BA American Express 2-4-1 Voucher Discussion
#2026
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,693
#2028
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,693
Good to hear. I guess the problem is that it probably is unlikely BA would spot it, there would be the small possibility they would.
I think the OP is trying to book one way in to the UK - I notice if I try and find availability on BA for a one way in to the UK using the voucher I get the following error message:
I think the OP is trying to book one way in to the UK - I notice if I try and find availability on BA for a one way in to the UK using the voucher I get the following error message:
Sorry, your BA American Express Companion Voucher is available for travel from United Kingdom only. Please select a departure city/airport in United Kingdom.
#2029
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,805
Good to hear. I guess the problem is that it probably is unlikely BA would spot it, there would be the small possibility they would.
I think the OP is trying to book one way in to the UK - I notice if I try and find availability on BA for a one way in to the UK using the voucher I get the following error message:
I think the OP is trying to book one way in to the UK - I notice if I try and find availability on BA for a one way in to the UK using the voucher I get the following error message:
#2030
Join Date: Dec 2019
Programs: Executive Club
Posts: 13
Thanks all, just spent 90 mins on the phone trying to get through to someone (as a lowly EC Blue) who took all of thirty seconds to confirm that UK issued Amex 241s cannot be used for anything other than a journey starting from the UK. And can confirm that one ways ex-UK are definitely doable, having done so myself in the past!
#2031
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Lincolnshire, UK
Programs: BA GGL - maybe only briefly!
Posts: 1,375
I think BA/Amex's policy has recently changed on this. I made an online outward 2-4-1 just before Christmas using Mrs K's voucher and with her as the lead traveller. The web site only offered me the option of using her Amex Card and I couldn't see how to change it to mine. When I rang (as her nominee) to make the inbound booking the agent specifically said the card must be the same name as the voucher. Does the Wiki need updating?
I've just done a dummy 241 booking - the payment page defaults to my saved cards (strange, none of which is the 241 earning card - must fix that) and also gives the option to use a new card. So, I think the only stipulation is that you use an Amex to pay for 241 bookings.
#2032
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,642
Standard Voucher Terms and Conditions
- ...
- Valid towards return flights only, with the journey originating from and returning to your country of membership (with the exception of vouchers issued in the UK which may also be used for one-way travel)
- ...
#2033
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Brighton UK
Programs: BAEC-Silver, AMEX-BA Prem' Plus & Standard, Accor Gold, HH-Silver, IHG,IBIS On Business
Posts: 955
I don't think that is the case. We had a 241 trip planned and paid for but then changed it 6 months or so later when F became available. This ended up being a cancel and re-book, which I hadn't really thought through, as by then the card which earned the original voucher, and had paid the taxes, had been closed. It all worked - the taxes, points and voucher came back, we used it for the new booking and paid the new taxes with a new (Amex) card. The only hiccup was having to call amex to get the refund, which had been applied to a closed card, transferred across to an existing card.
I've just done a dummy 241 booking - the payment page defaults to my saved cards (strange, none of which is the 241 earning card - must fix that) and also gives the option to use a new card. So, I think the only stipulation is that you use an Amex to pay for 241 bookings.
I've just done a dummy 241 booking - the payment page defaults to my saved cards (strange, none of which is the 241 earning card - must fix that) and also gives the option to use a new card. So, I think the only stipulation is that you use an Amex to pay for 241 bookings.
#2034
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 136
Feel like all i do is ask questions on here, so apologies.
Managed to book the 241 reward flight last night in CW to Male online
Now need to add the inbound flight T-355 by calling BA US or Japan office 12am here. However BA customer services mentioned that i can call a reward flight number thats associated to the voucher on the day as they are open till 1am. Looking for this number to no avail - though anyone else heard of this? Really dont want to take any risks on the inbound. Maybe best to stick to what people have advised on this topic and calling overseas BA customer services 10mins before midnight.
Managed to book the 241 reward flight last night in CW to Male online
Now need to add the inbound flight T-355 by calling BA US or Japan office 12am here. However BA customer services mentioned that i can call a reward flight number thats associated to the voucher on the day as they are open till 1am. Looking for this number to no avail - though anyone else heard of this? Really dont want to take any risks on the inbound. Maybe best to stick to what people have advised on this topic and calling overseas BA customer services 10mins before midnight.
