Nov 21, 2020, 4:08 am
Last edit by: LCY8737
The "Lowest Fares Analysis" tool makes the "lowest fares" options on ba.com more accessible:
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba.php a number of pre-defined reports can be used (such as lowest tier point cost or lowest fare for a cabin).
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba.php?view=LowestFares2 a detailed search function is available.
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba.php the raw data can be downloaded (CSV format) for individual analysis.
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba_farearchive.php historic fares are available to identify trends.
The data is refreshed daily.
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba.php a number of pre-defined reports can be used (such as lowest tier point cost or lowest fare for a cabin).
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba.php?view=LowestFares2 a detailed search function is available.
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba.php the raw data can be downloaded (CSV format) for individual analysis.
On https://www.beartravel.org/p_ba_farearchive.php historic fares are available to identify trends.
The data is refreshed daily.
Lowest BA Fares Analysis
Nov 18, 2020, 12:25 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2004
Programs: BA GGL, LH FTL
Posts: 3,578
Lowest BA Fares Analysis
I've played around with BA's low fare API (the same data you see on the low fare finder on ba.com). I structured the data a little different from what you see on ba.com and sorted it by price. Views available are
Let me know what you think...
- All destinations/cabins sorted by price (e.g. cheapest BA does in the next 12 months is Dublin in Y for January for £40.24 return).
- All destinations but filtered by cabin (e.g. cheapest First fare in the next 12 months is Boston for October for £1,677.14 return).
- Lowest fare by month
- Lowest fare by destination
- By cost per tier point (best deal is Sofia in January for £1.02 per tier point).
Let me know what you think...
Nov 18, 2020, 1:17 am
#2
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold / OW Emerald
Posts: 753
Good stuff - although only point which makes it less useful for me is that it only supports LON as an origin. I've been looking at automating my search for premium fare deals but the best I could do is attempt to scrape google flights - cumbersome!
Nov 18, 2020, 1:19 am
#3
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: BER
Programs: BA GGL, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,843
a list of cheap fares regardless of origin would be aswesome. to find something like BUD-HNL or SOF-LAX
Nov 18, 2020, 1:30 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2004
Programs: BA GGL, LH FTL
Posts: 3,578
There are a few data providers out there that share wider fare data, though unfortunately they are not free. And while £0.01 per request doesn't sound like much, once you start doing searches for every major airport to every major airport combinations, possibly considering POS dimensions, that get refreshed every couple of days it quickly gets very expensive. And that is before even talking about proper hosting to handle the data volume.
Nov 18, 2020, 1:53 am
#6
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BER
Programs: BAEC GGL/GfL, Lufthansa SEN, Hilton Diamond, misc other stuff
Posts: 1,374
You want base fare information which is for instance available on-demand in Expertflyer. Other paid solutions exist but don't make much sense for individuals.
Nov 18, 2020, 1:58 am
#7
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BER
Programs: BAEC GGL/GfL, Lufthansa SEN, Hilton Diamond, misc other stuff
Posts: 1,374
Code:
"http://www.britishairways.com/solr/lpbd/lpfdestinations?fq=(departure_city:".$from."+OR+departure_airport:".$from.")+AND+dep_city_name:***+AND+arr_city_name_search:***+AND+(arrival_city:".$to."+OR+arrival_airport:".$to.")+AND+trip_type:RT+AND+cabin:".$class."&fl=proxy_price,is_sales_fare,route_connection_ind,rounded_lowest_each_way_price,number_of_nights,arr_city_name,trip_type,dep_lpf_city_airport_display,dep_airport_name,rounded_lowest_price,lowest_price,dep_city_name,arrival_airport,arr_lpf_city_airport_display,arrival_city,departure_airport,cabin,region_code,arr_airport_name,currency_code,departure_city,departure_country_code&facet.pivot=month_string,is_sales_fare&facet=true"
There's also issues where randomly YQ is missing from the fare and it appears that LHR-RAK is only 15 GBP return for instance. When looking for availability it's obviously not there.
