BA American Express 2-4-1 Voucher Discussion
Mar 27, 2019, 4:38 pm
#1351
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 60
Thanks i I will try that. It seems ridiculous to be penalised because the ultimate destination is a regional airport.
Mar 27, 2019, 4:42 pm
#1352
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,945
Mar 27, 2019, 5:05 pm
#1353
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Dundee
Programs: BA Plastic. HH Diamond. Speedwell Bar Lifetime Platinum.
Posts: 1,425
I’ve luckily got seats on a Friday night from HKG back to London , but there was zero availability to Edinburgh on a Saturday (and only now showing 2 seats per flight) in J at T355. Loads to Inverness, so we’ve got to go back there.
It was £260.62 for adding the return leg.
Mar 27, 2019, 5:27 pm
#1354
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 60
Can I clarify please. Was the person I spoke to right and to add the edi leg in they should recalculate the hkg lhr taxes?
Mar 27, 2019, 6:03 pm
#1355
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,945
Basically the taxes/fees/charges are recalculated for the whole booking when doing a change. However there is unlikely to be much change other than the additional fees for the domestic flight which are about £40.
Mar 28, 2019, 1:42 am
#1356
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 60
I booked edi - lhr - hkg using a 2 f 1 then when hkg - lhr became available booked it on line. At that stage the lhr -edi leg was not available as it is an overnight flight so then phoned up to add hkg - lhr to the 2 f 1 booking and also add the now available lhr - edi. I was refunded half the avios from hkg-lhr but advised the recalculation of the taxes was a whopping £394 to add the lhr edi flights
Mar 28, 2019, 1:54 am
#1357
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
I booked edi - lhr - hkg using a 2 f 1 then when hkg - lhr became available booked it on line. At that stage the lhr -edi leg was not available as it is an overnight flight so then phoned up to add hkg - lhr to the 2 f 1 booking and also add the now available lhr - edi. I was refunded half the avios from hkg-lhr but advised the recalculation of the taxes was a whopping £394 to add the lhr edi flights
What we (I!) think is that if you book the inbound online, there are 2 ways it can be vouchered. Either you retain two bookings (no fee re-calc) or the bookings are merged (fee re-calc). If you merge in an ex-HKG inbound it goes from no YQ to about £170 YQ, so you want to keep them separate.
It seems like the agent, in combination with adding the domestic leg, has merged them - either at their own initiative or because of how you phrased your request. Maybe because of the domestic leg it felt the natural process to do the fuller “change”. This would explain the extra costs (with the domestic YQ too).
Unfortunately if it’s now done I can’t see it being demerged. Having it vouchered stand-alone as HKG-LHR and then adding EDI in another call might be more fail safe.
Mar 28, 2019, 2:40 am
#1358
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: UK
Programs: BA Blue, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond
Posts: 303
What we (I!) think is that if you book the inbound online, there are 2 ways it can be vouchered. Either you retain two bookings (no fee re-calc) or the bookings are merged (fee re-calc). If you merge in an ex-HKG inbound it goes from no YQ to about £170 YQ, so you want to keep them separate.
- 1 booking to save the Avios with the 2-4-1, but spend more cash on YQ
- 2 bookings to save the cash on YQ, but spend more Avios
Mar 28, 2019, 3:00 am
#1359
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
That's not what I mean. You can now book your inbound online as a second booking (2x avios), then call in the morning to get half the avios refunded by explaining it's your 241-part-2. It seems from this thread (and my own one-off experience) that normally the inbound is left as a separate booking so your taxes are not re-calculated and you have the best of both worlds (if we are talking about HKG or another low-YQ origin). But it can also be done as a merge & re-calc, so you to be careful what's your best choice to make, and even then it's not clear who has the discretion.
Mar 28, 2019, 3:06 am
#1360
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: UK
Programs: BA Blue, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond
Posts: 303
That's not what I mean. You can now book your inbound online as a second booking (2x avios), then call in the morning to get half the avios refunded by explaining it's your 241-part-2. It seems from this thread (and my own one-off experience) that normally the inbound is left as a separate booking so your taxes are not re-calculated and you have the best of both worlds (if we are talking about HKG or another low-YQ origin). But it can also be done as a merge & re-calc, so you to be careful what's your best choice to make, and even then it's not clear who has the discretion.
