workaround for limitations of BA website for multi-city itinerary?
Mar 19, 2019, 9:46 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: coastal Croatia
Programs: BAEC Gold, M&M Senator
Posts: 2,179
workaround for limitations of BA website for multi-city itinerary?
I need to book a multi-city trip for June in Club World. When I use the BA website, I get a list of flights but no prices, so I have to try one flight combo after another until I get an I fare. AA offers a much easier interface since it prices trips from the beginning. Is there a work-around for BA (like using the app) or do I have to call in? I would rather book the BA flight number since I get more BA Avios that way than if I book the AA flight numbers.
Mar 19, 2019, 9:49 am
#2
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Economy, mostly :(
Programs: Skywards Gold
Posts: 7,801
Try ITA Matrix, select advanced control and then in the right of the two additional boxes beneath each segment type BC f=i which tells it you want I fares. It'll show you itineraries that are available, then find the one you want and select those exact flights on the BA website.
Mar 19, 2019, 9:49 am
#3
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,732
I tend to do this by having an ITA Matrix projection of the ticket along side the BA Multi City screen. While not perfect it does tend to force the outcomes down the cheapest option(s).
Mar 19, 2019, 1:35 pm
#4
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 1,577
Try ITA Matrix, select advanced control and then in the right of the two additional boxes beneath each segment type BC f=i which tells it you want I fares. It'll show you itineraries that are available, then find the one you want and select those exact flights on the BA website.
Mar 19, 2019, 2:25 pm
#6
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,732
It generally works best by taking the journey as a whole, allowing maximum stopovers and constraining it to oneworld or BA only (C:BA+), it should work out the cheapest segments and then you select those with Multi City. Getting into the innards of ITA Matrix is quite a chore but it's really worth it when you get there. Just know when to stop digging, rather than spending hours extracting out the last 8€ .
Mar 20, 2019, 4:08 am
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Not only will it work, that is the way to make it work. What that switch does is to restrict the results to those which can be priced using a fare whose main booking class is I. That will then return results where there is availability in I on the flights that require it, and availability in whatever other booking classes are required on other flights (eg J on the European short-hauls).
This is also the way to see WT+ fares on connecting itineraries. Specifying f bc=t will get you itineraries in which the long-hauls book into T, with European short-hauls in K.
If you were to do it sector by sector and you specified f bc=j for the European short-hauls, you would get itineraries returned in which the long-hauls were fared using a long-haul I class fare and the short-hauls were fared using a short-haul J class fare (assuming there are even any valid combinations of this kind at all, which I doubt). This might produce an unexpected fare.
This is also the way to see WT+ fares on connecting itineraries. Specifying f bc=t will get you itineraries in which the long-hauls book into T, with European short-hauls in K.
If you were to do it sector by sector and you specified f bc=j for the European short-hauls, you would get itineraries returned in which the long-hauls were fared using a long-haul I class fare and the short-hauls were fared using a short-haul J class fare (assuming there are even any valid combinations of this kind at all, which I doubt). This might produce an unexpected fare.
Mar 29, 2019, 9:45 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: coastal Croatia
Programs: BAEC Gold, M&M Senator
Posts: 2,179
Ended up buying from AA since they were $1000 cheaper than BA. Neither the website nor the phone agents could give me the same price that AA was offering. Too bad, given that I would have earned more miles with BA flight numbers, but the cost difference wasn't worth it in the end. Anyway, appreciate the tips for future trips, especially trying to find those elusive WT+ fares in T.
Mar 29, 2019, 3:59 pm
#10
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Central Scotland, UK
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 286
Google Flights is also pretty good and a lot more user-friendly than the matrix. If you price up with the multi city tool on Google then book via BA.com you usually get the same price as quoted.
The “click through to buy” doesn’t always work but you can usually replicate the itinerary manually in BA multi city anyway. One useful tip is If you want a long connection (>2 hours) on BA.com you may need to enter xxx-yyy then yyy-zzz on same day to get what you need if xxx-zzz doesn’t show the flight pair you need.
The “click through to buy” doesn’t always work but you can usually replicate the itinerary manually in BA multi city anyway. One useful tip is If you want a long connection (>2 hours) on BA.com you may need to enter xxx-yyy then yyy-zzz on same day to get what you need if xxx-zzz doesn’t show the flight pair you need.