6:18 From my (short) experience working in air travel, the main issue with booking tickets together is the following: the booking systems will not want to mix fare bases among passengers (for a given flight/segment) within the same booking. Systems are dumb, they couldn't handle it. (That is also why you can only upgrade all passengers together within a single booking, or split the tickets.) Note: if you have someone from the airline on the phone while handling one of the bookings, they can write notes of passengers traveling together. This is mandatory if a passenger is under 12. (Online this will be an automatic UMNR, in customer service we could manually indicate whom they travel with, if we have several bookings.)
I travel a lot domestically in Brazil and hidden city / skipping legs saves me a fortune especially for last minute flights .... travel with hand luggage only obviously or swap between CGH/ GRU or GIG/SDU if necessary .
Just found your videos and my mind is blown. I started researching airfare stuff when I got my new credit cards with redemptions and "transfer partners". Right now I am simply in the US traveling in the US on Southwest Airlines. So I don't think I am in jeopardy of anything atm. But when I retire in a year or so I want to travel more broadly. This stuff almost feels overwhelming! I appreciate this video so much!
Thanks so much. That really was an awful thumbnail - I really must re-do that photo I used! If some of the concepts I talk about stick in the mind so when you come across them in the real world you remember there's something significant attached, that's a win! You can then research whatever issue / opportunity has arisen!
Seems all the budget airlines in Europe have really lowered weight alliwance for a carry on. Looking to fly from London to any city in Tunisia october 22
Very informative and I will try to make sure to remember all these points in the future when planning trips. Codesharing has caught me out in the past although the last time it happened I actually wound up on a BA plane when I was expecting it to be Iberia! The flight in question was on the most cramped airplane I've ever encountered. The toilet was so tiny that it made most plane toilets seem really spacious! If all planes are going to be like that in the future I will really have to lose some weight.
Small toilets sounds like an A321... At least it wasn't a 4 hour flight - then run those planes to Cairo and Amman these days... Thanks for watching! Need to redo that thumbnail as I don't look well...
Such an interesting video. Thank you. I noticed this on a recent ticket from Lhr Tlv Lhr. Outward the price is more than double the return price, and on closer inspection I saw it was taxes and surcharges.
This is a lot of work to look into all these tricks! I have found a small travel agency in Germany (even though I'm located in France) that does all this for me. I always get the best options and if there are cost effective Business class seats they are for me (it showed as "Business Saver" on a trip last month).
Thanks Agathe - I have used a UK agency called Propeller before for a really tricky itinerary although in the end even they couldn't book it - I crammed in so many transfers (rather than stopovers) which made the outbound journey so lengthy it couldn't be ticketed! An agency like that is priceless!
Thanks for all the advice, just as a viewing point, you should stop using the fade in- out between shots and just use the jump cuts you are already using, video will flow a lot better. Keep up the great work.
Thanks! I have changed my style somewhat since I made this video - it went live in July 2021!!!! Hopefully I've got better at lots of things since then! Thanks for watching
Thanks Peter - ITA is well worth a look. Wasn't sure anyone would subject themselves to over 20 minutes of this kind of stuff but it looks like people do!
Passengers would scramble to buy the Y, C, or F fare bucket for maximum flexibility. In the past, they could rest easy knowing that they wouldn’t pay an extra quid. But today, even those highest fares could still go higher. So “flexible” fares are a misnomer.
Interesting stuff Matt - especially about Hong Kong! One point to be aware of on the 'hidden city' ruse is that it can be tricky if you are travelling with checked luggage. Your bags might head off to your final destination without you! Not that us TP runners would ever think of checking in luggage 😆
Thanks Peter - not many laws Hong Kongers can be proud of lately but that's certainly one... HBO is the way to go - had to draw the line on the detail somewhere!
Hi Matt, I noticed the flying to another destination that stops at where you actually want to go but for a cheaper price when looking for BA flights to Singapore . I found if you instead flew to Kuala Lumpur it’s the same BA flight which stops on route at Singapore then changes to a Malaysian airways connection but the price was £ hundreds cheaper 😳 I couldn’t believe it & checked several times over several days but always the same result. Didn’t go that route eventually but airlines pricing is crazy 🤪. I also noticed picking up a point about club Europe (is it worth video) that on some occasions when booking an economy flight if you swipe across (not always shown have to swipe) that a club flight is actually way cheaper than economy bagged this a few times & even looking at the Shanghai flights found business cheaper than premium economy. Supply & demand I guess but people do need to look at every price tier when booking as sometimes there’s a real bargain to be had for less or only slightly more. Loving all your videos & still trying to get my head around booking a tier point run for gold but I’ll work it out over time. Once again thanks.
