I got myself caught in a nice Catch-22 situation here:
I'm a US-based EC member and I'm trying to book an ex-UK roundtrip. The current lowest fare (for my dates, destination, etc.) is in "N" class. Expertflyer says that there are at least 9 seats available in "N" class -- in other words, it's wide open -- on both legs. This has been confirmed by a travel agent and BA phone agents in the US as well.
When I try to book online, however, ba.com defaults to "N" class in the outbound and "S" class (a higher fare) on the return, thus giving me a higher fare than available. I can get the lower fare on the phone, but then the agent wants to charge me the $20 phone fee, despite the website sorrows.
As an aside, when I price this online, I'm going through the ba.com US site, but the price comes back in GBP. The phone agent alleges that the engine pricing the ticket is UK-based and sees different availability.
Interestingly, I can get the lower fare on Expedia (and others), but I want to book at BA.com for two reasons:
- To get 2.5 points per mile on my BA credit card
- To be able to MFU later, if I decide to
Any ideas on how to proceed? Thanks.
PS: I was able to price the lower "N" fare fine last night. The problem began today when I was ready to purchase. This fare does not have an advance purchase requirement, so it's not it -- besides, the problem is on the return leg, so it wouldn't be that anyway.