Maximizing TP's and Avios SFO - LHR
 

I'm flying to LHR with work and wondered what the best way to maximize my TP's is. I don't mind and neither does the company if I take my time getting there. I'm flying on a flexible ticket business.

Does it make sense to book SFO-JFK then JFK-LHR? The way I'm calculating it I would get 280 TP each way rather than 140 from SFO - LHR. Is this right? That could give me 560 TP round trip.

Thanks!

A better bet would be SFO-LAX-JFK-LHR. That will give you 320 TPs each way.

:):D

Thanks for the tip!

When I've done that route before I did SFO-LAS-LAX-PHL-LHR-DUB-LCY and SFO-LAX-PHX-PHL-DUB-LHR marketed F for the domestic and J for the international.

The first then earned 550TPs, but since the devaluation, it will still earn 440 I believe. Booked AA as far as DUB then separate ticket for the hop to LON.

The later has a tight-ish connection at PHL, because my PHX-PHL was 50 minutes late, AA rebooked me on the direct BA flight (in F as I had been booked in F on the domestic although I think that was an error by the agent in my favour) and I still did the LHR-DUB-LHR for the TPs and had no problem claiming ORC, but others on here have reported more difficulty.

Since the devaluation, it is worth trying to transit through on an transcontinental three class, so perhaps look for SFO-LAS-LAX-JFK-LHR-DUB-LHR?

Good luck

How did that earn 550? I'm getting 475-510 TP depending on the class for DUB LHR?

It was 60+60+210+140+40+40 on the one PNR and 40 on the serpate positiong flight.

Is now 40+40+140+140+40+40(+40)

When I booked, was a round trip Ex-DUB to SFO for sub £1k plus £200 for the LON-DUB return. In total was about 1.09£/TP, the same fare would be much worse value but still good at 1.36£/TP.

If your flight is before March 31, you might be eligible for BA's triple Avios offer, check out the T&Cs on BA.com.

For TPs, you usually can choose arbitrary routing, as long as it fits within certain number of miles and complies with possible fare restriction on the number of transfers - that would be listed in the rules. Then you want to fit in at least one US domestic segment over 2000 miles (for 140 TPs, see list of those in the wiki) and as many short ones as you can get away with, on either side of the Atlantic.

matrix.itasoftware.com is very useful for playing with different routings, and can be used to check whether chosen routing fits into Maximum Permitted Mileage.

HTH.

Ah, makes sense. Your post mentioned PHL-DUB direct, not PHL-LHR-DUB.

aww, sorry, yes, my bad, corrected to hopefully make it clearer.

OP if you know what dates you need to be in London, we can be more specific with suitable options and prices.

Or indeed on either coast! Can use LAX/LAS/PHX/SEA and/or JFK/BOS/MIA/PHL/CLT. In Europe, HEL is often a good bet.

No one mentioned the maximize Avios bit of the question, but the prices on WTP at the moment are pretty impressive in terms of Avios earning, taking into account the triple Avios offer until the end of March. Just booked SJC-LHR in WTP for $931 including the Chase 10% discount. By my calculation as a Gold member, that equates to 42,952 Avios, plus another 2793 Avios from Chase. So a total of 45,745 Avios or 49 Avios per dollar spent. At that rate, if you can get more than 2 cents per Avios from redemptions, BA is effectively paying you to fly with them.

What route is that? Is that really 3x base avios + cabin bonus + tier bonus, can't be the direct flight as I get that to be 26850? Or do you mean return i.e. 53700?

Direct flight return (so base + 200% for triple bonus + 100% gold bonus) = 4x distance flown. Triple miles is 200% bonus not 300%.

Beware PHX-CLT comes in under 2000 miles and as such only earns 40TP

I think you've effectively repeated my calulation, base + 200% is the same as 3 x base. Still can't make the numbers work to get 42,952 though, am I missing something? Sorry it is a little OT, but I would appreciate if you can walk me through your figures so to assure myself I'm not making an error on my spreadsheet. PM if easier.