Thanks Madds. You're talking about hidden city ticketing where your actual destination is "hidden" in the headline city pairing... I have obliquely mentioned it once but there are 2 issues - when you skip the SIN - KUL leg the rest of the routing is cancelled, so you need to either do it on the last leg of a booking or you have to buy two one-way tickets, which often negates the savings you might make. And secondly the airlines hate it and there can be consequences of doing it more than once... Its a big thing in the US. Your second point is very valid though - there can be odd price trees lurking in queries people make!
Educational as always. You 'simply' inspire travelers who are willing to take a second or third look, instead of clicking the 'Book Now' button instantly, to look in the right directions. I always save your video release notification for a special moment so I can really absorb what you can teach me. Appreciated highly and liked as always. ps. If I may submit a request; since you are experienced and resident of the UK, I would love a video about British transit airports from Europe and back. Eg. Europe to USA or UAE, what is the difference in pricing flying thorugh Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, well you get the point. Maybe even go Glasgow or Dublin first.. hope to have given some future video inspiration. Cheers Matt!
Thanks Peter - that's really kind of you. Always nice to hear that a video hit the spot - you can never be sure when you set the video to publish... Interesting idea about transit airports - will add it to the list!
I'm actually going to pull off trick 6. I am going to Riga on airbaltic from Paris however, a direct flight between Paris CDG and Riga cost wayy more than a flight between Paris CDG and Tallinn on the exact same plane with a layover in Riga. So what I'll just do is, I'll hop off in Riga. However, I am not flying back with them as I am flying back with SAS via Copenhagen😆
i want to go to nyc next year should i go norse economy or virgin premium economy i like virgin wing cam but i don’t want the food or have more than 1 bag
Another great video Matt! While I appreciate you were talking talking about avios when you were highlighting that some fare buckets (O and G) are not upgradable - but worth noting that this does not necessarily apply to Proactive Online Upgrades (POUGs). Its quite common to get an offer on even the lowest hand baggage only (HBO) fares, to pay to upgrade to CE (although this comes with its own restrictions). Also doesn't tend to apply to flights with connections - only simple point to points.
I think with ticket in hand there's zero risk - you may occasionally be asked to show the credit card used to buy the ticket but no-one should care where the ticket was purchased. The tricky bit is getting the website which accesses the POS with the cheap fare to accept your credit card if its from a separate jurisdiction. Buying on AA requires you to fake a zip code to get it to work but I've always got the transaction to go through... Cheers!
11:55 "Carrier imposed surcharge" Not regular flyers (no 'loyalty cards'), later on in the year me and the wife are flying to Atlanta on a bucket list first class ticket that was advertised by BA as a sale. However, the final price breakdown shows a 'Carrier imposed charge' of £900 - each! 'Total taxes, fees and surcharges per person' was £1200 (in addition to the advertised ticket price itself) !!! Totally disgusting. Basically, it seems THIS is where you are paying for the supposed first class 'service' in the lounge and plane. £2400 (for both of us) for a few glasses of champaign and some 'nice food'. The separate 'advertised' ticket price, itself, surely THAT more than covers the 'big seat' ?
Hi again. It will still be a great experience!!! BA has largely done away with this scam on its business fares but it still lurks on First class fares - it is quite funny when you look at redemptions these days as a business seat may cost 80,000 avios whilst an F seat costs 68,000.... But it's £400 of taxes in business versus £1,200 in First. Virgin still does this in business class too - £900 of the £1,200 you have to pay in taxes and fees is their revenue....
@@MattsPlanet I need to stop looking at the price breakdown, lol. Definitely looking forward to the experience, and with yourselves etc there's plenty time to plan to maximise things. I hear the Champaign will be changed...no LP...the replacement damn well better be 'reassuringly expensive' lol.
