A lot of us who do mistake fares are taught one simple rule… and it’s

DON’T CALL THE AIRLINE

But what about fares that aren’t mistake fares?

The British Airways Premium fare sale came to a close today, and I’ve been mulling over the fare a few days – least of all to retain BA Gold, but also to try out a new destination.

Thankfully, when one is hunting for British Airways Tier point runs, you look at the master thread for ideas.

This one came up:

1340 Tier Points for £1368.

However, none of the fare engines could price it out. Did the fare actually exist?

I ran a search on ITA Matrix, and lo and behold – It did!

It’s there on ITA Matrix (or rather, was there. It should be gone by now). €1,727.97 = £1,362.29 before Forex charges

So a few more checks and three hours later, I was honestly prepared to throw in the towel. There was a fear that this was cached data.

@EconomyBeyond Could be a variety of issues. From cached inventory on ITA to no OTA able to mix the carriers. Hipmunk helps sometimes.

— Seth Miller (@WandrMe) November 12, 2014

And believe me – I spent time with Hipmunk. Thanks for the hint though Seth.

But then I thought, with the fare ending in 2 hours, what the hell: Lets give the airline a ring. They can only say no at this point.

I picked up the phone, and made the call to BA’s American number (which directs back to a call centre in Newcastle UK as the UK lines were shut). A short wait, and I had an agent on the line.

I explained to him what I was trying to do, and walked him through all the steps to get the number I was getting. initially, the fare priced out at £3200 (or near enough €4000). The agent paused, and did a re-price, finding the Y fares were causing it to fault. Repricing into American Airlines A fare coded tickets kicked the engine into life, and repriced it down to €1,726.97

Yes, a whole €1 saving!

A credit card number was read, along with the rest of the data, and boom. One ticket issued.

Yes, that’s right. 1,340 Tier Points, 48,622 Avios. And all seats booked and confirmed.

With 1 hour and 20 to go to ticketing deadline.

Sometimes, we are warded off to ring the airlines when it comes to super-hot fares. But, we’ve got to remember that if an airline does publish a fare that is within the rules, and that others have purchased in the past, and you can’t get it, ring in.

Sometimes, you’ll be shocked. Just as I was tonight.

And as for experiences? Well, I’ll get to try out US Airways since they merged with American Airlines. But that’s not really why I’m excited The reason is in the image below:

I get two rides in what I consider one of the most exclusive commercial planes going – the British Airways Airbus A318 London City to New York JFK service

Now can you tell why I’m happy to get this fare in the bag?

Right. About this Hawaii Five-0 tour….

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – The new name for GhettoIFE (and a lot more pronounceable). Expect in-depth coverage, analysis, route news as well as humour and madness as I only know how.

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