50TP run on 22 Nov. Some advice please.

[Gary]

I need 50 TP and am free to do a back to back TP run from LON on 22 Nov. Considering outbound BA396 in CE & inbound BA399 in economy (selling class N) pricing up at £226 (so £4.5 per TP which is apparently not great value). I have two questions.

1. By looking at the flight schedule LHR BRU with BA on 22 Nov, it would make sense BA396 & BA399 are flown by same craft. Any way to confirm this?
2. Any other back to back options from London cheaper than £220 on 22 Nov? Looked pretty hard but can’t find any.

[NorthernLass]

Have you looked at the BA low fare finder page? I think £220 isn’t a bad deal though, with current air fares!

[SamG]

slightly confused – BA396 / BA399 won’t be a back to back and it’s unlikely the same aircraft will operate both. I believe Brussels is risky for a B2B anyway as the transfer route isn’t consistently available – there is a thread on flyertalk so you’d be better on the BA396/BA399 combo, it’ll be pretty unlucky for the first flight to be delayed so long you missed the second

Price looks OK at this point but you may find a true B2B at Amsterdam (which is off one flight and reboard, no security or immigration) an easier option

[Gary]

Thanks @NL & @SamG.

@SamG, I did consult the flyertalk turnaround thread which advised BRU as “green” for B2B, so glad I asked here too. Also realised need to search 2 one-ways to get a true B2B. I am quite a novice but LCY AMS BA8499 & BA 8498 on 22 Nov would be considered a true B2B?

[SamG]

I think if you read through the comments that the transfer route is a bit variable.

Yes, looking at the timings that’d be the same plane. AMS is absolutely foolproof for a “true” B2B unless something very strange happened, so that would be my preferred option and LCY arrival means no LHR hassles

[ClubSmed]

You could do this domestically couldn’t you?
BA8726 15:30 LCY – 16:45 GLA £143 business
BA8729 18:55 GLA – 20:25 LCY £63 economy

That should net you 60 tier points

Though if you did it the other way (class wise, economy out and business back) it would be cheaper (£83 + £116 = £199) and you get to use the lounge in Glasgow on your 2 hour wait if you are not currently silver +

Hope that makes sense and helps

[SamG]

The problem with that is it isn’t a “true” B2B and it’s possible that the BA8729 could leave before the BA8726 arrived. Glasgow is another good option though as domestic arrivals decant into domestic departures but you’d want to do the same plane there and back or do it as a full day trip to allow for disruption

[spesh.ie]

Interested in this. Could you explain what a ‘true’ B2B is please?

[John]

By true B2B they are referring to the same actual plane going back. But even at Glasgow there is a risk of aircraft being swapped around if there is a significant delay to an arriving flight.

The idea is that you want to guarantee you won’t miss the second flight, i.e. if the outbound is delayed, the return is guaranteed to also be delayed, which means there can only be one flight scheduled within a long-ish period.

[SamG]

Yes, it’s possible that things get swapped around (especially in the afternoon when there are crew changes happening downroute to provide crew for the early flights the next day) but it’s unusual. Normally the BA8726 goes to Glasgow and comes back as the BA8727. The BA8727 can’t leave until BA8726 arrives (with you on it!) so in theory very little/no risk of it going without you

This doesn’t work everywhere – either because you need to pass immigration + security to get back to the gate which especially post Brexit you don’t have enough time for or the design of the airport means they can “board” the flight into a waiting area which means the flight can be closed without the aircraft being there, especially if the flight is running late

I know that Glasgow or Amsterdam doesn’t do these things so they’re good options 🙂

[spesh.ie]

Thanks very much for the explanations

[e14]

You will be unable to book a true b2b on ba.com on one ticket because most to the TAT (turn around times) are shorter than the MCT (minimum connecting times). IF you were going to book on a single ticket then it would be unlikely that you would be going back on the same plane, and no you can’t try Same Day Change (SDC) as it will error if you tried to get the earlier flight.

PS the taxes will almost certainly be lower on the return segment, so book Y out and J back (unless you need the lounge access in the UK).

[cats_are_best]

It’s worth checking with google flights as BA will not show itineraries that are perfectly viable B2B, it’s also fast to get prices by date in a matrix for a destination.

For instance LHR-JER-LHR can be cheap some days, it’s an easy B2B – I’m about to do it, booked with Amex to avoid the MCT issue mentioned above.