edinburghgirl

thanks to you all we're off on our 1st first flight later in the year but i now need help for next years trip.i need an amex 241 voucher for travel around 21st october 2007 returning around 8/9th november but need to book early as hoping for first to sydney.what i need to know is:
1) statement day is 5th of month so should i trigger qualifying spend before 5th october and hope that the voucher will be extended by a couple of weeks.
2) what is the earliest date that i can book the flights as obviously on such a popular route they tend to be snapped up quickly.

i am sure that you will be able to point me in the right direction.
thanks in anticipation

efincomputer

I think the acccepted rule of thumb these days is that if you phone up about the voucher, they will extend the expiration date for 3 months (used to be the norm to get this extended for 6 months, but this seems to have gone the way of the Dodos). Good luck.

Efin

Prospero

Welcome to FlyerTalk edinburghgirl

You set yourself quite a challenge here.

I think first off you should try to control your Amex spending between now and the end of October to ensure the voucher is triggered on the 5th November. I mention this as Amex has purposely added an advisory note in the statements that ran out this month stating that companion vouchers are non-extendable. BA has previously been extending the life of these vouchers by 6 months on request, latterly by 3 months and curiously by 5 months in the case of my recent request but I would take this latest information seriously and try to work with it. Vouchers usually arrive within a week or so following the Amex statement that triggers the qualifying spend.

Redemption availability between the UK and Sydney is notoriously difficult to get, more so for premium class but not impossible as other FT'ers can testify. Flexibility is the key to success so if you can find some movement in your target dates then this will obviously improve your chances.

Have fun with the planning and please let us know how you get on.

edinburghgirl

everything is in place-we have the miles and only need to spend a couple of hundred to trigger the voucher.so really just needed to know how to time it right.

Exsilver

I managed to use a 2-4-1 to bag two J returns to SYD from Edinburgh, via SIN, by booking 350 days ahead. I travel in April next year. I had to look on BA.com every day, sometimes twice and also had to be quite flexible with dates. By that I mean I wanted to go via SIN and back via BKK but BKK was not available on any date I could use. When I booked on the phone the agent told me they can see availability "a few days more" than is visible on BA.com.

Also, I had to shorten the trip by a couple of days because availablity was not there for every day. As long as you have the flexibility and are prepared to spend time on BA.com, I'm sure you'll get what you want - good luck.

As far as the 2-4-1 is concerned I seem to have been one of the last to get a 6 month extension. Shortly after I extended, it went to 3 months and now it seems is not extendable at all.

Raffles

You may want to think about booking the trip with a false return date. ie - you book the outbound for 21 Oct and the return for 23rd Oct. Two weeks later, when the returns for 6 Nov open up, ring up and move the return flight (date changes are free).

If you don't do this, you risk the outbound not being available by the time you book.

jchand

While we are talking about Amex 2-1 ( I know it has been discussed before but I could not find it via search) has anyone been able to use a 2-1 on a 1 way trip ??? I know t & C's say rtn but do the enforce it ??

Looking To combine a BA miles trip ( Out bound) with BMI mile trip inbound , hence the 2-1 question.

Thanks for any help.

Raffles

Someone on here did once say that they had done it - but I can't remember who!

jchand

OK Thanks.

Will call BA this week and se what they say. May be a bit like the Comair bookings, depending on the agent you get.

Bukhara

Someone may have done it before, but it would have been a stuff up on the agent's part and that agent would have been given a patronising telling off.

I think it is bad form if you deliberately try and induce someone else to make a similar stuff up.

jchand

I agre with you . I would not want any agent to get in trouble.

I was not aware that it would be a problem. I just had the impression that some agents would do it and for whatever reason some would not. ( in the case of Comair).

I know know different.

Thanks for the Heads up.

Bukhara

Kudos to you ^

fly_ba

Extended mine a couple of weeks ago for a redemption booking to YVR next April without any problem, even though the Amex statement received in July refers to the 2-4-1 vouchers not being extendable. Hopefully they will continue to do this.

Raffles

How can it be such a bad thing to book one-way trips on a 2-4-1 voucher? If the voucher holder is willing to give up 50% of the benefit of the voucher (and thus keep an award seat free that BA can 'sell' to someone else) I really don't see the problem.

If an agent was willing to book a one-way for me on a '2-4-1' I would consider that a successful 'empowering' of the agent to do something that a) helped me out whilst b) doing BA a favour as well. Win-win.

Bukhara

I'm all for a bit of extra empowerment. However, not many people in any industry would do so in the full knowledge that their actions will be picked up by their superiors and will receive negative feedback. The 'favour' that you perceive you are receiving is unfortunately nothing of the sort. It would be a simple error.

Amex 241 bookings are all, without exception, automatically queued to another department who verify the voucher validity. When they come across a booking that has been booked incorrectly - whether it be an ineligible carrier or routing - they will pick this out and send feedback accordingly. Usually, the office where the mistake was made will pick up the cost of the error. Occasionally, the passenger will simply receive a call and be told that they'll have to book all over again.

If it were possible to make a oneway 241 booking and keep it from prying eyes, then I would not see any harm making this kind of booking. Unfortunately, those prying eyes are impossible to escape from, so whilst your argument that the voucher holder is voluntarily giving up 50% of their entitlement is quite logical, the commercial decision to only allow roundtrip bookings on a 241 has been made and those that are ultimately responsible for ticket issue, ensure that the commercial decision is adhered to.