My Other Trip Reports
Dec 2009
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...y-its-big.html
Oct 2010
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...lgw-ex-eu.html
British Airways 1200 Tier Points Run – using American Airlines
After a ‘dry run’ some months ago I was itching to do a little more. The BA tier point runs thread has been very busy recently with many questions being repeats of what is already inside this goldmine of a thread.
After some serious reading and my previous Tier Point runs I thought I’d used some of the newer data being brought up by
pinkcat and others to go for a biggie. Family and Friends now familiar with a ‘TP run’ I didn’t need to reassure them I was trafficking or otherwise engaged in government sponsored espionage.
For those not familiar with the British Airways Executive Club (BAEC) and how you progress through the various status tiers the team have compiled a comprehensive guide. Head over here if you need the details
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ing-avios.html
In summary you gain Gold Status (the ‘regular’ top tier) by poking yourself over the 1500 point barrier.
Inside of my tiny mind I had a number of things to consider
1) Business travel for me had been hectic, I was burning through a number of small intra-Europe trips but they were never going to net me more than a few hundred Tier Points. I wanted to keep the shiny card.
2) Following a prior USA coast to coast TP run I enjoyed a misconnect due to a faulty 757 and thus my carefully crafted plans immediately fell apart and it was the end of the earth… resulting however in ALL the tier points I was due to collect being posted by AA to my BAEC account AND a $500 voucher for my trouble.
3) Work was looking as though I would have a natural gap to get away and just sit on some jet planes for a while.
4) It’d be fun
Extremely, lose justification I was poised to strike.
In order to maximise the points gained, using American Airlines, you need to harvest Domestic First sectors over 2000miles in length. Each of those will reward you 210 Tier Points. Now with the ITA tool I started to craft a ticket that would give me what I wanted.
My final schedule was as follows, ticketed by American Airlines
This started on a Thursday and ended on Tuesday Tuesday Morning in the UK
The damage was a cool £1,350 about £1.13 / TP regular fare (after the transport vouchers are deducted it is a more pleasing ~£0.86 / TP)
In terms of tier points it would net me 1200 Tier Points in one swift-ish movement.
40 Brussels to London Heathrow in BA’s Club Europe (short haul business product)
140 Heathrow to Miami in BA’s Club World (long haul business product)
210 Miami to Los Angelese in AA’s Domestic First Product
210 LAX to Honolulu in AA’s Domestic First Product
+ the return sectors 210 + 210 + 140 +40
= 1200 Tier Points Total
I had priced this up before, however it was outrageous, I randomly did the stored query via ITA as AA was running a sale. The I0SALE bucket was available to me along with some joy.
Fare 1: Carrier AA I0SALE BRU to HNL (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code I, P
Covers BRU-LHR (Business), LHR-MIA (Business), MIA-LAX (First), LAX-HNL (First)
£535.78
Fare 2: Carrier AA I0SALE HNL to LUX (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code P, I
Covers HNL-LAX (First), LAX-MIA (First), MIA-LHR (Business), LHR-LUX (Business)
£535.78
Getting this ticketed however proved to be a 'balls ache' I had to present the transport vouchers to an AA ticket desk, thankfully I’m close to LHR. But just as a forwards hint to anyone given a USD$ voucher that needs to go against a ticket to be purchased in another currency you might also run into this.
The team on the AA.com help line were excellent and well informed however after much discussion they could not help me.
Since then I0SALE and I7SALE have been on, quite straight forwards to find especially given the fine folks on the BAEC and AA sections of Flyertalk.com
Step One - Positioning
As I was starting this journey in Brussels I need to get myself over to the heart of Europe. I took a flight out the night before using BA shareholder discount and popping myself into the Crowne Plaza Brussels Airport.
This hotel has a free shuttle bus service and the hotel is literally a mile or less from the airport very quick and easy once you find the secret shuttle bus
[Not really secret just took me a few goes to work out where it was]
Hotel room was the cheapest and I was upgraded to a Club Room, with lounge access. Room was clean, bathroom excellent. Staff were great if a little distracted at check-in.
If you plan to explore Brussels centre this isn’t the hotel to do it from being at the airport.
Flight 1 – BRU to LHR
The AA6424 Operated by British Airways
09:55 EU Law Maker Time landing at 10:10 Olympic time
I rolled upto the airport in good time, being only with hand luggage I was quickly into the bowels of Brussels airport. I hit the lounge which has been styled in the Galleries concept. A little earlier than normal I headed to the nominated gate.
Now, the smart ones out there will have recognised my transit via Heathrow is 65minutes, perfectly ‘legal’ but enough to give the most seasoned travellers a little heart burn.
The markings where the plane should park are there, sadly two delayed JET Airways planes are also still on stand. The first moments of heartburn could be felt. BUS it was then. Thankfully it was the BA Bird airbus so obviously we’d just teleport to Heathrow.
As I climbed the stairs to the plane it was already 5mins behind schedule. I actually had nothing to worry about. I was on a through ticket, all via a one-world carrier. Should anything of happened I would have been rerouted without any level of moon crashing into the sea drama.
To ensure I gave myself as much pressure as possible I set my phone for a T-minus countdown to conformance check. Those of you coming into Heathrow and Terminal 5 should know that you must present yourself at Flight Connections or Security 35mins before your flight or you will be offloaded. If this happens at Flight Connections you will be re-routed (EVEN if you know you can make the sprint)
Coming into the approach to London we flew over the Olympic Park which was in full flow.
Flight 2 – LHR to MIA
The 6160 Operated by British Airways
11:15 Olympic time landing at 15:20 Florida sunshine time
The tremendous schedule padding of the previous flight, the delay to boarding, the delay to take off, the delay of ATC and the delay of the air bridge still had me showing with 18mins before I would fail flight conformance check.
On scooting out the plane there was a Purple Clad flight connections rep with a BIG ORANGE express connections sign for me. I had come into the main Terminal 5 building so I simply needed to get myself to the BA agent. Once achieving this large orange EXPRESS ARGH EXPRESS QUICK MOVE card I was told to sort my life out and get my way to flight connections. This bright orange ticket had the added benefit of any and all airport staff recognising me as “in possible distress” and whipping me through the corridors of Terminal5. I like to think of it as my very own Olympic event on reflection.
In summary the big orange thing worked and I was quickly pushed, directed and presented to the Conformance check with 8mins to go RESULT but WAIT. *beep* went the machine and the agent was tapping away. Sadly I had had a seat change from my favourite 64K to 1K, why thank you BA little upgrade to First. There was no time to enjoy any of this of course as it was now 35mins to departure and I had to clear security, which was a nightmare. At least the fast track and express connections lanes both got me to the ‘front’ of a huge huge queue of folks.
I made it to the B gates and onto the place as one of the last to board, I quickly settled down into the Nose of this 747 and seat 1K.
A few mandatory pictures of the food, it was Old First and very old it looked too. Just bleedin tatty, but I wasn’t complaining today
The opener was a salmon thing, the pea soup was amazing, the beef horseradish thing was really nice, the ice cream was just like ice cream and I nestled up to the dessert wine and a little snooze. The Purser here has been working the isles for a long time and she knew what she was about in terms of service.
PART TWO NEXT