Fortune favours the bold!

CX won't get any problems for taking someone to MAD who has the right to enter there. I fail to see why this was ever likely to be an issue - airlines only care about circumstances in which they might have to take someone back again at their expense.

Leo123 did not disclose that he was entitled to enter Spain in the original post. :)

Also, he had a connection to SSG, so it would be normal to enquire into the visa situation even if he was passing through a country where he was a resident.

The airline only cares about their revenue risk. If there's no risk in taking him to MAD then they'll be happy to do it, curiosity notwithstanding. And OK, but how many people posting on these forums need a visa for Spain? Less than 5% I guess.

I am looking to book a LONE4 originatingin London, booked through BA (as I am trying to hit the $20k spend on a BAChase signature Visa) and in the UK as the £ price is cheaper than the $ price,the card has no foreign transaction fees and it’s originating in the UK anyway.

I have the itinerary pretty muchnailed down using the online tool. One stumbling block is the HTI-SYD leg,which shows no L availability on the dates I need to travel (very littleflexibility due to vacation constraints). On ExpertFlyer I can see that thereis L availability, but only with the USA point of sale.

Wondering if anyone is aware how flexiblethe airlines are on the point of sale is for these explorer tickets or if thereare any workarounds?

• Is there a way a UK basedBA agent can book that one segment as a US POS?
• Could I book a UKoriginating itinerary through BA in the US? And if so, would that count as US POS but still be the £price converted to $?
• Could I book the itineraryas previously planned in the UK and at a later date make a change to book theHTI-SYD leg from a US point of sale? How would I do that?

Thanks in advance

If a currency conversion is done by the airline or travel agent, it will be done using the IATA Consolidated Exchange Rate, which is effectively the average of the previous day's "ask" (or "bid") price for the currency pair in question.

For GBP/USD, outside of unusual circumstances, the rate should not be more than a few percentage points away from the spot rate, and within the margin of error of Visa/MC/Amex's exchange rates. Are you making a big saving this way?

Is there a possibility of a married segment rule? I would have thought that more likely. (I only say this because I am a bit surprised that QF is treating a minor domestic route like HTI-SYD differently in the US to elsewhere.)

For any other itinerary, of course ... but whether it can be done for a RTW itinerary, you've genuinely stumped me. A TA could do it. But can a BA office in the US? I don't know.

Did you send your original request via a US office? Or did you call BA in Manchester on their UK telephone number?

If issued from a US office, the currency would be USD. You can ask to use an alternative currency if you like. The conversion would be done at the IATA Consolidated Exchange Rate.

You could book with AA, by calling their RTW desk, which uses a U.S. PoS. You'd still pay the ex-U.K. price since that's where you're starting. It might work to call the U.S. BA line; you could always call them and ask if they see L inventory on that flight on your date. You could also book it with a dummy date for that flight (and possibly everything after), then later call and have the dates changed, since that is free.

My suggestion is to either call AA or call the U.S. BA number and if they can see the inventory, have them book it. If AA books it, they can price it in GBP.

Sounds to me like Olas86 wants the spend to go to BA so that it qualifies a bonus under her/his credit card.

Yes - that is correct. Ideally I would like to book through BA for the triple Avios.


Realize now that I wasn't being clear before - when I referred to £ or $ price I meant UK or US DONE4 price. Currency doesn't really matter due to the no foreign transaction fees


I guess what I really want is a BA US point of sale but the UK price. Sounds like calling the BA number in the US is the best bet (thanks anabolism)


What is a married segment rule?

The availability on one particular flight can be affected by other flights to which it is connected.

For instance, consider going from DXB to SYD to WLG.

Looking at this as a through journey, the availability on a random date is as follows:

But if we look at those as two separate flights, not connected together, the availability of each flight is different. That's because in the above search, the sectors QF2 and QF161 are married segments.

Searching for QF 2 on DXB-SYD (on its own) gives
and similarly for QF 161,
Therefore it is not always useful to search for segments individually. ExpertFlyer can search for connected segments.

Obviously this only applies if the flights are connected, that is, within 24 hours of each other.

I don't think that is the case here. These are the two sets of results - firstly with US point of sale, secondly with UK point of sale.



Results from https://www.ExpertFlyer.comResults from https://www.ExpertFlyer.comThere is UK point of sale availability on Jan 7th but I am trying to do LHR-DXB-MEL-HTI-SYD-KUL-SIN-HND-JFK in 20 days and cant really afford to spend 6 days in HTI :(

There is another alternative if the major goal is to get a ticket issued.
Set HTI-SYD up as a surface segment and buy a local ticket in whatever fare class is available on the QF Australia site.

Happy wandering

Fred

Thanks - that was going to be my last resort option.

Some additional question now that this is becoming a reality -
Once booked, will the entire itinerary be available on my BA executive club account and will I be able to select seats from there? Or will I need to go to the website for the operator of each segment?
And as a OWE, are there any seats that aren't available for selection? eg. bassinet seats? Looks like I am going to have segments on QF, MH, JL, AA and BA if anyone is aware of any specific restrictions?

Sorry to bring this up again, but I was actually looking through the IATA Ticketing Handbook on ticketing for inadmissible passengers to answer another question, when it occurred to me that, if the passenger did get as far as SSG and was refused entry, then CX would actually be liable to IB for most of the cost of a new outbound ticket.

The IATA rule is, where entry is refused, the final inbound carrier is responsible for ticketing the passenger to whatever place is directed by the authorities. If the passenger has no unflown flight coupons left on his inbound ticket, and refuses to pay for the outbound ticket, then all carriers who participated in the inbound carriage (from the previous stopover, up to the place where entry is refused) share the cost of that new ticket. That cost is shared on a pro-rate basis.

Since HKG-MAD is much longer than MAD-SSH, and there was a connection at MAD not a stopover, it seems to me that CX would be on the hook by IATA's rules even if IB dropped the ball by allowing the passenger on board at MAD.

Anyway, just an interesting technical point. :)

It is indeed - thanks for that!