Fitch

Nothing very special tbh, just put in:

CAI

LHR JFK LAX / alliance oneworld; f bc=I

HNL,KOA,OGG

which returned dates in September around the EGP29k mark...

Didn't take it any further as not that interested in using myself !

NA-Flyer

I didn't know that CBP/DHS have on-duty officers stationed in LHR questioning passengers before boarding a flight to the states

Airprox

Neither did I until this. My PNR was flagged that they wanted to see me and AA were not allowed to issue a BP until they gave the OK. I had to wait about 10 mins for a very pleasant lady to turn up. Plain clothes, armed with a badge and a notepad. Asked lots of questions, took a few notes, nothing too serious. She then told AA I was ok to travel to the US. Presumably as LHR sends more people to the USA than most airports it makes sense to have a few people there to filter out those that are going to be turned back at the border anyway on arrival.

The lady I spoke to at LHR, the CBP guy in secondary at JFK and the two TTRT guys were all way more friendly than 95% of normal CBP officers you see at the border.

Fitch

Interesting. By accent and appearance would you say they were actual US officials, or local sub-contractors ?

Airprox

Definitely a proper US official with DHS badge and paperwork. Not like ICTS etc. By the time I got to JFK she had written up the notes she took and the TTRT guys could see them.

PeyoNYC

that happened to me in CDG too 2 years ago, official guy from the consulate.

As for laptops, Alitalia let me take mine onboard last Thursday. Maybe my generalization was too quick, but it was clearly not a issue with Alitalia.

Rather cut the guesswork and check the carrier's website.

Airprox

There is no guesswork going on here, only facts, which as I and LX64A332 pointed out means that the UK doesn't allow electronics larger than a smartphone in the cabin from Egypt.

You were flying from Egypt to ITALY, thus no laptop ban.

catharsis

Priced on Matrix, booked (using bookwithMatrix) on priceline, then cancelled and had a nice BA Gold line agent book an alternative routing for me. She was great and an interesting contrast to the lady the previous night who 'forced' me to use priceline by telling me that I didn't understand that business class tickets were not available for the sort of price I was quoting her and that I did not know the difference between economy and business

So yes, I have tickets in my hand for 1200 TP for GBP1,480, could probably have got cheaper.

I found Matrix works best as 4 separate sectors (or 5)

cai-dub
dub-hnl
hnl-dub
dub-cai

(I actually had a long stopover in the US so used 5 sectors)

also of course you need I availability which is the real problem.

if you have a lot of time you can search using /f bc=i on a 'leg by leg' or sector-by sector basis using matrix to identify flights where I bucket is available and then hardcode those flights into matrix to ensure that you can get a price.

The tricky part seems to be the transcon and the Cai-lhr flights from an availability perspective.

generally leaving CAI on a sunday morning is your best options, and the very LAST date for which I is available LHR-CAI for the return leg seems to Late october for some reason.

Good luck to all pursuing this fare

Fitch

On the Gold line ? That's pretty shocking - I'd be putting in a complaint about her if that happened to me

catharsis

didn't complain... the booking I was trying to make DID push the envelope somewhat.

I did mention to the second (great!) agent (who received a golden ticket, btw) a few of the comments made by her colleague and she seemed surprised and apologised.

I did point out to the first lady that as a GCH and regular flier in business I probably knew how much the ticket should cost .... didn't seem to trigger anything so I just gave up and tried a few more online options.

Kind regards

Colm

tmpvt

What is the meaning of

Does it mean:

first business class = I

Can you also but the preferred booking class in ITA Matrix?

catharsis

there are several threads on FT including http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...0&goto=newpost

I've always interpreted the command which is

'/F BC=I' and which must go at the end of the line I believe as meaning

"Force booking class = I"

The fare you are looking for is the IRCME fare from BA and is only available on flights that have 'I' far bucket (a discounted business class fare) available.

put another way, you cannot use this cheap fare to book the last remaining available business class seat on any given plane.

mmxbreaks

Getting this at around £1760 GBP. Anything nearer the £1200-1500 mark, or is that all gone?

catharsis

for GBP1760 you can do dub-CAI-dub in PE, and nest Cai-OGG-Cai insde it for 1350TPS, or fly direct Dub-OGG-Dub for a max of 920 unless I'm mistaken.

Fitch

Slightly OT (about half-and half )

The parameter / f bc=I should, if I've understood correctly, restrict the flights returned to only those with I-class availability.

Instead, (and I'm seeing this on the current CAI-...-HNL/OGG/KOA searches) it actually returns a mix of Y and I and R

Is there a way in Matrix to truly force to a single booking class only ?