Fantastic videos Matt. I had gold until last year from frequent business travel, but am now struggling to keep silver. This is very helpful, and I will make it my mission to get back to gold without business funding! Good stuff!
Me again, still bringing up the rear...That last point about the hidden value 'earned' via the Avios awarded blew outta the water! Thanks so much for your insight and tips, I'll be dabbling with the ITA Matrix thingie in due course to plan my epic TP run/holiday. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK 👍
Thanks again for another great video! Just starting to learn how to use and take advantage of the Matrix ITA site. Your videos on how to use it help a great deal! 🏆🏆🏆
Thank you very much for your videos Matt and thanks to HfP for promoting your videos - very informative and funny too! I'm slowly learning how the Ita Matrix work - your online video tutoring in Tier Point Runs Part 2 and 3 are immensely helpful. I just can't believe how much you could save just by starting journey from outside the UK, Sofia especially. Thanks Matt!
Thanks Matt I tried that! Followed your video in depth! Try calling back again and hope for a different agent?! Is there a department you’re aware of other than just “reservations”?
HUACA is always an option - Hang Up and Call Again... If the Matrix work was a few hours before the call then the fare can disappear... I call the gold line as I'm usually renewing gold and the guys I've spoken too seemed to like the challenge so have really got into it!!! Otherwise its just persistence sadly...
2 years late, but remember that the agent used by the OW lounges in BCN only allows a very few hours before they kick you out. If you've got a long connection you'll be dumped into the seething masses for the rest of your time. I now avoid BCN for just this reason, though ymmv.
Thanks Matt, really enjoyed these videos, I need to be in the US early September for ten days, so may do a similar run, so I can spend a few days in Vegas before returning to UK.
Matt, really loved all three of these videos! Thanks for making it so clear. I would love to see more types of these videos, especially if travel returns to normal later this year :)
Thanks - uploaded part 2 of a series on Ex-EU flights on Sunday which may be interesting, but there'll be more coming. Not being able to travel makes me focus on these kinds of videos rather than actually flying!
@@MattsPlanet Just booked my first ever TP run. £2099 for 980TP Hooray! It got quite complicated in the end and wasn't as good as other itineraries you see around, but I managed to work in visits to cities I had never been to and seeing my Mum! Can you make another video how to do a great TP run starting from the US east coast please?
Well done - 980 TPs is pretty good. Hope everything holds and you are able to actually visit the places you've booked when the day comes! Starting from the US East Coast is trickier as the competition ex the US tends to be higher so the prices are higher accordingly, but the same methodology would apply. Use Google flights to find targets, then Matrix to explore the fare rules and find the optimisations. Will put a dedicated video on the to-do list thought nevertheless. Congrats again
Hey Matt, another great explainer video! I managed to bag a Paris to New York leg in BA Premium Economy (200 tier points) for about £300. Just hoping the travel restrictions ease so I can make the flight over to Paris now!
Matt. Thought I'd share this with you, as your videos have been so helpful and our cards run out at roughly the same time. In Round Trip mode, on ITA Matrix. OTP-HNL. Routing codes, LHR HEL JFK LAX. RTN = LAX JFK LHR. I Have tried to get a second European leg in, but not having much luck. YET. Yes I've put it into multi city mode but still can't get another European leg in but I'll keep trying. Checking on BA Avios calculator this is worth 1160 TP at a cost of £2777 or 2.39PTP in September. In Aug it was £2452. Having seen some of your TP runs, I don't know if in todays current climate, whether this is good or bad. Also there is the TP's to get out to Bucharest and back, which for me is a run from Manchester via LHR which is another 240 TP for a grand total of 1400TP if I'm right. It's a very long run out, but ok on the way back. I still have work to do, I know there's better, shorter time trips out there, but I am just glad I got something to work in the Matrix. No doubt you'll have something better. :)) Thanks Steve. YNWA.
