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Hey guys,
I’ve booked GIB-LHR-DXB for next year (April) using Avios. Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough to get the DXB-LHR-GIB reward flight back. I am having some issues with paying cash for the return leg as the pricing isn’t calculating properly.
Fare from DXB-LHR is around £590. LHR-GIB is £290 (this is much higher than usual) so total £880. However, the combined total when I try to book together is AED 6685 (£1379) and bizarrely Premium Economy is less at AED 5385 (£1110).
Is this a known bug? Would it be priced correctly if I call to book?
Thanks
Mark@GibFlyer – unfortunately fare calculation doesn’t work in the way you would like it to. You can’t just add two single fares together to determine the though fare. There’s firstly an issue about the point of sale, so a fare purchased or originating in Dubai isn’t necessarily going to be the same as a point to point fare from London to Gibraltar purchased in the UK. The second issue is that not all fares are combinable so the two sides individual fares you quote may not be combinable and in quoting the fare in AED you mention (probably the full through fare), the system hasn’t found a better combination than the official though fare. With Gibraltar being a BOT, there used to be a particular issue re cabotage but I don’t think that’s relevant.
If you call BA, they may well be able to come up with a cleverer combination. It would probably help if you checked on somewhere like ITA Matrix or ExpertFlyer to identify a better way of doing it so that the agent picks the right fare bucket.
It might be related to fare classes. As you say the LHR – GIB fare is pretty high, suggesting a higher fare class. That would force the system to calculate the long haul leg in the same higher class. I’m not sure if they can manually override that or not.
Can you not get a reward flight LHR – GIB? That’s not exactly a prime route, and the net cost would surely be less than £290.
There looks to be decent availability DXB-LHR for April in PE and some CW, unless you have very little flexibility with dates. As an alternative, have you looked at DOH-LHR-GIB? How many people is it for?
Try calling BA. Ask them to add the final leg onto the ticket as a separate segment. System won’t let you do it online so it’s reasonable to ask if any service fee can be waived. Worked for me on a cash fare with another airline recently.
It might be related to fare classes. As you say the LHR – GIB fare is pretty high, suggesting a higher fare class. That would force the system to calculate the long haul leg in the same higher class. I’m not sure if they can manually override that or not.
Can you not get a reward flight LHR – GIB? That’s not exactly a prime route, and the net cost would surely be less than £290.
It does seem to be a fare class thing as the lower classes don’t seem to be available for the dates I’m travelling. Maybe I just need to be more patient!
There looks to be decent availability DXB-LHR for April in PE and some CW, unless you have very little flexibility with dates. As an alternative, have you looked at DOH-LHR-GIB? How many people is it for?
Dates are pretty fixed as it’s around the Easter holidays. There’s 5 of us. Trying to avoid the extra change as we’re travelling with a disabled friend who is pretty impatient lol.
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