tonymc

Hi everyone,

As our planned flights to SYD for this March were cancelled, we are now looking to travel in 2022.

Although our plan is to travel around mid-February 2022, over the last 4 weeks or so I had been checking out availability for CW seats on the LHR-SYD route (and in the process, found how frustratingly slow the website now seems to be!!) just to keep up to speed on the process.

When I first started looking just before Christmas, I would have been able to book CW seats on flights up to the end of 2021. However, once flight availability for 2022 started coming online, I have been unable to find anything at all in CW, despite being ready on the stroke of midnight. Nothing at all either for the LHR-SIN or SIN-SYD sectors.

This has led me to wonder if BA are holding back on releasing CW seats on this route? Would be interested to hear if anyone has managed to book CW on this route for flights in January 2022 at all - if so, I guess I need to get a bit quicker on the keyboard!!!!!

Many thanks.

mikeyfly

Is it a 241 booking? All details here BA American Express companion voucher | master thread and not changed

Yes, LHR SYD is appearing for 2022. I’ve tried and failed twice to grab them, going to hold off now and try again for Easter 2022. Maybe because of the amount of FTVs in circulation people are all having to call for popular routes ams the agents are snatching them at 00.00.01hrs!

I’d say success lies with a phone call. I also don’t think BA will be flying SYD next year, but gotta be in it I guess

tonymc

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply. It was a 2-4-1 booking, but I have had the Avios, Companion Voucher and taxes all refunded (extremely quickly I should add - to the BAEC staff) so I would be in a position to book online.

However, as you mentioned, if there are so many people with FTVs then it does seem logical that seats are being snapped up quickly, although as I mentioned, there was no problem finding seats when I started looking just before Christmas (so flights from around 14/12/21) but nothing in 2022.

Looks as if I will have to look at calling one of the overseas call centres, possibly Japan (currently +8 hours so should be open at midnight UK) or Australia (currently +11 hours), to try and secure the seats. Unfortunately, Mrs Mc has decreed that there is no way she will be sitting in Economy for 22 hours............

GlasgowBlue

If the OP cannot get a hold of redemptions seats, it’s worth spending some time trying various combinations of dates and cabins. I’ve booked GLA > LHR > SYD and return, going out the week before Christmas and returning 3 weeks later. Outbound for most of the week before Christmas and returning most days roughly 3 weeks later in January, CW is generally cheaper than WT+ and, given the length of the journey, not that big a premium over WT. I appreciate the time of year I’m referring to will skew prices however don’t write off a cash booking completely.

I’ve added in a hotel in a London and will have a family day out there before heading onto SYD so it’s a BAH booking and therefore only a deposit rather than shelling out £thousands in one go, especially given all the current uncertainties around travel.

gms

It's too late for the OP, but surely the best approach would have been to have not refunded your tickets but to have held off and simply done a date change? I know that it is often said here that you cannot reschedule more than 12 months beyond the original date the tickets were booked, but I have certainly done this. Also on the LHR-SYD route. My original booking was made in April 2020. Since then I have had to reschedule twice due to cancellations. Currently booked for Nov/Dec 2021. Email confirmation with new ticket numbers received straight after rebooking.

Haagen Daz

I think you got away with one there (assuming it sticks). In March 2020 I snaffled two seats in F LHR-SYD, using a 2-4-1, outbound in August, returning in October, in full expectation of the flights not running, but in the hope that BA might offer increased flexibility in re-booking. When the original flights were cancelled, I re-booked to travel out in February, back in March (just inside the 12 month validity of the ticket). When these later flights were duly cancelled, I tried my luck in pushing the booking out beyond the magic 12 months, but met with a resounding "no".

gms

Surely the issue here is that airlines have a legal obligation to rebook passengers when their flights are cancelled. Since BA had formally suspended the LHR-SYD route for an extended period, I cannot see how they can refuse to rebook a passenger? If you cannot rebook within the normal validity of the ticket, then surely BA has a legal obligation to rebook at a later date? The ticket validity is an issue the airline can resolve.

Haagen Daz

Certainly I am not qualified to comment on an airline's legal obligations, however, from a common-sense point of view, where would this end? My August 2020 flights were cancelled by BA, should I then be able to push out the re-booking until, say, August 2025?

Swanhunter

There has certainly been some big changes - a couple of routes that were showing 9+ seats last week are zero’ed out now.

JML89

1. re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or,
2. re-routing at a later date at your convenience under comparable transport conditions, subject to the availability of seats.

the subject to availability of seats is used to get out of that and stay within ticket validity as there are no seats available to you after your ticket validity runs out so therefor they can’t offer that but do fulfil the other requirements by offering the other options

cauchy

The rebooking is subject to the availability of seats - there are currently no seats available for sale in 2025.

tonymc

Thanks for your replies.

TBH, I've just been playing around with flights to see what the general redemption availability is. We don't actually need to travel until February 2022, but only have a couple of days "wriggle room" as we also have a cruise booked. As you say, if I can't find redemption flights, I'll look into cash flights, or possibly looking at alternative routes using BA to get as far as possible (thinking Tokyo, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpa etc) to use the companion voucher, then look into cash flights or redemption flights with JAL, Cathay Pacific, Malaysian or Qantas albeit at increased Avios without the companion voucher.

Lesson learned there - perhaps I was a bit hasty in requesting the refund as for some reason I overlooked the option to reschedule!!!!

tonymc

The other day, I had a thought. Rather than trying to book MAN-LHR-SYD which then comes up with a request whether or not you want a stopover (and given the slow refresh/operation of the BA website may be the cause of the problem), I tried just the LHR-SIN leg, and over the last couple of nights, have managed to find seats that are available.

However, if I did book this, I would then need to try and book the SIN-SYD legs for following day. Obviously I wouldn't be able to book on-line using a Companion Voucher, but would I then be able to call BA and ask for the bookings to be linked and hence the voucher to be applied?

Thanks again.

BrianDromey

Having been in this scenario we booked MAN-SYD online, but if you’re struggling then go for LHR-SYD. The return was a call up job and had to be SYD-LHR, with the MAN being added the following day.

To be honest I’d just look for LHR-SYD and add the MAN sectors later. There might be a fee, or it might be waved when you’re ringing to add the return later. There are so many changes to domestic flights, even before Covid that it’s a waiting game for a schedule change.

Separate tickets for a same say LHR-SIN-SYD would be a nightmare, if it even meets the MCT? I’d make LHR-SYD the priority and worry about all else later.

Often1

Granted that it was the EC and only advisory at that, but it's March 2020 Guidance suggests that rebooking is satisfied with a refund under pandemic conditions because of the uncertainty of the situation. That uncertainty remains or is even greater today with constant changes to travel restrictions. Nowhere is this more the case than with Australia & New Zealand with specific caps which may or may not affect travel next year.

A system which was established to handle a snowstorm or the replacement of an engine part won't work in this situation and it is unlikely that a court would force BA to do so.

The real problem is that it is not worth booking until 30-45 days prior to travel. January 2022 is a project for this coming November.