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I am playing with a couple of dummy bookings for a points run for the BA Holidays double TP promotion, and a potential base 70TP Economy to the Caribbean is more attractive than 80TP on a longer Club Europe trip for similar money.
I note the higher Economy TP of 70 is for flexible Economy fares, Y, B, H. But there is nothing showing on the dummy booking of Economy type or TP award, only the Avios bonus.
Is it possible to see what ticket type is on the BA Holiday booking (without booking, obviously!), force it to Y, B, H, or is there a standard fare type always applied to holiday bookings?
Thanks in advance!
There’s no direct way of determining the fare class. But you can be fairly sure that if it were a Y, B or H fare you’d know about it from the cost! These fares tend to be extraordinarily expensive.
I did see a “fare rules” popup when I made a recent booking through the custom tool, which indirectly told me the fare basis being used (usually the first letter indicates the fare class).
The easiest way is probably to call BA Holidays. You can ask them the fare class over the phone and you also then have 24 hours to cancel the booking for free, during which time you can get an e-ticket receipt from Finnair’s tool and check that the fare classes are as you expected.
If it helps, have done several BA Hols in mixed cabins, so far always been O (econ lowest) E (lowest premium econ) and I (business lowest).
+1 to that – will be crazy expensive in Y B or H. I’d be looking at maybe doing one way in economy and the other way in WT+. You’ll have to call to book, but especially if you come back in WT+ you’ll avoid the extra APD. Might be a very cheap solution and with added comfort, too.
If you do a straight cash booking you can see the fare class by clicking on ‘Flight Details’ against each flight before selecting it. BA Holidays Economy bookings can use group G if the cash class is O, but otherwise for any higher class I think BAH would be the same.
A call centre agent may be able to force a higher class if requested, but I agree the cost of the flexible tickets is likely to be out of proportion to the additional TP’s earned.
If it helps, have done several BA Hols in mixed cabins, so far always been O (econ lowest) E (lowest premium econ) and I (business lowest).
T is the lowest PE fare bucket. I know from past experience that BAH bookings can go into this.
Thanks everyone for all the info, I thought it may be the case about the cheapest fare types being used for holiday bookings. A couple of £100 extra may have been worth it for the points, but not what is likely to be a big jump – roughly £1000 each on the flex fare I tested!
I still think PE is not worth the extra money, having done it last year. I know it’s a cash cow for BA, but look at this example for a dummy booking I have just tried:
7 nights Tobago 3* room only in September. £722pp Economy. An extra £644pp for PE! I’d rather stick with steerage and use the cash (and TPs) for another week away somewhere else!
Slightly off topic, but I’ve found that a real benefit on short haul BA holidays is despite the low tier points, you can get a fare equivalent in price to the hand baggage only fare but paired with a car (I get the hotels cheaper) you get full luggage allowance per passenger.
For example 5 of us went to Faro last week for a total of £522 including full luggage and car hire for 5 days, and doing the same for 10 days in Dubrovnik/Montenegro in the summer for around £1,0007 nights Tobago 3* room only in September. £722pp Economy. An extra £644pp for PE! I’d rather stick with steerage and use the cash (and TPs) for another week away somewhere else!
Yes, but that’s on a round trip PE fare I assume. So you save £110 in APD, meaning the one way upgrade back will be around £250pp and you get your bonus TPs. Pick wisely and the premiums here can be even lower.
7 nights Tobago 3* room only in September. £722pp Economy. An extra £644pp for PE! I’d rather stick with steerage and use the cash (and TPs) for another week away somewhere else!
Yes, but that’s on a round trip PE fare I assume. So you save £110 in APD, meaning the one way upgrade back will be around £250pp and you get your bonus TPs. Pick wisely and the premiums here can be even lower.
That’s a reasonable point, doing that for Tobago would get me 220TP (base 20+90) with the promo but that still leaves me a little short of where I need to be. Food for thought, thanks!
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