Jaenks

There is absolutely no need to search any individual combinability or individual availibility. That is BS! At first I searched through ITA Matrix some dates but decided to not book through AA, therefore I gave the fare code BA INX1C1S4 to my travel agent, who book it to BA stock and with same price that was in ITA Matrix. Which avoided the call to BA to book.

webstereo

According to matrix QR from OSL to AKL next year stops in BNE. Would that add extra TP's? I cannot seem to find out how many it would be from BNE to AKL (although I assume 80?)

ISTFlyer

No as that flight is only a technical stop.
You would get 160TP's for the DOH-AKL leg regardless if it's direct or it has a technical stop.

AlphaXray

Thanks Jaenks, TAs are certainly an option.

Flyertalker001342

I recently became interested in TP runs as a result of the current difficulty finding Avios award seats in First on long haul itineraries. After all, if you are flying in First, you don't need status very much. I did manage to get Silver status a couple of years ago (which has been extended a few times during the pandemic), and have come to appreciate its value :-)

Your usual TP run is normally an inconvenient and convoluted routing at a cheap-ish price that in exchange gets you a lot of TPs and probably Avios as well. The downside is that you are inconvenienced, end up going places that don't interest you, and you probably will waste a lot of your time. I am going on such a routing in December, involving mostly AA flights but also some shorter BA flights. I was willing to tolerate this because I was going anyway, and even though I am wasting about a day in total, I will get to see some things I've wanted to see but have never made the time to do so. But as a trip to repeat in the future, I think I would say "no."

It seems to me that for the more occasional travel who values comfort, that another approach would be trying to buy First Class BA tickets at a good price, usually meaning that you buy far in advance and by being flexible on the exact dates and length of your trips. You could supplement this by taking your shorter and less interesting trips on the various OW airlines, building up the TPs as well.

As an example, I recently booked a trip for next year from the West Coast of the US to Switzerland for about $4100, all in first except for the CE flights from LHR, and conveniently going nonstop from the West Coast to LHR, and yielding 540 TPs and close to 40,000 Avios as a result. If BA was offering award seats for this type of routing, I would have jumped at it, but even if they were it would have cost at least $1600 in fees, 140,000 Avios Points, and yielded zero TPs and zero Avios. On balance this (paid) trip looks to me like a relatively good deal for what you get, causes no inconvenience, and gets you a good part of the way to BAEC elite status.

Could this be considered an alternative type of a TP run? What do you think?

dougzz

I don’t think 540TP for $4100 is anything like a TP run.

With apologies if this all gets a bit omni, but I don’t accept you have to go where you don’t want to, convoluted route absolutely yes. I’m London based and like to holiday in the USA. My typical journey would be XXX-LHR-JFK-YYY-ZZZ where X is Non-UK euro start point, Y and Z being USA change and destination. So if it Florida I may do DUB-LHR-JFK-MIA-TPA, and if the West Coast JFK-SFO-LAX for example. These yield 520 for the east, and 720 for the west, and are often available for £1000 to £1250.

Previously I’d try and include HEL in the European part for the additional 80, but I find that too much effort now. So for me it’s about routings with stops, but avoiding crazy multi-hop journeys, but always going somewhere I want to go anyway. I think of my bookings less as TP runs, and more as TP optimised holiday routings. For what it’s worth I usually do the Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam shuffle the day before my USA flight as I find that more relaxing and allows getting the earlier USA flights.

Ultimately I think you find what you’re comfortable with, so whilst 540 for $4100 is in no way a TP run, it’s what you’re happy with, so why worry about vague terminology.

KARFA

I think generally the TP run thread tends to look at anything with yielding under £3 per TP.

Beyond that for good value premium fares which are not necessarily TP runs, there is the premium fare thread here https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...1-edition.html

ISTFlyer

I would also add the fact that Tier Point runs generally require someone to give up convenience.

For example, if you are flying LAX-BSL in F via London, you would get ( 210+40 ) * 2 = 500 TP's round-trip ( not 540 )
If you are flying LAX-JFK-LHR-BSL you would get ( 210+210+40 ) * 2 = 920 TP's round-trip for almost the same price

Of course someone could just fly a more efficient routing for the sake of earning Tier Points, but not taking at least two stops would be a huge loss of value as 420 TP's is the 1.2% of what you need for lifetime Gold.

