Your guide to spending Avios | 2018 edition
Sep 25, 2018, 9:53 am
#451
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 73
Very basic question, are LATAM flights normally visible on the BA search engine or is there another way to see their availability and call in to book? Thanks
Sep 25, 2018, 2:33 pm
#452
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: The North
Posts: 1,848
This query will, no doubt, amuse those of you who are well-versed in the intricacies of BA Avios redemptions and Amex 2-4-1 vouchers but nonetheless…
I'm looking at going to the newly announced destination of Osaka next June. Availability is pretty good for 2 people, including from NCL and connecting in LHR. However, clicking through I see an estimated price of 150,000 Avios plus £1,327.42 of taxes, fees and charges for 2 of us. The latter seems extortionately high - I was anticipating in the region of a few hundred per person.
Am I just being terribly naive, or is this a glitch in the BA matrix?
I'm looking at going to the newly announced destination of Osaka next June. Availability is pretty good for 2 people, including from NCL and connecting in LHR. However, clicking through I see an estimated price of 150,000 Avios plus £1,327.42 of taxes, fees and charges for 2 of us. The latter seems extortionately high - I was anticipating in the region of a few hundred per person.
Am I just being terribly naive, or is this a glitch in the BA matrix?
Sep 25, 2018, 2:52 pm
#453
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,968
This query will, no doubt, amuse those of you who are well-versed in the intricacies of BA Avios redemptions and Amex 2-4-1 vouchers but nonetheless…
I'm looking at going to the newly announced destination of Osaka next June. Availability is pretty good for 2 people, including from NCL and connecting in LHR. However, clicking through I see an estimated price of 150,000 Avios plus £1,327.42 of taxes, fees and charges for 2 of us. The latter seems extortionately high - I was anticipating in the region of a few hundred per person.
Am I just being terribly naive, or is this a glitch in the BA matrix?
I'm looking at going to the newly announced destination of Osaka next June. Availability is pretty good for 2 people, including from NCL and connecting in LHR. However, clicking through I see an estimated price of 150,000 Avios plus £1,327.42 of taxes, fees and charges for 2 of us. The latter seems extortionately high - I was anticipating in the region of a few hundred per person.
Am I just being terribly naive, or is this a glitch in the BA matrix?
Sep 25, 2018, 3:00 pm
#454
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
I had no issues seeing 4 legs in Peru online, booked there and then. Could maybe try other OW programmes to see if seats show and if they do then call to book. If nothing shows they might be full? Normally release 7 seats per flight in Y though.
Sep 25, 2018, 3:11 pm
#455
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: The North
Posts: 1,848
just done a few dummy revenue bookings. TFC for a LHR-TYO rtn was £548 per person. For KIX it was £566. Adding in doemstic connectioms to NCL increases that to £614. I don’t think any of those seem unusual to me. However the figure you have is still significantly higher. Are you able to price the same flights as a revenue booking and compare the TFC?
I think it's a combination of two things: my assuming flights would be £300-400 per person, and the discrepancy between the redemption and the revenue TFC. The latter isn't very resolvable, but any suggestions as to what to do to re the latter?
EDIT: Ok, clicking through and it says £1,229.72 on the next screen, which is correct.
I'm a number of Avios short of this redemption, however, and I anticipated being able to pay for the extra as needed. However, I can instead see "You require an additional… xxxx Avios to make this booking. You may only purchase 100,000 Avios in one calendar year (Jan-Dec). Please try another search, or look for a non reward flight."
Am I missing something? I've not yet bought any Avios this year?
Last edited by squawk; Sep 25, 2018 at 3:19 pm
Sep 25, 2018, 3:20 pm
#456
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
On a cash ticket with <24h connections both ways, I get TFC £614.86 per person for NCL-LHR-KIX-LHR-NCL.
However, on a cash ticket with >24h connections both ways, the TFC figure is £681.34 - a little higher than what you've been quoted.
Another permutation is >24h connection outbound, but an inbound connection that's <24h. The TFC for that is £651.94.
So all of this is within the bounds of plausibility, but it's hard to know whether the figures can be reconciled exactly without knowing what you were trying to book. Also, it would help to know what the ba.com breakdown is.
