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Looking to book the return of a BA companion voucher ticket with Iberia – I appreciate Iberia release availability at 360 days. Is availability also released at midnight, like BA? Just need to check if I need to stay up to call BA at T-360 to put my mind at ease…
We’re travelling with an (as yet) unborn baby, so really keen to bag J class for ourselves, then bag the bassinet seats to the front.
Just to close off my post of yesterday.
Tried again last night and all was completed in line with my previous experiences.
Skyped Exec club blue at 11.45, was answered in a couple of minutes. Mrs AFKAE was on standby as the CV was in her name. She went through security and gave me authority to do the rest.
Explained to Agent what I wanted and she understood, was happy to hold and went through a few bits and pieces, by which time it was almost 12:00. Line went quiet tickets were secured and then went throught all the payment and regulatory stuff. Call was finished by about 12:15. Happy camper.
Just to close off my post of yesterday.
Tried again last night and all was completed in line with my previous experiences.
Skyped Exec club blue at 11.45, was answered in a couple of minutes. Mrs AFKAE was on standby as the CV was in her name. She went through security and gave me authority to do the rest.
Explained to Agent what I wanted and she understood, was happy to hold and went through a few bits and pieces, by which time it was almost 12:00. Line went quiet tickets were secured and then went throught all the payment and regulatory stuff. Call was finished by about 12:15. Happy camper.
Thanks for the update/feedbaxk. So you rang just before midnight as oppose to just before 1am? That’s handy at least
Could you confirm what number/office you rang please?
Just to close off my post of yesterday.
Tried again last night and all was completed in line with my previous experiences.
Skyped Exec club blue at 11.45, was answered in a couple of minutes. Mrs AFKAE was on standby as the CV was in her name. She went through security and gave me authority to do the rest.
Explained to Agent what I wanted and she understood, was happy to hold and went through a few bits and pieces, by which time it was almost 12:00. Line went quiet tickets were secured and then went throught all the payment and regulatory stuff. Call was finished by about 12:15. Happy camper.
Yes, called at 11.45 UK time. Exec blue line +1 800 452 1201.
If you are adding a return leg, always choose change a booking rather than add new booking. An agent once told me that they put the better people on changes as they tend to be more complicated. The newbies go on to new bookings.
Thanks for the update/feedbaxk. So you rang just before midnight as oppose to just before 1am? That’s handy at least
Could you confirm what number/office you rang please?
Just to close off my post of yesterday.
Tried again last night and all was completed in line with my previous experiences.
Skyped Exec club blue at 11.45, was answered in a couple of minutes. Mrs AFKAE was on standby as the CV was in her name. She went through security and gave me authority to do the rest.
Explained to Agent what I wanted and she understood, was happy to hold and went through a few bits and pieces, by which time it was almost 12:00. Line went quiet tickets were secured and then went throught all the payment and regulatory stuff. Call was finished by about 12:15. Happy camper.
Thanks for the update/feedbaxk. So you rang just before midnight as oppose to just before 1am? That’s handy at least
Could you confirm what number/office you rang please?
Thanks AFKAE
Sorry, my brain hurts, re- read that many times. We have a 2 4 1 and 110k in Avios.(Senior Management insists on coming)
Route One and availble CW is 1 Mar 2026 MAD MIA Avios reqd with 2 4 1 42500 + approx £250
Route 2 Approx 15 Mar MIA – MAD – MAN /avios with 2 4 1 57500 & approx £302
Do I phone up BA, now, (or online), book the outbound tell them / use I have a 2 4 1 they then take 42,5 k & £250 off me
In about a weeks time, phone up again, for the inbound (let them know the outbound has already been booked) & they take the other 57.5k & £302
Is there the admin fee?
or is that me being too simplistic!
TIA
I tried calling the US number 11:40, 11:45, 11:50, 11:55 and 11:58 PM.. every time, saying that the contact centre is now closed.. 🙁
@SteveR, if your outbound seats are showing on BA.com, you can just book them online with voucher. It’s only if Iberia has released them at T-360 and they’re not yet showing via BA that you need to call.
For March 15th they should be released by IB tomorrow (?) so you might want to call BA and get them to book this all together? (Unless you’re concerned that the outbound seats will go today?!)
*Obviously if it’s IB, it’s just business class and not CW, in case the agent gets confused.
@NorthernLass Thanks.
Since wrote, not planning on coming back until 20 Mar 2026 Outbound still there
I’m a little bit confused regarding the T-355. I can see that that will be the date for the outbound flight but how do you then book the inbound flight for, say, m7 days later sin ce that will be outside T-355?
TIA
That’s what this entire thread is about, hence the title … 😜
I called lastnight and all I got was this line is closed on the US call centre number online it says it closes at 20:00 or 00:00 gmt so anyone know another way of squaring a circle – need to get back from SA and tickets are like rocking horse xxxx for next March
I can’t find anything specific in the T&Cs, but I assume the return airport doesn’t have to be the same as the departure airport? So this would be a valid 2-4-1 use case? Outbound OTP-LHR-MIA and return MIA-LHR?
Hey all,
I booked the outbound leg to JNB yesterday using my 2-for-1 voucher, but missed out on the return last night – despite staying up until 1am trying with the US BA line (which turns out isn’t open to Blue members or was saying it wasnt).
I called the BA call centre this morning and was told to just book the return leg online using Avios, then call back and they’ll refund 50% of the Avios (to reflect the companion voucher).
Couple of quick questions if anyone knows:
If I book the return separately with Avios, will I have to pay the taxes/fees for 2 people?
Do you get charged taxes/fees for two people even on the outbound when using the 2-for-1?
And if anyone happens to have the US Silver Exec Club number, I’d really appreciate it!
Thanks in advance!
Looking at time zones to call USA this evening it says that the call centre closes at 20:00 ie 00:00 GMT so how do we work that one?
You must know what you were charged on the outbound, but yes, you pay the cash element for both passengers. It’s only the avios part of the ticket which is 241.
Lots on posts on this thread about calling Japan and Australia numbers if the US one is unavailable.Seatspy alerted at 16:29 on availability. Called BA and after 10 mins I realised I need to call another number for avios bookings. Called the correct number and the CSO takes his own sweet time to calculate change in avios mentally, while the seats were gone at 16:50! Frustrating is an understatement!
What was this for? Presumably not something you could do online? 😩
What was this for? Presumably not something you could do online? 😩
Yes, unfortunately it was a change to an existing companion voucher open jaw booking!
For anyone interested, two business seats still available SIN to LHR on 30th Aug!
Slightly niche Iberia companion voucher booking query.
Have already secured Madrid to Tokyo in business class for 2 people by phoning BA at T-360.
Need to phone and do the same when the inbound are released, which is the simple bit. However, would also like to try and add on Madrid – London as well, so it’s all on one ticket. However, by the time the Tokyo flight gets in to Madrid, there are no Iberia flights that evening, so would have to stay the night and fly to London in the morning. There looks like there will be BA flights, however these are only released at T-355 rather than T-360. So, in no particular order, here are some questions if anyone can help with them?
Has anyone added a Madrid-London flight on to the Tokyo-Madrid Iberia flight and how did this effect avios and taxes (bearing in mind we have the 2 for 1 companion voucher)? Probably looking at business like the long haul leg just because we’ll have luggage that would need an additional payment if we went economy.
Due to their not being an Iberia flight the same evening as we get in from Tokyo for the Madrid to London leg, I assume we’d have to stay up until 1am 2 nights in a row – night one to do the Tokyo – Madrid inbound leg, then the 2nd night to add on the Madrid to London leg. Are they then going to charge an amendment fee (and if so what is the fee?) for this even though the Madrid-London leg won’t be available to book at the time we book Tokyo – Madrid? Are we better off trying to get it within 24 hours of each other – for example, night one phone at 1.30am then night two try and get through dead on at 1am to avoid an amendment fee?
If we decided that we DID want to do do a Madrid to London leg on BA rather than Iberia so that we could fly home the same night, then we can’t book this until 5 days after booking the Tokyo – Madrid leg due to BA not releasing until T-355 compared to Iberia flights at T-360, so as per the above question I would assume this incurs an amendment fee? Also, how would this effect avios and taxes for the whole journey, as I’ve read somewhere on this lengthy thread about doing that possibly effecting the RFS status of that flight, so does that change the avios and taxes added on?
We are NOT avios rich unfortunately, hence we’ve gone down the Iberia route for the Madrid – Tokyo route. Obviously we need to source a flight to Madrid in the first place, so will consider whether a cash flight or avios flight is best depending on cash prices. We should have enough to do business back on the Madrid to London leg assuming adding it to the Tokyo – Madrid leg doesn’t give a random huge jump in avios/taxes compared to booking it separately.
Appreciate this is a lot of questions, apologies. Hoping someone can help. I was away when the outbound was released, and my husband had to do a lot of quick learning to try and secure it. He was successful, but it was quite a stressful experience (there was some kind of glitch which he is hoping ISN’T Iberia doing nightly maintenance on the system) which meant that the seats disappeared, then some came back and he was able to secure Premium Economy on the phone, then looked randomly at 4am when he woke up for the loo to find the business class seats back so had to phone back! He was also charged a fee that he shouldn’t have been on the first call, and is waiting to hear back from BA once they’ve listened to the call to see if they’ll refund or not. So, his first experience was not great, and am trying to seek info to make trying to get the inbound seats a bit easier.
I don’t know if anyone would be kind enough to offer a novice some advice?
I want to book Club World returns to Japan, I think Tokyo is the only route (direct), but open to other suggestions.
There are 3 of us (adults) and my wife has a 241 voucher which she could use for here and my daughter.
I have an upgrade voucher (2 actually), so I can use that for myself.
I have plenty of Avios.I understand that this is a popular route and I am looking to book just after Easter, fairly flexible on days to be fair and we are only going for a week.
My concerns are, I need to book the first leg at midnight, 355 days beforehand of course but how to I manage the returns. If I wait for them to be released, I guess the outbounds will have gone?
Maybe there is a section on here about it? Also, it is worth two people doing it at the same time as I am trying to effectively create two bookings?
Appreciate any advice.
Thanks
@Ladyshopper, I don’t think I can absorb your entire post as it’s still quite early where I am, but you should have no problem getting the MAD-LHR leg added once it’s released, and it’s unlikely you’d need to do it at midnight for that route. It will be the standard price for an award seat, and shouldn’t cause the APD to increase as it would if you did it the other way around. Plenty of people have reported doing this since it became possible to use the 241 on IB.
@Noodles34, there is indeed and this thread is it, as the name suggests! Lots of posts about securing seats to and from HND on BA, and NRT, on IB (though you can’t use the upgrade voucher on the latter, and they don’t guarantee to release more than 2 business class seats).
Also, e.g.
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/tokyo-reward-flights/
Also this and similar articles:
https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/03/11/how-to-use-ba-amex-241-voucher/
Phoned yesterday at 8am on the “normal” number as the lines opened to get my return flights from KUL next march ,completely painless….
@Ladyshopper here is some advice: For the inbound to MAD you probably don’t need to be on the phone during the night as Iberia flights are often released not until 10am – so you want to check a few days before you want to book when the award seat appear. For the MAD-LON leg you will need to phone again but there is no urgency as short haul usually have space. I think you want an Iberia flight, not BA as the BA flight may be much more expensive in Avios and fees. Also, we did the last leg MAD-LHR in economy, but which only saved us around 60£ in Avios (I assume). I now slightly regret it because it now uses the Iberia long-haul plane with a proper lie flat in Business. However, we may me seated in PE as there is usually no PE on the route.
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