Lloyd's upgrade voucher - how to book at midnight?
 

Hi all,

Trying to achieve the almost impossible by getting a return flight to South Africa in December 2019.

Now I know that without the voucher, I could "just" get the two flights at just after midnight T-355.

How does it work with the voucher:

• Does availability on avios.com update the same time as ba.com?
• Is there any way to use "half" the voucher first, and the other half a week later? If so, is there any Avios phone number open at midnight?

Don't want to waste yet another voucher on a European flight...

Thanks!

Looking through the forums a bit more, the only option seems to be to book both legs myself using full Avios, then cancelling both bookings, moving the Avios and rebook through Avios.com... Chances of success seem quite slim for this one then!

Is this for the Christmas period? If earlier in December, I would say that in my experience availability lasts longer than you might expect so you don't necessarily need to jump on it at midnight.

For Christmas it's probably more difficult - might be worth giving the cancel and rebook option a go.

Also remember that DUR is an option now.

Although I've successfully booked BA flights on Avios.com with upgrade vouchers recently, the opening page of the site now warns that closure of that part is imminent so I wouldn't rely on being able to do it online by T-355 for a December flight. Using the voucher on the Avios.com site is automated, the choice is either a return flight for one pax or one-way for two. How it will work when the booking moves to being done on the phone with BA (as I understand it) is anyone's guess, but I would still assume you have to use it all at once.

It would be late November or early December, so I might be lucky - but scanning the recent months there seems to be very little available for Aug/Sep/Oct... We'll see!

Avios.com is likely to be closed in the next few weeks. The Avios App no longer works as of today.

I have had a recent similar experience with a flight to Osaka for the Rugby World Cup, so will share what I have learned.

The Avios site will not let you book just one, one-way flight - only a return, or two one-ways.

As such I chose to nail my flight with full Avios on BA.com a few seconds after midnight GMT with the hope that the second Business seat released at the same time would still be available when the Avios phone lines opened the following morning.

Thankfully the second seat was still available the following morning, although strictly speaking the criteria above should still be met. However the helpful lady on the phone said that because the return leg wasn't yet available she would put a note on the booking system that it could be added at a later date, when seats are released.

I subsequently cancelled my original booking on BA.com which incurred a £35 cancellation fee. However all the Avios were immediately re-credited as was the tax, less £35.

It remains to be seen whether there will a charge for amending the Lloyds upgrade booking by adding the return.

One question I have myself is whether the return leg has to be added before the expiry date of the voucher now that the voucher has technically been used, or whether it can be added much later. Any info. on this welcome.

There should be no cancellation fee if you cancelled within 24h of booking.

Don't know, but did the lady specifically confirm that the voucher discount would be applied to the return leg when you added it? i.e. not just that you could add it without a change fee?

It was more than 24hrs after the original booking. I sat on the original one for a day or so in case any mates wanted to do a name change.

I think there may be a change fee, but its a small price to pay for the benefit of saving a further 36000 Avios.

You misunderstood my question, which was did she specifically confirm that the voucher discount would be applied to the return leg if added later?

In other words, did she confirm you would save that further 36000 avios?

Not explicitly, no - but I didn't specifically ask the question. However the implication was that the "other half" of the voucher could be used when the seats became available because it could not be used now due to the T-355 situation.

I decided it's not worth the risk/hassle and have now booked a Cyprus weekend break using the voucher. Paid just under 20,000 Avios plus just under £50 for what is currently £1,000 face value... Feels a bit of a waste still, but at least it's better than using it for my usual hop to Germany!

That's the sort of thing I've done with upgrade vouchers - RFS to further destinations (Corfu, Albania, Kalamata) which have high CE fares; 17,000 Avios + £50 seems a very worthwhile saving. For comparison, I've never done Reward flights for long haul ex UK as the 'taxes' are so high, but I did do Boston ex Dublin recently. And as an Aerclub member my Avios.com account remains open and active, so Lloyds Avios get credited there and can be moved to BA or IB if/when I need to.