Dai Phillips

They are Lloyds Avios vouchers but are both in my name and I don't have anywhere near enough points to use on my own

Globaliser

Then what I'd suggest is going to one of these two threads: Lloyds Avios rewards card upgrade voucher: what can I do with it? and Lloyds Avios 'Upgrade Voucher to see whether there is existing help on this, or whether someone can think of something. I'm sorry that I know absolutely nothing about these Lloyds vouchers, including the question whether they could have been used to upgrade both of you when both vouchers are in your name.

The advice about a BAEC HHA still stands, though: you may well get some of the benefit you need from that. So do have a look at the pros and cons of forming one.

pauldb

How quickly do you need/plan to book your Thailand flights? I can't say this for sure but I suspect when the avios.com programme closes, it will become normal practice for your Lloyds redemption avios to be taken from you BA HHA, rather than your own personal balance, so your redemption will work if you have an BA HHA with your partner.

If you need to book sooner (before the forced switch takes effect) I would still try sorting your BA HHA account, then calling the 0344 49 333 49 number and (loosely) explain that all your avios are in your BA account: could they bring-forward the future-process for you and debit your BA (HHA) account rather than your avios.com account?

onlysuites

In regards to Multi Carrier rewards. I am looking at using the top bracket so 50k miles. If I book a reward for November travel in June. When do I have to finish the flights? Is it 1 year from the booking date or 1 year from the first flight?

pauldb

beritpratt

Have 140K Avios. Need advice re how to book biz class on AA from either BOS-LED or JFK-LED in July or August
or to book on AA or any airline and then upgrade with Avios from either BOS-LED or JFK-LED in July or August
Thanks!

BA66

Hello all,

I have 500,000 avios and a BA 2 for 1 voucher.

I'm looking to take my family of 5 (our baby boy will be 22 months) to California in August 19 for a few weeks. Am I likely to be able to find seats for us in Club World?

MPH1980

Probably. But probably not on the same plane.

BA guarantee release of 2 seats per plane in CW. More may be released, but it's less likely in busy times.

memesweeper

duo

Anyone know what are BAs business rules around releasing CW seats for redemption? Looking for a ticket to HK and there are tons of seats on both flights on the day I am after but no award availability

Globaliser

The only rule is that when bookings open for that flight (about 355 days before the flight), there are guaranteed to be two CW award seats available at that time. And that means "at that time"; sometimes these can be booked within a matter of seconds.

Other than that, it is purely at BA's commercial discretion. Remember that the airline's aim is not to fill the aircraft; any fool can do that. It is not even to make the maximum revenue possible on that specific flight. The aim is to make the operation make the maximum profit on a sustainable long-term basis, and that can mean deliberately flying with empty seats even if people would like to get those seats at a cut-price rate by upgrading using Avios. This is the reasoning underlying BA's frequent decision not to make award seats available.

You don't say when your flight is, but there are three things to bear in mind which are increasingly true the further away the flight is. First, you can have no idea how many reservations BA has taken for the CW cabin on your flight. Second, you can have no idea how the current booking level matches the predicted booking profile at this point in the year-long selling cycle. Third, you can have no idea whether BA expects to be able to sell every single seat in the cabin by the time of departure for a better fare than is represented by an upgrade using Avios. All of those things affect whether BA will release any more award seats.

Dubiox

Why is there a cash cost in addition to the miles? I flew LHR LYS and LYS LHR 2 weeks later and in addition to the 7500 or 9000 miles for business class I had to pay $63 LHR LYS and $45 coming back.

Also by the way, coming back the website said only 1 seat left yet there were only 3 people in all of business class. (And how can that be considered peak???)

KARFA

When you book just click on the information icon next to the taxes/fees.charges figure as it will give you a breakdown.

LHR-LYS in CE
United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge Departures (UB) $26.60
United Kingdom Air Passenger Duty APD (GB) $35.80

LYS-LHR in CE
France Passenger Service Charge International (QX) $14.30
France Civil Aviation Tax Domestic And International (FR) $15.50
France Air Passenger Solidarity Tax (IZ) $13.60

If you qualified for reward flight saver (RFS) your taxes/fees/charges would be capped at £17.50 for ET or £25 for CE per flight.

BA does not release all free seats for rewards, this is how European airlines generally work as opposed to US airlines where every seat in business is usually filled one way or another. BA can designate peak and off-peak dates as they wish.

contractor

Going to add this here as it's hopefully useful for someone.

In March I made a 2-4-1 booking. I spotted 2*F seats from LHR-MIA but there was no return. I quickly grabbed those using miles and the 2-4-1 voucher with the intention of adding a return leg later on.

A couple of days later I called up and added JFK-LHR in CW. I received the bill which included 2*£35 change fee (but not a 2*£15 service centre fee). I queried this as one can't make open jaw bookings online and was told a refund of $70 was forthcoming. Since then and before travelling I cancelled the whole lot and got the 241 voucher and cash refund quickly but was still out the original £70 fee.

Just queried it again today and basically because the JFK-LHR flights were available at the time I booked the outbound LHR-MIA, the change fee stands. I was never billed the 2*£15 fee as open jaws can't be made online.

If the JFK availability had been 0 at the time of the outbound booking I would not have been charged £70 and if I'd phoned up and booked LHR-MIA and JFK-LHR in one go I would not have been charged either a 2*£15 or 2*£35 fee.

So the short answer is to phone for open jaw bookings. Hopefully this will help others not fall into the same trap.

wiivile

What is the current situation with YQ on BA flights to/from Brasil? I remember that YQ used to be prohibited there; not sure if that is still the case but flights to/from Brazil still show significant YQ. If YQ is indeed prohibited it would be one of the better/best Avios redemptions. I seem to remember people getting YQ refunded after ticketing years ago?