available at check in"

See attachments. (Edit: Screengrabs are not appearing - I can DM screengrabs if needed)

I am terrified something has gone wrong and we will lose the seats. Am I panicking for no reason -- give it a few days and all will be OK?

I tried phoning the UK BA Exec Club helpline, but (like yesterday) I got a message saying "We are extremely busy, sorry" then it hung up on me!

Thanks in advance
CM

londonsean69

Use Skype to make the call, I spent an hour on a call to the US from Ireland, think it cost 76p

parklife

Thank you for this, I was having the same issue and could not find out how to do this - I asked but no response!

Globaliser

And a thank you from me as well. I have now added a Q&A into the wikipost to record this handy hint.

parklife

The last time I did this it took quite a few days for the flights to be ticketed, and the avios and extra payments to be taken. I rang up the UK line and questioned, they assured me all was OK and it did turn out OK.

cuteusmaximus

Thanks - this is exactly what has happened. I phoned the New York office and they said that the ticket may not be issued for up to 10 business days.

Infocustv

quick question that i can not seem to see the answer too.
I booked a couple of outbound only reward seats (but did not use my companion voucher) Now the return leg seats will become available soon but as you can't use the 2-4-1 on travel to the UK would I be able to retrospectively apply the 2-4-1 voucher to the original booking and add the return leg at the same time?

YYCCL3

This should help you: