-
Hi All,
Still very new to this game so would appreciate any advice.
After Rob’s excellent post yesterday I thought I’d try book our honeymoon next year in San Jose (Costa Rica) with the same trick.
Departure: Tuesday 9th July Madrid to San Jose
Return: Thursday 25th July
Business Class with Avios (inc 241 voucher)We would get connecting flights from London to Madrid on Monday 8th July, Return 26th July. Stay a night in Madrid each time.
Q1. Is it best to book like this, and get the connecting flights separately? Trying to avoid passenger duty so don’t want to mess that up. I think we’re okay about not having luggage transferred though, since we’d stay a night in Madrid each time?
Q2. I can’t see any availability. I’m new to this – have we missed the boat for those dates? We’re happy to move our honeymoon later in the year if e.g. they come out 12 months in advance and you have to be quicker than we have been.
Q3. Am I doing the right thing using BA.com and ‘book with avios’ if I want to use the 241 voucher? I can see 2 seats are available on Iberia.com ‘book with avios’ but can you use the voucher this way?
Many thanks!
Q1 – to avod the long haul APD there would need to be more than 24 hours between scheduled landing in MAD and then the departure to San Jose. Which is possible but I don’t know how that would affect either the avios required or the cash component.
On the return you could see if you can book San Jose-MAD-LON as one trip so no need to stop over in MAD and your bags would be interlined.
Q3 You can only use the 2-4-1 when booking via BA.
Q1 – to avod the long haul APD there would need to be more than 24 hours between scheduled landing in MAD and then the departure to San Jose. Which is possible but I don’t know how that would affect either the avios required or the cash component.
On the return you could see if you can book San Jose-MAD-LON as one trip so no need to stop over in MAD and your bags would be interlined.
Q3 You can only use the 2-4-1 when booking via BA.
Thank you for the super speedy replies!
Q1 Very useful to know thanks. The 24 hours makes it tricky – wedding is on 7th July, and the San Jose flight is 12:10 Madrid on 9th July. So would have to be a pretty early London flight to be within 24 hours.
Could leave London on the morning of the 9th and fly Madrid to San Jose on the 10th though. So do I just go through BA and book it all as one booking?
We also have another 241 voucher and a Barclays upgrade voucher if that somehow helps.
Q3: Makes sense thanks – is there any reason the flights are appearing on Iberia.com but not BA.COM then?
Just to clarify not to be charged the long haul APD the MAD – San Jose flights needs to be more than 24 hours later if you wanted the LHR- MAD on the same booking,
If the LHR-MAD is a separate booking the the gap doesn’t matter for the MAD – San Jose flight as you’d be departing from Spain so no UK APD
Sorry can’t help re the availability issue.
If you don’t see the availability now for July, you probably missed out. You might be lucky later if someone cancels.
Those flights (MAD-SJO-MAD) are definitely showing on both the BA and Iberia sites. 2 award seats left in business on each day.
You are checking for the right San Jose, aren’t you?
Chat thread – Tuesday 5th September
Well, quite – I think the relevant question we need
to ask the OP here is: Do you know the way to San José?!Be careful with this one – if OP follows the advice of Ms Dionne Warwick his destination will be California!
I think it’s 24 hours from Tulsa.
Seriously though the OP should check they are searching for the right one!
California Dreaming, maybe!
Just to clarify not to be charged the long haul APD the MAD – San Jose flights needs to be more than 24 hours later if you wanted the LHR- MAD on the same booking,
If the LHR-MAD is a separate booking the the gap doesn’t matter for the MAD – San Jose flight as you’d be departing from Spain so no UK APD
Sorry can’t help re the availability issue.
Thank you so much! Can’t figure out how to select it all but will give it a try later. I assume they’re pretty cooperative on the phone if you try and arrange this all, so will get them to compare options if I call up instead!
Those flights (MAD-SJO-MAD) are definitely showing on both the BA and Iberia sites. 2 award seats left in business on each day.
You are checking for the right San Jose, aren’t you?
Oh my god – I was about to type back ‘I was double checking this and I was choosing the one that said ‘CA’ – but I have indeed been choosing the wrong one! It is coming up now – many thanks
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
