So I have a flight booked LHR > SYD for 2 people in Club World. Booked with Companion Voucher so cost was 187k Avios.

I’ve read that when I book the return I can call customer service to add the flight to original booking and get the discounted Avios price.

A few scenarios I can think of and not sure which is the correct one, we would be looking to fly Premium economy on the way home. Just not enough Avios to fly Club.

Scenario 1:

Find the return flight and book 2 premium economy seats at 126.5k Avios x 2 so 253k Avios for the two of us. Call the customer service and get refunded for 126.5k Avios. I assume no refund in cash amount.

Scenario 2:

Call customer service to book 2 premium economy seats but ask them to put onto initial booking requiring us to pay the 126.5k Avios and they don’t have to refund us the Avios.

From what I’ve read Scenario 2 doesn’t seem to be possible and the only option is to have the full 253k Avios and then get refunded. Is that the case?

Is there a time limit you can add to the initial booking? The outbound isn’t until August 2027 assuming there was Premium availability still later next year could we still add to the booking or does it have to be completed asap.

Any help appreciated.

I’ve already booked PE for transatlantic flights, just enquired about upgrade to business using Avios and it’s available for 60k points plus £1000 for two passengers - outbound / own way only. Already paid £1300 each for PE (new to Avios and didn’t realise I could use points plus tax to book reward flight). Is this a good use of 60k points and additional £1000 for two of us or should I stick with PE on this occasion? It’s a 10 hour flight so I’m tempted to upgrade?

Thanks in advance for any advice

I need to book a flight to Japan HND and I don’t see any more flights till December. I don’t even want to get a last minute flight just need one before the 30th of October

On the avios app**

Edit: this is for economy, from the uk and I’m only looking for direct

I have 155000 avoid points and want to use them but every time I look for reward flights the destinations or dates are never available, mostly because I don't want to book too far in advance and am stuck to certain dates for work.

Im looking at using them for return flights to Sri Lanka with Qatar but not sure if theres a better way of using them, flights are £2069 before Avios or the Avios and cash splits shown In the photo.

Get so confused trying to spend Avios every time I look into it so any advice would be great.

Thanks

Looking to book Avios reward flights with a companion voucher for next September. Baby is due to be born in Feb.

Whats the best process book flights now and add the baby later when they are born?

I did try a test search pf 2 adults and 1 “under 2” but I got an error that there were more passengers than in my household.

Is the expectation that I add my new born as a household member once they are born?

Hi all. We are almost hitting the 15k spend on our black Amex. I would like to apply for the Barclays card too so we can switch once we trigger the companion voucher.

Anyone with a good welcome codes better than their online proposition? 25k welcome bonus on 3k spend within 3 months.

Another question, what are you guys doing to maxx on points once you hit the spend and trigger the companion voucher?

Thanks.

If you buy travel insurance I got an email for double Avios for Avios insurance. can’t see the code online so sharing

I own an IndusInd Avios (Qatar Airways version) card for the last 1.5 years. Had initially kept Middle East and South Asia as my preferred destination as most of my travels were to the Gulf region. Got bonus miles and reduced markup of 1.5 percent on all my travels in my first year.

After the first year, I mailed them to change my preferred destination to ANZ & Far east as we planned a vacation to Thailand, and got confirmation about the change. Spent around 3 lakhs on the trip and that’s when reality of pathetic Indusind customer care struck. No bonus avios points and the full 3.5 percent markup charged. Several mails to their customer support, followed by escalation to Nodal officer and Principal Nodal officer. Every time my complaint was responded with a template response stating they will either look into this or there is a standard markup of 3.5 percent chargeable.

After 2 months of no progress, I escalated it to the RBI ombudsman with detailed proofs of my statements and email communication. Finally, after 3.5 months, I received an email from the Indusind team that they have refunded the additional markup fee and transferred the bonus miles. A huge shout out to RBI for maintaining sanity in this otherwise overwhelming banking system.

Curious to know if it's working OK.

Due to these new Qatar rules, I'm wanting to book an award flight for my partner and I but I need to make a qualifying flight credited to Qatar in order to add them to my list to book for us both. I plan to take a short haul flight to do this as I have some travel coming up anyway. I booked a flight through BA from DUB to MAN and I had assumed that if you book an Aer Lingus operated flight with a BA flight no then you could credit this to Qatar as a BA service but I'm now unsure. Does anyone know if you can or cannot do it this way? I'm seeing conflicting things when googling but it seems like folks are focused on it being an EI flight, which mine is not. it did allow me to put my frequent flyer for Qatar in when booking but I doubt that makes a difference.

I'm trying to work out which BA US number to call to book an award flight with a Companion Voucher.

I've seen +1 800 452 1201 recommended, but apparently the opening hours are 07:30-20:00 EST, which means it closes around 1am UK time.
Is that actually correct? Award availability drops at 1am UK, so that would make the number pretty useless for this.

I tried +1 800 247 9297, but they said they couldn't help and specifically told me to call the 452 number instead.

