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NorthernLass wrote:

The avios have landed back at some point overnight, so all is well 😀

Hi,

Me again, had a few issues I booked seats then later the return wasn’t available, eeek. So I cancelled it as I really did need the return.
Today I was able to book outbound and then the inbound. thankfully as we really did need specific flights.

How would you word the DM to X?
Is this ok do you think?

Hi BA Team,

I have recently booked the inbound leg of my trip separately to secure seat availability, as I am using 2 x British Airways Companion Voucher.

I would like to apply my voucher to the inbound booking and request a 50% return of the Avios paid for that leg.

Here are the details:

Outbound Booking Ref: [ e.g., ABCD12]

Inbound Booking Ref: [ e.g., EFGH34]

Executive Club Number: [xxxx]

Name: Name]

Could you please confirm once the return has been processed? Thank you for your help!

is that suitable? Or do i not need to quote my outbound booking ref?
Thanx

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NorthernLass wrote:

Ah ok, that makes sense!

Data point re booking the return: I grabbed 2 x CW MAN-LHR-GCM last night, at full price. This is the return leg of our NAS-LHR-MAN flight in May, so I did wonder if I might come up against some resistance in getting half the avios back, even though it’s within the rules.

After a couple of false starts on X when I kept getting sent back to the menu (possibly using the word “refund” was a mistake, so I then opted for “return” instead) I got through to a human who agreed to refund/return the 50% avios (99k now, so not to be sniffed at!) Still waiting a few hours later though, so not a done deal yet …

Good to know, i was going to try chat.

Please report back with hopefully your success.

I was going to try do that at say hour 15 after booking original incase they said no and then I could cancel it for a refund. I just don’t want them to re price it as such you see

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NorthernLass wrote:

Sorry if I’ve missed something! In that case why would you be using 2 vouchers?

Its 4 people 2 vouchers, but doing it as a return is £1800 in fees. Doing it as 2 one ways is £900 and £450 so a saving of £450.

x

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NorthernLass wrote:

If I’ve read your post correctly then probably not, as BA policy is only refund the 50% avios if the inbound wasn’t released when you booked the outbound. However you may get an agent who doesn’t know or forgets to apply the policy!

Also, if you’re talking about making 2 separate bookings with 2 different 241s (so using each voucher for 50% off), they would have to be from the accounts of each voucher holder.

Thanx, thats annoying, tempted to do it anyway and say to the agent they were not showing for me when booking. And I leave say 18hrs betweeen.
No its the same name of the vouchers so we need to use them as a 2for1.

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If I book the outbound using a couple of companion voucher, then the same day book the inbound at full avios.
Is that still ok to the call to have the 1/2 refunded?
I know many do it because inbound isn’t available.
With it being done on the same day is that ok, they wont re price it all?

Basically it saves us £450 in taxes doing it as 2 x singles.

Thanx

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Lolz at all the reply’s. Nice bit of entertainment after a busy few hours at work thanx all.

I promise Amex has had many many years of BAPP fees [Gold fees also years ago] from me where I didn’t even use the 2for1 often because we are restricted to close to school hols and there are 4 of us. Ive done no opening and re closing like many just for bonuses as we actually used the cards. [not that it matters if Amex allows]
They have also had the premium £595 fees off me for a couple of years where I didn’t really ‘use’ the benefits so I have no problem at all trying to get around this system on this occasion I assure you, seeing as I closed our two cards only 2months ago.

But there is actually some availability so I realised I can actually use them both this year [1 expires in July].

To everyone else, I’m happy to report my ace dad came through and got himself a gold card I can use. I’ll show him how to utilise the points he gets too so he will get him and mum a return to Europe at some point, win win. I’ll even add some on for him so they can maybe go further afield if they fancy and they get to use the lounge with the gold card.

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BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

My thoughts are

1. Their OW membership only starts tomorrow so that’s when I would expext their reward avalability to appear from and even then it may not be instant depending on Omans release schedule.

