[TiredOldHack]

Well, if you discount the £450 for the section to Santiago, it comes out at about £6.6k for the AMS-EZE flights, which is pretty much in line with the lower end of your price spread.

And I do like the night flight out, I must admit.

Not sure if BA has its new IFE installed on the 777s it’s using on the LHR-EZE sector. Any ideas? They didn’t when I last flew it in July, but they had it on the 777 that took us to Chicago a month or so ago. Really rather spiffy (and showed up the system on the American codeshare flight back as being rather tired and dated).

[MartynSinclair]

Its a shame we have to play these games – to achieve significant savings.

However, as has often been its market driven pricing.

As far as IFE is concernded ToH, for these prices, does it really matter, with the savings, but an iPad or Tablet and create your own IFE programmes!!

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Funny enough, just checked MLA to EZE out of curiosity and the price is £1,900 even though the distance is longer and their are 3 airlines involved.

Tried SCL and found it was £3,500!

I guess it all depends on supply and demand.

[coudntthinkofaname]

I flew out LHR to EZE with BA in CW about a month back, and they do have the new IFE (ie touchscreen – that’s the new one right?)

I usually fly to South America with Iberia (about 3 times a year) and I can also vouch for the excellent service I’ve had in Iberia’s Business Plus. The only thing I would warna against is their terrible service/attitude on the ground when things go wrong (like missing the connection out from Madrid due to delays at LHR – but that story is deserving of another thread!)

[TiredOldHack]

I must confess I’ve never travelled biz with Iberia, but my experiences in economy have been so universally awful that I don’t want to spend money on testing the water, as it were.

Illogical, maybe. But I’d suggest to any airline exec reading this that if passengers have a nice experience in your economy classes, they’re more likely to want to try your premium classes.

[TiredOldHack]

@ Lagunopirate – yes, we flew to AMS the night before in September, and had a splendid evening and night. The flight to Chicago left at about midday, so it made sense.

This time, the flight to Buenos Aires leaves on the evening, so there’s plenty of time and we can spend it lounging in, er, the lounge.

[TiredOldHack]

@Disgusted – yes, we found that incorporating the EZE-SCL leg in the ticket increased the price by something like £500 a head, even though LAN and BA are both Oneworld partners, and the return fare is only about £150.

Inexplicable.

So that’s why it’s booked separately.

[RichHI1]

TOH Inexplicable is the right word for Chile. I have done the LHR-EZE-SCL route several times and normally the LAN service EZE-SCL is excellent with nice 767’s and good business class. Now and again it goes horribly wrong and you gte coach class onyl aircraft, cancellation or long delays. When this happens they have no clue what to do. Any promised refunds will take many many attemots to reclaim and even insuring you are rebooked same day may be difficult. It seems that their Germanic ancestry means they expect things to work ( unusual in Latin America) but when it goes wrong they find it “inexplicable”. they are like rabbits in headlights, they have no clue what to do. Not to be mean to passsengers but because they are genuinely confused.

[Binman62]

MartynSinclair ….can you cast some light on the flexibility of tickets ex MXP. I use BA.com directly and the fares have a restriction on stopovers at LHR of just 7 days and for 200 euro per pax. I suspect this excludes any additional APD. I wuld be interested in what the fare basis is that will allow a more extended LHR stop even up to 12 months. I am lookig at HNL next July but so far cannot find anything that allows a stop in LHR without the fee and limit of 7 days.

[MartynSinclair]

@Binman

Please find the fare rules as saved at the time of my booking. Am a little suprised at the spell errors.

My post did not state which Milan airport I am using. I have never had a problem with changing ticket sequence 4, but I check before I book and keep a copy of the t & c’s.

The ticket is booked via the Italian web site not the UK.

CHARGES FOR CHANGES AND CANCELLATIONS
Note – no penalties unless otherwsie specified. Refund without penalty permiited at any time. Unlimited changes without penalty permitted at any time a change is a date/ or flight/ or routing change.

In the event of rerouting the fare must be recalculated from point of origin.

Where this fare is combined with another fare the penalty conditions of the changed fare component will apply. When more than one fare component is changed the highest penalty of any changed fare components will apply.

