shadowline

Thank you! will try online while on the phone

Concerto

Now I can't even spend Avios, because I keep getting an ERROR saying "please check that the last name of the 1st Adult is correct". No matter what name I input, my own, variations of the person I want to make the ticket for, I can't get past that stage. Am I the only one having this issue at the moment? When are they going to sort their IT out finally?

Lefly

I was exploring the possibility to book an Air Italy flight with Avios on BA.com, but I am surprised for how expensive the taxes part seems to be.

BA.com MXP-SUF rt Y 9000 Avios + 133 eur taxes/fees
ITA Matrix (same flights) Base Fare + 83.3 eur taxes/fees
Air Italy (same flights) Base Fare + 57.3 eur taxes/fees

I suppose BA has its own fees added on...?

KARFA

Lefly

KARFA

Thanks. I would have expected it to be roughly the same, but with Air Italy I guess not,

Lefly

Thanks to you.
For these flights It becomes more than useless to book with avios, as the highest Y fare on Air Italy website - so with basically the same flexibility of an avios booking - comes just at 90 eur pp.
As happens for Long Hauls, when selecting J avios is still cheaper than paying for it, but being just a short haul flight I don't think it's worth it anyway.
Oh well

Oxymore

Hi everyone,
I booked an Iberia award for next year using BA avios (TATL J), and I received an email saying that my flight was changed by a full day (apparently, MAD-BOS isn't operating anymore on the day I booked it). I am obviously going to call BA, but I'd like to get a good sense of their guidelines in case of a schedule change of that magnitude. Would they reroute me via LHR on the original day? Would they try to ask for payment of additional surcharges? And/or can I change my origin within the region? Thanks for your help!

willismac

Hi All,

I have lurked here for a while and made a post every now and then. For the first time I need some advice. I have around 240,000 avios and want to use some of them next year. If people could critique what my plans are below and let me know if there is anything they would do differently. Essentially I want to go to NYC, Belize, Santiago, Lima and Rio.

I have spent a lot of time looking at availability and think I have my plans nailed down. All flights will be economy except for the return flight to Lon.

I will take a positioning flight to Dublin then fly:

DUB - NYC (stay for 5 days) 13,000 points plus £63 in taxes
NYC - MIA (7500 points + £4) connection to
MIA - BZE (stay 8 nights) (7500 + £4) - BZE - MIA (15,000 + £50)
connection to MIA - SCL (stay 3 nights) (25,000 + £4
SCL - LIM (non reward flight) (stay 3 nights)
LIM - Rio (12500 + £23) stay 4 nights

Then was thinking of fling to Sao Paulo for a first class flight back to London or flying from Rio to LON in business. Which should I do?

Quick question, when I tried to book a first class flight from Sao Paulo it said it should be 102,000 + about £20 in taxes but when you go to book through it jumps to £200 is this correct or do I need to call BA.

flashware

Generally speaking flying J on IB is better value for points (and lower taxes), you can fly them direct to MAD on your route home then fly from MAD back to LON. Of course flying out of Brazil is slightly different due to the local laws and taxes should be low on BA, often they'll charge you anyway and you then need to chase them down for a refund.

BA6501

As your schedule has changed more than 2 hours, you are entitled to a reroute via a Joint Business route (i.e. via LHR, but also via JFK/MIA/CLT/PHL if you prefer) and no Avios availability is required. They won't charge you any additional Avios or tax. You can go +/- 2 days. You can also get a full refund.

willismac

Looking at this it seems that it is more avios with IB as there is a stop.

pauldb

Concerto

I just booked an Air Italy reward ticket using Avios this very day. It was an excellent deal, 10,000 Avios plus GBP61.30 taxes for Moscow (DME) to Milan (MXP) one way at a very busy time of the year. Absolutely nothing with BA via London. Cost for a paid ticket would be on the same date at the same time of booking RUB 23,631.83 (EUR 296.86).

Anybody got any idea what Air Italy (formerly Meridiana) is like on a 3h40 long flight? Is it normal catering or BoB? Maybe I should have booked Business (20,000 Avios), which was selling for around RUB 41,000 today.

By the way, I can't find any other European destinations for Air Italy, except for some potentially interesting domestic destinations in Italy (e.g. PMO, SUF).

pauldb

I think I recall seeing that it was just a very insubstantial snack. If you can't confirm otherwise and want a meal onboad, BYO!

Their main base is Olbia - lots of shorthaul destinations from there including, I think, their only UK route to LGW. I did optimistically think I might stitch their avios availability there with BA's until I saw the charges referred to above.