Originally Posted by
bisonrav
The trick is to take the loss leader fare and nothing else. That's where discounting OTAs are well worth considering as part of a low cost travel strategy.
Yes that's the smart way to do it.
I fly HBO almost weekly from UK to EU and back and do this. I will take the £10 discount on the OTA ticket for BA and sometimes even FR, U2, W6 and DY and not buy any extras.
World Air Fares in particular seem very cheap for BA and often I find Budgetair offer a decent discount on the list LCC prices.
If you are HBO and are confident in your knowledge of 261 regulations then there is no reason to not take the discount using an OTA. It doesn't impact BAEC benefits in any way at all.
I recently got a £23 one way LHR-AMS with BA using World Air Fares (BA price HBO was £33) and easily consumed more champagne than that when rocked up to gold lounge 5 hours before the flight. 625 Avios credited no issue too.