Wozza2404

I've called CX before with a similar issue and they did manage to find something that worked for me; but it took a while on the phone. The CX website won't allow you to inset non-CX route city pairs on their multi city so you can't specify GOT-LHR as the first leg.

A decent TA would be able to sort this for you, but as you said you'd rather book direct you'll have to brave a call to CX.

VFRonTop

Try BEG/SOF (£1.4k) or ZAG (£1.7k) on QR and consider JNB as a destination with a cheap avios JNB to CPT.
NB: Both SOF and ZAG are operated by A320s and only some flights will have lie-flat seats in business so check before booking.

NWIFlyer

We realise these are early days, and some adjustments will be necessary, but perhaps this is a good time to gently remind contributors that this thread was born from member feedback on how cluttered the TP Run/Good Value fares threads had become. We don't want to re-invent the same problem here.

The intention, as stated in the wiki and the opening posts, is that to keep the thread focused and on-topic for the forum only predominantly BA itineraries, or fares bookable on BA.com if codeshares are involved, should be requested or suggested.

When we move from beta form to formally launching the thread, please expect posts about non-BA bookings to be removed and to be politely referred to the AA/Qatar/Qantas/Cathay etc forums.

/mod

PUCCI GALORE

Dear One,

I restrained myself about saying "thank you" as good manners dictate until I had done at least a little of the work in order to keep the airwaves clear of chatter.. However, since I would love this to be BA fare, they are ££££ dearer. Now, fearless of my hairbrush, you will say "There's the Premium Fare thread here and in Mileage Whatevers - only no one has mentioned it until now. Getting fares priced and ticketed with the airline can be a nightmare as well. So, I will desist and say Sorry.

NWIFlyer

PUCCI-darling, apology accepted .

You highlight an important point here: for a given set of circumstances, BA may well be far more expensive than potential alternatives.

We'd expect the request to be "I'd like a decent BA fare to Sydney, prepared to do ex-EU, ideally would like to travel in the first two weeks of October but can be flexible by a week either way. The best price I've found is xyz routing at £2600".

Now, the answer might well be "Sorry, there's nothing better out there on BA codes. If this is too expensive I'd recommend you try asking in QR forum because they often have better fares from Scandinavia".

It answers the question about the best price and points the requester towards more appropriate resources which are often underutilised compared to the BA forum.

bisonrav

OK, but it becomes self defeating, because it's quite rare for BA fares to be the best ones to get to any given place, and the TP thread includes OW as a whole. So you'll end up with a thread that is essentially just asking to do look ups on the BA cheapest fare tools, and all the action will shift back to the TP run thread or separate threads.

alex67500

Actually, the clutter in the TP-Run thread doesn't just come from people looking for BA flights, but from people who are looking to top-up their TP count before their membership year is over, etc. That wouldn't belong in another OneWorld forum because they don't have the concept of TPs.

When we discussed the topic on the dedicated thread, I think the general consensus was to tighten the rules around the TPR and PFD threads, but let them be looser around here. Maybe I misunderstood, but I have a feeling that what you're describing is defeating the purpose of "cleaning up" the 2 threads which everybody complained about. And also, people in the TPR thread are redirecting annoying question here now...

Misco60

In that case it appears that the increasing number of vague and lazy "I need xxx TPs by yy/yy" requests, which have as good as destroyed the TP Run thread, still have no place to go.

I was under the impression that there would be a separate thread for all requests, and that the existing TP Run and Premium Fare Deals threads would revert to being a place for sharing details of current deals and offers (and closely-associated discussion). The best premium deals and TP runs are frequently not only on airlines other than BA but also not bookable on BA.

NWIFlyer

Okay, let me expand on this a little.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution here, so we are trying to work options that suit as many people as possible. There were suggestions made in the discussion thread that were technically impossible for us to implement within the forum structure, so the utopia some people wanted simply was never going to happen. There were also many contrasting views expressed, some of which directly conflicted with each other. Simply re-hashing some of those views here, when the consultation has already been wide-ranging, is not likely to suddenly add more light or make the impossible things possible.

This thread is merely one part of what might emerge. It’s a building block, not the total solution. I think it’s obvious how much work has been involved in putting this together, by people (pretty much cws) doing it in their own time. The rest will follow in time as we see how this works and what else needs to be done.

It may come as a surprise to many members of this forum, but there is actually a demand for flying with BA. Some people value the number of places they can fly direct. Some will want the protection of EC261 when their flight doesn’t start in Europe. Some will need the flight sectors for status and want to do it as cheaply as possible, or want to incorporate the sectors as part of a holiday, thereby influencing their choice of carrier. Some will regard BA as (relatively) safer than other airlines. Some may like the interaction with the cabin crew. Some may want to take advantage of BA’s more generous carry-on allowances.

Those people are less likely to be driven by TP runs, but they may be driven by price. There’s an awful lot more people outside this forum’s TP bubble than there are inside it. At the moment, they don’t really have a suitable thread to post to, so either they don’t post at all, and we lose them from FT because they don’t find it useful, or they find their way to one of the other threads and their question gets lost among everything else or is treated with disdain because it’s not about a TP run. None of those is desirable, and nor does either scenario do anything to improve the undeserved reputation of this forum as being a bit cliquey and unwelcoming to newbies.

This thread is for them.

corporate-wage-slave

I agree with NWIFlyer's posts above. This thread cannot solve all the world's problems but it is the first step. There may be further steps, let's see. But what I can do in the initial posts is to point out perhaps more clearly that BA isn't always the best option - and to reiterate what is already in post 12, the other resources that people can use for Qatar or AA or whatever. I'll amend the initial posts accordingly.

Yes, but it's early days yet. What makes questions annoying is if they haven't read the information in the first few posts - and before the launch of this thread the information was more scattered. And also people being so vague that it's difficult to provide help. Hence the request that people share at least one schedule of their own first, so there is some evidence that they have done their homework. Some people above have done this, or near enough. I'm not someone who wants to points fingers at anyone being, frankly, lazy, but I've added the guidelines into the wiki and I think a polite gentle reminder - without piling on - may sometimes be needed.

Ldnn1

brunos

Wonderful thread c-w-s.
Merci beaucoup, 谢谢

crazyanglaisy

That seems a reasonable qualification to me, though the thread might need to be renamed "Can you find me a better British Airways fare?" In the spirit of these rules, and seeking much-appreciated advice from esteemed forum users, I'm looking to book a week in Perth in January 2020 to visit family, dates completely flexible in that month. I intend to opt for J on BA so I can GUF up into F, and, as such, I also want to fly LHR-SIN-SYD on BA. The best deal I have found so far is:

OSL-LHR-SIN-SYD-PER (and return) - £2,467.

In past years, I've typically paid between £200 and £400 less than this for a very similar routing in the good old days when Bergen was still an option. Am I doing something wrong? Are there better options available ex-EU? Should I wait for the next sale ex-Norway?

mikeyfly

This will be a direct result of the weaker GBP. OSL-SYD was always around £2,000-2,100 although for a short time it was as low as £1,700.

QR can be had for around £2k often, however that's not for this thread....

NWIFlyer

I'm not sure I can help with the fare - and of course as stated the increase you're seeing may well be due to currency as much as anything else - but I do very much like the suggestion for the thread title.

Thank you - we will take this on board.