Flyertalker001342

I planned my upcoming TP trip using ITA Matrix, and found it daunting; it clearly is not designed for the purpose, and the slightest "transgression" on your part will produce no results at all and then you are back to square one. I can't think of any way to use that particular software to search out an itinerary adhering to a particular fare rule other than painstakingly dissecting the fare rule's requirements and then reverse engineering them. I doubt that strategy is workable. Repeated trial and error was the only way that I came up with the itinerary that I did, and when I tried to reproduce it later, I failed.

I would assume that this fare code is available to the general public; getting an itinerary that adheres to it, however, may be difficult.

barrister_haus

If you go to your BAEC account on the BA website and click on "progress toward the next tier" they seem to have changed the language to "Eligible flights are defined as those flights marketed and operated by British Airways and those flights marketed and operated by Iberia." (emphasis added). This seems like a significant change as my flights for Silver are on Finnair but booked on BA.com and have BA flight numbers. I called BA and was on hold for over 90 min and finally spoke to a lovely agent who confirmed that as the flights have a BA flight number, they are clearly "marketed" by BA. But more importantly the BA flight number means that they are "operated" by BA.

I don't know why they changed the OR to an AND (in bold above)? But it seems that BA flight number=qualifying flight. Anybody aware of why the change by BA?

El_Duderito

You can use Expertflyer.com (subscription service) to see what fares are available between a specific origin and destination. It's well worth the money and time needed to master EF.

Flyertalker001342

I think there is less here than meets the eye, in most applications. Let's take some obvious examples:

(1) An Alaska Airlines flight which has a BA codeshare flight number; this is clearly not operated by BA, but perhaps could be considered marketed by BA if BA sold you the ticket. In any event, it doesn't qualify as one of the required flights to attain elevated BAEC status, even though it will yield Avios and TPs assuming it is booked in the correct fare category;

(2) An American Airlines transatlantic flight which also has a BA flight number, and is subject to the airlines JV agreement. If the ticket is sold and ticketed by BA, then it would seem logical that this would count towards the number of required "BA Metal" flights for elevated BAEC status. Logic is not always reality, and it was my impression previously that this flight would NOT count towards the number of BA Metal flights, however I could be mistaken.

(3) An American Airlines flight not subject to the JV agreement, with a BA Codeshare sold on a ticket by BA. This would include an A321 Transcon flight by AA. My assumption would be that this does not count towards the BA metal requirement, however I have read in this thread that it would, which makes no sense to me.

(4) A British Air Flight which has its own real BA flight number, but also has an AA codeshare, and which is sold by AA on a ticket using the AA codeshare number. Logically this is still a BA operated and marketed flight, and if you look up your flight reservation on the BA website, using the BA record locator, it will show up with the BA flight number and not the AA codeshare number.

I think it is easy to take written language and to interpret it in a contorted way. The only one of these scenarios where logic might suggest a result contrary to expectations, would be in the case of the JV flights, which obviously are still going to be operated by one or the other of these two airlines, BA or AA. In that case perhaps an AA flight with a BA flight number sold on a BA ticket would count as BA metal, however I am not sure of that, and personally doubt it. In the case of a non-JV flight operated by BA, but sold on an AA ticket with an AA codeshare, the flight is still being marketed by BA, it's just sold on a ticket issued by AA. Without a doubt AA is paying BA for the service BA provides. So this has to count towards the BA metal requirement, unless all logic is being tossed out the window.

omk298

But until now all of those have counted as one of the 2 or 4 BA flights needed - either BA metal or BA flight number. That's in contrast to Iberia flights which need to be IB metal and IB number to count

KARFA

I am not sure why this is being overcomplicated here?

If you book a flight operated by any carrier on a BA codeshare it is an eligible flight. A BA operated flight booked under any other flight number counts as an eligible flight.

Also usually if you credit a flight booked under a BA codeshare (regardless of operator) to your BAEC account you should receive some avios and TPs.

In champignon's post:

1) An AS flight booked under a BA codeshare will be an eligible flight.
2) An AA flight booked under a BA codeshare will be an eligible flight.
3) See 2
4) A BA operated flight counts as an eligible flight regardless of what flight number you booked it under

Just to repeat what I noted in post 1430

choosethedrew

I see the discrepancy. Just checked BA.com and it says marketed AND operated by BA, not marketed OR operated by BA:

"About eligible flights

Eligible flights are defined as those flights marketed and operated by British Airways and those flights marketed and operated by Iberia.

• 'Marketed' means the flight will have a BA flight number (in your itinerary or on your ticket).
• 'Operated' means the aircraft that you travel on is a British Airways aircraft (including franchises and BACityflyer).
• 'Marketed and operated by Iberia' means the flight will have an IB flight number and the aircraft you travel on is an Iberia aircraft (including franchises).

Reward bookings and agency or industry discounted bookings are not eligible."

megaloman

Yes, but it seems like someone has made a mistake on BA's website since in practice it's either:

• BA marketed OR operated
• IB marketed AND operated

If you look at the BA EC T&Cs paragraph 6.3, it's even more confusing: for Bronze it wants 2 BA marketed AND operated flights; for Silver and Gold it wants 4 BA operated flights. Clearly not in line with what BA EC page says and clearly not how it works in practice. Classic BA being consistently inconsistent.

KARFA

Good point. Yes I remember that page was spotted before and discussed as there was some concern the criteria had changed. In the end the consensus was it was just a poorly worded page which appeared during a website refresh a few years ago,

British Airways silver - the 4 eligible flights?

AlphaXray

Hi, 04MayAGP-SFO and 07MaySFO-AGP. 08Jun AGP-SFO and 12Jun SFO-AGP.

ISTFlyer

Although availability is very limited, it could be booked for May, June, July, August but the connection times could be weird and would require manual coding on ITA Matrix and would require a knowledgable agent who knows how to look married segments when booking the flights.

AlphaXray

Hi ISTFlyer. When you say "manual coding on ITA Matrix" are you referring to what is found in travelcodex.com? https://www.travelcodex.com/advanced...nguage-in-ita/

ISTFlyer

It's a bit kind of that but it would also require advanced research on individual availability and individual combinability for each segments which is quite time consuming.

AlphaXray

Thanks. If I spend anymore time on the pc I'll be in trouble!!

NA-Flyer

I flew once on AA flight number but the metal operated by BA and the flight counted towards the 4 segments required to renew status eligibility!