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Old 20 Apr 20, 01:38 PM  
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#11
stanleycamel
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Originally Posted by Ladyshopper View Post
I'm sure I read on Head For Points recently about booking the outbound then calling up and booking the inbound when it was released not being such a good deal any more, but I may have remembered that wrong.

Head For Points is a great site though, I'd highly recommend the Avios Redemption University articles that Rob is currently re-running, they'll tell you all you need to know.

I managed to book a one way flight from Miami to Panama City to join a cruise we've booked for 11,000 avios each and only £5.50 tax each, and that includes luggage! Very happy with that. Also easy to cancel if needed (if this lockdown continues for example!).
There was a period where various points websites, HfP being one of them, recommended booking the outbound on one PNR using the voucher, booking the return under another PNR using Avios then phoning BA to get them to apply the voucher across both flights and then refund the Avios for the return leg. This works but you can end up paying more in taxes, fees and charges with no refund as there is no recalculation - this is particularly relevant for US/Canadian flights.

Edited at 09:32 PM.
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Old 21 Apr 20, 10:25 AM  
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tonymc
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Managed to book our two Club World seats for our return Sydney-Heathrow flight at 01:00 this morning. Just now need to try and contact BA to add on the Manchester flight when released tomorrow, and hopefully have the companion voucher applied to the booking to halve the Avios.

Just something I noticed when I called the USA phone number yesterday is that all calls appear to be routed to the UK call centre, as the opening times were 03:00-17:00 Eastern Standard Time, which coincides with the UK opening times, so you may not be able to call them as soon as seats are released.
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Old 21 Apr 20, 10:41 AM  
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stanleycamel
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Originally Posted by tonymc View Post
Managed to book our two Club World seats for our return Sydney-Heathrow flight at 01:00 this morning. Just now need to try and contact BA to add on the Manchester flight when released tomorrow, and hopefully have the companion voucher applied to the booking to halve the Avios.

Just something I noticed when I called the USA phone number yesterday is that all calls appear to be routed to the UK call centre, as the opening times were 03:00-17:00 Eastern Standard Time, which coincides with the UK opening times, so you may not be able to call them as soon as seats are released.

Pleased you got your seats.

Hope this helps anyone trying to contact BA

BA contact centres in the UK opening hours are 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday and 0900 to 1700 Saturday and Sunday at the moment. Some BA staff are contact centre based and some working from home. The contact centres in India and South Africa at the moment are closed due to lockdown.
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Old 21 Apr 20, 10:45 AM  
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Originally Posted by tonymc View Post
Managed to book our two Club World seats for our return Sydney-Heathrow flight at 01:00 this morning. Just now need to try and contact BA to add on the Manchester flight when released tomorrow, and hopefully have the companion voucher applied to the booking to halve the Avios.

Just something I noticed when I called the USA phone number yesterday is that all calls appear to be routed to the UK call centre, as the opening times were 03:00-17:00 Eastern Standard Time, which coincides with the UK opening times, so you may not be able to call them as soon as seats are released.
Well done the UK to Australia club seats are normally like hens teeth so consider yourself a genius.
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Old 21 Apr 20, 11:01 AM  
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sbchannel
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Originally Posted by tonymc View Post
Managed to book our two Club World seats for our return Sydney-Heathrow flight at 01:00 this morning. Just now need to try and contact BA to add on the Manchester flight when released tomorrow, and hopefully have the companion voucher applied to the booking to halve the Avios.

Just something I noticed when I called the USA phone number yesterday is that all calls appear to be routed to the UK call centre, as the opening times were 03:00-17:00 Eastern Standard Time, which coincides with the UK opening times, so you may not be able to call them as soon as seats are released.
That’s fab news! I’m glad you got them!

What the the US number you called?
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Old 21 Apr 20, 02:13 PM  
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Originally Posted by sbchannel View Post
That’s fab news! I’m glad you got them!

What the the US number you called?
Hi - as I mentioned above, it looks as if the earliest you can call is 08:00 UK time (03:00 EST), and it’s a very British accent on the message! The US number was 001-877-767-7970, but may be worth just calling the usual BA UK number as I’m sure it’s only a single call centre dealing with things at the moment.

Originally Posted by stanleycamel View Post
Pleased you got your seats.

Hope this helps anyone trying to contact BA

BA contact centres in the UK opening hours are 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday and 0900 to 1700 Saturday and Sunday at the moment. Some BA staff are contact centre based and some working from home. The contact centres in India and South Africa at the moment are closed due to lockdown.
Thanks for that. At least it’s a bit more relaxed for me now as there is usually plenty of LHR-MAN availability.

Originally Posted by munmun View Post
Well done the UK to Australia club seats are normally like hens teeth so consider yourself a genius.
I was ready and waiting at 01:00 with everything set up - credit card details saved, cc with me for the security code, and contact details already in, so it was simply a case of whizzing through to the payment. Had a few moments of panic when the payment didn’t appear to be going through, but it eventually did and I have my confirmation filed away.

When I booked the outbound flight for 19/03, it was the Monday morning after the clocks went forward, so I was on-line at midnight wondering why it wasn’t letting me book . After about 15 minutes I realised why... !
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Old 21 Apr 20, 02:59 PM  
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Originally Posted by tonymc View Post
Hi - as I mentioned above, it looks as if the earliest you can call is 08:00 UK time (03:00 EST), and it’s a very British accent on the message! The US number was 001-877-767-7970, but may be worth just calling the usual BA UK number as I’m sure it’s only a single call centre dealing with things at the moment.



Thanks for that. At least it’s a bit more relaxed for me now as there is usually plenty of LHR-MAN availability.



I was ready and waiting at 01:00 with everything set up - credit card details saved, cc with me for the security code, and contact details already in, so it was simply a case of whizzing through to the payment. Had a few moments of panic when the payment didn’t appear to be going through, but it eventually did and I have my confirmation filed away.

When I booked the outbound flight for 19/03, it was the Monday morning after the clocks went forward, so I was on-line at midnight wondering why it wasn’t letting me book . After about 15 minutes I realised why... !
Tonymc - there are 2 UK based call centres Newcastle and Manchester plus the staff from there working at home. There is also a limited number of calls fed through to Bremen but thats limited hours and rare that UK calls get to them.

I was once lucky enough to get 2 F return tickets to Sydney using Avios - those were the days

Edited at 03:00 PM.
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Old 23 Apr 20, 07:21 PM  
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Managed to get through to the call centre ... twice in fact (as I got cut off on the first call) - to add on the Manchester flight and get half the Avios refunded for our return flight. At least now we don’t have the hassle of driving back from LHR, only driving there.

Only 10-1/2 months to go!
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Old 23 Apr 20, 09:04 PM  
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Originally Posted by tonymc View Post
Managed to get through to the call centre ... twice in fact (as I got cut off on the first call) - to add on the Manchester flight and get half the Avios refunded for our return flight. At least now we don’t have the hassle of driving back from LHR, only driving there.

Only 10-1/2 months to go!
Sorry, dumb question, how did you get half the Avios refunded for the return flight?
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Old 23 Apr 20, 09:24 PM  
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It was linking the booking to the companion voucher. As I had booked the flight from Aus on-line, I couldn't use the voucher as I was booking another single ticket and you can only use for single flights from the UK, or return flights ex-UK.

Fortunately, we had sufficient Avios across the family account to pay the Avios in full (300,000), and then the agent refunded 150,000 Avios back to my account.
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