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Apologies in advance for any duplication; I searched for this topic before posting but I don’t see any related posts.
Hoping to book an open jaw on IB using a 241, routing MAD-EZE/MVD-MAD-LON. I found the business class availability for my chosen dates on the BA app, noting the price was 75K Avios each way for the long haul sectors, plus the nominal Avios required for MAD-LON. Content, I called the BA contact centre to book. The agent (who was super friendly and sounded very switched on) had no problem finding the same availability, but she saw a price of 90K Avios each way for the long haul sectors.
After a long hold while she escalated, no resolution could be found. So now, the tickets are ‘held’, I’ve been given a PNR and I can see the booking in both the BA and IB apps. However, the ‘back office’ need to figure out the correct price. Once they’ve done that they’ll email me, and I need to call again to finalise the booking by making payment. Meanwhile, my 241 voucher and Avios remain in my account, and no payment has been collected.
I have a feeling that the ‘back office’ are going to claim that 90K each way is correct, and since it’s an open-jaw ticket, I can’t book online. Has anyone experienced this discrepancy before? Obviously, I’d far prefer to save the 30K difference for a rainy day, but I guess I’m at the mercy of the BA IT system!
Grateful for any thoughts or previous experience.
@ _Tom – there are quite a few possible explanations for this. If you have calculated based on two one ways, you can’t just add them together to get the answer. If the MAD-LON flight is on BA, that too can create complications as RFS doesn’t mix easily with non-RFS particularly with different Avios/cash options.
Could BA be costing MAD-LHR at 15k (or more) avios, which is the CE avios price? Or were they saying 90k PLUS the cost of the short-haul sector?
I recently booked DUB-LHR-MEX in F to take advantage of (much) lower surcharges. To do the DUB-LHR leg in CE, it was going to add around 20k avios, so I booked it in ET for 9k avios – on such a short flight I’d rather save the avios. Could something like this be in play here?
Update; I just received a phone call from another (really lovely and very helpful) BA agent who told me that the ‘back office’ have calculated the fare, and it matches what I found online. She explained that the agent from last night (and I assume whoever she escalated to) made an error in the manual calculation.
So, it’s all sorted now. Booked and paid at 150K return + 15K for the MAD-LON sector (165K total). Business class the whole way.
To answer the points above; @JDB, I took your advice from last night and booked the flight from MAD-LHR on Iberia metal.
@NorthernLass, last night they quoted 90K each way just for the long haul, plus 15K for the one short haul sector. This morning they corrected it to 75K each way for the long haul plus 15K for the one short haul sector. I totally take your point about saving 7.5K Avios by taking the short haul flight in Economy. Particularly since I have OWS anyway. However, it’s done now! That’s a food for thought for next time 🙂I’m sorry, it seems I opened a thread based simply on a manual calculation error on BA’s side. Sorry to waste any reader’s valuable time, however it does at least highlight that if you’re reasonably confident in your own homework, it’s worth validating anything that doesn’t seem quite right from BA’s side.
Update; I just received a phone call from another (lovely and very helpful) BA agent who told me that the ‘back office’ have calculated the fare, and it matches what I found online. She explained that the agent from last night (and I assume whoever she escalated to) made an error in the manual calculation.
So, it’s all sorted now. Booked and paid at 150K return + 15K for the MAD-LON sector (165K total). Business class the whole way.
To answer the points above; @JDB, I took your advice from last night and booked the flight from MAD-LHR on Iberia metal.
@NorthernLass, last night they quoted 90K each way just for the long haul, plus 15K for the one short haul sector. This morning they corrected it to 75K each way for the long haul plus 15K for the one short haul sector. I totally take your point about saving 7.5K Avios by taking the short haul flight in Economy. Particularly since I have OWS anyway. However, it’s done now! That’s a food for thought for next time 🙂I’m sorry, it seems I opened a thread based simply on a manual calculation error on BA’s side. Sorry to waste any reader’s valuable time, however it does at least highlight that if you’re reasonably confident in your own homework, it’s worth validating anything that doesn’t seem quite right from BA’s side.
Glad it’s sorted – these data points are quite useful as using the 241 on non-BA flights and not starting in the UK is all still relatively new.
Heaven knows how DUB-LHR was pricing up higher than MAD-LHR in terms of avios, possibly because there was F in the mix to confuse things, but the £600 we saved on the surcharges more than made up for it!
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