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Can anyone please advise?
We booked our LHR-CPT outbound off peak a couple of weeks ago and last night called up to add our return leg. We have two companion vouchers and therefore two bookings. My husband got through but I didn’t. I tried to book online at midnight but all seats had gone (including 3 nabbed by my husband) by the time I got through to payment confirmation. I plan on trying again tonight and hoping my daughter and I can come home a day later. The payment for my husband’s flights was more than we were expecting as it was a peak flight home and therefore the lady said she had to apply this across the whole booking. I feel as though had we booked the inbound leg under a separate booking with Avios only and not the companion voucher it would have actually worked out cheaper for us as the outbound wouldn’t be adjusted and the bookings would be separate.I’m not sure whether to try the phone lines tonight or just to book an avios only booking online (hopefully quicker than I managed last night) as this will work out cheaper? Have I got this wrong or can this happen sometimes.
Booking with two companion vouchers for a family of 5 over half term on one of the busiest legs is so stressful! 😣 I wonder if we would be better off using the companion vouchers for our summer holiday to Boston and avoiding the stress. Any advice much appreciated! Xx
When you say payment, do you mean the avios or cash element? Avios pricing is standardised, and you should only be charged the pricing for the dates you travel. It shouldn’t matter if one date is peak and the other off-peak, you should be charged the relevant avios price for each date. How many avios was it?
If it was the cash element which changed, some destinations have lower departure taxes than the BA RFS fee and that can mean lower prices if you book separately. Sometimes, however, BA has been known to just get this wrong and charge too much – there are a few recent examples in this thread and others. How much have you paid, and how much were you expecting?
Finally, are these economy seats (I’m assuming so if there are 5 of you)? You were unlucky that all 8 went at midnight – if you have enough avios it’s definitely worth trying to book online if you’re waiting to get through on the phone, then claim 50% avios back later.
Guess we all need a US number via a different route now…
I called BA and it was because when I booked the outbound I picked the cheapest option using the most Avios but then for my return leg I didn’t have enough Avios to do that same ratio of Avios and £s so I needed to change the outbound booking to a second tier choice. I understand now but think it’s making things a fair bit more than planned.
They confirmed because tonight they will need to manually adjust my outbound Avios/£s tier I wouldn’t be eligible for the Avios points refund if I just book the tickets online.
So I guess I call and pray I get through at the right time. Otherwise I book online and sacrifice the Avios but I currently don’t have enough for even the lowest tier so was going to top up with balance boost to make sure I have enough to book it straight away but just read it can take 3 days for them to turn up in your account.
Yes it’s 5 of us for economy, all 8 went on both flights by 12:04 🙁 I’m only booking for two of us tonight so hoping I get more luck 🙏
That explains the re-pricing. Yes, most BA agents insist that you use the same ratio of cash and avios both ways. You would probably have benefited from doing some research on this site before jumping in at the deep in with such a sought-after destination!
It’s a shame you didn’t have enough avios as the 30k/£75-ish Reward Flight Saver economy fares are great value, especially at peak travel times. Boosting should be instantaneous though, from the couple of times I’ve done it.
If you’re planning on doing this again, check out cash prices (especially via BA Holidays) before buying avios. If you’re happy to travel on separate bookings anyway, you’re not losing anything by having some of you on a redemption booking and some on a cash one, and you can save one of your vouchers for another trip.
Let us know how you get on tonight.
I’ve been using companion vouchers for this leg for 8 years but have never had to book separately before. We did have to stay up until midnight last year and managed to nab them online but ended up on different timed flights as we always use 2 vouchers. Not the end of the world though. But this year I saw our outbound dates disappearing and it’s never been this busy before so I had no idea about the complications of booking legs separately 😭.
I wonder if I should balance boost enough Avios to ensure I can book the same price/tier return to ensure I get the companion voucher Avios refund. I chose the top tier though not the 30,000 – I won’t be doing that again! 🤦🏼♀️
The balance boost I just did shows in my household account already but not when I go through to book a flight so not sure they will be there tonight when I try which means my only option is the agent 😬
Ok so I logged out and logged back in and now it shows when I get to the flight but this is the part I don’t understand. If I book with just Avios and don’t link to my companion voucher it will cost me 17,500 Avios and £597.20 for my return leg for both of us on an Avios seat.
If I call up and tag onto the companion voucher the lady told me last night it will cost me £750 and 11,250 Avios. So £150 more for a saving of 6,250 Avios and that’s using the second half of the companion voucher (appreciate if I don’t use it I loose it but still should be a benefit).
It doesn’t seem worth all the effort of calling and tagging it – or have I missed something?
Appreciate if I get through I’m more likely to get the seats though.
Thanks for all your advice. I’ll definitely be doing more research for next year!
CPT has become wildly popular recently. People started booking JNB as an alternative but that’s nearly as in-demand now.
