Hi there,

A few months ago someone pointed out you can book a WT/WT+ combination fare to the US from EU and so I did and upgraded the WT+ to CW. However, since I need more miles in my account, can you also book a WT+/CW combination directly?

Cheers,
Henk

Do you mean if the fares are combinable or if it is technically possible to do it online? If the former - yes, if the latter - not that I know of.

Thanks. You're right, not too clear. I meant the former. Can you combine the lowest fares for each flight or does this immediately make it a higher fare class booking?

Yes, you can combine the lowest fares for each class of service. I have done this a few times with no problem.

P.S. You must be doing some KL flying Since, as far as I know, they have a weird fares system when some fares cannot be combined with others...And only most expensive fares are combinable when you mix classes.

Henky,


I have done something like this.

EDI-LHR-JFK (WT) and then back JFK-LHR-ATH (WT+) on the same ticket (400E total). I asked from a BA's agent over the phone to search it and it was difficult for him to do it. He hang up and called me after 20 minutes to tell me that he can do it.^


I believe that the one that you are asking (WT+ and CW) must be easier but you have to find someone who actually cares and is willing to search for this (many times I had an answer that the one I was asking was not possible).

I would suggest you to call them and ask them for specific things. You should know the fare that you are asking for, as IME many of those agents are not very good, sometimes you have to explain them the limitations that a ticket can have so they could understand what you are asking.

I tried to do this from Sydney and couldn't both online and over the phone, it kept bumping the WT+ sectors into CW.

Potakas, situations like the one described by you are inherent only to combine fares bookings. Many BA agents are convinced that the booking system should offer the cheapest available option and will refuse to listen to you or try a creative approach to a booking (but there are really wonderful people who will go an extra miles to achieve what you wanted).
Sometimes when I want to book WTP I am only offer 'E' while 'T' is available or 'C' for CW when 'R' is available. If the first agent refuses to help me I will hang up and call back. I once had a WTP ticket changed without a USD280 penaltya week after the original ticket was isued because the original agent insisted that my routing was not valid (the system wasn't picking up the correct booking classes for it to work) and when I called back a week later told them which classes to book on each segment and it worked, they changed it for free (after the checked my PNR and saw that it was the original routing that I requested and that the fares department could not price it correctly).
Unfortunately, sometimes I get a feeling that passengers must be really educated about fares and rules in order to get anyhing done. But most would just give up.
It is not right when a pax calls and instructs the agent "book 'B' on this segments and 'E' on this segment" and it should work. The agents should know this info, or at least not refuse to listen to a pax who has done this before that he knows the way how to make it work.

Actually I believe that they are just lazy sometimes.

I called 2 times for the booking I mentioned and both of the times I got a price nearly 2K. I was asking them why the price was so high and they were answering me that this is the price, then I asked: can you please tell me the Fare that I am booked and they were trying to book me on Y and W (fares not classes), I was keep telling them that I don't want a full flexible ticket but they were insisting that this is the only way.

On my last call I said to the agent from the begging that I want this kind of ticket BUT please can you search the availability on O fare and the way back on T ? He told me of course, this is my job^ , which is.

matthandy, I checked fare rules for a selection of fares from SYD to LHR, and it seems like they are rather restrictive with regard to combinability).
I think EU fares are less restrictive.

Henkybaby, I checked the two cheapest WTP/CW fares from AMS to JFK, and they are combinable with any BA fare (restrictions only when combining with OW partners' fares). Let me know where you're trying to go specifically, and I'll check.

I was told by the local office that all BA fares are combinale. THis must be valid only to fares originating in European countries...

This maybe is the case, I originated my trip exUK but I was dealing with my local BA's reservations department.

See, this is wrong. As a passenger, you are not supposed to know all this stuff and request specific booking classes. I learned about fares throughout many years of flying but other people have no clue and are not interested at all. Agents should be properly trained and BA booking systems should be properly programmed. Because often what you hear is the computer knows better and always offers teh cheapest option. When you present the fares rules and tell them it should work they a) ask where and how were you able to get them; b) refuse to accept the rules from Expertflyer: c) are reluctant/do not know how to pull up complete fare rules from their system; d) are surprised why it was not working automatically after they pulled up the complete fares, read them and then agree that it should have worked...

Strange, current fares exUK do not have any restrictions and may be combined with any fare...
Only fares exSYD have restrictions.

Wow, a lot of information. Since the lowest fares are unchangeable I need to finalize my plans first. There is now some talk of adding a weekend in EZE at the end of the trip.

However, the best price I get is E 586 WT+ and E 879 for CW for a combined fare of E 1447. That seems rather low. Is this influenced by the current sale? Don't think it can be since the travel dates are 24/12 and 14/1/12....

Which city are you going to in the USA?