Help with BA WT+ booking
 

My in laws are thinking of joining us on our trip to Kenya in November and asked me to check into the cost of flying BA WT+ for them.

They need to fly into NBO from SYR and ideally they should arrive on BA65 on Nov 29 as we're arriving on KL565 the same evening.

Here's where I'm running into problems. On ba.com for the SYR-ORD-LHR portion on Nov 28, it's only giving me the option of BA5490(AA4156)/BA298 or BA5486(AA4127)/BA294. Neither combination gets into LHR early enough to connect to BA65 on Nov 29.
What I would like for them to be able to take is AA4224/BA296. Anybody know why this combination doesn't show up on ba.com? Is it because BA doesn't codeshare on the earlier AA flight?

I called BA reservations and a through ticket booked with the earlier AA/BA SYR-ORD-LHR flights in combination with BA65 prices out at $7500pp. The agent suggested that I purchase two separate tickets SYR-ORD and ORD-NBO at a cost of $2613.08pp ($238.60 + $2374.48). My goal was to book everything as one through ticket (at a reasonable cost) and so far I've not found a way to accomplish this.

Plus if they're going to purchase two tickets anyway, they may as well route through EWR on CO/BA and save themselves $300+pp, right? Is there any advantage to paying more for the AA/BA combination if purchasing two separate tickets?

I can also move their departure from SYR a day earlier to Nov 27 and have them either overnight at LHR and take BA65 on the morning of Nov 29 or take BA89 on the evening of Nov 28 with a 9+ hour layover at LHR. Both options are bookable on ba.com for around $2330pp, but I was trying to avoid the overnight or long layover at LHR.

The return on Dec 11 is no problem. They can take BA64/BA295/BA5487. It's only the outbound I'm having issues with. Suggestions?

If you've read all the way to this part, thanks! :D

No <b>AA</b>dvantage (couldn't resist :-) ) to booking the route suggested. Why fly to Chicago at all. BA flies out of New York and/or Boston. Buy the cheapest ticket to either city from SYR, just make sure the have enough connection time as they may have to check in for the BA flight. Purchase the BA WT+ ticket from either city and it actually may price out cheaper.

Good luck!

I AAlmost posted the same myself but refrained from doing so ;)

If this was a ticket for myself, I'd do what you suggest, but I'd feel better if my in laws were booked on one through ticket. I'm still hoping there's some way to do it with a more convenient schedule for around $2500pp.

BA isn't seeing availability on the SYR-ORD (or I also tried forcing NYC) on AA, so it's not giving a fare. AA, of course, doesn't recognize the existence of WT+, so AA.com is a bust. While Expedia.co.uk offers WT+ in its searches, it can't see BA codeshares on AA. N. American sites for Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, et al don't allow premium economy searches. Onetravel.com does (the only N. American portal I could find) but they don't show any SYR origins with &quot;T&quot; (WT+ cheap) fares for your outbound date. For that matter, they only show &quot;W&quot; (WT+ uncheap) being available on most returns in mid-December (but I don't know your return date.)

All of which is to say it looks like two tickets is your best bet.

Thanks for checking. I was aware of Expedia UK but hadn't tried pricing WT+ through Onetravel.com before (still can't seem to get it to price WT+ ex-SYR, not even in W, it only gives me economy results). In any case, there's T availability on their outbound date from a number of BA gateways, so I'll just present them with the possible options and let them decide.

There is one discounted WT+ fare from SYR to NBO. It is booked in 'T' class and the fare basis is TLRCNA2.

There are several routings possible on this fare basis. The most convenient are:
SYR-ORD (with AA or BA codeshare)
ORD-LHR-NBO (with BA)

or

SYR-BOS (with US Airways ONLY)
BOS-LHR-NBO (with BA)

Other routings are permitted but are a bit too complicated to be realistic options. For example, you can go SYR-BOS-EWR-LHR or SYR-BOS-JFK-LHR with US Airways and then CO or DL respectively. For some reason, you cannot go direct SYR-EWR with CO on the TLRCNA2 fare, so this would cost a little more if you were to persist in going on this route as it would split the fare in EWR.

BA.com will only let you purchase flights with a BA code, so the option of going via BOS with US Airways which happily connect with BA65 to NBO, will not be presented. You would have to book this with a human travel agent (no online travel agent will be able to do this itinerary in WT+) or with BA telesales.

The only minor complications are knowing which booking classes to use on the US or AA flights. Whoever gave you a quote of $7500 should be shot. That is ludicrous.

If you book US Airways, the booking class on SYR-BOS is V.

If you book AA, the booking class on SYR-ORD is B.

The BA segments ORD/BOS-LHR-NBO must all be booked in T class. If you book a BA codeshare ORD-SYR, this should be B class.

You can use other classes to get the TLRCNA2 fare, but it's not necessary to over-complicate things here!

You can book a combination of US outbound and AA inbound, and this is still perfectly valid for the TLRCNA2 fare. The fare itself is a base fare of $1904 and $2298.48 when all taxes are added.

Just remember the keypoints that:
US Airways = V class
AA = B class

Being forewarned is being forearmed.

Hope this helps.