The other thing that occurs to me is that the estimate at the bottom of the screen where you pick your flights is often inaccurate. You can only really rely on the figure on the next page, which gives you a firm quote.
Sep 25, 2018, 3:25 pm
#457
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: The North
Posts: 1,848
Sep 25, 2018, 3:31 pm
#458
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Thank you @Globaliser - this appears to be the issue.
And sorry also that I can't help with the buying Avios question.
Sep 26, 2018, 5:13 pm
#459
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: South East England
Programs: Status with BA Exec Club; KrisFlyer; Hilton Honors; IHG One; Marriott Bonvoy
Posts: 543
The problem is you can't buy Avios (at the checkout anyway) and use them with a 2-4-1. So the error message is the wrong error message, it should be showing you a message saying you can't buy Avios as you are using a 2-4-1. Sorry!
Sep 27, 2018, 1:15 am
#460
Join Date: Jun 2003
Programs: BA, IHG, 5C
Posts: 4,413
The downside is that the avios&money exchange rate is usually much better than the purchase rate (1.5p?).
Sep 28, 2018, 6:52 am
#461
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: The North
Posts: 1,848
I know what you mean and you solved that problem, but just to be clear what you can’t do is use an Avios&money mix (a bit of cash for less avios) on a 241 booking. They need to buy the avios shorthaul before hand, then check out with the full requirement. The downside is that the avios&money exchange rate is usually much better than the purchase rate (1.5p?).
Sep 28, 2018, 1:56 pm
#462
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Montreux CH
Programs: FB Platinum, M&M FTL, BA Blue
Posts: 11,623
About two weeks ago I booked an Avios redemption from DME to MXP on Air Italy in early January which turned out to be terrific value given the price of a paid one way ticket. I just got a message from BA saying that the flight is cancelled, which reminded me of what happened with Air Berlin last year about now. Having had a look at Air Italy, they just seem to have withdrawn the route from mid October, rather than going bankrupt like Air Berlin did. Maybe they are short of aircraft and need it elsewhere.
What is the procedure now? Call up and pray that I get as wonderful an agent as I finally got last year (on only the second try)? Maybe a rerouting via LHR? Last year I had booked AUH-TXL on Air Berlin, which subsequently went bankrupt. A kind agent rerouted me on to BA via LHR at no extra cost.
Clarification: I want to say straight up that this ticket is for a person who does not have a U.K. visa, but does have a Schengen visa with first point of entry being Italy. I suspect transiting LHR will not be a problem, but maybe HEL will entail entering Schengen before getting the connecting flight.
What is the procedure now? Call up and pray that I get as wonderful an agent as I finally got last year (on only the second try)? Maybe a rerouting via LHR? Last year I had booked AUH-TXL on Air Berlin, which subsequently went bankrupt. A kind agent rerouted me on to BA via LHR at no extra cost.
Clarification: I want to say straight up that this ticket is for a person who does not have a U.K. visa, but does have a Schengen visa with first point of entry being Italy. I suspect transiting LHR will not be a problem, but maybe HEL will entail entering Schengen before getting the connecting flight.
Sep 29, 2018, 3:58 am
#463
Suspended
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: LHR
Programs: BA Silver, Aegan Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 393
I just tried to book reward flight LHR-WAW, but now they want 32.30GBP taxes what a increase from 17.50 GBP, then they changed it?
Sep 29, 2018, 4:19 am
#464
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,968
there hasn’t been any increase in the RFS fee. Have you earned any avios within the last year? The capped RFS fee is only shown if you have, if not you pay the full amount of taxes/fees/charges.
Sep 29, 2018, 5:27 am
#465
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 2,447
If I book a BA Holiday then I know I can Avios upgrade into availability... is this still possible if I've only booked the holiday and paid the minimum deposit only? Just to verify.
EDIT:
PS, it's direct with BA, so no TA involved, but it's not out of the UK [the leg I wish to upgrade is out of LHR though], so would non-Sterling cause any issues in this instance? Thanks!
EDIT:
PS, it's direct with BA, so no TA involved, but it's not out of the UK [the leg I wish to upgrade is out of LHR though], so would non-Sterling cause any issues in this instance? Thanks!