Adding a flight to an existing booking
 

We will be looking to start book some BA flights with Asia Miles from January for travel early in 2023. I have been looking at flights released each day at the moment to check what generally becomes available. As an example, one of the segments we plan to book is EZE-ZRH. Looking at flights that have just been released today we can book EZE-LHR up until Thu 10 November 2022 and can also book LHR-ZRH for Thu 10 Nov. However if I search EZE-ZRH we can only book up until Wed 09 November. I can see that this would be because the EZE-LHR flight departs EZE on Thu and arrives at LHR on Fri and the Friday November 11 flights for LHR-ZRH will not be released until tomorrow.

If I wait until the next day to book EZE-ZRH when the LHR-ZRH flights are available the EZE-LHR long haul flight may not still be available then. I'm thinking the safest thing to do in this example would be to book the EZE-LHR flight as soon as it is available. Would CX Asia Miles allow me to call and add the LHR-ZRH flight to the same booking, paying a change fee? This is something I can do with QFF awards. The Asia Miles points needed for an EZE-ZRH J redemption is 90,000 points. If I book them separately it is 90,000 for EZE-LHR and 20,000 for LHR-ZRH. As well as hopefully keeping the points required at 90,000 it is of course preferable to have both flights on the one PNR as connecting flights in case of delays on the long haul flight.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Yes https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...ption-mca.html

Thanks percysmith. I wasn't thinking of changing to an MCA award at this stage since it would need to be another other airline besides BA or CX to do that.

I'm wondering if I can book say EZE-LHR as a one way and then call up and ask to have LHR-ZRH added to the same ticket so going through LHR becomes an EZE-ZRH ticket with an LHR connection a few hours later so it is still a one way ticket. If I wait until the next day I would be able to book EZE-ZRH as a one way redemption with both flights but I have to hope that there are still redemption seats for the EZE-LHR segment available 24 hours later.

Remember that if you book BA on two different tickets, they usually would refuse to check your bags through, even on BA-BA.

Thanks brunos. It is obviously easier if I can keep both flights on the one ticket, both because of possible flight delays and missing the second flight and as you mentioned, of probably not having bags checked through.

I've been looking at the Asia Miles FAQ page and see the following under "Change Booking" so this may apply in the situation I am querying:
https://www.asiamiles.com/en/support...ight/general/1

2. Can I change the destination after my ticket has been issued?Yes, a completely unused ticket can be reissued for a service fee of USD100 or 10,000 Asia Miles subject to:

• The new ticket having the same expiry date as the original ticket.
• No changes regarding the operating airline.
• No changes regarding the passenger name.

In this case I would be changing the destination from LHR to ZRH with other details being the same as above, by adding the LHR-ZRH flight so hopefully this would apply in this circumstance.

When I have booked award flights through QFF in the past I have been able to book initial flights online as soon as they were available and then call up to add more flights to the same PNR and pay a 5000 points change fee when later flights became available. You can only do this by adding to an original booking and not by booking 2 separate flights and asking to combine them later. This was when booking One World Awards through QFF where I had to use two different One World carriers besides QF and gradually added flights over the phone when available.

I used Asia Miles to book a redemption flight once back in 2018 when I transferred Amex points to Asia Miles and the points required for ZRH-SYD via LHR in 2019 on BA were a lot lower than when booking the same flights through QFF. I have flown CX multiple times when J flights were available but haven't seen much award availability when I was booking in 2019 or when doing dummy searches at the moment for late 2022. We will be doing an Antarctica cruise from Ushuaia in January 2023 and will need to get from SYD to EZE, then EZE-ZRH, then ZRH-SYD in J. At the moment the best way I can see to get from SYD to EZE will be to book SYD-LHR then LHR-EZE, even though it is a long way around to get there at least it will be in J. I never seem to see award availability on QF to fly SYD-SCL as a Bronze QFF.

I am still learning about using Asia Miles and the various differences to using QFF that I have mainly been using up until now so appreciate advice from others who have more experience than me.

I cannot help you with Asia Miles, as I do not use them.
As very few people fly CX nowadays and visit the CX forum, it might take time to get answer.

Two general points:
1. Given CX sore state, it is a pure guess what they will operate in 2023. The HK covid restrictions might (just might) improve and they will resume flying to ZRH (for the ZRH-SYD). But it is far too early to tell. Planning something for 2023, including a cruise, is kind of heroic.

2. I have extensive experience on BA. I don't think that you should treat award availability on EZE-LHR-ZRH as the availability of two separate segments. I often had availability on HKG-LHR but no availability on HKG-LHR-EU, although both segments have availability. I assume the same will happen for BA awards on AM.

SYD-HKG, HKG-LHR and v.v. are generally flights I think CX will still put on even in the worse of times - it was part of the final four (SYD, LHR, LAX and YVR, even if YVR subsequently got the axe) in the second quarter of 2020 when the international network almost basically shut down.

Why ZRH though? That one is far more a crapshoot.

My wife and I flew SCL-SYD on QF J in their 747-400ERs in May 2019 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post31140358 as part of our AM oneworld multi-city redemptions.

Thanks brunos and percysmith. The Antarctica cruise was originally booked in 2019 to travel in February 2021 and we then re-booked for 2022 and then 2023. We can still re-book for January 2024 when the 2023/2024 itineraries are released. Some companies are running Antarctica cruises over the next few months so we'll see how things go with this season before making a definite decision on whether to keep the booking for 2023 or rebook for 2024. If we can book award flights it's easier to cancel if necessary than with paid air tickets so at this stage.

