Crazy €750+ BA / AA business class fares to New York, Boston, DC

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Alex says:

  10 Jan10 January 21:36

  On a related note, what actually allows an airlines to cancel a ticket. Can they just cancel anything they want per T&Cs? I guess what I’m asking is where is the burden of proof that the fare is an error?

  Sure, £1 return or whatever is fairly clear and sure €500/600 is cheap, but not necessarily obvious, especially to someone who doesn’t travel often.So really, are they just allowed to cancel anything if they wanted? Or do they need to prove its an “error”?

  • JDB says:

    10 Jan10 January 22:39

    Who knows what BA will or won’t do, but at this stage there is no onus on BA to prove anything. If they choose to, they can simply cancel the booking citing unilateral mistake and it’s then up to the passenger to sue them, claiming it wasn’t a mistake and the booking should stand.

    The onus is then on BA to prove (on the balance of probabilities) that it was a mistake. The same principle can be applied to most contracts. If anyone were to pursue BA, it’s more likely to be a more frequent traveller who will probably also be less likely to win, particularly once the court is told of the background to the bookings, their pattern of travel, prices previously paid etc.

    • Harry T says:

      11 Jan11 January 02:58

      Why would someone who more frequently travels be less likely to win in court? I don’t think they will be facing an FBI investigation into their previous bookings.

      • JDB says:

        11 Jan11 January 07:23

        Simply on the basis that it would have been more obvious to the frequent traveller that the fare was an error. Of course there won’t be any investigation but you can be certain that if BA didn’t honour the fare and someone chose to fight them, they would list the fares you had previously paid for starters. The claimant might also be asked questions about the circumstances and if they were evasive, the case would crumble rather quickly.

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  10 Jan10 January 22:05

  As I posted the other day when someone raised error fares it may be that BA does honour these fares simply because in the scheme of things not many tickets at these prices have actually been sold and given the extra revenue they will earn with lots of people wanting positioning flights to/from DUB/CDG/OTP etc

  • Marcw says:

    10 Jan10 January 23:17

    Wishful thinking. IB had an error fare to Chile (around €1k)… And offered travellers a refound or to travel in economy. The interesting bit is that IB contacted passengers 1 month before travel dates.

    • Harry T says:

      11 Jan11 January 02:59

      It was a lot less than 1000 euros!

      • Harry T says:

        11 Jan11 January 02:59

        1000 euros is just the normal sale price of a ticket on that route from Europe.

        • DZOO says:

          11 Jan11 January 10:45

          Really? Many had their 1k tickets cancelled also…

        • marcw says:

          11 Jan11 January 11:10

          Please tell me where I can get a FULLY FLEXIBLE BUSINESS class ticket to South America for €1k.

        • Mart16 says:

          11 Jan11 January 13:50

          Pretty easily from Iberia a few months back (albeit some did indeed get cancelled which was pretty unfair)

• Alfred says:

  10 Jan10 January 23:20

  In my experience, whenever a OneWorld fare across the Atlantic seems a likely error, I always book on AA.com and try to combine BA and AA metal. If it is a big error, BA will more than likely cancel and AA are more likely not to. This has happened several times over the years. Biggest win was Mexico in First from Prague, when BA cancelled all of the BA issued tickets – but AA maintained all the AA issued tickets. I remember getting a warning at the gate in Prague ‘you probably won’t be let on in London’ but that was the last I heard of it. Best £400 or so I’ve ever spent on flights I think. 🙂 That was clearly a massive error though. £700 on business is much more of a grey area.

  • Scott says:

    11 Jan11 January 01:24

    Well, there used to be the £1000ish DUB-LCY-JFK-LAX-HNL fares in business, and I’m sure some people managed £700 or so ex-JER.

    They’ve also done things like the £787? fare to ICN, but that was limited to just there as part of a new route.

    Only “error” fare I’ve had cancelled was BFS-LHR-(SIN or DXB?)-MEL for around £315 with Qantas in economy. Booked under a week before the travel dates and that was cancelled, being cited as an error fare, 2 days beforehand.

    Possibly a WT+ price?

• Talay says:

  11 Jan11 January 01:16

  Would it be the case that if you were flying from Italy, then as long as you notified the airline that you were not taking the first flight, then they would not be able to cancel your onward flights due to a court ruling some years ago which stops flights booked in Italy from suffering this cancellation ?

  Thus, in this example, you could book MXP-LHR-JFK and simply turn up for LHR-JFK ?

  Also on any skiplag return, just get your bags checked to where you want to get off, not through to your final destination.

• Catherine says:

  11 Jan11 January 07:55

  I got DUB-LAX via Heathrow for £1200 return in club world for November later in the afternoon. Price is still the same this morning. Was even cheaper for flight via Helsinki with Finnair. I was happy with that.

• Blair Waldorf Salad says:

  11 Jan11 January 10:31

  I’ve started a forum thread to track cancellations/downgrades.

• Marc says:

  11 Jan11 January 16:42

  I managed to book DUB->CUN return in business in mid-October. E-tickets have already been issued. Hopefully BA will honor those. How long should I wait before looking for flights to/from DUB. A few weeks maybe? What do you recommend?

• Kieron34 says:

  11 Jan11 January 17:40

  “If you come back via London and are only on hand baggage, you can slip out at Heathrow with no issues.”

  Is this correct? I had read previously that BA sometimes follow-up with a fare adjustment and even threatens legal action if all sectors are not completed.

  • Rob says:

    11 Jan11 January 19:10

    Do it 10 times and, yes, they will. Do it once and you’re fine.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.