martmonk

thanks for the quick responses, and the validation I was looking for!

Not so worried about the rtn at the moment. I can see some availability, mainly from SJC and we're pretty flexible on cabin, dates and location for the journey home. You just know though that as soon as we have enough avios, all that availability will have disappeared !!

KARFA

Ah ok. Thanks, and sorry I misunderstood. I am still not quite sure I see the logic for doing it that way though,

Steve in Olympia

It was two years ago, so my memory is faded, but I simply explained to the agent that I was impatient to get the return seats when availability popped up, so I grabbed the seats on-line. The next morning, I called the service center and asked if the two bookings could be "merged." The agent and I agreed that this was not the usual course of business.

If my request was denied, I was perfectly willing to pay full avios for both legs.

YorkieFlyer

It's my understanding that a 2 4 1 cannot be applied to separate single bookings and also that there is no such thing as merging. I would have thought the second booking was cancelled within the 24 hour cooling off period, applicable to avios as well as cash bookings, the reward seats then becoming available again. I suppose it reasonable to expect that the 2 CW seats released at 355 days would bounce right back?

Steve in Olympia

No, it is not reasonable to expect cancelled avios bookings to bounce right back to availability. My personal experience is that more often than not the seats do not return to availability.

And while you understand that there is no such thing as merging, actual experience is to the contrary. With a very polite customer and a cooperative service agent, there are opportunities. It never hurts to ask. When you assume that it can't be done, it won't.

thephirm

Two days ago I called to book the inbound sector of a 241 having previously booking the outbound sector online. During this process the agent informed me that there would be a change fee to modify the booking. I pushed back against this, and after going away to check the agent told me that to avoid the change fee I needed to have booked the outbound sector over the phone rather than online.

Has anyone else run into this?

wheatbeer

Strange, I had no issues a few weeks ago and the agent themselves said there was no fee before I even asked.

Did you book your inbound at T-355 when outbound wasn't available?

Also which call centre was it?

thephirm

I called the US line and was put through to India. Each sector was booked as it became available at T-355, so the return leg was not available when I booked online.

Samaras

I am currently in the process of booking my first 2-4-1.

I managed last night to secure my J GLA-LHR-ORD flights this morning.

For the return leg, I am looking to do this as an Open Jaw from LAX. Looking at the wiki etc my interpretation is this should be ok due to the mileage differences, is this correct?

Also what's the best approach for booking the return. My plan was to secure the LAX - LHR flight atT-355 online and then call up the following day to add the LHR-GLA flights, as I presume they won't be available until 24 hours later.

Is this the best approach?

KARFA

For an open jaw with an amex voucher the restriction is that the jaw cannot be longer than any of the flights, so for example for LHR-XXX/YYY-LHR the distance for XXX to YYY must be shorter than each of LHR-XXX and YYY-LHR.

LHR-ORD/LAX-LHR is fine.

Samaras

Thanks KARFA

pauldb

You won't be able to add the return leg, under the 241, online. You can only do this by calling BAEC and to do so at 1am BST you would have to call USA/Japan/HK as explained in the wiki.

If you have plenty on avios, the posts on this last page suggest some success in booking the return legs as conventional one ways (requiring the avios for 2 travellers) and having this merged into the 241 the next morning by phone for a 50% refund. But this is not a well-trodden path or guaranteed result - I would phone at 1am if you can.

As for adding GLA the next day, I believe that's right.

Samaras

Thanks Pauldb, I have enough Avois to take that approach but would rather be safe than sorry. I will call BACE when the LAX leg becomes available.

Flying Star

Hi all

As many have said, amazing amount of information, so thank you! I do wonder if someone maybe able to help. I live in Gibraltar, and getting very close to earning my voucher. According to the Wiki, it says Valid towards return flights only, with the journey originating from and returning to your country of membership.

My address with Amex is in Gibraltar (applied from here), does this mean we could book GIB - LHR - XXX? Or would we have to originate from the UK?

Thank you

KeithS

I have scanned this thread but can't see an answer to what I think may be an unusual situation.

I have 2 one-ways (P/E) from IAH to LHR. Our original journey outbound was Virgin U/C to ATL then a hop over from ATL to AUS on DL.

2 CW's have appeared so am upgrading the flights back.

I will be getting a new 241 in the next week or so (?) so therefore want to add an outbound (LON - IAH) and therefore cancel the Virgin / Delta flights.

Can I book, what is effectively a new outbound, and then add the 241 to it and the existing returns? I am aware that a 241 must originate from the UK so cannot just apply it to the IAH-LHR leg.

I know most people have the opposite issue i.e. book the outbound as soon as it appears then have to wait for the return flight to appear - they then phone up BA and book the return and get it linked.

Many thanks in advance