Advice for 1st time Tier Point run LHR to USA
Dec 2, 2017, 7:35 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2017
Programs: BA
Posts: 15
Advice for 1st time Tier Point run LHR to USA
Hi All and thanks for your thoughts on this:
I'm currently holding a Silver BA card with around 700 points for the YTD (ends OCT 2018). I have an opportunity in Jan '18 to do a points run to the USA.
My itinerary takes me to anything on the East Coast (Washington, NYC, Boston) for 2 nights, then onto San Antonio, Texas for 4 nights, and then Boston, MA for 4 nights before returning to London.
I can buy business class J, and want to maximise the Tier points earned in order to reach Gold by the end of the trip.
My dates are Jan 15th for the first outbound flight. I've used ITA Matrix to scope out what is possible, but am concerned as a first time user that I maybe miss a trick with scoping bargain fares and the best routes in the USA - using AA.
Any pointers and guidance on routing would be very welcome
warm regards
G
I'm currently holding a Silver BA card with around 700 points for the YTD (ends OCT 2018). I have an opportunity in Jan '18 to do a points run to the USA.
My itinerary takes me to anything on the East Coast (Washington, NYC, Boston) for 2 nights, then onto San Antonio, Texas for 4 nights, and then Boston, MA for 4 nights before returning to London.
I can buy business class J, and want to maximise the Tier points earned in order to reach Gold by the end of the trip.
My dates are Jan 15th for the first outbound flight. I've used ITA Matrix to scope out what is possible, but am concerned as a first time user that I maybe miss a trick with scoping bargain fares and the best routes in the USA - using AA.
Any pointers and guidance on routing would be very welcome
warm regards
G
Dec 2, 2017, 7:40 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Welcome to FT, COHGARY!
The best first place to look is always the main thread on these: BA Tier Point Runs | 2017 master thread.
Dec 2, 2017, 9:54 am
#5
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 10,143
And let me warmly welcome you to Flyertalk and the BA Board COHGARY. A better place to find out about TP's etc I can't really think of and there are many helpful people here that's for sure.
As has been pointed out the TP Run thread and also over on the QR forum there can be good deals. BA Holidays sometime offer good Club Europe (and Hotel) prices too, even when there is no 'official' sale on and they can be very worthwhile using places such as Helsinki and Malta amongst others which get you the 80 TP's each way. You've certainly got ages to get there and I hope you find a route that maximises TP's.
Happy postings!
As has been pointed out the TP Run thread and also over on the QR forum there can be good deals. BA Holidays sometime offer good Club Europe (and Hotel) prices too, even when there is no 'official' sale on and they can be very worthwhile using places such as Helsinki and Malta amongst others which get you the 80 TP's each way. You've certainly got ages to get there and I hope you find a route that maximises TP's.
Happy postings!
Dec 2, 2017, 9:55 am
#6
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,683
@COHGARY. As mentioned by MADPhil, when travelling from east coast to San Antonio consider a routing via say Phoenix. The north east to Phoenix will be 140TP, rather than the typical 40TP per segment were you to do say Chicago and San Antonio. Some fares have rules about distance that exclude the more roundabout routings, but not all.
Dec 2, 2017, 10:29 am
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: JER
Programs: BA Gold/OWE, several MUCCI, and assorted Pensions!
Posts: 32,145
But not from everywhere! PHL yes, CLT no ... a mistake I made once!
Have you considered LHR-DUB, then DUB-PHL-PHX-SAT with AA? That said, I was looking at that routing earlier this year, and the add-on for the last PHX-SAT leg was ridiculous. If we had decided to go that way, we would have booked the last leg separately ... the price difference was strangely in the thousands (each) for an $800 r/t leg!
Have you considered LHR-DUB, then DUB-PHL-PHX-SAT with AA? That said, I was looking at that routing earlier this year, and the add-on for the last PHX-SAT leg was ridiculous. If we had decided to go that way, we would have booked the last leg separately ... the price difference was strangely in the thousands (each) for an $800 r/t leg!
Dec 9, 2017, 7:47 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2017
Programs: BA
Posts: 15
Booking the flights Post ITA Matrix
Once you have sorted your routing out using ITA Matrix - any recommendations for a good Travel Agent who understands this stuff and can just do the booking, or do you typically ring the airline and try and book it yourself?
Dec 9, 2017, 7:51 am
#11
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,683
If you want to book with BA call them, very helpful in my experience. If you want to book with AA then you can use the tools that work with Matrix, covered in the TP Run thread.
Dec 10, 2017, 12:45 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2017
Programs: BA
Posts: 15
Thanks Dougzz. I found that the US AA site would not accept a UK based Credit Card when booking. So I tried the AA UK site - where the pricing was 30% more expensive.
Dec 10, 2017, 2:08 am
#13
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Peterborough, UK
Programs: BA Silver; IHG Spire; Avis P+; Global Entry
Posts: 1,505
i has he same issue with my wedding flights on the us as site, as I was using Amex I put in my uk address details in the text and for the zip code I entered 00000 and it worked
Dec 10, 2017, 2:11 am
#14
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Gloucestershire
Programs: BA Gold (ex-GGL, maybe future Silver), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,197
If the zip code trick mentioned above doesn't work, a Priceline booking created using the BookWithMatrix extension for Chrome would have kept the US point of sale.
Dec 10, 2017, 2:48 am
#15
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,683
Matrix is brilliant, booking what it'll find not always so straight forward. I honestly can't recommend the TP run thread enough, it's full of lots of helpful advice, and if you make some effort yourself and explain what didn't work really helpful people. This one,
BA Tier Point Runs | 2017 master thread
I believe the general view is wherever possible book with the airline, travel agents introduce other layers and unnecessary complication.
I've found the German AA site to be the most effective when using the Matrix tools. Phoning BA is honestly a really good choice in my limited experience. They priced something at over double what Matrix did for me recently, agent made a lot of effort, discovered the problematic leg, repriced on another flight and exactly matched the bargain Matrix price. Another consideration when choosing between AA and BA for booking/flying is EU261, but that needs a much fuller explanation and it's all here many times over to be found with a bit of effort.
BA Tier Point Runs | 2017 master thread
I believe the general view is wherever possible book with the airline, travel agents introduce other layers and unnecessary complication.
I've found the German AA site to be the most effective when using the Matrix tools. Phoning BA is honestly a really good choice in my limited experience. They priced something at over double what Matrix did for me recently, agent made a lot of effort, discovered the problematic leg, repriced on another flight and exactly matched the bargain Matrix price. Another consideration when choosing between AA and BA for booking/flying is EU261, but that needs a much fuller explanation and it's all here many times over to be found with a bit of effort.