Playing the 'positioning flight' game - have I got this right ?

dickydonkin

stevie11 wrote: »

Was the ORD flight in J?

It was and I'm more annoyed with myself today that I did not take AAs option of holding the flight for free - despite knowing that the offer ended at midnight yesterday.

I picked Frankfurt as my departure point connecting at Heathrow flying BA. but I understand that with a bit more creative routing using AA, the price was even cheaper.

I'm sure more offers will come along and I think I will need to be more assertive!

stevie11

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

When I travel, there are always four of us, so the saving really adds up:j

( I live in Cumbria, so its a shorter trip to MAN, or usually quicker trip through NCL security/checkin), so its 6 of one, half a dozen of the other !

Know what you mean, I travelled along with my 2 Sons last Summer to Vegas. Saved almost £200 each compared to Man. You can guess who paid for the trip, so I made the choice on the routings;)


I guess living in Cumbria you have to travel a distance for any flights, not as though you can go from Carlisle.

stevie11

dickydonkin wrote: »

It was and I'm more annoyed with myself today that I did not take AAs option of holding the flight for free - despite knowing that the offer ended at midnight yesterday.

I picked Frankfurt as my departure point connecting at Heathrow flying BA. but I understand that with a bit more creative routing using AA, the price was even cheaper.

I'm sure more offers will come along and I think I will need to be more assertive!

Yes keeping a lookout on the forums, subscribing to email alerts and the odd google flights search highlights when there are offers.


That was a very good price to ORD:). I had recently been looking for cheap options to HNL or OGG but nothing at the moment.


I must have missed the holding option from AA, I thought they changed it to a 24 hour cancelation policy.

Murphy_The_Cat

stevie11 wrote: »

I must have missed the holding option from AA, I thought they changed it to a 24 hour cancelation policy.

It still exists (happily) as I used it last weekend.:beer::beer:. Without it, I would have been stiffed for extra money.
UK & eu sites have it.
US site has a 24 hour cancellation policy.

stevie11

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

It still exists (happily) as I used it last weekend.:beer::beer:
UK & eu sites have it.
US site has a 24 hour cancellation policy.

Thanks for that, useful for my next booking;)

Murphy_The_Cat

stevie11 wrote: »

Thanks for that, useful for my next booking;)

IIRC, the flights are held until 22.30 the following day (local time). Irish fares were kept until 23.59 the day after.
Be sure to print the prices out it case they try and welch out on the confirmation.

FunTime

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

When I travel, there are always four of us, so the saving really adds up:j

( I live in Cumbria, so its a shorter trip to MAN, or usually quicker trip through NCL security/checkin), so its 6 of one, half a dozen of the other !

Do you have one of those Cumberland Plus Accounts?

stevie11

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

IIRC, the flights are held until 22.30 the following day (local time). Irish fares were kept until 23.59 the day after.
Be sure to print the prices out it case they try and welch out on the confirmation.

I have used the 'hold' option before on a number of flights but didn't see it last week when I made my last booking and I always use the UK AA website. Tbh I was more bothered getting the price and desired routing as I could see prices rising during the night I booked so may have just clicked straight to purchase.

PeacefulWaters

The joy of business class is that it comes with shed loads of air miles that you can credit to BA, AA or other frequent flying schemes.

This means that you can usually find your flight out of London to your revised start point is something that can be paid for with those air miles next time you book like this.

My trip from Manchester to Denver this year was booked during an ex-Dublin sale.

£1,600 for two of us in economy from Manchester.
£1,800 in business from Dublin. Enough air miles for 2 return flights from the UK to Europe for two.

I'd easily say £200 extra for business class is worth it but had to add on £170 for two flights from Manchester to Dublin plus paying for a hotel with Avios earned the preceding year.

Booking on AA web site but crediting air miles to BA will be enough to earn you silver status with BA (lounge access on future economy flights) if you are flying Dublin > Philadelphia > Vegas return or further west.

dickydonkin

stevie11 wrote: »

That was a very good price to ORD:). I had recently been looking for cheap options to HNL or OGG but nothing at the moment.

We did LIH last year for just under £1100 ex Dublin on BA to LAX and AA to LIH (a beautiful island incidentally) and did a bit of island hopping as well. This was in buisness (BA) and domestic First (AA).

I have a big (ish) birthday coming up next year and we both would like to do a similar trip in July.

Hawaii has been available (and still was a couple of days ago) for around £1500 booking through AA, which is not unreasonable, but I am hoping the price will drop a little, although due to currency fluctuations since my last visit, I don't think I would get a better (or indeed similar) deal than what I previously paid.

Here's hoping though.