RG1X

I'm a glutton for punishment, but I actually quite enjoy doing the multi change stuff. If only because I get to see a bunch of of different lounges / airports etc.

I haven't done a back to back yet though, mostly because I'm risk averse.

HB7

In the true sense of a TP run, this is not one, however, this trip is a trip that you need to make or was planning on making and thought you'd kill two birds with one stone, which I assume many people here do. TP runs are usually trips that are not needed and therefore are all about maximising the TP per dollar/pound to try and get those "extra TPs required for status" for as cheap as possible.

If I were in your shoes, I'd do it because I'm achieving what I need to achieve, i.e. status.

squawk

Precisely this. I have done various “TP optimised” routes, but only one that could reasonably be called a TP run (the Babybus meet-up, which served to renew Silver for a couple of years) - and even that, I turned into a short holiday by tagging on a nested trip to see friends. As both Babybus and 747s were subsequently grounded, it also ticked a couple of “aviation geek” goals of BA001 and 64K on the upper deck before their retirement.

If I wasn’t able to do things like that nested trip, and thereby get something out of it other than the TP/Avios, I would be very unlikely to take the trips. The only exception would be if I was just shy of a major milestone like Gold or CCR access, and knew I’d be able to get value out of that status for the subsequent 12+ months.

I am unlikely to organically renew status this year, so while I am keeping an eye out for TP optimised routes for just after my status ends, I won’t fly them as pure TP-runs. Instead I’d plan a holiday around them, with a decent break at the other end.

Flyertalker001342

Only picked this reply randomly so as to not seem like I'm starting a new topic :-)

As I said, I am doing what should constitute a real TP run in December, essentially BOI (Boise, Idaho) to GVA and back, which is taking a total of 10 flights when 6 would normally be sufficient, and even though it's in First, the normal routing would yield 580 TPs and the one I am taking yields 1130 TPs. Since it is in 1st, it may not look as good on the $/GBP per TP metric :-), even though it was a bit cheaper than the normal routing would have cost.

After having gone through the laborious, ITA-Matrix including process to find and book this itinerary, I think it will be a one-off for me, that will fulfill it's intended purpose, gaining a gold card in one trip, with the reduced levels currently required. One thing I did in this trip which I think I could easily repeat would be short RT jaunts out of LHR on cheap fares gaining 80 TPs (if ticketed in J class) in 2 short flights that won't break the bank. I'm doing that in (economy, for my BA Metal count) in the form of GVA-LHR-GVA, nested into this December trip. Again, not as good a deal as some of those more exotic TP runs, such as LHR to Sophia, but not a hard or expensive way of getting or maintaining status.

One quick question: if you book in Economy on short flights, and accept an upgrade offer at online check-in to Business class, do you get Business Class tier points in addition, or just the pathetic little meal and drinks offered with the blocked middle seat?

The _Banking_Scot

Hi

On BA you will get the additional tier points ( you may have to claim after the flight if they do not post correctly)
other oneworld airlines may have different policies .ie AA will not give you the additional tier points.

Regards
Tbs

Flyertalker001342

Thanks very much. I was referring to a cheap GVA-LHR round trip I bought which is nested inside of my TP trip. This is a BA ticket on BA flights using my BAEC number. So if they offer me club class for an additional ~$50 then I will have to decide if the 40 TP (vs. the 5 TP I currently will get) is worth it. If all the other flights on my trip post correctly on the outbound I may not bother, since I'll have gold in the bag and the extra TPs won't make any difference. These flights are late on the 24th and on the 25th of Dec., which I suspect will be slow. In the past when I have purchased coach flights on routes like this, at the time of check-in one is frequently offered the option of an upgrade at a cheap price. The business class seating within Europe isn't much better than coach, other than for the empty middle seat, plus the minimal food and alcohol one is offered. So club class on a short route isn't worth a whole lot especially if you aren't checking bags.

Thanks Again.

TalkingPoint

MAD-SFO/LAX/DFW-CPT/DXB are all around $1888 if this helps anyone

link: mad-sfo-cpt