Changes before outbound departure.

When the first fare component is changed. The itinerary must be re-priced using fares in effect on the date the ticket is reissued.

When there are no changes to the first fare component but other fare components are changed. The itinerary must be repriced using fares in effect on the previous ticketing date -or-on the day of reissue – whichever is lowest.

Changes after departure.

The itinerary must be repriced using fares in effect on the previous ticketing date.

Unless otherwise specified.

When the new itinerary results in a higher fare the difference will be collected.

When the new itineray results in a lower fare a refund of the residual amount will be made -.

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Fare Conditions
RULE APPLICATION
Europe to area3 semi-flexible world traveller plus/club world fares. Application area these fares apply from europe to area 3. Class of service these fares apply for business/economy class service. Types of transportation fares governed by this rule can be used to create round-trip/open-jaw journeys. Capacity limitations the carrier shall limit the number of passengers carried on any one flight at fares governed by this rule and such fares will not necessarily be available on all flights. The number of seats which the carrier shall make available on a given flight will be determined by the carriers best judgment
STOPOVER RESTRICTIONS
From/to bkk 1 stopover permitted in each direction.
MAXIMUM STAY REQUIREMENTS
Travel from last stopover must commence no later than 12 months after departure from fare origin.
CONDITIONS FOR THE COMBINATION OF FARES
Between italy and area 3 for ircjsa type fares add-ons permitted. End-on-end end-on-end combinations permitted. Validate all fare components. Fares must be shown separately on the ticket. Travel must be via the point of combination. Open jaws/round trips/circle trips fares may be combined on a half round trip basis -to form single or double open jaws. A maximum of two international fare components permitted. Mileage of the open segment must be equal/less than mileage of the longest flown fare component. -to form round trips -to form circle trips a maximum of two international fare components permitted. Provided – combinations are with any fare for carrier ba in any rule and tariff. Combinations are with any j-/c-/d-/i- type fares for carrier aa/la/ay/qf/cx/rj/ib/jl/ma in any rule in tariff ipreuas – between europe-area 3.

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[ivornomates]

I do it long haul every month from AMS, it allows me to fly into UK at one location on a LCC and out of anywhere I like back to AMS, I wouldnt dream of giving my money to the corrupt UK government who claim these horrendous taxes are for green house gas causes – BS – its to pay all their fiddles and fighting wars they should not be in

[Swissdiver]

Being based in GVA, I am lucky to see many airlines fighting to have us on board (not many long haul flights out of GVA, beyond NYC, IAD and the Middle East), so always flying “ex-Europe”, often with a stop in London, sometimes in Amsterdam or Zurich (in Paris, it is not worth it because of the time involved in going down town). So used to this, never had any form of warning from any company (I am a Swiss resident but my tickets are often bought in London). That said, what makes a rule is not to write is, it is to enforce it. And I don’t see how BA could enforce it when it comes to the last leg (for the first one, they can of course cancel the rest of the trip).

When it comes to regular trips, it is worth, as Martyn mentioned, to “cross the tickets”, i.e. to have another city of departure. Have done this with Cairo and other cities quite successfully. And the price difference is really worth it!

[LPPSKrisflyer]

What I really fail to understand unless you are a BA status junkie is why on earth you would fly out of the UK, pick up a flight back to London and then onwards to another destination.

I agree the pricing is stupid but why not take advantage of the excellent offers made by LX, LH and so on and save a lot of grief in the doing of it and enjoy better service too.

[Binman62]

Martyn….do you have the fare basis that these rules apply too.

Have just pulled the following off the web site for I class LIN HNL retrun in Club. I class also used in August to CGK but again the LHR restriction was clear.

STOPOVER RESTRICTIONS
Unlimited stopovers permitted in each direction in united kingdom at eur 200.00 each. Child/infant discounts apply. A stopover may not exceed 10 days.

MAXIMUM STAY REQUIREMENTS
Travel from last stopover must commence no later than 12 months after departure from fare origin.

[TiredOldHack]

It’s basically price. I’ve just checked the Lufthansa prices for the dates we’re travelling. £2900 a head, so over £500 per head costlier.

Cheapest I can find on Swiss is about £3600/head.

[Author]

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