Multi-city, multi-class of service - Cannot Figure Out How to Book ba.com
 

Hello, I'm trying to book BOS/LHR (club world), LCY/FLR (Economy) and MXP/LHR/BOS (Economy Plus) online but I cannot figure out how to do it. When i choose the multi-city option for booking, i can only enter/see one class of service. Different if I do a return booking (in/out same airports), I can choose club world overnight and Eco Plus return. I just called the dedicated BA US telephone # for Silver members only to hear "sales' is still closed for a few more weeks. Any ideas? Go to airport? Thank you.

The advice is to make a booking, as close as you can, then go to change bookings on the phone within 24 hours. But frankly if you go to change bookings I would expect an agent to be helpful. I can't see you saving much money by going EuroTraveller to Florence, so I suspect it boils down to CW out, WTP back. That still doesn't help with the multi city tool but you may get a flavour of approximate cost by doing a dummy booking to say BLQ and back, in those classes, where it is possible to select WTP but select business on the outbound.

For a booking like this you need to phone or do it with a TA. It cannot be done on BA.com unless you book separate tickets

I was able to do it a in the past three months for PIT-LHR-MAN with WT on PIT-LHR and LHR-BHD on Club Europe

could you share how you did this using ba.com because I have never been able to do this without calling,

The multi city tool with only 2 flights inserted will show you travel classes and allow you to mix and match. As soon as there is a third flight, it will not. Flights for this purpose are origin and destination.

So in the OP‘s case, they could enter BOS to FLR and MXP to BOS and multiple classes will be displayed. Alternatively, BOS to LHR, MXP to BOS and buy LCY to FLR separately.

A warning here though that U.K. and EU fares often only combine unfavourably and that through ticketing to and from the EU carries significantly lower carrier charges.

Thank you - I understand what you're saying about booking 2 but you lost me on the warning part about 'combine unfavourably'...can you provide a bit more detail please? Thanks!

Of course. Fares to Europe and fares to the UK when combined as an open jaw ticket often result in higher fares because of whether the cheapest fares for each part of the journey can be combined.

I suspect your reason for specially mentioning LCY-FLR is because you want a longer stopover in London. However, the savings from lower carrier charges on a ticket USA-LHR/LCY-FLR with a stopover may end up cheaper than an open jaw USA-LHR / MXP-LHR-USA plus a separate LCY-FLR.

If you let us know your dates, I’m sure we can help you select the best or most cost-effective itinerary.

Sure, this was an Avios ticket. I put PIT-MAN into the Avios search on BAEC, let's put a random date of departure as 10/10/2022. I get a message: "You can break your journey with stopovers". On that screen, I selected "I want to break my journey and choose my stopovers". I set the "Departing on" date as 10/10/2022, the stopover city as London, and the "Continuing your journey on" date as the next day as it is an overnight flight therefore 10/11/2022 (I'm using the US date system of mm/dd/yyyy). On the next screen, I'm able to select the different classes. I was able to book WT on PIT-LHR and Club Europe on the domestic leg.

ok thanks, i see not a cash booking using the multi city tool

Yes - you got it right. Wow - this is great! Thanks for your help.
15 Sep - BOS/LHR (arr 16 Sep)- Club World
19 Sep - LCY/FLR - World Traveller or whatever, not bothered
11 Oct - MXP/LHR/BOS - World Traveller Plus (at least for LHR/BOS)

I am obv interested in lower cost but given BA telephone booking isn't available, how to get it done online (or I guess via AAA Travel Agent - here in the US, not a lot of indepent TA around anymore).

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

Try pricing up that itinerary in http://matrix.itasoftware.com and see what price you get, that would be roughly equivalent to what BA would charge you (or any travel agent).

It might be that that itinerary would be cheaper booked as BOS-LHR // MXP-BOS on ba.com, with a separate flight LCY-FLR. You'll only know when you compare both options.

Also, try aa.com as you may be able to book this more complex itinerary over there.

Including everything in one ticket would cost around USD 3,076, but this would include LCY-FLR in business class as a continuation of your ticket from BOS.
BOS-LHR in Business and MIL-BOS in WT+ comes to USD 2620. LCY-FLR costs GBP 171 in Economy or GBP 293 in business (around USD 350)

So, purchase the long haul on one ticket, and the short haul on another. You can do this online at ba.com. Use the multi-city option to book BOS to LHR and MIL to BOS. You will also see the options here and the price differences between the classes. If I were you, I would select business on the A380. It's nice.

For added information, I also checked BOS-LHR in business combined with LHR-BOS in WT+ and that actually costs USD 2700, more than returning from FLR, so no savings there due to the UK departure taxes.

Thank you very much for your advice! I've booked as you suggested (and on the A380), doing the LCY/FLR on it's own ticket. Life is good to be travelling again. Thanks and have a good day.

I've been able to look at/book a TPA/LHR/MUC outbound and LHR/TPA return but BA will NOT allow a layover at LHR of more than about 2 hours. I called You First and was told that I could book a longer layover but it would double the fare and in F that's hefty! There was a thread recently with a lot of criticism of a fellow who booked the min 2 hour layover at LHR but maybe he was the "victim" of not being offered a longer layover without a hefty price tag. It seems totally ridiculous that BA would not allow a longer layover (already have points tickets with the longer layover for some in the group) on a paid F ticket when they allow it on an awards ticket. Seems to me they need a huge re-work of their algorithms. Separate ticket is fine unless you have checked luggage as BA's new policy forbids linking the two flights for luggage so you have to clear the border and pick up your checked bag and re-check it for the Euro flight. Also insane when both flights are on their metal.