matt123

Hi,
Just wondering if any knows how many ex EU cheap CW tickets you can get away with in a year, I have done one already this year, (last tier point year), and looking to do another this year, (new tier point year).

I could book BA or AA as its to the US, Germnay-USA, but would prefer BA.

What could they do to me? Will it help being a 6000TP customer?

Any one know what AA do to you if you break a ticket

Thanks

paulwuk

You'll be struggling to do more than 180, I'd be very surprised if you managed more than 300.

chistery

I don't see why there should be a limit, unless you're dropping the last leg every time?

Tobias-UK

All you get for passing 6000TPs is another 'Joker' - nowt esle

CCayley

I don't think BA has any issue with, or could properly have, an issue with people buying and using ex-EU tickets as such, and you are not 'getting away with' anything if you use them, however often.

Problems only arise if you repeatedly fail to fly the last leg i.e. back to Europe. I have no idea how often you would have to do that before BA's audit department might be provoked into action, and I can't imagine anyone would publish that information even if they possessed it.

If you want to use ex-EUs repeatedly then either fly all four legs or maybe build in stopovers so the last leg of ex-EU1 can be your feeder flight for ex-EU2 and so on....

pinkcat

I am not sure they even notice

shorthauldad

Why on Earth would BA mind you spending lots of money with them?

ex EU pricing exists IMHO to steal business from *A and co. If you're prepared to go over there and start journeys what's to stop you?

You hoping to get an aircraft named after you or something? They definitely won't go that far...

J-Class

We've been here before. Although there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of some airlines, especially in the US, taking action against passengers dropping final sectors, I don't recall that any evidence has ever been presented of BA doing so. I recall speculating that this is because BA understands its legal position under English law to be weak, to say the least. Various 'account audit' threads have appeared on the forum, but BA's reason for these audits never seems to be anything to do with dropped final legs. Have I missed something?

matt123

Hi
I should have said, dropping the final sector.. on the ex-EU fares

000

You can be our test case

Would be very interested to know the exact legal position if you were ever challenged.

orbitmic

Well, if you have read the July-August Business Traveller, 'Dear Alex' section, you will have seen a story of someone who has had all of their frequent flyer account cancelled and miles repossessed by an airline based in Northern Europe. Could be BA, LH, KL or AF not sure (it isn't named) but it was clearly a European airline.

Legal system only starts kicking in if the airline tries to sue for repricing - and even then I am not sure it would be that hard considering the phrasing of the airlines T&C. When it comes to confiscating miles and deleting an account it is very easy to do and airlines are in a strong position and you are the one who needs to demonstrate that this is abusive if you want the decision legally reversed.

J-Class

It would certainly be interesting to know if the airline in the Business Traveller article was BA. Meanwhile we still await a confirmed example of BA taking its revenge.

There's not much point debating (or re-debating) the detail of the law in this forum - that's beyond my pay grade. Suffice to say there is a view that BA rdoesn't have a leg to stand on. This could of course be completely wrong.

But let's say notwithstanding its potential legal recourse, BA doesn't really wish to spend time in public court suing its premium passengers. Then let's say BA's first response to perceived abuse is to cancel airmiles. Then let's also take the example of a passenger who has been BA Gold for well over a decade and silver for most of the previous decade, with average annual spend of say £30,000. And said passenger maintains an average Avios balance of 500,000 which have a cash value of somewhere in the £5,000 - £10,000 range. Given that it is safe to assume that said passenger's reaction to losing his Avios balance would be to move his business to other airlines, what pray is the commercial advantage for BA in depriving said passenger of £5-10K when the net present value of his ongoing business to the airline is an amount many times this?

That said, I myself am not a frequent ex-EU abuser (although for sure I've done it) and am therefore unlikely to prove a test case - although thank you for the kind suggestion!

In any case it seems BA has done enough to create a culture of fear of potential recourse for ex-EU abuse that little more needs to be done pour encourager les autres.

absoluy

If one did have to take an ex-EU flight for whatever reason, which city tends to be the cheapest to leave from?

I was looking at flying to Miami from Paris in WT - it was working out at approx. £500 for the dates I was looking at - but the same (London > Miami) flight departing from Brussels (a relatively short train journey away) only cost £380. Obviously some of the £120 difference would be negated by the cost of the Paris > Brussels train plus the extra time. Any ideas on which other EU cities are particularly cheap?

J-Class

Absoluy, I think the biggest price differences are in the premium classes. I've certainly never done an ex-EU in Y.

absoluy

Thanks - same question applies though - regardless of class, which city tends to be the cheapest?

For the example I gave above I need to be in wt as I'm meeting someone in the lhr - Mia - lhr legs, but for future bookings I'm still curious about what others have found to be the cheapest for y/y+/j/