So as mentioned last week thought id provide you an update on the return redemption flight. Hopefully this helps someone as much as all the help I received from here.
Added the Vodafone international call bundle for 3 a month which gives you 100mins. (It auto renews every month so youll need to cancel it manually).
Called the US office at 11:40pm GMT the day before I needed to, to test the water. First point of contact is someone who direct your calls to the relevant team (this took a good 10mins). Kind of stumbled my words and was put through to new bookings. Once I got through - the kind customer service agent advised that I should ask for Avios and Miles Team (cant remember the exact name, though will edit the post once I remember) as they deal with these requests. All in all took around 15mins.
Next day waited again till 11:40pm this time it took me 5mins to get through to the first point of contact. Asked to speak to the Avios Team which took another 5mins. Went through security, the booking reference, and that was it. They knew exactly what I wanted and just confirmed it. The cringy part was keeping the lady on the phone for what seemed and eternity until it turned midnight. However she was lovely and was counting down the minutes with me with some brief chit chat in-between. 1minute to midnight she put me on hold and said she will come back once reserved. 5mins later she came back and pretended they went, before it set-in she said dont worry I have the tickets. Confirmed the price and Avios plus card paying with and was booked. She asked me to check my emails to make sure I have the confirmation and all details are correct.
So all in all went so smoothly and now have my 241 voucher booked to the Maldives in Club World both ways. May thanks to all that helped me, the wiki, and for others that had to read all my questions and bumping this topic to the first page for weeks.
Lastly BA Customer Services were absolutely brilliant. I did ask the agent while trying to kill time, what in her opinion was the hardest route to book on redemption as she just works on Avios bookings. Cape Town apparently.
#2035
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: BAEC Gold. Hilton Diamond
Posts: 390
Hello All,
So as mentioned last week thought id provide you an update on the return redemption flight. Hopefully this helps someone as much as all the help I received from here.
Added the Vodafone international call bundle for 3 a month which gives you 100mins. (It auto renews every month so youll need to cancel it manually).
Called the US office at 11:40pm GMT the day before I needed to, to test the water. First point of contact is someone who direct your calls to the relevant team (this took a good 10mins). Kind of stumbled my words and was put through to new bookings. Once I got through - the kind customer service agent advised that I should ask for Avios and Miles Team (cant remember the exact name, though will edit the post once I remember) as they deal with these requests. All in all took around 15mins.
Next day waited again till 11:40pm this time it took me 5mins to get through to the first point of contact. Asked to speak to the Avios Team which took another 5mins. Went through security, the booking reference, and that was it. They knew exactly what I wanted and just confirmed it. The cringy part was keeping the lady on the phone for what seemed and eternity until it turned midnight. However she was lovely and was counting down the minutes with me with some brief chit chat in-between. 1minute to midnight she put me on hold and said she will come back once reserved. 5mins later she came back and pretended they went, before it set-in she said dont worry I have the tickets. Confirmed the price and Avios plus card paying with and was booked. She asked me to check my emails to make sure I have the confirmation and all details are correct.
So all in all went so smoothly and now have my 241 voucher booked to the Maldives in Club World both ways. May thanks to all that helped me, the wiki, and for others that had to read all my questions and bumping this topic to the first page for weeks.
Lastly BA Customer Services were absolutely brilliant. I did ask the agent while trying to kill time, what in her opinion was the hardest route to book on redemption as she just works on Avios bookings. Cape Town apparently.
So as mentioned last week thought id provide you an update on the return redemption flight. Hopefully this helps someone as much as all the help I received from here.
Added the Vodafone international call bundle for 3 a month which gives you 100mins. (It auto renews every month so youll need to cancel it manually).
Called the US office at 11:40pm GMT the day before I needed to, to test the water. First point of contact is someone who direct your calls to the relevant team (this took a good 10mins). Kind of stumbled my words and was put through to new bookings. Once I got through - the kind customer service agent advised that I should ask for Avios and Miles Team (cant remember the exact name, though will edit the post once I remember) as they deal with these requests. All in all took around 15mins.
