Dror

Hi,
I'm planning a TLV-MAD-SFO flight in a little over a year. I have 90k Avios in my IB's account, and access to ~72k Avios from my parents' BA HHA.
Business award off-peak prices are ~72k Avios when looking at the same flights on IB and BA's sites, so point-wise we are good (assuming availability).
My plan is to book my wife's ticket from my IB account, and my own ticket from my parents' HHA account (adding myself as a family member to their account).
Since our dates are not very flexible, I will try to do this just as the flights become available.
Looking at IB and BA's sites right now, it looks like IB allows ahead-booking of about a week more than BA (I can book a flight on IB for July 19th, but can only book for July 12th on BA).
Is this always the case? When can I expect to be able to book the flight? Is the answer the same if I use a call center?
Thanks!

corporate-wage-slave

Iberia allows booking on its own metal at 361 days, and BA has a blanket window of 355 days, for BA, IB and everyone else (assuming they have released availability). Iberia generally releases 2 seats per flight in Business, and it should be the same for both online and contact centres. I can't see a way of you getting seats on BA ahead of 355, though there is a mechanism for return flights after that timeframe.

Dror

Thanks.
Seeing as I can't transfer the Avios to IB+ (right?), would you recommend securing one spot at day T-361 on IB site, and then biting my nails for 6 days until I can try to book the other one on BA's site?
Are these types of tickets usually refundable or date-changeable? (in case I can't book the 2nd ticket, and have to make changes).
Thanks again.

corporate-wage-slave

IB+ redemptions on IB/BA etc are refundable, though there is a 25€ fee for the refund or date change. BA to IB transfers are working, at least for established accounts, however Household accounts generally don't work for transfers anyway, a long standing issue. So yes, either wait 6 days or use more cash to reduce the Avios by half and use the HHA Avios for something else. You could do the half Avios - half cash idea, then if further seats are released later on use you could rebook by paying the change fee (though IB+ tends to delay refunds of Avios)..

Dror

Interesting idea, thanks. Can't I use this as a method to hold the 2nd award ticket until the date opens on BA's system?
Will this flow work:
1. On T-361, book both tickets on IB's system with half Avios half money.
2. Sometime after T-355, cancel one of the ticket, supposedly freeing up award availability.
3. Book the now-available award on BA's system.
4. Can I then make changes to the one ticket kept from IB, such that I add more Avios to pay less, or would that require cancelling it and rebooking only w/ Avios?

Is there a way to perform steps (2) and (3) together, in order to minimize the risk (hopefully to zero) that someone else will book the seat?

Again, thanks for the help. It's much appreciated.

corporate-wage-slave

No one here can guarantee the cancelled ticket will go back to award availability - and even if it did it may take a while to surface in BA/IB. My suspicion is that it will, being a very long time off departure, but the airline would be within its rights to just return it to revenue-only buckets. Same applies to 4 in that I am fairly sure the only way to do that is to cancel the original ticket and rebook, in the hope the availability returns. Now in the unlikely event that 3 or more seats become available then it's a very different matter. So in short it's a risk and it depends on your risk criteria as to whether it is worth it. Hence my other suggest to book at the half Avios level and then check every day to see if an additional 2 seats come up at some point in the future and react accordingly. It may happen in the final few days before departure, incidentally.