2. Not every airline releases rewaard availability at T-355 like BA. Many only release it 330 (ish) days ahead.

3. Correct BA 2-4-1 isn’t eligible.

Thanx for you input, I’m eager to know the figures as such. Qatar was a great redemption but their taxes were pretty high on the outbound.

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Richie wrote:

My guess is Omani residents have already booked MCT-BKK redemptions for May 26.

Good point

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Thank you Deek 😉

Urgh I feel like they should def release a couple of those for me, ha.

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Hi All,

Anyone with Epert flyer sub able to check this again for me please?

Unfortunately nothing so far, I’ve paid for notifications and been checking daily.
The 10th May showed 7 1st Avios seats available the other day but I’m unable to change dates (I could do 1 day)

Thanx

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BA to BKK is now all year round (we booked for May this year) so that is an option but securing 4 in CW may be difficult.

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Singapore is definitely going to be much easier for redemptions as there are more flights per week/day.
Remember Kuala lumpar is also an option on BA.

I guess it depends where you are moving onto in Thailand do a search for your flight to their from Sing to see if they exist.

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ooo good news. Thank-you for that

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e14 wrote:

squishsquash wrote:

Thanx, this is all really helpful.
Sorry e14 I missed NorthernLass request for destination/date in the initial reply.

Its LHR to SIN on the BA11 18:55 flight on 30th April. 2 people.

It’s actually from Manchester but I wont need that amending as obvs no 1st on domestic flights.

Ask in a couple of weeks but at the moment it looks good for a couple of F seats to become available

e14 would you mind when your next able to check if the numbers are similar please as its around 5weeks away now?
Thanx

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Ask in a couple of weeks but at the moment it looks good for a couple of F seats to become available[/quote]

Ooo great stuff. Exciting, I know it’s nothing like other airlines 1st class but it’ll be nice to experience something new.

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Thanx, this is all really helpful.
Sorry e14 I missed NorthernLass request for destination/date in the initial reply.

Its LHR to SIN on the BA11 18:55 flight on 30th April. 2 people.

Its actually from Manchester but I wont need that amending as obvs no 1st on domestic flights.

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Retron wrote:

squishsquash wrote:

Any tips on waiting for a 1st class redemption, have flights on the 30th April in business but would love to change to 1st.
Pretty sure seat spy doesn’t alert for first class.
Do I just need to check 17 times a day?

I know that cancelled redemption seats go back in within about 30 mins so midnight doesn’t help in that case.
Thanx

I got mine (out to Tokyo on JAL and back again on BA last month) by checking manually a few times a day. In both cases the seats showed up on the first check of the day, around 3AM – perhaps it’s coincidence, but I suspect not… I reckon BA’s algorithm checks each night and if conditions are right, the seats become available.

The BA seats appeared 3 weeks out exactly, FWIW, and the JAL ones less than a week out.

In short – you don’t need SeatSpy, but you do need to keep checking regularly. Good luck!

Thanx that’s really useful. As I have 2 business seats already ill need to call to do the ‘change’ is this what you did?
I need to get the number saved in my phone 0800 408 7667 I’m going to ring You First helpline which is a bit cheeky but hey ho. We go in 8weeks so prob a bit of a wait yet then.

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Thanx folks, Ive signed up to seat spy and set alerts for our date.
Fingers crossed.
Not sure the extra costs involved but I don’t think its any more.

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Thanx everyone, wish we could have a night in Singapore unfortunately we can’t.

It’s a business trip and need to be out early in the morning in Bangkok.
We were initially landing into KUL but changed it as SIN had more connecting flights.

I guess if we didn’t make it we would have to rebook another flight.
I presume our insurance would cover us in that instance.

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Or obviously you can get a cheapish economy flight to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore

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Bangkok is difficult but Kuala Lumpur and Singapore have more flights with Ba to use your companion voucher and go into LHR instead of LGW and chance of club suite too.

The night trains are fab from that neck of the woods too so if your last place was Koh Samui / Tao etc then Surathani is where the train goes from to KL.