Next day waited again till 11:40pm this time it took me 5mins to get through to the first point of contact. Asked to speak to the Avios Team which took another 5mins. Went through security, the booking reference, and that was it. They knew exactly what I wanted and just confirmed it. The cringy part was keeping the lady on the phone for what seemed and eternity until it turned midnight. However she was lovely and was counting down the minutes with me with some brief chit chat in-between. 1minute to midnight she put me on hold and said she will come back once reserved. 5mins later she came back and pretended they went, before it set-in she said dont worry I have the tickets. Confirmed the price and Avios plus card paying with and was booked. She asked me to check my emails to make sure I have the confirmation and all details are correct.
So all in all went so smoothly and now have my 241 voucher booked to the Maldives in Club World both ways. May thanks to all that helped me, the wiki, and for others that had to read all my questions and bumping this topic to the first page for weeks.
Lastly BA Customer Services were absolutely brilliant. I did ask the agent while trying to kill time, what in her opinion was the hardest route to book on redemption as she just works on Avios bookings. Cape Town apparently.
I was thinking about you this morning, hoping youd managed to bag your seats so it was lovely to read of your success and many congratulations.
Thanks also for reporting back on how it went too as others will find this useful.
Its all a bit scary when first starting out with these late night calls to grab the return seats but it becomes second nature after a few and of course, there should always be an element of flexibility, just in case. We were forced to stay an extra night when we were doing just this for our Maldives trip and couldnt quite get the dates we wanted but as you can imagine, we werent too upset! (I used to find I couldnt sleep for a couple of hours after a successful call as I was too excited!).
Now we have amassed quite a bank of Avios, we just book the returns online and claim the 50% back the next day - still a risk as others could be sweet talking the agents on the phone to block the seats the moment they become available as you did but weve done ok so far.
Thanks again for feeding back on your experience and your success - I wish you a wonderful trip and many more successes with this fantastic opportunity for long haul travel in comfort that has presented itself to us.
Last edited by PlaneSpeaking; Feb 13, 2020 at 6:24 am
#2036
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: JER
Programs: BA Gold/OWE, several MUCCI, and assorted Pensions!
Posts: 32,124
You last paragraph I find quite interesting. We’ve done CPT on a 2-4-1 in Club World in 2016, 2017 and 2018 - and got the round trips booked at the same time without burning any midnight oil! OK, the first one was easy as it was the launch of the LGW-CPT route. I screwed up for 2019 by forgetting to try to book until far too late, and ended up paying QR.
For 2020 we’re going again on a 2-4-1, but this time I wasn’t able to book the round trip at the outset ... so grabbed a suitable available outbound over the phone and waited! Tracking https://rewardflightfinder.com over the next couple of weeks created a certain tension, as returns showed up ... and then disappeared. Eventually, one morning at around 0900, 2 return seats were showing on a suitable date, giving us just over 2 weeks down there. Quick call to the BA Gold line, return added, Avios adjusted and there in MMB is our e-ticket. No midnight phone calls, no lost sleep ... just flexibility and patience. That resulted in the outbound from LHR (747 - yay!) and return to LGW (777 - boo!)... and with the JER-LGW legs bolted on.
Perhaps we’ve just been extraordinarily lucky? These trips have been late-Nov and Dec, which is certainly ZA Summer!
Last edited by T8191; Feb 13, 2020 at 12:01 pm
#2037
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 63
Hi looking for advice on using my 2-4-1, trying to get to Vancouver. There’s currently some availability to SEA but not YVR around the time we want to travel. I’m thinking about booking the SEA flights and then keeping an eye to see if YVR availability shows up and changing if it does show up.
I read somewhere that changing North American flights wasn’t a great idea for some fee related reason but can’t seem to re-find that info.
My understanding is if availability to YVR came up after I book the SEA flights I’d pay a small change fee and otherwise it’s relatively simple. Is that true? Any downsides to booking SEA I’m not considering (onward travel to Vancouver notwithstanding)?
Thanks in advance
I read somewhere that changing North American flights wasn’t a great idea for some fee related reason but can’t seem to re-find that info.
