abigail1966

Brilliant thanks

Physci

Great resource but surely it needs to address the issue covered elsewhere of "if BA overbook my flight, will my 2-4-1 booking be targeted for a downgrade in preference to cash bookings"?

PS - not a serious suggestion.

madfish

Using a 241 this summer on MAN/LHR/DUB in CE with 2 adults, 1 child an an infant. Obviously paying for 2, getting 1 free (apart from RFS fees) plus 10% avios and fees for the infant. Booked it online without problem.

bluemoon68

Excellent thread.

Whilst not wishing to underplay the remote possibility of a downgrade, I have been upgraded (with companion) whilst using a 2-4-1 voucher on a high demand long haul tourist route. So anything is possible.

obduro

+1

I've seen four or five semi-verified reports of downgrades using 2-4-1s in the past year. In that time countless passengers have had no issues flying with them with no downgrade. It's similar to the threads that pop up where people are worried about downgrades on paid tickets - this just seems to be the flavour of the month and the 2-4-1 is still a very valuable thing to make use of.

ScubaRoo

I agree it's relatively rare, but since the introduction of FLY in the autumn, there's been a higher incidence of the least costly tickets being targeted....

obduro

Absolutely, and I'd expect the same with paid fare tickets (i.e. targeting lowest fare bucket first). What I meant was it's not a reason to not bother with the voucher as someone suggested upthread.

pauldb

Perhaps there could be some more detail on where to call if you want to add a return at -355days (Japan/HK/USA are the favourites I believe depending on GMT/BST) as doing this is a very common qustion. I also believe the fee-waive policy is a little misstated: they will normally waive the fee if you normally can do something on ba.com but it fails in your case; in this situation it appears to be a specific policy not to apply the fee.

This is pedantic but w.r.t. open jaws, should the open-leg not be shorter than "both flights" (or the shortest flightest) rather than "either flight". MAD-SYD is shorter than either LON-MAD or SYD-LON but this wouldn't be allowed.

obduro

Have added:

Q: As redemption seats are released at midnight, what is the best way to secure them? There is no guarantee they will be available when the BA office opens in the morning!
A common practice on the forum is to use this tool and call a BA office that is open at midnight. You will then be able to make the booking without waiting for your local office to open. Depending on timezone, Japan, Hong Kong and even the USA are frequently contacted for this purpose.

I wrote it this way because this as you say is the usual policy but it is not the policy - they won't proactively waive the fee for you unless you ask them to, and similarly they can say no as it's not the published policy.

I've updated to say:

Q: Can I book an open-jaw trip using the voucher?
A: You can, but you will need to call BA. For the trip to be valid, the distance between your arriving and departing airport must be shorter than either of the flights to or from the airport you initiate your journey from and return to.

Could you suggest some alternative wording if that isn't quite clear? The MAD example isn't great as BA don't fly a MAD-SYD route and it could lead to more questions than answers.

louie-m

I was under the impression that it IS policy to waive the fee if the return was beyond the booking window when you booked the outbound. So if you booked the outbound at T-355 and later added the return it would be waived, but if you booked the outbound at say T-50 and then booked the return for T-60 a few days later then the fee would not be waived.

rtid

i have redeemed a 2-4-1 for a flight next year.

if i now cancel my BAPP card, but for whatever reason also need to cancel the redemption flight at some point, does anyone know if the voucher will be returned to me to use again?

mmxbreaks

I downgraded from the Premium Plus (black) to the normal BA AMEX (blue)...

If I upgrade again in a couple of months when I'm due a big spend, will my current spend count towards the £10k target, not the £20k target?

Or does the upgrade reset the calendar as if starting again?

windowontheAside

Exactly this. It is policy - I've been told this several times by contact centre staff - I've never had to ask for the fee to be waived, and I even have it confirmed in writing that it is policy.

obduro

It doesn't reset the calendar year but your first problem is you can only earn one voucher per year - you'll have to confirm your card anniversary year has passed before upgrading again.

From other threads I read, it counts towards the £10k spend, so in a more straightforward situation if you applied for Blue, spent £7k towards the £20k target and then upgraded to the Black card, you would then have £7k spend against the new £10k target.

obduro

Most people have reported that the voucher is returned in this situation - the voucher is applied to your BAEC account once the spend has been reached, so cancelling your Amex should have no impact. You do still have to pay the fees for the redemption on an Amex though!