Just to prove it works (for those who doubt it) and thank you!
Jul 26, 2017, 6:34 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2008
Programs: Various memberships
Posts: 532
Just to prove it works (for those who doubt it) and thank you!
Just managed to book 2 Avios tickets in Club World to Australia.
Or as they are otherwise known - Hen's Teeth!
Followed the advice here and called New York at 00:00 GMT to secure the seats.
All I have to do now is to remember to book the return in a few weeks!
I mainly lurk rather than post so thanks for the advice on getting these.
TE
Or as they are otherwise known - Hen's Teeth!
Followed the advice here and called New York at 00:00 GMT to secure the seats.
All I have to do now is to remember to book the return in a few weeks!
I mainly lurk rather than post so thanks for the advice on getting these.
TE
Jul 26, 2017, 10:13 pm
#2
formerly rxfleming
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: AUH, DXB (and GLA)
Programs: BA GGL, HHonors Diamond, Marriott Plat Elite
Posts: 2,455
Just managed to book 2 Avios tickets in Club World to Australia.
Or as they are otherwise known - Hen's Teeth!
Followed the advice here and called New York at 00:00 GMT to secure the seats.
All I have to do now is to remember to book the return in a few weeks!
I mainly lurk rather than post so thanks for the advice on getting these.
TE
Or as they are otherwise known - Hen's Teeth!
Followed the advice here and called New York at 00:00 GMT to secure the seats.
All I have to do now is to remember to book the return in a few weeks!
I mainly lurk rather than post so thanks for the advice on getting these.
TE
I booked them 2 years ago, then released them for F to SIN instead. So, I had Hen's teeth then gave them away!
Jul 27, 2017, 12:58 am
#4
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: ±38,000 feet
Programs: LH HON, BA GGL, AF Plat, EK Plat
Posts: 6,428
I am very happy for you! I have recently done LHR-SYD-LHR (1 day in SYD, on Garuda, in J), and it's not something I want to do often, unless you perfect the sleeping pattern for that route.
Jul 27, 2017, 1:20 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,531
I don't think proof was really needed? BA guarantees 2 CW award seats and 4 WT award seats on every single long haul flight. I think they are sticking to their word.
Jul 27, 2017, 2:30 am
#6
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
Only the inbound needs to be done on the phone as you are adding it to your existing one-way booking.
Jul 27, 2017, 2:35 am
#8
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Vancouver, CA
Programs: AC 35K
Posts: 670
Jul 27, 2017, 2:37 am
#9
Join Date: Dec 2016
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 40
Well done, but you didn't need to call NYC for the outbound: a one-way can be booked on line and to be honest I think think this is a safer bet (no risk of waiting on hold or a slow agent).
Only the inbound needs to be done on the phone as you are adding it to your existing one-way booking.
Only the inbound needs to be done on the phone as you are adding it to your existing one-way booking.
Jul 27, 2017, 2:40 am
#10
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
Jul 27, 2017, 2:42 am
#11
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
The issue that I have had with booking CPT online for Christmas hols is that refresh browser at 00:00, availability there, booking in less than 15s (I was well rehearsed trying multiple nights) to find availability gone - it would go through to payment and then there would be an error message. I am guessing they can be reserved quicker over the phone.
Jul 27, 2017, 2:48 am
#12
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: London, Essex, Newcastle, Malta
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 181
The issue that I have had with booking CPT online for Christmas hols is that refresh browser at 00:00, availability there, booking in less than 15s (I was well rehearsed trying multiple nights) to find availability gone - it would go through to payment and then there would be an error message. I am guessing they can be reserved quicker over the phone.
Jul 27, 2017, 3:57 am
#13
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 51
So what exactly did you do? Presumably you must have called New York a bit before 0000Z and gave them the details so things were ready to go at 0000Z when the availability popped up? How soon before did you ring them and what did you say to them? Surely calling at 0000Z would run the same risk as booking online in that by the time the call was answered and details provided someone else would have snapped them up?
The inbound was harder on the phone, I did this by calling Japan but they only opened at 0000GMT so I could not complete the security checks etc before the seats became available, eventually I managed to get seats on the third day of trying and even then I still missed the direct seats and ended up with SYD->SIN->LHR, I was happy with that however as there were 2 F seats also available on the SIN->LHR leg so I got first in the A380 coming back.
Jul 28, 2017, 1:59 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2008
Programs: Various memberships
Posts: 532
To answer a couple of questions:
I was using a 2-4-1 voucher and plan to add the return flights when they become available.
The reason I called New York at 00:00 GMT was that I was advised to by someone from the BA call centre in the UK. In essence as madmax_uk points out the agent advised me the call centre can "grab" the tickets at the start of the process so it is quicker than booking it online when the request for the seats only goes in at the payment stage.
I have a very limited window during which I can travel so want to maximise the time in Aus due to the flying time and jet lag.
I was using a 2-4-1 voucher and plan to add the return flights when they become available.
The reason I called New York at 00:00 GMT was that I was advised to by someone from the BA call centre in the UK. In essence as madmax_uk points out the agent advised me the call centre can "grab" the tickets at the start of the process so it is quicker than booking it online when the request for the seats only goes in at the payment stage.
I have a very limited window during which I can travel so want to maximise the time in Aus due to the flying time and jet lag.
Jul 28, 2017, 2:04 am
#15
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Ipswich
Posts: 7,543
When I called the US line to secure return flights on a 241, I did a trial run and was very glad I did. It took several minutes longer to navigate through to get to speak to a human than I'd imagined. If I'd waited until 00:58 to call I'd probably have missed out.
I can't remember the exact process, but it's worth a bit of a practice if you're determined to snag them.
As it was, the very nice chappy told me that the seats on the other flight also got snapped up while we were speaking.
I can't remember the exact process, but it's worth a bit of a practice if you're determined to snag them.
As it was, the very nice chappy told me that the seats on the other flight also got snapped up while we were speaking.