Mar 28, 2019, 8:31 am
#1361
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 60
Its not been merged and I still have 2 x booking references. The problem appears to be with the edi add on which is extremely unfair as I would have booked HKG - LHR -EDI had the edi flights been released
I phoned again this morning and they still advised it would be £400 to add the edi leg. They have referred it and I await confirmation
I phoned again this morning and they still advised it would be £400 to add the edi leg. They have referred it and I await confirmation
Mar 28, 2019, 8:49 am
#1362
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: BA, Hilton
Posts: 2,091
I would presume, but am not certain (perhaps pauldb knows?) that this method is only applicable when the inbound is beyond T-355 at the time of booking the outbound?
Mar 31, 2019, 4:03 am
#1363
Join Date: May 2018
Programs: SAS Gold, Hilton Diamond, OWS
Posts: 246
Sorry if this question have been asked already, tried searching a bit with no luck.
I’m looking at an open jaw redemption with my 2-4-1 voucher, and there is availability for both my outbound and inbound trip. However, I don’t have enough Avios to purchase both yet, and I’m waiting for points to transfer until I can purchase the return (Heathrow Rewards and Iberia Groupon).
The destination on the outbound flight is very popular, so I’d like to just purchase the outbound and add the inbound when the Avios hits my account sometime next week. I understand that this is possible. However, I would like to avoid the £ 35 pp. fee if possible. Is the fee charged when making an open jaw redemption online and then adding inbound flight via phone later? I seem to remember that no booking fee is charged for open jaw redemptions over the phone as it’s not possible online, and this is not possible online either, but there could be up to 5 days difference between booking outbound and adding inbound.
Anybody got an idea if they will waive the change fee in this case?
I’m looking at an open jaw redemption with my 2-4-1 voucher, and there is availability for both my outbound and inbound trip. However, I don’t have enough Avios to purchase both yet, and I’m waiting for points to transfer until I can purchase the return (Heathrow Rewards and Iberia Groupon).
The destination on the outbound flight is very popular, so I’d like to just purchase the outbound and add the inbound when the Avios hits my account sometime next week. I understand that this is possible. However, I would like to avoid the £ 35 pp. fee if possible. Is the fee charged when making an open jaw redemption online and then adding inbound flight via phone later? I seem to remember that no booking fee is charged for open jaw redemptions over the phone as it’s not possible online, and this is not possible online either, but there could be up to 5 days difference between booking outbound and adding inbound.
Anybody got an idea if they will waive the change fee in this case?
Mar 31, 2019, 4:17 am
#1364
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond *, IHG, Couples Romance Rewards
Posts: 2,350
Sorry if this question have been asked already, tried searching a bit with no luck.
I’m looking at an open jaw redemption with my 2-4-1 voucher, and there is availability for both my outbound and inbound trip. However, I don’t have enough Avios to purchase both yet, and I’m waiting for points to transfer until I can purchase the return (Heathrow Rewards and Iberia Groupon).
The destination on the outbound flight is very popular, so I’d like to just purchase the outbound and add the inbound when the Avios hits my account sometime next week. I understand that this is possible. However, I would like to avoid the £ 35 pp. fee if possible. Is the fee charged when making an open jaw redemption online and then adding inbound flight via phone later? I seem to remember that no booking fee is charged for open jaw redemptions over the phone as it’s not possible online, and this is not possible online either, but there could be up to 5 days difference between booking outbound and adding inbound.
Anybody got an idea if they will waive the change fee in this case?
I’m looking at an open jaw redemption with my 2-4-1 voucher, and there is availability for both my outbound and inbound trip. However, I don’t have enough Avios to purchase both yet, and I’m waiting for points to transfer until I can purchase the return (Heathrow Rewards and Iberia Groupon).
The destination on the outbound flight is very popular, so I’d like to just purchase the outbound and add the inbound when the Avios hits my account sometime next week. I understand that this is possible. However, I would like to avoid the £ 35 pp. fee if possible. Is the fee charged when making an open jaw redemption online and then adding inbound flight via phone later? I seem to remember that no booking fee is charged for open jaw redemptions over the phone as it’s not possible online, and this is not possible online either, but there could be up to 5 days difference between booking outbound and adding inbound.
Anybody got an idea if they will waive the change fee in this case?
Mar 31, 2019, 6:07 am
#1365
Join Date: May 2018
Programs: SAS Gold, Hilton Diamond, OWS
Posts: 246
HKG in F on the A380 seems quite rare, so thought I’d better jump on it before it’s gone.