Another tip for future reference – if you’re named on each other’s BA accounts, the first one to get through on the phone can ask he agent to hold all your seats. They can differ in levels of helpfulness, so it’s not 100% guaranteed to work, but at least one person has posted here about doing this with 2 vouchers.
When I do a dummy booking with off-peak and peak, this is the range of options I get:
65000 Avios + £ 150.00
52000 Avios + £ 300.00
41250 Avios + £ 450.00
30500 Avios + £ 500.00
22500 Avios + £ 570.00
14450 Avios + £ 620.00The agent should be quoting you similar figures (with the cash amount doubled for 2 people using a 241 voucher) for your total return costing – I’m told the cash element can vary slightly due to taxes in your destination but it shouldn’t be too far off this.
Just to let you know I called BA to double check the tier of my booking to ensure if I did book online I chose the same level to ensure I would get the companion voucher Avios refund. They confirmed that’s no longer a requirement and you can book the return leg at any Avios/£ level and still get the refund so long as it’s booked in the same name and has the same passengers. So I don’t need to buy any extra Avios as I have enough for the lowest level. 🤞🏻 for tonight 🙏
Unfortunately, as I posted earlier, this depends on the agent you get – so as happened when your husband booked the return leg, the agent you get could well insist you use the same ratio. Most people on this thread have been told they need to use the same ratio on both sectors, so you’re largely at the mercy of whoever takes you call tonight if you don’t have the right number of avios!
I don’t believe it matters for when/if they take the call tonight as then they can manually adjust the Avios if they need to like they did last night. The agent I spoke to said most agents like to ensure it’s the same, when they manually book. However she said what’s changed recently is that if I book online myself using an Avios only booking, I can get my companion voucher Avios refund regardless of which tier I book. I asked if all agents knew this and she said yes they did. I suppose if I do end up booking online and if they don’t honour it I’ll keep calling back until I find her again 🙈.
How do you manage to get anyone on the phone at 12 UTC? I have been calling as early as 11:35 and I can’t get through till long after 12:00
I have tried the executive club silver and blue US number. Is there a better number to call?
I only once got through when I called at about 11:30 and I got through immediately but it was too early and I was asked to call back
I called the Australian number using Viber Out. Some people phone Japan
Well thank you for all your help but after all that the BA website crashed for 3 hours last night from around 10-1245. I stayed up and kept trying every minute as the ladies on the phone said they couldn’t get in either so no point calling until it was up and running again. When I saw it was working (20 seconds after I last tried) I immediately tried to book the flights using just Avios, all the seats were showing as available so my hopes were high. All my passenger and payment info had been preloaded so it took me seconds and I clicked on make booking and got as far as the payment authentication step where the website froze and I never got any further. At the same time I called BA but by the time I got through all the seats had gone. As a back up me and my daughter are booked from Joberg one day after my husband and sons fly direct from CPT. After staying up for 2 nights and doing all my research I’m gutted and exhausted 😞. No idea how people managed to nab it before me 🤷♀️
I’d be interested in looking at alternative options now as just not sure the stress of this is worth it.
Before reading on –
***SeatSpy (though not always accurate) is currently showing 1 economy seat from CPT on Feb 19th and 1 in PE on the 20th. Could you use your voucher to get 50% off your seat, and book a separate cash ticket for your daughter? How old is she? Or -call BA and ask for daughter to be added to your husband’s booking, if he’s returning on that date, and book yourself a cash ticket.***
That must be incredibly frustrating. I’m half-assuming you have family in SA and that’s why you go each year? You also mentioned a holiday to Boston in the summer, so I don’t know if booking cash fares or a BAH for you and your daughter is an option for CPT, and use your voucher for the summer holiday instead? BOS usually has very good availability.
Another option might be looking at whether your avios would cover QR flights CPT-DOH-LHR if getting to JNB is going to cause you a lot of inconvenience. You could still get some use out of the other half of your voucher on a future trip; if you decide to do this post back here and we can direct you to info on how this would work!
*And just to confirm, those avios seats are available atm on ba.com. Also a couple on the 17th, though on different departures.
I didn’t know there were 2 flights per day, there must really be a lot of people wanting those seats!
Thank you for all your help.
Yes my Dad is in Cape Town and my Aunt is in Boston. We visit both every year but have always got better value for money using the vouchers for the CT route, it’s always been a competitive route but never this bad.
My husband is on the flight home on 21st and as we are visiting for half term we don’t want to leave much earlier so the current available seats don’t work. Also my daughter is 2 so I definitely can’t fly without her 🤣. If one seat becomes available though I will look to put her with my husband if I can.
I called BA who said they couldn’t link an internal CPT-JBG flight with my JBG – LHR flight and if anything happens to that leg and I miss it I’d have to buy a new ticket as it’s an Avios booking. I know lots of people do it but it feels very risky to me not having linked bookings.
