[QUOTE=mia;16513092]Remember that $30,000 spending target must be achieved in a single calendar year. Spending that amount in any other twelve consecutive months does nothing.

Thank you for reminding me that the 30K must be spent in a calender year.
I just received my card and probably won't be able to do 30K unless I want to buy coins, etc. I guess the 2-4-1 won't be in my future.

Just my 2 cents, but I found the certs worth it. Flew SEA-LHR-MUC in biz class. Return was BRU-LHR-SEA. I don't have the exact figures off the top of my head but it amounted to one coach ticket in fuel surcharges. (Roughly $700 for two C class seats.) Availability was not really an issue, we only booked about 8 months out for a ski trip. Really wanted Zurich but no dice on the 241 cert. I think if you plan ahead, and have some flexibility on routing you can book awards that are suitable. Also, this was a ski trip, and having the axtra bag limit and weight limit in bus. class is nice. There were no issues with my ski bag, which was 200cm long, and had to have been right on the tipping scale of the max weight limit. No one ever batted an eye, other than the folks at the train station or the cab drivers!

Mattinsf

I live in the Bay Area and SFO is my airport. I found the availability to be very very difficult using BA miles. I got the companion voucher and was able to eventually book myself and my daughter in first from SFO-LHR and back this July. I had wanted to go farther into Europe but there were no FF flights available. Granted I wanted to go at the height of summer, but I started nearly a year in advance. I had to book separately and pay for the flight from LHR to Stuttgart and then from Paris we're taking the Eurostar back to London to catch the return flight home. Also, after I booked the flights, I saw that some FF seats from LHR to Stuttgart had opened up, but you cannot change these tickets once they're booked even to extend the flight.

Having said all that, I am pretty happy that we have these tickets, cost of $700 each -- it's the first and probably last time we'll fly first. Nevertheless, we are considering not extending the card after our current trip (due to no foreign transaction fees) and going back to the UA Visa.

I have had many friends here with similar issues, some of whom are not renewing the card at the end of the year.

I think if you can fly off peak and are patient and persistent these tix will pay off.

Good luck!

ddtripper

I thought you could change BA voucher matched tix once issued for a charge of $ 70 each, which is less than many US legacy carriers charge. Of course if you've already bought tix for travel beyond London, those tickets may be a problem.

My wife and I have a similar itin.RT in F booked in Jan. LAX-LHR-JNB-CPT / JNB-LHR-LAX leaving this summer (N. hemisphere).

Got in for ~ 2K in fees.

While hoping to make a slight modification to LVI on the outbound, BA wanted an additional $600.

What the H-E-C-K ?

Like you msp2msy, I'm looking forward to it but will probably go with another carrier to Africa on the next one, because these fees are INSANE!!!

Once you've booked the companion ticket, you can't change. At least that's what they told me over the phone and I'm pretty sure I read that as well.

I really shouldn't be whining as the trip will be great, and my daughter and I will enjoy the 1st class experience.

DD

I was told the rule I quoted (changes ok with a $70 change fee) when I booked with a voucher recently. Also, the T&Cs of the voucher say that if the reservation is cancelled more than 24 hours before the start of the trip, the voucher (with its original expiration) is returned to the member's BAEC account.

I'm not sure how BA works or charges for canceling award flights when miles are used, but if you can find better availability at a later date, couldn't someone do a change as a cancel/rebook on the same call? If they don't waitlist the TATL or other flights you want to keep, it would seem the only risk is the fees or someone jumping on your flights in the 5 minutes it would take the CSR to do the cancel/rebook.

Anyone know for sure how this works?

Date and time changes can be made to tickets booked with a companion voucher. I have done so several times. (Name changes are not allowed.)

The fee for cancelling the companion tickets, if done over the phone, is the same amount for changing the date/time ($70), so I don't see the point of doing a cancel/re-book. Also, you can do date/time changes online for free, no charge. However, after a few changes, that option online is greyed out, and you have to use the phone and pay the fee.

The fee for online cancellation of a reward flight (and redeposit of the miles) is $50 for each ticket.

Here are the fees:
https://www.britishairways.com/trave...l/public/en_us

That's great to know-thanks!

I just went to my 241 confirmed reservation on BA.com and there's a link toward the bottom of that page that says "Change the date/time of my flight". However, the link isn't active and putting my cursor over the link brings up "This funtionality is not currently available" with a reference to call BA. Do you know if one can change a date/time online for a res made over the phone?

My current 2-4-1 voucher reservation (made via phone) is in the same status as yours --- I get the same "functionality not available" message. Oh well.

Maybe if the need to change arises, we could call up BA and ask for a waiver of the change fee since we're apparently entitled to change it online free but it seems we can't.

Even at $70, that's not bad for a change for a complex international trip.

I think the fees have gone up as we were just quoted $800+ per ticket for SFO-LHR-SFO in F. As London is the intended destination (or at least the primary one) we get hit with the LHR luxury tax.

As you have noted, inventory is particularly difficult from SFO, but strangely much better from LAX. I think there is an additional flight from LAX, but apparently the extra demand from paying VIPs in Hollywood is more than offset by the number of Brits who want to vacation in SF (strike up civic pride stanza here )

As for the card, the 1.25miles/$ is a better ROR than most, the no forex fee is a nice perk, and I suppose I can always avoid the absurd "fuel surcharges" by simply ditching the 2-for-1 and using the miles on a OW partner like AA.

I feel the same way, I just need to spend more to get to my $30k. Being out of DFW, every time I try to use the website to go to Paris, it always routes me through London.

Does anyone know if BA will allow me to use their miles to go non-stop from DFW--Paris (CDG) on AA metal?

Not with a 241 Chase voucher. That's one of the big negatives of the voucher is that you can only go on BA metal, which means from the US (and most other places too), you're going thru London.

Yeah that's right, forgot. Thanks!

How about in general, aside from the 2-4-1 voucher?