msm2000uk

Dear all,

My father is needed in Limossol for a business meeting, and as such has asked me to investigate how to get from NCE to Larnaca (the airport which seems to serve Limossol)

He will need to go via LHR, and the whole trip will need to be in Club to ensure he receives the extra TP's.

I have looked online and have found a price of circa £1,300 which seems phenomenally expensive.

He is looking to leave NCE on 14th November, head to Limossol on 15th, return to LHR on 18th, and then back to NCE on 22nd

So with the above in mind, is there anyone who could assist?

Many thanks all

M

TravellingSalesman

The only BA option I can see comes in at just under 1000 Euros, but involves a night stop at LHR:

Other options include Swiss and Austrian, much shorter travel times, also around 1k Euros in Business.

I can't seem to find any sensible oneworld alternatives, e.g. IB connections come in around 3k Euros...

corporate-wage-slave

BA offers cheaper CE flights that involve a Saturday night away, unfortunately they are not all combinable / displayable online.

So you can book two sets of tickets for these dates at £300 (NCE) + £580 (LCA) = £880 but you have some risk here by nesting these tickets if the NCE-LHR service goes kaput.

If he uses the Gatwick service to LCA on 14 to 19 November, he will save a further £230, to give a total around £650.

This is the sort of thing that either an experienced human travel agent can sort out, or alternatively a call to a BA Service Centre may well eke out a similar or better fare if you get an experienced agent on the line. However I can't see the latter suggesting nested tickets. Part of the problem with the schedule as originally given is that you have one, maybe two stopovers, rather than connections, which tends to push prices up.

ENTP

The desired overnight stays in London should mitigate any risk in nesting tickets as suggested by corporate-wage-slave

Cymro

I've not priced this but if the TP are the main reason for choosing CE, might he not do better overall by flying ET and using the saving towards a proper TP run?

msm2000uk

An overnight in London was always necessary irrespective of the fact it reduces the price.

ThanksCWS for the Gatwick pricing - I hadn't considered flying from LGW.

Although LCA might seem like an odd TP destination, it brings in 160 TPs return.

Calchas

Except for intra-Spain domestic legs, IB metal is, in my limited experience, generally not combinable with BA metal on intra-Europe BA J fares. (Irritatingly many exotic routes on mixed IB/BA metal are permitted on discount Y fares!) Even full J BA fares are often tightly route restricted ("LON-BA-LCA" only).

If you are looking on ITA Matrix, you can try and force it, at which point you will see your itinerary is constructed of very expensive "YY CIF" fares, issued by IATA instead of an airline. I don't believe BA will honour those.

You could also construct an itinerary by nesting tickets and accepting the misconnect risk.

To be frank the best bet is to take the LHR connection as it is and get your tier points another day.

msm2000uk

Sorry to he ignorant. but what are 'nesting tickets'?

Herman ze German

nesting means that you buy 2 Tickets and then fly the 1st sector of each Ticket before starting with any 2nd sector.

i.e. you buy NCE-LHR-NCE on one Ticket and LHR-LCA-LHR on another Ticket. you then fly
NCE-LHR
--LHR-LCA
--LCA-LHR
LHR-NCE

the downside is that if you miss your connection it is your problem, not the Airlines

corporate-wage-slave

That's absolutely right. Another common situation on a regular route, bearing in mind the Saturday Night Rule, is where you have two tickets, say NCE-LGW1 and LGW-NCE2, both overlapping a Saturday night, but where you don't actually spend Saturday in London:

NCE-LGW1
- LGW-NCE2
[Saturday night]
- NCE-LGW2
LGW-NCE1

No longer needed in ET in Europe (with a few exceptions such as MAD and DME), but it works on long haul and CE.

MrSimonR

The way to truly maximise TPs to LCA is to use RJ via AMM, or BA/CY via TLV, or QR via DOH or BA/S7 via DME.

For through fares, BA actually offers the lowest fare (£680 in I class) for NCE-LCA, cheaper than LH/OS etc.

jbfield

What about routing via TXL and VIE on Airberlin & Niki?

MrSimonR

The OP wants a night stop (well 4 nights stop actually) on the return. You can't help a night stop (until S15) if connecting from a LCA-LHR/LGW flight, unless you consider a 2am arrival at LGW and a 7am onward a direct connection.

For the dates given, the BA fare is just over £900, with a nice easy transfer at LHR on the way out (arr 1000, dep 1145), which is the cheapest and best option and not bad for 240 TPs.

MrSimonR

1. AB doesn't fly to LCA from TXL, only HG from VIE (and no same day connections from NCE)
2. No J class on HG (or AB)
3. 20 TPs NCE-VIE-LCA vs 120 TPs on BA (he's have to fly 6 times for the same TP benefit)
4. Pitiful level of avios (about 450 one-way, vs 7000 on BA)
5. 3 hours on a LCC - ouch

5 reasons just to start with.

nux

Surely the best way to maximise TP's for a NCE to LCA trip is a DONE6 or AONE6..