Hi Matt, I’m really enjoying your series of videos and am attempting to go from Blue to GGL in one year by booking lots of the right OneWorld flights using BA’s double tier points promo. I’m finding that there are a lot of OneWorld cash fares that will show on GF and ITA (such as QR from LHR to DOH to KUL), however when I go to the BA website to book this as a cash ticket, it won’t even show in the search. When searching reward availability you can virtually search and book any flight, so not sure why I can’t do this with a cash fare? Any advice on this (and even a video) would be awesome. I understand that it's the BA holidays with the promotions and not any cash fare, but this should work with some patience searching for codeshares and then stitching these together with hotel bookings. Thanks and keep up the good work! Thanks Chris
Thanks Chris. Going for GGL is quite an ambition - good luck! I don't know the specific answer to your question, but I think it might be a point of sale issue - Qatar makes some fares available through certain channels, which then show up on GF and ITA, but don't then make them available through the channels BA can access. If you were selling something and put it on sale, you might not want to then also sell it through a third party who's going to take a chunk of the reduced revenue in commissions... Reward seats have different economics and are therefore simpler to find... So I'm sure you can book the Qatar flights somehow and add a BA exec club number, but you won't get the double tps. I always suggest calling BAH as they may be able to access inventory you can't see elsewhere, but I know that's an epic commitment these days as the wait times are unacceptable... Speaking to them may also extract an explanation of why you can't book something, Bottom line is that the double TPs offer is extremely generous and since they widened it to single travellers (I recall it started out being couples as a minimum) I think a load of people like us have tried to jump aboard. It would not shock me if BA is somehow throttling their availability now in reaction to this. Thanks for watching - don't know definitively that this is the answer but it would make sense...
@@MattsPlanet Thanks so much for such a comprehensive reply Matt. I’m slowly going through all your videos and learning more re the fares. I’ve been an Amex points junkie for a long time (running my own business) therefore have had the luxury of generating large amounts of points and lucky enough (using sweet spots and 241’s) to maximise this and fly in First / Business long haul, exclusively for a few years now. Now I want to maximise the cash tickets and earn more avios (and crucially status). Although I’ve been flying around in First, I’m BA blue and would like to benefit from GGL benefits. Keen to see any other tips for searching for fares that you can propose. Thanks again for all your efforts and I’ll keep watching. All the best
@@MattsPlanet not sure how this happened but i posted this comment on the video about tge lounges in LHR T3 you posted a few hours ago, no clue how it got to this vid, will post it again there
Great advice on buying tickets in smaller quantities to beat the airline pricing system
Thanks - working your way through the back catalogue but the looks of it! Thanks!
6:18 From my (short) experience working in air travel, the main issue with booking tickets together is the following: the booking systems will not want to mix fare bases among passengers (for a given flight/segment) within the same booking. Systems are dumb, they couldn't handle it. (That is also why you can only upgrade all passengers together within a single booking, or split the tickets.)
Note: if you have someone from the airline on the phone while handling one of the bookings, they can write notes of passengers traveling together. This is mandatory if a passenger is under 12. (Online this will be an automatic UMNR, in customer service we could manually indicate whom they travel with, if we have several bookings.)
Thanks for that - still in a world where "system says no" sadly!!
This is a really good video with some actual tips. So refreshing given the click bait nature of UA-cam these days. Excellent work.
Thanks! I try to give value...
I travel a lot domestically in Brazil and hidden city / skipping legs saves me a fortune especially for last minute flights .... travel with hand luggage only obviously or swap between CGH/ GRU or GIG/SDU if necessary .
When it works, it can be fantastic... Not worried about doing it too often???
Another great video, very informative. Ive worked in the industry 30 years, you still keep me updated.
Thanks! Quite a compliment!
Just found your videos and my mind is blown. I started researching airfare stuff when I got my new credit cards with redemptions and "transfer partners". Right now I am simply in the US traveling in the US on Southwest Airlines. So I don't think I am in jeopardy of anything atm. But when I retire in a year or so I want to travel more broadly. This stuff almost feels overwhelming! I appreciate this video so much!
Thanks so much. That really was an awful thumbnail - I really must re-do that photo I used! If some of the concepts I talk about stick in the mind so when you come across them in the real world you remember there's something significant attached, that's a win! You can then research whatever issue / opportunity has arisen!
Well that was a whole lot of stuff I didn't know. Thank you.
