MaximusDecimusMeridius

In the next day or two I shall be buying BA WT+ tickets from LHR to BOS return. Could someone advise me regarding Avios?:

If I buy the tickets with BA direct I will get the Avios but if I buy via lastminute.com (the price is identical) I can get Virgin miles at 2 miles/£. But will this result in less Avios being awarded by BA if I do not purchase direct from BA? These tickets are non-flexible reduced rate tickets so I realise the Avios will be awarded at a reduced rate with BA.

I was hoping to bag Avios, Virgin miles and Amex MR points all in one!

TIA

irishguy28

It doesn't matter where you buy your airline ticket. Avios and TPs will be awarded on the basis of the fare class and route - the provenance of the ticket has no bearing on this.

olybeast

You are probably thinking about hotel bookings. Often 3rd party hotel bookings mean you don't get the hotel points.

This doesn't happen on BA. You will get the TPs and avios due

SteveF

If you book throught Lastminute don't they become your travel agent and therefore your point of call for changes and delays, etc.?

If so, I would avoid them like the plague, especially if the price is identical, for the following reasons:

1) Last year I booked internal flights in Mexico through Expedia, which led to a nightmare day and muchos expense when trying to reschedule a flight which was cancelled by Aeromexico the day before the flight. Aeromexico would not talk to me because I had used a travel agent (Expedia) and I had to call the UK and then speak to numerous agents at Expedia's Indian call centre at all hours of the day and night.

2) We were stranded in the Maldives for a week during the Icelandic volcano fiasco. We were flying on BA tickets booked through BA (actually reward tickets on a 2-4-1) and they paid for absulutely everying without any quibbling, including one week full board in a resort island close to Male (understandably they would not pay for the Conrad Rangali) and 50% off our bar bill . Everone we spoke to who were on travel agent tickets were not so lucky, including someone on our (eventual) flight home who was whinging to a member of cabin crew that BA did nothing for her and was told that she should speak to her travel agent regarding compensation.

nux

All published tickets will earn avios/TP's according to the BAEC earning structure.

However there are consolidator/unpublished fares sold that are not eligible for avios/TP earn sold by third party travel agents. I am not sure if lastminute.com sells these, however as the OP's flight price is identical as BA is showing it will certainly be a published fare.

Yes, and I echo your suggestion of avoiding using an OTA unless the price is much cheaper.

Swiss Tony

SteveF is correct especially with regard to changes in advance, but point (2) is slightly misleading.

I was also affected by the ash cloud on BA tickets booked through Expedia. BA handled all the compensation matters after the event, not expedia.

The TA mess comes when it's an all-inclusive booking (so flight & hotels together).

What's your upside - 4,000 VS miles? So about £50? I might be tempted, given the very small risk you take in going through lastminute.com

SteveF

Point taken, although in our case BA handled it during the crisis rather than after the event, so we didn't actually have to pay anything (apart from our $500 share of the bar bill) and worry about whether we would get some, all or none of it back later. All I did was speak to BA and they gave us the option of staying where we were (and they would give us $200 per day) or moving to a resort of their choice closer to the airport in which case they would handle everything directly with the resort.

Swiss Tony

Unfortunately BA weren't so helpful for us. No guidance as to what we would be entitled to reclaim and no help at all in getting us back across Europe (although presumably it made more sense to focus the effort on people in your position). My reading of the situation was that this had nothing to do with booking via Expedia...

MaximusDecimusMeridius

Thanks everyone.

I noted when I booked VS flights earlier in the year that lastminute.com took longer to notify me of a flight change (I found out about it 24 hours earlier through Virgin Atlantic when i called about another issue and it was mentioned in passing by the VA rep).

But missing out on 4000 Virgin Atlantic Flying miles for free makes me thinks the risk is worth it to Boston- they have 4 flights a day to BOS.

As an aside, does anyone know if all BA B777s will be fitted with the new WT+ seats by October? I know the B777-ERs already are. And are BA planning on the WT+ upgrade on their B747s also?

cazoz

No I don't think they are upgrading WTP in the 747s.

So avoid those in WTP definitely - WTP might just be the class with the biggest gap in terms of old and new product on 747 and 773.

Jetstreamer

Just out of interest, how do you get 4000 flying club miles flying BA booking through lastminute.com? I initially though credit card miles but then you’d get them booking via BA as well wouldn't you

Roger

One thing to remember when booking through lastminute.com is that they add (or used to add) a surcharge for paying by credit card. This may or may not be higher than BAs surcharge.

OTOH booking with LM using the Tesco link http://www.tescotravelstore.com/ earns Tesco Clubcard points at 1/£ (or used to).

I say 'used to' as I haven't used them for some time following a bad experience some years ago. They may be better now.

MaximusDecimusMeridius

You get 2 miles per £ spent via lastminute.com using Virgin Atlantic "Shops Away". £2000 on BA tickets = 4000 Virgin miles.

Jetstreamer

Ah ok, thanks. This is quite useful to know

inasmuchas

You might want to double check this... I'm seeing 2 miles per £ spent on 'City Breaks' and 'Holidays', so if it's a package you're purchasing (flights + hotel and / or hire car) then you should get your 2 miles per £.

For flights only, it appears to be 1 mile per £ spent.