the other thing you can do is force itamtarix to look for specific selling classes. In the right hand box of the advanced fields enter without the quotation marks "f bc=x"where x is the selling class you want. So entering "f bc=n" will force itamatrix to price using N selling class.

Yup, that one I knew. Effectively, I was wondering if it were possible to run many of these in parallel for the same flight so you could easily see the price difference for any given flight across multiple buckets (I know you can combine multiple codes with a vertical bar , or you used to be able to, but that isn't quite the same).

Thanks for sharing this, its really useful and could end up being some of the cheapest/easiest TP's going.

If you constrain your search to the specific flights that you're looking at, it should take ITA only a few seconds for each search. So assuming that you're only interested in fewer than half a dozen different booking classes, this should only take a minute or two. If you have a browser that allows you to duplicate tabs, then one refinement is to search for one booking class, duplicate the tab, amend the search in the new tab, and so on. Then you'll have all the different prices side by side in adjacent tabs.

Absolutely. I've done some examples for NCL-LHR on two random days later this year, demonstrating a £44 difference i.e. £22 per flight. Hopefully the images/explanations are useful to others:

Example 1: forcing fare bucket "O" (lowest)

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f3030598c9.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e3d15f8e65.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...13116bfae1.png

Example 2: forcing fare bucket "N" (more TP)

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e08dd08833.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...174f121edf.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6327f928f6.png

Yep, this is the way I would do it at the moment. I realised that my attempt to combine fare codes with the vertical bar " " were wrong because I screwed up the syntax. If you use "f bc=o n" or "f bc=n o" it will only return the fare from the first named bucket. You can combine using "f bc=o bc=n" as per the image below.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6d90035030.png

However, it returns the lowest available per flight, rather than both options, on the time bar view. In the image below, this shows how availability on the 08:15 suddenly opens up thanks to looking for "N" ("O" is clearly not available on that flight) - but it doesn't tell you about "N" availability on the other flights in that direction.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...68b2362d38.png

However: there is a solution which kind of does what I was imagining. If you select "Complete Trips", you do get a list of flight options across all the fare buckets you're looking at - at least kind of. The image below is from halfway down the page - the £122 options are the first, then the £144 options, and then right at the bottom is the £166. I would expect more of the £166 options, or a second page of results, so it isn't totally what I was after.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b7dd2eedad.png

Does anyone know if it is possible to force all of the £166 options (i.e. all "N" class options both ways) with this approach?

Surely if you specify "f bc=n" (and nothing else) for both flights, you will only get the price for N class both ways?

One other thing to mention: if you are only interested in pricing, switch off the availability checker. That slightly speeds up the search, but it also gives you a much cleaner picture of fares in different booking classes.

I did call BA but unfortunately I think the Rep was having a bad day. And repeating the advice I got here, she had a difficult time with it. Either I sounded like a complete wacko muttering a lot of nonsense or she was not equipped with the tools and knowledge needed. The other scenario is she plain and simple thought this was becoming a headache. When her tone changed I figured it was for the best/easiest to cancel and re-book. It all worked out in the end.

Could you possibly give a translation to the terms to "bucket" and something about upgrading "UuA"???

Sure - a bucket just means a Selling Class inventory. Inventory on BA is measured from zero to 9, O1 means BA has currently 1 ticket in selling class O. O9 means 9 or potentially more. Another way of expressing this is to say that the O "bucket" has 1 or 9 tickets available. UuA just means Uprade using Avios. In this forum's Dashboard there is a guide to abbreviations and other jargon.

For the first point, clearly the moment has passed, but with this sort of query if you give the exact dates and flights then we can research the options and allow you to make an informed and specific request of the Contact Centre. Or wade your way through ITA Matrix as detailed above. But in essence you probably need to say "please book me on flight n on date x in the N bucket" or "using selling class N" or something similar.

I wonder whether "bucket" is an American shorthand term better avoided in this context. IME, BA call centre agents are perfectly able to understand the term "booking class", which is what I normally use; ba.com uses "selling class", which may also work just as well on the phone.

There are many industry standard terms which have a distinctly American flavour which are safe (and often better) to use than the British equivalents. For example, although the BA board has many instances of "single" and "return" tickets, the industry standard terms are "one-way" and "round-trip", and I try to use them in my posts. In particular, in this case, the term "a single ticket" is ambiguous, requiring context to distinguish between "a one-way ticket" or "only one ticket". But I think that "bucket" is more likely to be shorthand and therefore not within this category.

Yup, it does - I may have been unclear, sorry! Was thinking about it being viewable alongside the cheaper buckets on the same page.

Very good point [MENTION=13606]Globaliser[/MENTION] - I may have probably used the incorrect/non-standard term! In my defence, I can only have picked it up here ;)