demolineux

Hello flyers,

I wonder if someone could advise a newbie. I haven't really flown much outside of Europe, but over the last year I've gathered 23000 Avios through one business class trip, and some online shopping. Hopefully I'll pick up a few more thousand Avios over the coming months. I was wondering if it'd be best for me to spend these Avios or to keep collecting? I understand this forum isn't really for me as I don't fly much, but was just wondering what an expert would do. Next year, I need to fly to New York at Easter, and over the summer will either take a trip to LA or to New Zealand.

I quite like weekend trips to Europe too. So is it best I just spend the Avios on cheap European tickets? Or shall I save up for an upgrade from WT+ to CW for somewhere?

Carter633

Hi FTers

​​​​​​I've been reading the feeds for some time now quietly in the background, trying to find what I'm looking for and gaining knowledge etc etc so thanks... I've decided to sign up to the forums myself.
​​​​​​I have spent the last 7 mnths checking the BA website daily, sometimes twice a day to see if our upcoming flights are upgradable with Avios using their availability checker within the website. UK POS of course.

​​​​​​We are travelling WT+ on both sectors from LGW to MRU and I'm really keen to upgrade with points outbound. Am I missing something here? There's no availability showing at all on either the outbound or inbound when I do a reward flight search for 2 CW seats.

I've set up an alert on the BA Redemption Finder which hasn't emailed me once to tell me anything either... Is it because they're densifying the fleet with the aircraft that typically operate the Mauritius route due to be completed at end of August? Surely that shouldn't have an impact as they could still sell 2 avios redemption upgrade seats?
On one of the other threads I asked for loads and the outbound still shows 9+ adding to my confusion. Any ideas or tips please? Thanks in advance!

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PETER01

@Carter633

From personal experience and having been there 4 times the MRU route isn't the easiest to get award availability into.

There's no guarantee of anything becoming available, in fact I doubt anything will, but keep checking as your flight is still a long way off re loads for sale etc. BA won't release Avios seats if they can sell them for cash and there are some very high end hotels in Mauritius with eye watering daily rates so they can easily sell late revenue seats to wealthy folks.

BA will not always open up availability even if there are empty seats in CW, for other routes too, for revenue protection but if things are looking full down the back in economy and Traveller Plus they may oversell a few seats as well as offering a possible airport upgrade then roll some folks forward into CW but it's a very popular route.

The 4 trips I have done have always been rammed with no empty seats (November, December and March x 2) and I'm back there at the end of the year with no UuA as I am also in WT+ both ways.

Your not really missing anything here it's just that there are no upgrade using Avios availability.

1nfrequent

Looking for some advice. I've got a BA Amex 241 voucher to burn and am looking at LAX and Vancouver for early summer in F.

Stupidly, I made my decision after BA launched extra seats in May so I'm now looking at June. I've been looking on-line faithfully after midnight and 1am (just to be sure) and nothing seems to be coming up. I'm guessing that Vancouver goes very quickly due to the cruise ships but I thought looking for LAX outside school holidays would come up with something.

Anyone got any suggestions or is it just a question of sticking with what I'm doing and hanging on in there?

1F

flashware

Only Y and J seats are released/guaranteed when the window opens, F is never guaranteed. Would be worth popping over to BA American Express 2-4-1 Voucher Discussion as the chat there is more relevant for you

alex67500

LAX seems to be a premium-heavy route, I don't think I've ever seen 2 F seats available. I've tried before and had a lot more luck going via SFO or LAS, and then getting cheap-ish AA flight to LAX.

baredemptionfinder.com can be your friend though.

1nfrequent

Thanks, Alex and flashware.

I had completely forgotten baredemptionfinder. Will have a word with my friend to see what they think about alternatives.

1F

alanisrox69

Quick datapoint post. After replying to BA Customer Relations (thru the BBB complaint) about the $5.60 ticket cost, I never heard back. Today I got a check in the mail from British Airways PLC Customer Relations for $5.60! I also logged into my BA account and saw they deposited an additional 5k Avios. BBB Complaints really do work ladies and gents!

ChrisBub

Hi all. I have what may be a bit of a stupid question but I can't find any specific information on this. I'm trying to use Avios to book a one way HKG-PUS with CX in October (could even be to ICN). But I can't find any CX availability at all (from now until October) on the BA Executive club site. Expertflyer is showing me economy availability, but I can't find anything anywhere else. Any ideas of how to find availability from Executive Club? Is it a question of calling in?

Thanks

PETER01

This thread may help and there's a few others linked in post 3 as well the main one below.

Where has all the CX Avios availability gone?

ChrisBub

edkwan88

The first post states that you can upgrade leg by leg however, each time I've called I've been told I have to pay the points to upgrade the whole segment. I.e. recently took a flight PHX-LHR-TLV-LHR-PHX. I saw availability on the LHR-TLV leg, but was told I'd have to pay 41,250 Avios (30k for PHX-LHR, and 11250 for LHR-TLV). There was no availability for PHX-LHR so I obviously decided not to do. I hung up and called back and was told the same thing. On the return flight, it was the same situation, I called twice and each time they wanted me to upgrade the entire segment from TLV-PHX, even though there was no award space on PHX-LHR.

edit: I was booked in WT+ (T class)

PETER01

Sounds a bit odd, especially them saying that twice but I can't see how they could have processed an Avios upgrade in the first place if there was no availability showing and you can upgrade using Avios for one leg. Sounds like there was a bit of confusion and the communications weren't great and I'd put it down to an unsatisfactory outcome but you definitely can just upgrade one leg. (with the usual caveat that there is availability, on a BA 125 issued ticket, your in an eligible booking class etc)

edkwan88

Ticket was booked with BA on all BA operated flights. To clarify LHR was just a layover, I was not stopping over. They said I had to upgrade from PHX-TLV, not individual legs in-between. I believe the communcation was clear and no confusion. I was very clear what I wanted. They even quoted to me the price for each leg then told me I had to do both together, I couldn't just do one leg. With no upgrade space they said they would put me on standby, but I didnt want to risk it as upgrade space on PHX-LHR is impossible to come by. Just wondering if anyone experienced this before.

Chammer

Forgive me if this has already been asked. I am looking to book an Avios saver fare for a CE flight next spring. Am I able to use a previous BA compensation cash voucher to pay the taxes? Thanks