CW2000

Hello everyone,

I would love to book the BUD-HNL fare this Dec, just in time to take advantage of the reduced TP threshold and retain Gold. I am a little late in the game, but I found this itin, which I hope to optimise to my advantage with schedule changes etc. However the tough part is booking it. I see many of you have managed to book this fare, but there is very little insight how. I tried with matrix power tools, doesnt allow me to book on AA. Ive changed to a european city, still no fare. I am so curious how you guys do it, I have spent hours and then gave up. I work in travel so not new to the game, and have checked I/J class availability for my dates, luckily still available.

Any insight how you actually book and pay for this fare would be a great help. I have a stack of vouchers with BA so would prefer to book with them, but I am open to booking with AA for ease. I would hate to miss out on the reduced TP. Would appreciate all your help. I am sure there is many people on here who would love to book a TP run, so we all benefit.

Many thanks in advance.

Sam

AirbusA350

This itinerary is essentially a simplified version of what I explained I booked above here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34333320-post3412.html . The only difference is I managed to force ITA to show me itineraries with extra transfers/segments via the “routing codes” option. As mentioned in my post above, I managed to get it seamlessly booked via BA via the phone. Owing to more than 6 segments in total, BA’s website (as well as Skyscanner) were unable to cope. Nonetheless it was a very pleasant and easy experience. Now I wasn’t charged a service fee, I don’t know if that’s because I’m Gold or whether they didn’t because the equivalent itinerary couldn’t be booked online. If the latter is true is your case, you could always politely ask and BA phone agents are usually pretty good at waiving this in such circumstances.

Any international itinerary in business or first should permit access to any OW lounge in the US even without status. Of course status just makes matters simpler as you’ll be allowed in no questions asked. However sadly other than if you’re flying AS F, you won’t be permitted lounge access in the US solely on a domestic US business/first itinerary (other than a small number of exceptions such as AA’s flagship transcon service).

As the positioning flight is a separate ticket, yes you would have to collect your baggage in ARN, I am not sure of how ARN airport has been behaving though, there were reports of it having similar horrors that LHR, DUB, AMS et al were all having though I suspect by October hopefully these will have been ironed out. Funnily enough I’m travelling on 5th October, so not too far from you!

EDIT: Alas I just noticed you’re now leaning towards ex-DUB, again I would give BA’s phone line a go to get it booked. I’d definitely edge closer towards booking via BA’s channels than AA as I’m of the opinion BA’s phone agents are definitely a lot more friendly, and consistently better than AA agents. BA can book any of those flights using any of the OW joint business airlines’ codeshares or prime codes, so you don’t need to worry about that. I’d try to lean as much as possible to BA or AA codes as you stand to earn the highest when booked with either of those codes. My itinerary for instance was BA coded entirely on the outbound but entirely AA prime and AA codeshare on the return. Your story funnily enough reminds me of my early days of dabbling into this minefield of TP runs, credit card bonuses and “turning left” on the plane for the first time in my life when I was 26. I’m now 30 and since I first started, I was Silver for a year and then Gold since (though 2 years was courtesy status extensions of which one I earned in my own right but literally a month later BA extended anyway which was slightly annoying as I put all the work in to dig out extra TPs!). You’ll never be able to look back! (I’m just a leisure traveller btw with perhaps 3 - 4 long haul trips a year). Have a great time. Safe travels

PS. Just make sure you’re flying the 4 BA/IB operated/marketed minimum flights in the process!

CW2000

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CW2000

Can you kindly tell us how did you enter the flights on BA.COM?

MaxFlyer

Most likely used the multi city function.

AIKE

Thanks again to the help and advice offered by posters, this really is a fantastic forum.

Used the multi-city BA function last night to book and everything was going fantastic until...the e-receipt landed in my inbox and my AA-operated LAX-JFK flight had been popped into economy. It definitely said 'Business' at the stage before proceeding to payment. The payment then took an age to go through so I don't know if while it was processing Business became unavailable on that particular flight code.

I searched on ITA Matrix first thing this morning before the BA phone lines opened and Business was not an option on the BA flight code but it was on the AA flight code. Phoned BA to explain what happened to either cancel the booking (using the 24hr window rule) or re-book the trip again using the AA flight code. Agent said she couldn't use the AA code as it had to be a BA one or a codeshare. Not coming from a position of expertise, I wasn't able to argue back (she may be right for all I know!). I then requested her to cancel the booking - she then proceeded to do a hard sell not to explaining how AA internal domestic is "rubbish", and "I'm not even sure if the seats go flat" and how I won't get this trip for any cheaper. After politely instructing her to cancel and refund for the fourth or fifth time she did so. I thought that was a little unprofessional.

Following the call I went back onto ITA Matrix, used the Power Tool extension (thanks again for above poster's suggestion), then booked direct with AA online using my UK Amex but picking a random US State and zip code (California 90210 ) to force payment. Saved Ł400 compared to what I paid for via BA. Again, excellent info from this thread.

So I am now all booked and ready for my first taste of business class flights. My AA internal flights (AA300 and AA274) both on the Transcon service. Not sure if that qualifies as a 'Flagship' Business Ticket, I'm not sure if there are tiers to their business product. Both are I class tickets.

DUB-LHR-JFK-LAX-JFK-LHR-DUB all in Business for Ł1,571 return. I know there will be people on here that have flown for a lot cheaper, but that's blown my mind!

MaxFlyer

JFK/BOS-LAX/SFO are Flagship services. It should also say so in your AA itinerary.

AIKE

This is how it appears at my end.

jameslon

Try a dummy booking on aa.com - it shows as Flagship.

CW2000

I have spent hours trying to use the multi function tool but there is not enough entry fields to cover the entire trip. Would really appreciate a detailed explanation.

CW2000

Hello everyone,

I would love to book the BUD-HNL fare this Dec, just in time to take advantage of the reduced TP threshold and retain Gold. I am a little late in the game, but I found this itin, which I hope to optimise to my advantage with schedule changes, etc. However, the tough part is booking it. I see many of you have managed to book this fare, but there is very little insight into how. I tried with matrix power tools, doesn't allow me to book on AA. I've changed to a European city, but still no fare. I am so curious how you guys do it, I have spent hours and then gave up. I work in travel so not new to the game and have checked I/J class availability for my dates, luckily still available.

Any insight into how you actually book and pay for this fare would be a great help. I have a stack of vouchers with BA so would prefer to book with them, but I am open to booking with AA for ease. I would hate to miss out on the reduced TP. Would appreciate all your help. I am sure there is many people on here who would love to book a TP run, so we all benefit.

Many thanks in advance.

Sam

LCSinTexas

Here is an example of using the multi city option, in a very basic way. Play with it and add features and rules to see how it affects your results.

AIKE

Yeah it appears you can only book a non-Flagship Transcon if the ticket is actually on Jet Blue metal. I'm sure it will work out on the day anyway!

Shamankian

With complex itineraries on BA stock, it is only possible to book via a travel agent, or by calling up BA and having all the flights and fare buckets at hand. So give them a call, and have the flight numbers at hand!

CW2000

I was referring to the multi function tool on BA. How can I actually book and pay for the fare? I am able to use the multi-function tool in matrix no issues.