We are considering it with the kids next year.

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Aston100 wrote:

squishsquash wrote:

We don’t have check in luggage on the outbound

Wow, and all this time I thought BJ was the only person that travelled with a spare underpant.

Its a buying trip so those precious KG are very valuable for the return.
We will take about 5kg each at a guess, little denim shorts and t’s don’t take up much room thankfully 😉

Unfortunately Qatar is only 40kg per person vs BA very generous 64kg but looking forward to trying Qatar Airways business product having done economy with them many times and always been impressed.

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What I find strange is that the London – Singapore route on BA has some dates with 8 business seats available [For around our dates of 30th April]
So does that route have 8 released originally or is it just because its a quite flight/season so they have added extras?

When we wanted 6 last year [For this year] we never saw more than 4.
Just interested really.

I booked to Kuala Lumpur last night then Ive just had to blinking cancel them as the connection on to Batik Air in economy was too close, so going to go via Singapore instead. We don’t have check in luggage on the outbound so economy will be fine for a 2.5 hr flight to be honest

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I had been searching every day for about 10 days when I snagged these 2 early Feb, and they were definitely the ‘extra availability ones’.
So I presumed we got them as someone else had recently cancelled too.
There was also a couple of Saturdays around the same time which went v.quickly too.

So this is a good test that they do in fact go back in the pool as such. Well this type anyway.

Sure someone will snag soon as its so much easier than having to go from KUL or SIN like we now have to ;(

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NorthernLass wrote:

Hi @squishsquash. Yes, £35 pp to cancel online. Also, on the phone they may charge another £15 phone fee each because you can do this online. You should get the avios and 241 back immediately and the remaining cash within a few days.

Obviously you’ll need award availability to rebook the outbound. Which destination is it? If it’s a hard to get one, someone on here might benefit from a heads up if the seats go back into the inventory when you cancel.

NorthernLass wrote:

Hi @squishsquash. Yes, £35 pp to cancel online. Also, on the phone they may charge another £15 phone fee each because you can do this online. You should get the avios and 241 back immediately and the remaining cash within a few days.

Obviously you’ll need award availability to rebook the outbound. Which destination is it? If it’s a hard to get one, someone on here might benefit from a heads up if the seats go back into the inventory when you cancel.

NorthernLass wrote:

Hi @squishsquash. Yes, £35 pp to cancel online. Also, on the phone they may charge another £15 phone fee each because you can do this online. You should get the avios and 241 back immediately and the remaining cash within a few days.

Obviously you’ll need award availability to rebook the outbound. Which destination is it? If it’s a hard to get one, someone on here might benefit from a heads up if the seats go back into the inventory when you cancel.

Hiya,
Thanx for that.
I’ll go ahead and cancel online now.

Yes its a hard to find Bangkok flight. It came up available early Feb we snapped it up but had no return pop up in the past weeks.
Now we have managed to get BKK to MAN on Qatar Airways for the standard Avios as apposed to the flexi we need to move out outbound 1 week later so we are going to fly KUL instead, it means another flight from KUL to BKK but a its only 2hr flight we are going to do £50 econ tickets as we only have hand luggage on the outbound. On the plus side we will no longer have to do the £70 uber from LHR to LGW as we are flying down from MAN.

If we had more time we would have a day in Kuala Lumpur as the hubby hasn’t been but that’s life with young kids and grandparent on baby sitting duties for the week. Luckily the new dates cover an inset day and a bank holiday so they will be chuffed they only have to do 2 morning school runs over the 7days.

This is the two going back in the pool in the net 5min so ill do a fresh post now.

Thanx for your help as ever.

Depart at 22:00, Thu 24 Apr 2025

Gatwick (London) Terminal S
BA2231
Club World ( I )
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Boeing 777 jet
11Hours 55Minutes
11H 55M

Operated by British Airways
Arrive at 15:55, Fri 25 Apr 2025
Bangkok