We visited Switzerland in March 2014 and have wanted to return again in Winter if possible, not for skiing but for photography, so decided that while we are in South America for the Antarctica cruise at that time of year it would be a good idea to try to combine the two, and since I can see BA award availability being regularly available through AM from SYD through LHR to EZE it seems a good opportunity to try to do this if I can book all the flights.

Suggest itin SYD-(CX)xHKG-(CX)xLHR-(BA)oEZE-(BA)oLHR-(BA)oZRH-(BA)xLHR-(CX)xHKG-(CX)SYD//CBR-(QF)SYD.

Last segment is a throwaway.

Cannibalising two stopovers for HKG transits is allowed (do not price LHR transits as stopovers).

This itin is over 35,000 miles but even not backtracking LHR (which I did to avoid cancellations on ZRH-HKG) you're going to break 35,000 anyway.

Thanks for the suggested itinerary percysmith. If I want to book this as an MCA would I book the first flights as soon as they are available online and then phone to add other flights as they are released which would eventually convert it to an MCA? Looking at the Asia Miles Service Fees chart would this be a USD100 or 10,000 Asia Miles charge each time I add further flights to the booking?

US$120/12,000 AM for each add (no matter how many segments).

percysmith suggestion is very smart.
Your idea of booking an award the first day it is open (roughly a year before departure) makes the whole concept of building a MCA very expensive with so many segments. Because the last segment is the one helping you to qualify for MCA, I doubt that your strategy will work anyay.
Anyway, the schedules for 2023 are very hypothetical at this point.. Why don't you wait until February 2022 and try to book then the whole itin.
I wish you good luck as airlines are not releasing many awards currently.

Well, let's say it's the first and last bunch of flights we're sweating over. QF, BA and CX effectively had the same redemption window (T-353) on new Standard rules. And from experience, EZE-LHR is not a sweat.

So on the outbound day T-353 I will redeem SYD-xHKG-xLHR-(BA)EZE//(QF)CBR-SYD. That's already a oneworld award. You might need to do this redemption at T-351, given SYD-HKG-LHR (say CX101-CX251) is on T-353, BA245 (roughly18 hour wait in LHR...urgh) is T-352, and QF CBR-SYD is T-351.

On inbound day T-353 I will drop the CBR-SYD segment and add EZE-xLHR-ZRH, ZRH-(BA)xLHR-(CX)xHKG-(CX)SYD//(QF)CBR-SYD. Again, T-351.

I'm inclined to pay AM now with its own funny money for any changes like this.

As ​​​brunos said, you are running into married segment violation if you want to do that in the same PNR. If you do it in different PNRs, you need to re-check bags (if any) and will be at your own risk with misconnection and England entry requirement.

Thanks everyone for your advice and suggestions.

I will need to book to fly from SYD for flights in the first week of January 2023 so will have to start in around 7 weeks from now. I am not seeing any CX flights listed at the moment for early November next year while I am doing dummy searches to see what availability is being released each day. I am seeing JL seats available each day in J for SYD-LHR so we're thinking of booking that and then staying in London for a few days before flying LHR-EZE even though the taxes for flying long haul from LHR are a lot higher. If I search for SYD-EZE on the CX website as a one way it shows 90,000 AM with BA for SYD-LHR connecting with LHR-EZE, with the long transit time at LHR but because it shows the SYD-EZE availability 24 hours after SYD-LHR flights are released since the LHR-EZE flight is the day after I leave SYD, the SYD-LHR flights will probably be gone by then. Also, the CX website doesn't show airlines like JL or QR connecting through to EZE even though SYD-LHR flights show for both airlines, so they obviously can't be booked as a one way like BA flights can. (I'm assuming that it can be ticketed this way as a one way since it shows as being available to book.)

Percysmith - to start a booking like you have suggested do you do it online or call up at this stage? I realise that after the first flights I will have to call up to add other flights. If I follow your suggestion to book initial flights it may work to book SYD-LHR with JL and wait to add LHR-EZE later, since those flights still seem to be available several weeks later. Once I have JL and BA in the itinerary that gives me two One World airlines for the MCA.

If I make it an MCA award and book SYD-xHND-LHR with JL and then separate LHR-xGRU-EZE, EZE-xGRU-xLHR-ZRH, then ZRH-xLHR-SYD, with the LHR-SYD via SIN on BA or via HND with JL if CX is still not available to book by then, is this too many transits through LHR, with one stop at the start of the trip and then transits to and from ZRH? Also, in your suggestion of ZRH-(BA)xLHR-(CX)xHKG-(CX)SYD//(QF)CBR-SYD at the end if the trip - what is the purpose of the //(QF)CBR-SYD after arrival back in SYD? I can see why you suggested to add it at the beginning when you said "That's already a oneworld award" and then remove it when adding further flights, so if you were using CX and BA you needed another OW airline to make it an MCA. If I start off with JL and then BA that gives me two OW airlines.

Doing it a stage at a time has worked for me when booking QF One World Awards and they only charge 5000 points for each change / ticket re-issue, no matter how many flights are added. They don't have to cancel and re-book existing flights - they just add new flights to the same booking and when the points required to make it a OWA add to more than the required points it totals out at that. I can see with the AM flight change fees, in $ or AM, it is better to wait to add more flights at once rather than one at a time.

I know what I am enquiring about is complicated and I really appreciate the advice I am receiving since using AM is new to me, except for one time I used them in 2019.