Nov 18, 2020, 2:37 am
#8
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, Accor Live Limitless Gold, Hilton Honours Gold, Avis Preferred Plus
Posts: 1,806
This is great, thanks for providing this, a few comments:
- Moscow, Cairo and Amman are now 80TPs each way instead of 140 which changes the price per TP quite a bit on those routes.
- It would be great (if possible) to select them by long haul only or short haul only, or even TP earned (i.e. in Club, 40, 80 or 140+)
Nov 18, 2020, 2:43 am
#9
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Milton Keynes, UK
Programs: BA Gold (OW Emerald), TK Elite (*A Gold)
Posts: 574
I've been wanting something like this for years, so thank you!! Shame I can't really make the most of it at the moment though 
Ability to look at trip durations shorter than 7-days would be nice for me but it's certainly going to the top of my favourites list as it is...
Ability to look at trip durations shorter than 7-days would be nice for me but it's certainly going to the top of my favourites list as it is...
Nov 18, 2020, 4:46 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2004
Programs: BA GGL, LH FTL
Posts: 3,578
I am using the following URL with $to and $from to get results for other airports:
Problem with this is that some origins don't mandate to include fuel surcharges etc and and thus the base price is shown.
There's also issues where randomly YQ is missing from the fare and it appears that LHR-RAK is only 15 GBP return for instance. When looking for availability it's obviously not there.
Code:
"http://www.britishairways.com/solr/lpbd/lpfdestinations?fq=(departure_city:".$from."+OR+departure_airport:".$from.")+AND+dep_city_name:***+AND+arr_city_name_search:***+AND+(arrival_city:".$to."+OR+arrival_airport:".$to.")+AND+trip_type:RT+AND+cabin:".$class."&fl=proxy_price,is_sales_fare,route_connection_ind,rounded_lowest_each_way_price,number_of_nights,arr_city_name,trip_type,dep_lpf_city_airport_display,dep_airport_name,rounded_lowest_price,lowest_price,dep_city_name,arrival_airport,arr_lpf_city_airport_display,arrival_city,departure_airport,cabin,region_code,arr_airport_name,currency_code,departure_city,departure_country_code&facet.pivot=month_string,is_sales_fare&facet=true"
There's also issues where randomly YQ is missing from the fare and it appears that LHR-RAK is only 15 GBP return for instance. When looking for availability it's obviously not there.
Nov 18, 2020, 5:11 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2004
Programs: BA GGL, LH FTL
Posts: 3,578
This is great, thanks for providing this, a few comments:
- Moscow, Cairo and Amman are now 80TPs each way instead of 140 which changes the price per TP quite a bit on those routes.
- It would be great (if possible) to select them by long haul only or short haul only, or even TP earned (i.e. in Club, 40, 80 or 140+)
I have added two additional reports separating short and long haul. But from your question it seems that a few more search requests (e.g. J short haul, Y long haul, ...) would make sense. This will require a bit of interface re-engineering because a drop down list would end up being very long. Will see if I get some time to do this over the weekend.
Nov 18, 2020, 6:27 am
#13
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: UK. BAEC AAdvantage
Programs: Mucci Des Oeufs Brouilles et des Canards
Posts: 3,671
Great tool!
The geek in me would love to see a £ per mile flown too. That should be on all fares to stop people complaining about the cost of flights. Hopefully!
The geek in me would love to see a £ per mile flown too. That should be on all fares to stop people complaining about the cost of flights. Hopefully!
Nov 18, 2020, 6:31 am
#14
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: UK - Hampshire & London
Programs: Mucci de Guardian des Celliers des Grands Crus 1e Classé, plus BAEC.
Posts: 2,732
That will just lead to complaints that such and such a flight is 10p a mile, another is 50p a mile and another £2 a mile. Given ticket cost has a fairly flexible relationship to distance, I’m not sure it would be much use.
Nov 18, 2020, 1:00 pm
#15
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: UK. BAEC AAdvantage
Programs: Mucci Des Oeufs Brouilles et des Canards
Posts: 3,671
People complain about everything so why not one thing more!