You're very welcome Dave. Even more so for clicking that thumbnail - I look awful! Every comment I receive I vow to change it....
Seems all the budget airlines in Europe have really lowered weight alliwance for a carry on.
Looking to fly from London to any city in Tunisia october 22
It's daft that a passenger could be 50kg or they could be 140kg yet they still try and nickel and dime you for an extra kg on your hand luggage....
Very informative and would love an update at some point.
Thanks - an update is on the to-do list
Very informative and I will try to make sure to remember all these points in the future when planning trips. Codesharing has caught me out in the past although the last time it happened I actually wound up on a BA plane when I was expecting it to be Iberia! The flight in question was on the most cramped airplane I've ever encountered. The toilet was so tiny that it made most plane toilets seem really spacious! If all planes are going to be like that in the future I will really have to lose some weight.
Small toilets sounds like an A321... At least it wasn't a 4 hour flight - then run those planes to Cairo and Amman these days... Thanks for watching! Need to redo that thumbnail as I don't look well...
Recently found out about your videos and they very informative and we'll explained. Thank you!🙏
You are very welcome!
Thanks, Matt, very useful.
Glad you enjoyed it
Such an interesting video. Thank you. I noticed this on a recent ticket from Lhr Tlv Lhr. Outward the price is more than double the return price, and on closer inspection I saw it was taxes and surcharges.
The UK (and particularly Heathrow) have realised they're onto a good thing by loading up the taxes!
This is a lot of work to look into all these tricks! I have found a small travel agency in Germany (even though I'm located in France) that does all this for me. I always get the best options and if there are cost effective Business class seats they are for me (it showed as "Business Saver" on a trip last month).
Thanks Agathe - I have used a UK agency called Propeller before for a really tricky itinerary although in the end even they couldn't book it - I crammed in so many transfers (rather than stopovers) which made the outbound journey so lengthy it couldn't be ticketed! An agency like that is priceless!
Bloody brilliant, as always!
Thanks!
Very helpful!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the tip...
You're very welcome
Great info. Absolutely agree on your view re surcharges, very sneaky indeed
Thanks Peet. That's 2 signatures on the "ban surcharges" petition!
Thanks for all the advice, just as a viewing point, you should stop using the fade in- out between shots and just use the jump cuts you are already using, video will flow a lot better. Keep up the great work.
Thanks! I have changed my style somewhat since I made this video - it went live in July 2021!!!! Hopefully I've got better at lots of things since then! Thanks for watching
That was a very informative video Matt thoroughly enjoyed it, will have to try the Ita web site next time looking for tickets.
Thanks Peter - ITA is well worth a look. Wasn't sure anyone would subject themselves to over 20 minutes of this kind of stuff but it looks like people do!
Passengers would scramble to buy the Y, C, or F fare bucket for maximum flexibility. In the past, they could rest easy knowing that they wouldn’t pay an extra quid. But today, even those highest fares could still go higher. So “flexible” fares are a misnomer.
If someone's reimbursing you for the cost of the trip, buying a full fare ticket is a great strategy!
Interesting stuff Matt - especially about Hong Kong!
One point to be aware of on the 'hidden city' ruse is that it can be tricky if you are travelling with checked luggage. Your bags might head off to your final destination without you! Not that us TP runners would ever think of checking in luggage 😆
Thanks Peter - not many laws Hong Kongers can be proud of lately but that's certainly one... HBO is the way to go - had to draw the line on the detail somewhere!
I have heard that SOME people therefore ensure a change of airport e.g. LHR/LGW so bags aren't thru-checked. Couldn't possible comment.
These are such good videos!
Thanks!
A highly informative video once again, with some factors I hadn’t previously considered. Many thanks!
Hi there - that was my goal - not send people to sleep and try to give something to think about!
I had the same with Emirates - Sofia to Dubai - it ended up being Air Dubai - the worst airline I have ever experienced!
Thanks - there's some dud airlines out there so for that to be the worst is saying something!
Thank you! Appreciate your hard work 🙏
Hope it was helpful!
Great video Matt, keep them coming!
One from the archives.... Thanks! That reminds me, I was going to redo the thumbnail on this video so I looked less... Sickly???
Some great insights here! Thanks
Thanks Richard - glad you got something out of it.
