corporate-wage-slave

1) Introduction / clinic guidelines

THREAD STATUS: Beta version - by all means pose any questions about fares at the end, but can our super super-users kindly review the contents and make suggestions? Including any typos. We will then tidy up the inputs and restart the thread in a more finalised version. Note some areas are deliberately fairly terse, they are often covered better by other threads and the purpose here is to introduce the idea rather overwhelm FTers with excess detail.

Welcome to the "Find me a good BA fare" clinic style thread!

The purpose of this clinic thread is exactly as the title suggests, to get you a good fare on BA services. It's intended for those new to Flyertalk or new to fare research, it's intended to help those who are much more experienced too. We aren't bothered about motives here, whether you want the cheapest fare to visit your Aunt Lucy in Darkest Peru or a cost effective way to get a few tier points.

What this clinic is not about:
- the latest sale, mistake fare or other promotion: this is for day to day travel, there are other threads that cover these areas
- the latest amazing tier point deal, again there is a dedicated thread for that.
- unusually for this forum, we are not fixated on premium cabins - so World Traveller (economy/coach) travel is very much in scope here.
- we are, however, fixated on British Airways!
But if you simply want to fly to (e.g.) Lima, and maybe you have found a fare but it seems a bit expensive, then this is the thread for you. Also if you are struggling to make a booking at a price you have paid before, and don't know why, then again we are here to help you. This thread is deliberately not about tickets that are essentially on other airlines, such as Qatar or AA. See section 12 for some links that may be of interest.

The next few posts give you
- some easy ways to find a good fare
- some more specialist places to check
- what you can do to make a fare more cost effective, including third country itineraries
- a small amount of advice on "eligible flights" and tier points, which are both needed for status levels in the BA Executive Club (BAEC).

Now we've tried to put the easy material at the top. We recognise you may not have the time or capacity to go through all the ideas here. And air fares are a very complex area at the best of times. So by all means join up with us on Flyertalk (if you are lurking!) and post your own question. Hopefully some other FTers will give you some friendly helpful and specific advice. However we do ask that you
- at least do a bit of reading in this thread, so perhaps run through the first few posts
- you try out some of the ideas and come up with at least one specific fare
- that you share the details on the dates, start and end points and indicate what flexibility you have in changing these anchor points. Plus whatever fare you have found so far even if - perhaps particularly if - it looks ridiculous. In other words a vague, open ended question, devoid of research or specifics is unlikely to get you very far.

Thank you
Thank you for reading and contributing to this thread. The following people assisted with at least a paragraph of advice here, we are very grateful to those who have taken the time to share their insights: Blackheathflyer, Getafix, LTN Phobia, NWIFlyer, orbitmic, PETER01, Prospero, willsnun