My gut feel is I cancel the Joberg flight today so I’m not charged £70 and I hope more seats are released (unlikely though) or I book to come home on Quatar or emirates and at least the bookings are linked. Assume I can’t use my companion return leg for that though? Can I use it for other trips in the future?
I have seen a cheaper way of booking onto my husbands flight with BA through last minute.com but he thinks that’s dodgy and we should just wait and see what comes up. We don’t plan on changing or cancelling anything once we are locked in so I’d happily take the risk to know I’m sorted and coming home.
Think we will definitely use companion vouchers for Boston after next year to save all the stress. Our kids will be older so we can fly to CPT in 2 legs to save money. Our Amex’s are all set up to issue the vouchers in Feb so I’ll need to reassess that when I have the headspace. I also need to look at ways we can earn more Avios as I don’t think we are maximising it at the moment other than spending on Amex. Shame it’s become this tricky 😔
Thanks again for all your help! By the way – all the agents have confirmed the companion refund of Avios regardless of tier so I do think that’s confirmed now which is good for booking return legs without calling up! 😃
The prospect of having to fly home from JNB separately with a small child does sound stressful, tbh! You can’t use the voucher on QR, but yes, you can use it on another trip, subject to certain restrictions. Probably best to wait until you know exactly what you’re doing to start getting your head around that, though. Also – are your vouchers from the free or paid Amexes, as this will determine how long you have to use them?
You definitely have to re-assess strategies when you’ve got kids and need to travel in school holidays! That’s actually what got me into HFP; we were spending a fortune on European holidays in the summer, but flying LCC and not even staying anywhere very nice (as were all our friends, only they carried on as they weren’t interested in the points game). Once I learned how to collect enough avios and maximise the 241, we spent 2-3 weeks each August in America and the Caribbean instead, flying in business class and supplementing our apartment stays with a few nights in 5* hotels!
You could also use the vouchers on BA to get you to DOH, which usually has good availability, then continue on QR (bearing in mind the connection wouldn’t be protected so might require a stopover.)
@montgomery2205 – SeatSpy is showing 2 economy seats from CPT on Mon Feb 23rd – just after the end of half term when everyone must want to fly home. Might be an option for you and the 2 year old?
@montgomery2205 – SeatSpy is showing 2 economy seats from CPT on Mon Feb 23rd – just after the end of half term when everyone must want to fly home. Might be an option for you and the 2 year old?
@NorthernLass – but then the 2-yr old might miss out on her Grade 9 GCSE in the future because of this! ;o))I just “extended” the Oct. half term by one day for LHR-BOS in PE and saved GBP500 between the two of us!
I thought I knew all I needed to know on this subject however there’s always a wrinkle somewhere that defeats most of us! So, we have a 241 booking coming up shortly with on two pnrs and I asked a previous question on this, thanks for that advice.
Now we may need to not fly the last domestic uk sector but probably won’t know until after we’ve flown the outbound sector on the first PNR.
We won’t be able to fly HBO so need to either cancel the final domestic sector, possible after flying outbound? Or short check baggage?Hope @montgomery2205 is checking back …
https://www.headforpoints.com/2025/03/06/british-airways-adds-cape-town-flights/
Oh wow! I did check back but only just now and looks like any additional seats added have gone! 😭Although there are some business class seats on the 10pm flight the same evening my husband is flying on the 21st – he is on the 6:25. Sadly we can’t afford it though. I couldn’t sleep last night after all the stress and luckily had already cancelled the joberg flight so I tried one last time and managed to get on the Monday night flight, the agent told me I had called in too early at 11:48 and I just begged her and she reluctantly gave in as I think she remembered me from the last 2 nights prior 🙈. Not ideal I am going back on a Monday night (god knows what I say to work on that one) but thankfully my daughter isn’t in school yet so doesn’t matter for her. I’m more settled than I was about the situation now. I Wish I had looked a few hours earlier though and seen your article! What are the chances. Is there a way to turn notifications on for this forum?
Is seat spy the best one to register with for seat notifications. I’m keen to try and swap if a couple of seats ever do come up on the Saturday or Sunday flight. At least I now have a year to look and hope 🙏
No notification system, but it often pays to check back. SeatSpy is probably the best, but there can be a delay in sending alerts so you can end up finding seats yourself before you get notified. It took 36 hours once for them to send me a Virgin alert!
Hi, my wife and I are travelling together.
1. Is it possible to book the return 2-4-1 leg (365 days out) using my avios account as I have lots of Avios and then combine that booking with my Wife’s booking (she has the outbound already booked on her 2-4-1 voucher but not enough avios for the 180,000 required for the return)
2. Would I still get half the avios back when I phone to stitch the booking together or does the return booking have to be done under the same name/account?
I cannot find a definitive answer in the thread apologies if it is in there somewhere.
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