Great vlog and information. Thank you 😊 👍👊
Bit long perhaps but I hope it was helpful!
@@MattsPlanet Not at all. Its alot to understand and time to explain was needed. Thanks again 👍
Hi Matt, I noticed the flying to another destination that stops at where you actually want to go but for a cheaper price when looking for BA flights to Singapore . I found if you instead flew to Kuala Lumpur it’s the same BA flight which stops on route at Singapore then changes to a Malaysian airways connection but the price was £ hundreds cheaper 😳 I couldn’t believe it & checked several times over several days but always the same result. Didn’t go that route eventually but airlines pricing is crazy 🤪.
I also noticed picking up a point about club Europe (is it worth video) that on some occasions when booking an economy flight if you swipe across (not always shown have to swipe) that a club flight is actually way cheaper than economy bagged this a few times & even looking at the Shanghai flights found business cheaper than premium economy. Supply & demand I guess but people do need to look at every price tier when booking as sometimes there’s a real bargain to be had for less or only slightly more.
Loving all your videos & still trying to get my head around booking a tier point run for gold but I’ll work it out over time.
Once again thanks.
Thanks Madds. You're talking about hidden city ticketing where your actual destination is "hidden" in the headline city pairing... I have obliquely mentioned it once but there are 2 issues - when you skip the SIN - KUL leg the rest of the routing is cancelled, so you need to either do it on the last leg of a booking or you have to buy two one-way tickets, which often negates the savings you might make. And secondly the airlines hate it and there can be consequences of doing it more than once... Its a big thing in the US. Your second point is very valid though - there can be odd price trees lurking in queries people make!
Loving your videos Matt, thanks
Thanks Phil - Every time I see a comment on this video I think that I really need to change the thumbnail as I look dreadful for some reason!!!
Great informative video. Thanks Matt
Thanks Jamie - hope it helped
Always. I really enjoy learning all the tips and tricks. Very inventive in a time when travel hasn’t been possible.
Educational as always. You 'simply' inspire travelers who are willing to take a second or third look, instead of clicking the 'Book Now' button instantly, to look in the right directions. I always save your video release notification for a special moment so I can really absorb what you can teach me. Appreciated highly and liked as always.
ps. If I may submit a request; since you are experienced and resident of the UK, I would love a video about British transit airports from Europe and back. Eg. Europe to USA or UAE, what is the difference in pricing flying thorugh Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, well you get the point. Maybe even go Glasgow or Dublin first.. hope to have given some future video inspiration. Cheers Matt!
Thanks Peter - that's really kind of you. Always nice to hear that a video hit the spot - you can never be sure when you set the video to publish...
Interesting idea about transit airports - will add it to the list!
I'm actually going to pull off trick 6. I am going to Riga on airbaltic from Paris however, a direct flight between Paris CDG and Riga cost wayy more than a flight between Paris CDG and Tallinn on the exact same plane with a layover in Riga. So what I'll just do is, I'll hop off in Riga. However, I am not flying back with them as I am flying back with SAS via Copenhagen😆
Excellent work! Not that I can endorse that in a public forum of course...
@@MattsPlanet 🤣🤣'
i want to go to nyc next year should i go norse economy or virgin premium economy i like virgin wing cam but i don’t want the food or have more than 1 bag
Premium Economy is going to be better than Norse's economy, although Norse's premium product is highly rated if you can afford it...
@@MattsPlanet tysm Norse only fly back at night time tho 😔
Another great video Matt! While I appreciate you were talking talking about avios when you were highlighting that some fare buckets (O and G) are not upgradable - but worth noting that this does not necessarily apply to Proactive Online Upgrades (POUGs). Its quite common to get an offer on even the lowest hand baggage only (HBO) fares, to pay to upgrade to CE (although this comes with its own restrictions). Also doesn't tend to apply to flights with connections - only simple point to points.
Thanks and that's a good point - just added a video about POUGs to the to-do list!
@@MattsPlanet great stuff. Safe to say you're assembling a fairly comprehensive toolkit for prospective travellers :-).
@@MattsPlanet how are things looking for your upcoming TP trip?
Bleak! Update next weekend...
The points of sale game - How risky it is? - What could happen worst case?
