Mr.JimmyFlyer

Hi there FT experts!

I've checked some other threads and couldn't find a decent answer for my question:

I have an upgrade voucher from my Lloyds credit card, I am planning on travelling solo to the US before my tier point collection year ends which is July, so would like to upgrade both ways. As has been mentioned, the LHR taxes are steep, so is it possible to depart from DUB/AMS/BRU/ARN etc and pay less taxes and fees?

If so, what is the best airport for this?

I am flexible with timings and also with the destination in the US, but would prefer west coast. I'm keen to use the voucher asap as I don't need any more tier points this year due to already being GCH, therefore I want to make all travel after July count towards maintaining BAEC Gold.

Thanks in advance!

Swibbz

I believe the T&Cs state that travel needs to originate and terminate in the UK

pauldb

You aren't able to fly on any lower-surcharge partners, and I'm not aware of any EU starting points that will make BA's own surcharges lower.

If you want to avoid UK APD you can certainly do that by flying from INV or might also get away with JER.

mzb00

That's not true. Unlike the Amex 2-4-1 voucher, the Lloyds voucher can be used for travel originating outside the UK. I used it on 2 one-ways from Sao Paulo to London.

Cymro

Even if it did need to terminate in the UK, there's no APD ex-INV.

LondonAndy

The Terms don't seem to indicate that.

Mr.JimmyFlyer

The ex-INV looks a little tricky based on the flight / connection times, as there is only one BA flight each way and the earliest i could get there would only leave a one hour connection which is tight with checked luggage, that's getting the easy jet flight up from LTN.

Anyone have any experience of this? Or the JER route? Is it easy to book over the phone with the people at 'Avios' ?

MrCheapSeats

I've used mine for flights originating in SIN.

Calum

ex-inv is actually very easy, even with checked bags (assuming your starting at LHR). If your heading to the east coast, you should be fine to use INV. As far as bags go, bag drop opens at 0500 so there is no reason why you can't check your bag to the US flight before you take the LHR-INV-LHR flights.

If you know where your actually going in the US, then we can work out if INV would work or not.

tangey

Another exEU question relating to the Lloyds voucher.

I want to go say DUB-LHR-LAX in biz. That would mean booking WTP and then getting the voucher applied, assuming biz is available on award.

However, how does that work in practice, as WTP doesn't exist on the DUB-LHR leg ? Do you just book the award with economy on the domestic, and once the voucher is applied, both sectors get upgraded to biz ?

BA6501

I believe you pay Y Avios for DUB-LHR-DUB and W Avios for LHR-LAX-LHR. Not sure if you only get two segments upgraded or the entire ticket.

juakkers

I just used a Lloyds voucher for LBA-AMM. The LHR-AMM sector doesn't have premium economy. There was some discussion by the agent and her supervisor and they ended up charging me the avios that premium economy would have cost had it been on this route. (For info this is also how avios.com treats a dummy booking). The LBA-LHR is effectively a 'free' domestic connection as far as the avios went for this booking so I can't answer for that segment.

However, I subsequently received an email saying that this was wrong and I should only have been charged the Y avios amount. Two weeks later I am still waiting for the refund though so I wouldn't count on this actually being true!

tangey

I hadn't considered that a single dub-Lhr-lax might use up the entire voucher. Clearly that would be a very poor use if it turns out to be the case.

If that turned out to be true, I wonder is it possible to use it for say 2x lax-Lhr, and then add a connection onto that for Lhr-dub keeping the 1 PNR and thus protecting the connection.

the_real_a

I have recently flown KUL to LBA and LBA to SIN upgrading via the voucher.

1) the domestic connection in Y costs ZERO avios (although you pay £50 in extra fees)
2) destinations originating outside the UK but terminating IN the uk are perfectly OK
3) No tier points are awarded since this is redemption (not clear if OP was expecting this)

I understand the above observations to be inside the T&C`s... However, If you book via the telephone, the agent applies the voucher as a manual deduction of points to the invoice - hence what is possible is not coded in the software logic, its up to your persuasion. I will say no more.

I have now spent my 3rd upgrade voucher - astonishing value if used correctly.

BA6501

I'm pretty sure you can choose which segments you want to apply the voucher to.