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Trying to find a cheap TP run.
BA’s website will not offer me flights that are available as single booked tickets as part of a Man-Lhr-XXX return. Even if I do get it to offer a ticket, it wont give me for example the evening flights from MAN the day before where I need to stop over, it only gives ridiculous morning flights, so I end up spending an entire day, and then night at LHR to fly onward the next day.
If I go via google flights I can book the exact legs and times I need as 1 ticket but via TAs such as Travel Decorum (who are 100 cheaper than Travelup, Travelcation, Kiss&fly.
Question is for everyone, are these real, I’ve never heard of any of these agencies and why can I book end to end tickets on them that I can’t via BA. I know I’m S75 protected but they worry me.
And for anyone looking for a cheap TP run for 240 from MAN, Tirana is a really good one in Nov. IF you go via these agencies.
Anyone ever been to Tirana besides Romesh Ranganathan?
Have you tried punching what you want into the multi city booking engine and seeing if the price is plausible?
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/book/public/en_gb/flightSearch
Oh and yes I’ve heard of two of these agencies. The chances are you’ll get a legitimate ticket but you’ll have a nightmare if there are any problems as getting in touch with them to change your ticket will be a shocker.
Have you tried punching what you want into the multi city booking engine and seeing if the price is plausible?
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/book/public/en_gb/flightSearch
Yes that’s what I meant above (but didn’t explain it well). On an outward, despite there being flights between 12pm and 7pm, it’ll only give me the flights between 6am-12pm when I try a multi booking. So I’d end up a whole day and night at LHR rather than getting the 7pm ish flight as I want to do and there are seats available.
And yes, I looked at the reviews of those agencies after I wrote that. No way would I even try.
I think that just sucks as far as BA’s IT goes. Be brave and try phoning BA to ask them to book it for you. If you cannot book it online then they should waive the offline booking fee. It will probably be a bit more than the bucket shops but worth a try in case it is reasonable.
Weirdly, if I randomly search Tirana from Edinburgh it is happy to let me sleep over at Heathrow so there might something funny going on with Manchester?
Are you definitely searching each flight one by one seoarately on the multistop itinerary? So not man-cdg, but man-lhr stating the date you want the 7pm flight, then lon-cdg stating the following day’s date.
Looks like BA’s system is set to insist on minimum 12? hour connection time on any flight from Manchester. This does make sense as they keep cancelling flights.
Remember they put the hours you are supposed to accept your flight being moved by under their ts and cs, up to something like 5 hours? This is sneaky because that really means 5 hpurs before + 5 hours later, ie a 10 hour period within which they try to get free rein to mess you sround. So setting computer to force a 12 hour minimum connection time for any flight fron MAN, kind of has the same feel.
I still think you’d get better pricing if you booked this by phone
I think that just sucks as far as BA’s IT goes. Be brave and try phoning BA to ask them to book it for you. If you cannot book it online then they should waive the offline booking fee. It will probably be a bit more than the bucket shops but worth a try in case it is reasonable.
Weirdly, if I randomly search Tirana from Edinburgh it is happy to let me sleep over at Heathrow so there might something funny going on with Manchester?
Tirana it does, but only by arriving at 1pm the day before and the price is ridiculous
Sofia it wont no matter what I do.Are you definitely searching each flight one by one seoarately on the multistop itinerary? So not man-cdg, but man-lhr stating the date you want the 7pm flight, then lon-cdg stating the following day’s date.
Looks like BA’s system is set to insist on minimum 12? hour connection time on any flight from Manchester. This does make sense as they keep cancelling flights.
Remember they put the hours you are supposed to accept your flight being moved by under their ts and cs, up to something like 5 hours? This is sneaky because that really means 5 hpurs before + 5 hours later, ie a 10 hour period within which they try to get free rein to mess you sround. So setting computer to force a 12 hour minimum connection time for any flight fron MAN, kind of has the same feel.
I still think you’d get better pricing if you booked this by phone
Yes, I’ve been at this game for a while 🙂
I get your point, but 12 hour connection doesn’t explain why I can’t arrive at LHR at 6pm for a flight at 8 am the next day or why it won’t book Man-Lhr-Sofia.
And it doesnt explain why those routes and times are available at other OTAs.
ActuallY I just tried Amex Travel and they can book the ticket that those dodgy OTAs can book (that BA can’t), so I think I’ve solved my issue but it’s darn annoying I can’t just book the same thing on BA.com
FWIW the only way of finding something to book (and finding the cheapest fare) was Google Flights which is awesome. Lock the search to oneworld, and scroll the Price graph of date grid to see the lowest options. Got the 240 point run for £374 at amex travel which is way better than the £419 google priced it at.
Even Amex cant book the Sofia one though. End up coming back Sofia-LHR-DUB-MAN with an overnight stop in Dub and no biz class on 2 of those 3 legs
It’s not a new problem – I had the same issue booking a BA holiday to GCM last year. OH and son were on a 241 and the BA holiday system wouldn’t let me book the same MAN-LHR flight they were on (even though there was plenty of availability, including award seats!). When I checked prices for doing that leg separately, cash prices were really high and I ended up booking an avios seat (OH and son checked all the luggage through so that wasn’t an issue). It made me wonder if BA deliberately sets up the holiday booking system to exclude the most expensive domestic connections so they have more seats to sell to people willing to pay £400 for a one-way CE ticket.
I think we just conclude that BA stands for Bloody Awful or Broken Always.
Nobody seems to have any tips on Tirana then?
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