Qatar Airways

I did this recently on BA,still had to rush thru immigration and back thru security as you need to enter Holland.
There is another post on this topic somewhere on flyer talk.
The longer connection is recommended I feel from my back to back separate ticket connections.

Globaliser

Did you arrive at AMS on BA from London, and depart from AMS on BA to London? It is very unusual for this to require you to clear security, let alone immigration - and it would be even more unusual now that AMS has moved to centralised security from the previous gate security arrangement.

If you do this on a same aircraft back-to-back, usually you exit the aircraft and walk up the jetty to the terminal building to the exact spot at which, in 20 minutes time or so, you re-enter the jetty to re-board the aircraft.

Lucanesque

It would - excellent, thanks Ldnn1 ^

corporate-wage-slave

Was this some time ago? The current layout makes your expedition unnecessary, unless you were trying to get landside deliberately. Back to back would be overwhelmingly my preference to a longer connection, which given the weather at AMS could be very risky. Overnight is the alternative (and recommended if there is checked luggage involved).

Globaliser

Alternatively, I wonder (given the generic reference to "Holland") whether Qatar Airways was doing this at RTM rather than AMS. IIRC, that does require a circuit through immigration and security.

steveben53

I guess I must be pretty stupid since I dont understand your logic. I am proposing a flight to AMS which will give me a 4 hour plus connection tine, whereas. if i read your post correctly, you are suggesting that i risk a connection time of 50 minutes

Oh by the way, because I am staying on HK for 12 days, I will be checking two bags

ABZGirl

Ldnn1, may I ask which site/tool you're using to price this up, please?

Thanks

corporate-wage-slave

Have a look in the Back to Back guide, in the wiki there is a reference to a post from someone who knows about this topic who explains it in pseudo-patronising detail. But in summary, you arrive in AMS 4 hours late due to poor weather, sit on the Polderbaan for a while, trundle slowly from The Hague to Amsterdam, and watch your AMS-LHR flight depart from the same gate that your aircraft will then use. With that your longhaul ticket becomes worthless. Now imagine that you had that 50 minute connection as a back to back: same situation, so 4 hours late, trundle-trundle, however you still arrive in plenty of time to make that 50 minute connection.

Ldnn1

ITA Matrix is by far the best tool, but it takes a bit of practice. Using advance routing codes like the ones below should yield that particular itinerary. There are lots of tweaks you can make depending on what you want.

You could then use bookwithmatrix.com to click through and book with Priceline, however it's generally better to call BA to book these directly, to avoid having to go through an agent for any changes.

More information available in the helpful guide here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ing-guide.html

Globaliser

corporate-wage-slave has explained the basic logic behind choosing the back-to-back turnaround. I will only add that we have had experience of following - in real time - the angst of someone who thought that it was better not to do the back-to-back, and who found that their outbound flight from LHR was delayed for so long that they were likely to miss their return flight to LHR (potentially rendering their long-haul ticket toast).

Have you done your research into what you're going to do with your bags? Are you taking them with you to AMS and collecting them there? If so, have you thought about what happens if your LHR-AMS is 3 hours late, and it takes you 45 minutes to collect your bags at AMS and get up to the check-in desk to check them in for your AMS-LHR-HKG? What are you going to do then?

Many people have walked this path before you, and there's a lot of collected wisdom on this topic here. There's no reason why you shouldn't use these tickets; but when FTers offer you advice, it would be a good idea to listen as it is better if you know what you're doing when you buy them. It may pay to do your research in the sense of finding the cheap ticket to begin with - but at that point your research has really only just started, not finished.

ABZGirl

Thanks, Ldnn1. One effect of domestic CE (in my experience of searching) seems to be to now push domestic connections into expensive fare buckets, so I'm now more likely to consider ex-EU, positioning with LH, SK or KL.
Just did a longhaul UUA search on BA, and the price including domestic connections was £1200 greater than departing from LHR Hopefully I'll begin to find ways round this, with the help of people like yourself

Ldnn1

Ah, that's just a well-known issue/fault with BA.com. You don't need the expensive fare buckets on the domestic connection - they now generally book into K on WT+ fares.

To UuA those you have two simple options - either book WT+ online and then UuA after booking, or call BA to do the booking and UuA all in one go.

ABZGirl

Thanks - I know the glitch/limitation you're talking about, and have had to call in the past to overcome this, but the quotes now (since CE) do seem to be even higher than before. Just means ba.com is even less useful to me than ever!

steveben53

well i completed the booking yesterday. I have decided on travelling to AMS the night before and have booked in at a hotel . Overall this has saved me £1500, including my London to Amsterdam costs and AMS hotel stay. This saving will cover my hotel costs in HKG for my trip.

All of you experienced FT'ers may well have been aware of 'ex-EU', but for people like me, and I am sure that there are many, this has been a true eye-opener and hopefully will point the way to savings to others

Phil the Flyer

QR flying BA? That has to be a first. I thought the recent trend was very much the other way.