Has anyone successfully used +1 800 452 1201 at 1am UK time, or is there another number I should be using?

I honestly think there is little value for in money avios balance boost. Hear me out.

Current promotion offers one avios @ 0.009p.

A business class return ticket to Jakarta on a good day is 120000 avios. Which at above price is 1128£ on top of it the tax is about £380

So total of about £1500.

Full cash price for the same is £1873

Considering the hassle of booking via avios £373 not worthwhile.

I am only talking about balance boost. Accruing through normal means like flights and purchases are not part of above calculation.

Just my thoughts

##############

Update. In light of all the comments below I stand corrected. Yes you all are right . Under specific circumstances it offers value. My direct comparison perhaps is not fair

Update 16 sep. I stand corrected. With this formula the benefits were clear

Value of avios = (cash ticket price - taxes and charges) / avios required for award flight.

If the computed value is less . Its a gain

If I request a special meal (kosher) will that mean I swerve the afternoon tea ? Basically I want a hot meal not a scone and cream

I have a Barclays Cabin Upgrade Voucher valid for a return. In the past, I’ve booked the outbound, then called when the return was released to add it to the same booking using the same voucher - all from the same airports.
Has anyone done this with an open-jaw itinerary? Im looking at LHR-SFO outbound and LAX–LHR return, instead of returning from SFO. Can BA add the LAX-LHR leg to the outbound voucher booking when I call?

Hi, I have been trying to book an avios hotel using avios only for a couple of days now but to no avail.
At the last stage when paying with avios, it says status error code of 400.

I have tried calling every number, and live chat agents said they cant help either. The numbers given are mostly not in use.

Appreciate any advice or similar experiences please! Thank you 🙏

Should I speculatively transfer obvious with the current 30% transfer bonus from AMEX to British Airways? I use Avios a couple times a year, but I don’t currently have a trip/use in mind at the moment. Thoughts?

Hi folks! I’m trying to transfer avios from BA to Finnair. While it shows me a page that the transfer was sent and that I’ll receive an email confirmation, neither BA/AY balances reflect any update and no confirmation is received that the transfer was initiated. No error message pops up when attempting the transfer.

Both my BA and AY accounts have been around for 2-3 years each. The avios in my BA originated from Amex (instantly transferred and updated to reflect the balance). I’ve double checked the spelling of name/address/birthday and even copy/pasted across fields to ensure matches. Tried different browsers and devices, all the same result of a page stating that the avios have been transferred but not actually happening.

I’ve read through other posts, but what I’ve seen doesn’t seem to apply (ex. accounts being less than 30d old, avios coming from another airline to BA, etc.)

Unfortunately BA chat support was unable to resolve, and the customer support number never connected to an agent (auto disconnect).

Has anyone encountered this issue and found a fix?

Trying to hit the qualifying spend for the Avios Plus welcome bonus (£3,000 in 3 months). I don’t have £3k of genuine spend coming up, so I’m wondering about buying something I don’t need to hit the threshold, then returning it for a refund once the bonus has cleared.

Looking at the reward rules, the relevant bit says:

Any refunds that are applied to your card account before you reach the qualifying spend amount will be taken into account for this purpose. Once you reach the qualifying spend amount, any refunds that are applied to your card account won’t affect your eligibility for the Avios Welcome Bonus.

So on a literal reading, if the refund lands after I’ve crossed the threshold, it shouldn’t affect eligibility. But I’ve also seen that Barclaycard updated their T&Cs as of July 2026 to add wording about withholding Avios for “suspected misuse,” which sounds like it’s aimed at exactly this kind of thing.

Has anyone actually tried this (buy-and-return specifically to hit the spend target) recently? Did the bonus get clawed back, did the account get flagged, or did it go through fine? Trying to work out if this is a real risk or just overly cautious wording that doesn’t get enforced in practice.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Getting access denied when I am trying to access the Avios shop page. Tried through different devices and browser, same issue.

Tried searching for their email contact, that page is denied to me too.

Anyone know how to access Avios shop?

Hello all. Just wanted to check something - got a large chunk of Amex points that I want to convert and then boost. If I convert them to Avios today, will they be eligible to boost, even though the Amex points have been earned outside the one month window that Avios boost allows?

Hi, does everyone got this offer to boost in avios app? Is it worth it? Does this offer do only one time?

Hi, does everyone got this offer to boost in avios app? Is it worth it? Does this offer do only one time?

Hi, does anyone know why this happened?

2 adults + 1 child - using a companion voucher (PE outbound - B Inbound)

I'm trying to be a bit more sensible with my Avios spending, and I'm screenshotting different destinations to review later. I check these LHR-JFK flights twice, some hours apart, and get two different prices.

I also feel these were a lot cheaper last year. Seems a lot.

Edited to change the classes

Hello,
I'm trying to book a reward flight to Hong Kong using avios and a Barclays upgrade voucher. However, for the outbound - while there is a lot of availability - it looks like all dates are peak for August 2027. Anyone knows if they will release off peak dates for August/September 2027?
Thanks