I think with ticket in hand there's zero risk - you may occasionally be asked to show the credit card used to buy the ticket but no-one should care where the ticket was purchased. The tricky bit is getting the website which accesses the POS with the cheap fare to accept your credit card if its from a separate jurisdiction. Buying on AA requires you to fake a zip code to get it to work but I've always got the transaction to go through... Cheers!
@@MattsPlanet Thanks
11:55 "Carrier imposed surcharge"
Not regular flyers (no 'loyalty cards'), later on in the year me and the wife are flying to Atlanta on a bucket list first class ticket that was advertised by BA as a sale. However, the final price breakdown shows a 'Carrier imposed charge' of £900 - each! 'Total taxes, fees and surcharges
per person' was £1200 (in addition to the advertised ticket price itself) !!!
Totally disgusting. Basically, it seems THIS is where you are paying for the supposed first class 'service' in the lounge and plane. £2400 (for both of us) for a few glasses of champaign and some 'nice food'. The separate 'advertised' ticket price, itself, surely THAT more than covers the 'big seat' ?
Hi again. It will still be a great experience!!! BA has largely done away with this scam on its business fares but it still lurks on First class fares - it is quite funny when you look at redemptions these days as a business seat may cost 80,000 avios whilst an F seat costs 68,000.... But it's £400 of taxes in business versus £1,200 in First. Virgin still does this in business class too - £900 of the £1,200 you have to pay in taxes and fees is their revenue....
@@MattsPlanet I need to stop looking at the price breakdown, lol. Definitely looking forward to the experience, and with yourselves etc there's plenty time to plan to maximise things. I hear the Champaign will be changed...no LP...the replacement damn well better be 'reassuringly expensive' lol.
Hi Matt,
I’m really enjoying your series of videos and am attempting to go from Blue to GGL in one year by booking lots of the right OneWorld flights using BA’s double tier points promo. I’m finding that there are a lot of OneWorld cash fares that will show on GF and ITA (such as QR from LHR to DOH to KUL), however when I go to the BA website to book this as a cash ticket, it won’t even show in the search. When searching reward availability you can virtually search and book any flight, so not sure why I can’t do this with a cash fare? Any advice on this (and even a video) would be awesome. I understand that it's the BA holidays with the promotions and not any cash fare, but this should work with some patience searching for codeshares and then stitching these together with hotel bookings.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Thanks
Chris
Thanks Chris. Going for GGL is quite an ambition - good luck! I don't know the specific answer to your question, but I think it might be a point of sale issue - Qatar makes some fares available through certain channels, which then show up on GF and ITA, but don't then make them available through the channels BA can access. If you were selling something and put it on sale, you might not want to then also sell it through a third party who's going to take a chunk of the reduced revenue in commissions... Reward seats have different economics and are therefore simpler to find... So I'm sure you can book the Qatar flights somehow and add a BA exec club number, but you won't get the double tps. I always suggest calling BAH as they may be able to access inventory you can't see elsewhere, but I know that's an epic commitment these days as the wait times are unacceptable... Speaking to them may also extract an explanation of why you can't book something,
Bottom line is that the double TPs offer is extremely generous and since they widened it to single travellers (I recall it started out being couples as a minimum) I think a load of people like us have tried to jump aboard. It would not shock me if BA is somehow throttling their availability now in reaction to this.
Thanks for watching - don't know definitively that this is the answer but it would make sense...
@@MattsPlanet
Thanks so much for such a comprehensive reply Matt. I’m slowly going through all your videos and learning more re the fares.
I’ve been an Amex points junkie for a long time (running my own business) therefore have had the luxury of generating large amounts of points and lucky enough (using sweet spots and 241’s) to maximise this and fly in First / Business long haul, exclusively for a few years now.
Now I want to maximise the cash tickets and earn more avios (and crucially status). Although I’ve been flying around in First, I’m BA blue and would like to benefit from GGL benefits.
Keen to see any other tips for searching for fares that you can propose.
Thanks again for all your efforts and I’ll keep watching.
All the best
Just keep the points and book a Ryanair
Often an entirely valid strategy!!!!
The virgin club house was much better before the you what happened.
I can believe that!
@@MattsPlanet not sure how this happened but i posted this comment on the video about tge lounges in LHR T3 you posted a few hours ago, no clue how it got to this vid, will post it again there
Boring
Extremely!