My understanding is if availability to YVR came up after I book the SEA flights I’d pay a small change fee and otherwise it’s relatively simple. Is that true? Any downsides to booking SEA I’m not considering (onward travel to Vancouver notwithstanding)?
Thanks in advance
#2038
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Brisbane
Programs: BAEC Blue/Bronze, Krisflyer, Qantas
Posts: 415
Hi looking for advice on using my 2-4-1, trying to get to Vancouver. Theres currently some availability to SEA but not YVR around the time we want to travel. Im thinking about booking the SEA flights and then keeping an eye to see if YVR availability shows up and changing if it does show up.
I read somewhere that changing North American flights wasnt a great idea for some fee related reason but cant seem to re-find that info.
My understanding is if availability to YVR came up after I book the SEA flights Id pay a small change fee and otherwise its relatively simple. Is that true? Any downsides to booking SEA Im not considering (onward travel to Vancouver notwithstanding)?
Thanks in advance
I read somewhere that changing North American flights wasnt a great idea for some fee related reason but cant seem to re-find that info.
My understanding is if availability to YVR came up after I book the SEA flights Id pay a small change fee and otherwise its relatively simple. Is that true? Any downsides to booking SEA Im not considering (onward travel to Vancouver notwithstanding)?
Thanks in advance
#2039
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Brisbane
Programs: BAEC Blue/Bronze, Krisflyer, Qantas
Posts: 415
I have a complex question regarding adding an open jaw return...
I managed to nab a one-way flight LON-SYD with 2-4-1 earlier this year as I will be moving there for a while (F will give us 6x32kg bags - perfect!) ... however looking ahead for booking future trips back to the UK, it seems that business class tickets are much cheaper ex-EU than ex-AUS (is this true?) ... so now i'm thinking I should try to tack on a return trip to my original Avios flight and continue to book ex-EU flights to AUS with 6 month+ gaps between outbound and return legs.
- Is there a max time limit on Avios bookings between the outbound and return flight? (eg outbound in March, back in December?)
- Can i tack on a return trip to my original booking anytime upto a few days before the outbound flight?
- Could I tack on an open jaw return (returning from SIN/HKG/KUL etc) if i struggle with availability all the way from SYD?
- Can the call centre do all this without putting my outbound flight at risk? (eg do they have to release inventory and rebook)
Big thanks in advance
I managed to nab a one-way flight LON-SYD with 2-4-1 earlier this year as I will be moving there for a while (F will give us 6x32kg bags - perfect!) ... however looking ahead for booking future trips back to the UK, it seems that business class tickets are much cheaper ex-EU than ex-AUS (is this true?) ... so now i'm thinking I should try to tack on a return trip to my original Avios flight and continue to book ex-EU flights to AUS with 6 month+ gaps between outbound and return legs.
- Is there a max time limit on Avios bookings between the outbound and return flight? (eg outbound in March, back in December?)
- Can i tack on a return trip to my original booking anytime upto a few days before the outbound flight?
- Could I tack on an open jaw return (returning from SIN/HKG/KUL etc) if i struggle with availability all the way from SYD?
- Can the call centre do all this without putting my outbound flight at risk? (eg do they have to release inventory and rebook)
Big thanks in advance
#2040
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Cambridgeshire
Programs: Varies
Posts: 1,281
Hi looking for advice on using my 2-4-1, trying to get to Vancouver. Theres currently some availability to SEA but not YVR around the time we want to travel. Im thinking about booking the SEA flights and then keeping an eye to see if YVR availability shows up and changing if it does show up.
I read somewhere that changing North American flights wasnt a great idea for some fee related reason but cant seem to re-find that info.
My understanding is if availability to YVR came up after I book the SEA flights Id pay a small change fee and otherwise its relatively simple. Is that true? Any downsides to booking SEA Im not considering (onward travel to Vancouver notwithstanding)?
Thanks in advance
I read somewhere that changing North American flights wasnt a great idea for some fee related reason but cant seem to re-find that info.
My understanding is if availability to YVR came up after I book the SEA flights Id pay a small change fee and otherwise its relatively simple. Is that true? Any downsides to booking SEA Im not considering (onward travel to Vancouver notwithstanding)?
Thanks in advance
There are various transport options between the two cities, either airport to airport or city to city.