Advice Needed for 2-4-1 Redemption cancellation
 

Hi there,

I’ve not seen any identical situations t mine and hope someone can clarify or help.

In short we booked 2 pairs of companion voucher redemptions for December - LHR-LAX during the 50% discounted reward promotion in August . They didn’t have 4 seats in Club for both directions but did have 2 in First on the way back. So one was booked exclusively in Club both ways and the other (under a separate booking reference) had Club LHR-LAX on the way out and First LAX-LHR on the way back.

We had hoped the travel ban to the USA would be lifted by Christmas to ensure our travel insurance was valid, but clearly that isn’t going to happen due to their record infection rates at present. So I went online and changed the dates of the Club /Club flights for August without issue.

However, as the second booking had a combination of Club and First it wouldn’t let me change it online. I had to call (which took days), but they are now saying that if I want to change the date to August then I will need to pay the normal ‘full’ Avios redemption as the original one was booked during the promotion! I did explain I could have booked the new flights anyway under the promotion, plus it let me do it online for no charge or additional Avios for the other booking.

They said that it shouldn’t have, but clearly it did!

I asked if it was just because one leg was in First and I would happily just have the whole family in Club to get us all on the same flight, but she went away for ages and just came back saying they’d only honour a direct swap if it was before May 31st.

Has anyone else come across this and any suggestions to resolve this impasse?

Thanks

Yes this is correct. Any voluntary changes now will be repriced at normal avios rates. It is the case that if you can change it online it may not do it correctly and not charge any extra avios, but that is very much a bank error in your favour. If you call to do it they will ask you for the extra.

I'd be pleased you got the CLUB / CLUB one moved without charge and move on happy.

And, as always, wait and see if the flight is cancelled so you can claim EU261 to another date.

I agree, this was a maybe booking and split PNRs, which would almost be asking for trouble, so the free CW move was something of a win here. But yes, if there is a cancellation on the flights, this will present more options. More information in the main Rebook thread.