Ideas for mini status run during EU trip.

[fly by wire]

Hi Guys,

Have an upcoming trip to Europe and am on the quest for the SC per $ trips in EU or on the way home. It wasn't practical to go via the US as I have read much about the YUP fares available there on AA. My trip so far is:

BNE-xSIN-HEL-(some Norwegian Air flights around Scandinavia)-LHR-BKK-BNE.

After my trip around Scandi, I have some spare time and was wondering if there is any decent status runs to be had in EU or even on the way home out of BKK. Thanks for your suggestions. May the quest to WP begin.

 

[anat0l]

Europe is not the best place to start looking for status runs.

You can try and look at some BA Club Europe fares ex-London. Some of them are nicely priced, but nothing spectacular in "status run" territory (or even close, I should say). The Club Europe fares ex-LGW seem particularly well priced, but they are often once-a-day flights with too tight a turnaround, forcing you to overnight at your destination and evaporating your status run economy.

Out of BKK, you have CX regional J flights to consider. They are not always on special and some may require overnighting without careful selection, but if you can grab some then the SC earn economy is quite good.

 

[fly by wire]

I guessed that might be the case, I guess I hoped there still might be better SC/$ than available in AU

 

[ncm]

Not sure what SC/$ rate you are looking at but some of the IB flights to regional Spain i.e. not MAD or BCN, out of LHR can be ok.

e.g LHR-VLC/SVQ/PMI in J are ~£500 ($730) and most have multiple flights per day and tight connections in MAD so you could probably make a day of it out of London (although each destination is well worth a day or three in their own right). Each trip will net you 200SC which obviously works out at .27SC/$ or $3.65/SC.

The best BA run can be LGW-RAK. I got 160SC for £321 ($470) in October 2011 (bought in a Summer Club Europe Sale) - $2.94/SC. As Anat0l points out above though it is a once a day flight so would require an overnight. Not a hassle in such a great city though.

 

[fly by wire]

Thanks for the options. Still seems might be better value to put the cash towards some JASA's back home or go all out and head to the US of A.

 

[tyrolean]

If you want to do some touring you may find some interesting fares on BA. A few thoughts:
- Try to book them from outside the UK (AMS, FRA, BRU...) as you save the "UK Business Class is Luxury Socialism Tax).
- There are quite good deals but most of them require a sunday night - no prob if you want to do some SC optimised sightseeing.
- Try to get the over 600 Miles flights as they earn 60 SCs in Club Europe (MAD, LIS, NCE, ARN,VIE...)
- Be careful which flights operate from T5 and T3 to avoid terminal changes.

- You may book a flight to your starting point in Economy. After booking on ba.com you are mostly offered an upgrade for ca. 70-90 Euro.

- So an example routing would be
Ticket 1: LHR-AMS
Ticket 2: AMS-LHR-xx_ xx_-LHR-AMS (Will get 160 or 200 Points -if LHR-xx_ is more than 600 Miles).
Ticket 1: AMS-LHR

Ticket 1 gets 20 SCs or 80 SCs if you manage to upgrade both sectors. If xx_ is a nice place you can do some sightseeing.
You may replace AMS with DUS, FRA, TXL, MUC, BRU and check nice fares and connections.

 

[fly by wire]

how does the upgrade part work? Is that at time of booking or a follow-up email?

 

[tyrolean]

how does the upgrade part work? Is that at time of booking or a follow-up email?

i got it offered just after the booking. Otherwise use the brilliant Manage My Booking on ba.com. You log in with your booking code and name. You can upgrade, do seat reservations, check in...

 

[fly by wire]

One thing I have noticed with BA, when booking multi city trips, e.g. Amsterdam to Zurich (via London), if you book them as two one-way trips it is way cheaper (as in over half price) than if you book it together, I can't understand it. Has anyone else noticed this??

 

[tyrolean]

Odd things with BA: The cheap Club fares require you to stay over saturday night.

Cheap oneways are only bookable in Economy (but upgradable for cash if the cheap Club fares are open!).

Option 1:

1. Look if cheap club fares are availiable on that flight
2. Book the oneway in Economy
3. Upgrade the fare by cash (there is a slight risk that it is not possible, I had a quit good success rate!).

Option 2:
Use the Cross Ticketing trick (do 2 trips in different weeks).
Day 1
Ticket 1: AAA-BBB
Ticket 2: BBB-AAA

Day 2 (a week later!)
Ticket 2: AAA-BBB
Ticket 1: BBB-AAA

So two trips for that!

Option 3:
Stay the night form Saturday to Sunday in your turnaround city.

Option 4:
Combine the other options!!

 

[fly by wire]

Thanks to everyone that posted but mostly to tyrolean, I booked the following all on BA all for around $100 or less:

AMS-LHR, LHR-ZRH, GVA-LGW, LGW-SZG. The last three legs I was offered the instant upgrade to J for ~$100AUD & did it. Seems like the flights ex gatwick are common for instant upgrade. Only the LHR-ZRH was on a weekend, the rest during the week.

The bonus being I was planning on going to those places anyway and have avoided a couple of 9 hour trains and swapped for a couple of overnights at LHR and LGW.

The total routing for my trip is including all the one-ways (most of those Scandinavian flights are on Norwegian):

BNE-SIN-HEL-RVN-ARN-OSL-surface sector-BGO-CPH-AMS-LHR-ZRH-surface sector-GVA-LGW-SZG-surface sector-PRG-LHR-BKK-SYD-BNE