AleTrail

"Can someone clarify the rule for open jaws for me, as I'm finding the phrasing in the FAQs slightly ambiguous. Can the 'gap' be longer than one of the flights, as long as it's shorter than the other, or does it need to be shorter than both flights?"
Wondering if there's some lee-way on this?
I managed to book LHR-NRT and LAX-LHR on a 2-4-1, the open jaw between NRT and LAX is very slightly longer than the return leg LAX-LHR

Mordac

It's amazing you mention that, as that was exactly the route I wanted to book too (except the other way around)! I figured LHR-SEA or YVR and do the dogleg to LAX either on a cheap cash booking...

Breadstick77

I just wanted to share my experience from last 4 days. I booked a LHR-JFK CW award flight on Friday when they became available, using the 241 voucher (by calling Gold customer service number). Very straightforward. Last night I booked the return JFK-LHR online about 20 mins after they became available (as a separate one way CW award booking for two, which was 100k avios). I then rang up Gold customer service to combine the return leg into the original 241 outbound ticket. The customer service agent (UK team) was adamant this could not be done. She also wasn't very interested about me sharing the wisdom of Flyer Talk forum and stuck to her guns. :-) However, as there was still availability in CW for the same flight, she was able to cancel my booking for the inbound booking and rebooked the same seats onto the outbound ticket. Ended up being a refund (no charges as within 24h period) for my online booked return leg (so refund 100k avios and c. £800 taxes) and charged 50k avios and c. £100 additional taxes when it was rebooked. So all sorted over the phone in about 10-15 minutes in the end and now all correct and on a single ticket for both outbound and inbound.

RG1X

Sounds like some unnecessary stress there.

KARFA

Glad you got it sorted in the end. Two points though:

1. I very much doubt invoking FT on the phone with an airline will get you any further. The agent was wrong as you noted, but it is a relatively new way to do 2-4-1 bookings - I am not saying that as an excuse, just merely as a reason the agent wasn't aware, although they should have been of course.

2. I would very strongly advise anyone not to use that method of booking two separate one ways when going to the US. I know I keep repeating this and I am sure most regular readers will be bored of me saying this. The main downside of doing it by doing two separate bookings and having the 2-4-1 applied across both is that taxes/charges/fees are not recalculated when the voucher is applied across to the second booking. Sometimes this will work out well for you (bookings exHKG for example), but for exUS or exCA bookings it is not recommended at all.

exUS/CA TFC is much higher and doing it this way will lead you to pay probably several hundred pounds more overall than you need to. If doing exUS/CA bookings the old method of calling and adding in the inbound to the existing booking is much better since TFC is recalculated and repriced as a return. For example:

I hand't realised when this new two bookings method was added to the wiki back in February that this important caveat was not included, but in any case I will add it now.

I apologise for banging on about this, I don't apologise for trying to save you money. I am sure the money is better in your pocket than in BA's

Jmaw

Has anyone had any more recent experiences of booking a return for a 241 and then asking customer services to combine and any increased awareness of this as a viable option?

Looking for returns from Japan next year and do need a specific date. Have lost silver status recently so doing online at 1am would be easier than getting hold of customer services. Have enough avios to cover the flights and then combine but stories above are concerning. And is it silly cost wise as KARFA explains above?

Many thanks,
Jess

Globaliser

There's no single answer to this. It depends on your route. You have to look at the TFC for booking a round-trip ticket from London to your destination, and compare that to the TFC for booking two one-way tickets for the outbound and inbound halves. For some countries, the latter route is more expensive than the former; for other countries, the former route is more expensive than the latter.

To take TFC for random dates in June 2019:-

LHR-HND-LHR £563.91
LHR-HND £381.41 and HND-LHR £112.00 = total £493.41

LHR-JFK-LHR £554.11
LHR-JFK £388.01 and JFK-LHR £405.00 = total £793.01

Jmaw

Thanks Globaliser, it's another puzzle to unravel!

I'll look forward to seeing if anyone else on this thread has success on the book online option for a return with a 241 voucher as it would be much easier than calling CS!

Jess

shadowline

As a datapoint, made a change to an outbound this morning on the Blue phone line. Still haven't booked return. Agent talked me through the method of booking the return as a single online at 1am, then calling when the UK office opened at 6am to apply the voucher across both bookings.

I already knew this was an option but happily let her spell it out for me in black and white.

vintagepilot

Yes, I did that recently. The agent on the phone next morning knew all about adding the return leg to the previously booked outbound. She knew all about avios refunds and the tax implications. She offered various risky options of cancelling and rebooking as a return to try to get the taxes down but, with no guarantee that the seats would go back into the available bucket, I left it as it was. I guess it just depends who you get on the phone.

It was a route which sells out pretty quickly, and the seats were there online at 01:00 (while I was waiting to be put through on the USA phone number) so I grabbed them, and took the additional taxes on the chin in order to secure the return flight we wanted. But then I've also made the mistake the other way and booked a return to LUX (not 241) where 2 singles would have been cheaper - Ho, hum

cupsandsaucers

Could I have some advice from people who have booked a 2 for 1 and also more tickets besides? I am getting close to getting my 2for1 voucher for the first time. But the Mrs and I have a 3 year old and new baby. How can I book all that mess together? Thanks.

pauldb

You can book it all together: 2 adults, 1 child, 1 infant and select the voucher for it to charge you 2.1x the avios.

If you prefer for any reason, you can make the voucher booking for yourself+child and then book Mrs+infant separately. But the infant will get their whole booking party free seating, so booking together helps if no status.

Steve in Olympia

A1pax

I have just booked 241 as follows: LHR-SCL and GIG-LHR (booked LHR-SCL when seats became available, then two weeks later added GIG-LHR to the same booking - no problem, no additional fee). The avios taken for each flight was correct (although the agent for the inbound flight did not quote the avios correctly at first, I queried and he apologised). The taxes appeared to be very odd, so if someone could please clarify them whether I have been charged correctly?
Taxes for LHR-SCL flight was £391.41pp (total charged £782.82). When I looked up taxes were: one-way LHR-SCL £375.41pp and SCL-LHR £208.68pp (or £584.09 return).
Taxes for GIG-LHR flight was £195.75pp (total charged £391.50). When I looked up taxes were: one-way LHR-GIG £375.41pp and GIG-LHR £20.59pp (or £396.00 return).
I tried to asked the agent about these discrepancies, but he said they were what he saw and he charged. What should be the correct taxes for my open jaw flights shown above? If I have been charged incorrectly, would I be able to call BA to ask for adjustment / refund? My calculations (if correct) show I should be charged LHR-SCL £375.41pp + GIG-LHR £20.59pp = total £396pp or £791 for 2pax (compared to BA charge £1,074.32!)
Thanks in advance for your help.

KARFA

Based on dummy revenue bookings on ba.com (and cross checked with itamatirx) if you initially booked LHR-SCL one way for 2 in J/F I would expect you to have paid TFC of: £391.41 x 2 = £782.82

If you called to add in the return flights to the original booking (i.e. you didn't book the inbound flights yourself on ba.com and get the 2-4-1 applied across both bookings) I would expect the TFC for 2 people for LHR-SCL/GIG-LHR to be: £587.11 x 2 = £1,174.22

So when you called to add the GIG-LHR flights you should have paid the additional avios for the inbound and the extra cash which was the difference between the total TFC for LHR-SCL/GIG-LHR subtracting what you already paid for LHR-SCL,, so £1,174.22 - £782.82 = £391.40

I think you are falling in to the trap of looking at one way GIG-LHR and thinking TFC is just TFC for outbound + TFC for inbound. It isn't like that/