How do you book return British Airways Business Class flights to Tokyo for 2 for less than £1150? What do you need to know before you can do this. Here’s useful info that we didn’t know before we booked.
Getting ready to book Tokyo
We transferred all of our air miles to the BA executive club ready to book Tokyo for next March, as soon as the flights were released. Return flights to Tokyo with Club World (Business Class) off-peak is 150,000 miles plus taxes of £572 each. April becomes peak season and you need 165,000 for a return flight then, taxes are the same. We had our British Airways 2-4-1 voucher earned via the BA Amex card. So our actual cost is £0 for miles as they have not been bought, just accrued with normal spending and maximising sign up bonuses. Plus 2 x taxes. So that’s 2 return business class flights for £1,144. How much if we were booking these flights cash? £7,374. Yep, £7,374. That’s over £6,000 more. You see why I love air miles? You can read my Intro to Air Miles article here
How do you book?
Anyway to the booking, this is easily done online. We’ve done it before for San Francisco . You log into your BA Executive club account and the voucher shows up and you choose your flights and hey presto – all booked. Now as I’m a bit of an organiser, I decided to look at the seating plan, yep to see where we would want to sit, on a plane, in a years time. That’s where it went a bit bandy.
Once we decided to save for Tokyo, we looked up on the British Airways website and this is the picture of Club World, which is what BA call long haul Business class. Looks fab right? I could just see me and Mr D on the 12ish hour flight, on our double flat bed being all business classy.
When I looked at the seating plan for our plane though, there were none of these seats, they were all individual cubicles, this was a trip for our Wedding Anniversary so was not keen on sitting like this. Not very sociable or romantic at all.
An important lesson in aircraft type.
A call to BA Executive Club taught me something I didn’t know before. The seat layout depends on the Aircraft, you can find out what Aircraft you will be on after you book. Indeed our flights were only the cubicle layout. So I changed them to World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy), where the seats are together but they don’t lay flat. This meant I got refunded 72,000 miles, (plenty for a few trips to Cyprus) and a couple of hundred pounds (no fee as it was within 24 hours of booking). I was happier with that, ok I didn’t get maximum value from the 2-4-1 voucher but we were still going to Japan, had plenty of Airmiles left and it cost less. Even though BA lounge passes are not included in Premium Economy, that’s fine, a different lounge is easy to book. All good.
What happened next?
Well what should have happened next was nothing, except me getting on with researching hotels, Itinerary and must do’s in Tokyo. What actually happened was me thinking about the long flight with my troublesome back in Premium Economy. This was the picture in my head. For over 12 hours. Each way.
So I phoned the BA Executive Club and the lovely lady there talked me through how to cancel online. I could have cancelled over the phone but there was a small charge for doing it online and an additional charge for doing it over the phone. All the miles, money and 2-4-1 voucher were refunded so we are back to square one, and I am looking forward to starting to plan again now I (think) I have all the relevant information.
What happened here is interesting.
What we wanted was to go to Tokyo, which we could have done. It soon became clearer that there was more to it. What is important to us is not the getting somewhere, it’s the getting there in the way that maximises our Joy. We know what maximises our Joy. Yours may of course be different, as long as you can identify what it is then it’s so important to do what you can to not sacrifice it. It’s not a matter of being picky or not compromising. In these sort of situations where you have a choice then why sacrifice your Joy. Not necessary.
We will get to Tokyo, in the way that we want,somehow. Will keep you posted. Please comment with any tips or advice and let us know your thoughts on this, would you have gone ahead? What wouldn’t you compromise on?
Fancy a trip to Tokyo? Check out the best place for deals and how about travel competitions? Where can you find the best ones all in one place? All the info is in this Mind over Money Matters loves…. Travelscoop post.
Where else can Air Miles take you?
We have booked New York, Cyprus and San Francisco, so have a look at the articles to see what amazing deals we got with our Air Miles.
Two important must read guides are booking flights and hotel separately need to knows and our guide to flight delays and cancellations. Be prepared…
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