Hi Steve. I did declare loyalty in these videos so indeed, YNWA!!! That doesn't sound like a brilliant fare - I think I said elsewhere that pricing is a bit spikey at the moment. I have a feeling that BUD is a better option, even if you only get 40 tps each way for that first leg.... A fun trip for sure but perhaps not a brilliant option... And a second Euro stop is tricky and may be trickier to HNL - Maximum permitted miles and all that. MAD is the first one I'd try, then HEL. Perhaps BCN too... I'm looking at taking advantage of the double holiday tp offer when I renew... If you add a car to flight bookings to OTP, even if you don't pick up the car, it would double the TPs. So from MAN to OTP that would be 480. You pay a little more for the car hire but it still works out to be a good £/TP booster. If you cut TPs by starting in BUD you can get them back by doubling the TPs to position. Needs to be a min of 5 nights, but wrapped around a HNL run that should be OK...
@@MattsPlanet I did check out Bud-HNL in August, but that is almost 3k and requires a 24hr 40min overnight layover in HEL on Embraer unless you want to pay 13k then you get other options. I'l look at other options. Interesting tip about the car. Thanks Steve. YNWA.
Matt. The other issue I found with my choices was that the flight from HNL-LAX has a layover of 40mins to 1hr:10 mins depending on what time you fly. Not good. What would you consider as a minimum layover time for comfort and ease of transiting? Cheers Steve. YNWA
Matt, Ive really enjoyed watching and learning from your Tier Point run videos. I've watched them a few times as there's always something you miss the first time round. I'm thinking of booking a splash and dash for January, from LGW to Marrakech (Business class) in a day to gain tier points and to take advantage of BA's generous offer on Avios from LGW which ends on the 24th of October 22. If you've been to Marrakech, what do you know about Lounge access there? Or, can you recommend any other cheap, 80 point destinations for a same day turnaround with quality lounge access as I'm going to be there a good few hours. Thanks Steve
I went through Marrakesh years ago but I don't recall having status so didn't use a lounge... Very few lounges at outstations are much to write home about though!!! Flyertalk has a generally excellent resource on BA lounges - here's the Europe one: www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1411664-ba-lounge-database-europe.html This gives an overview and the threads that follow are usually kept up to date. I saw that BA in OTP / Bucharest just started offering access to a lounge for the first time in years... Sofia is another one to look into although I think both are from LHR... LGW tends to be holiday destinations where getting lounge access at all is a bonus...
Outstanding stuff Matt. I came across tier point runs years ago back when I was crew at BA and it's bloody addictive! Got a Vegas trip coming up which I'm currently trying to get maximum TP's from. Your ALG start point was not something I had considered; lo and behold it takes just over £100 off the total price. Currently looking at ALG-LHR-JFK-LAX-LAS return. Got any ideas for further refinement or alternative routing?
ALG is alluring - but you will need a multiple entry visa for Algeria, even if you plan to drop the last leg. Multiple as you'll use a single visa to start the trip and they won't check you in for the return leg without another open visa, which means you'll need to get a multiple entry one up front. You can't declare that you don't plan to take that flight as the repricing police will swoop in... And getting a multiple entry visa to Algeria is not easy, or cheap I believe... Not done it and I'd love to go to Algeria, but that's the reason why it's not more commonly the stating point of choice... Otherwise Sofia is still the origin of choice, albeit with a 6 month advance purchase. Athens is more expensive but might be an easier spot to start from. But it changes all the time and its pretty quick to flush out options on google flights or matrix... I don't answer every comment this quickly - I just happened to be on the site and had a moment!!!!
@@MattsPlanet I would never dream of dropping the last leg... Appreciate the heads up regarding the visa and the quick response! Keep up the good work, looking forward to what you get up to next.
I've done the Helsinki shuffle back when Finnair were offering amazing deals to attract pax to their arctic route to Asia , and the connect was less than an hour. We were late arriving from London but fortunately the HKG flight hadnt left, so I got that OK. But we were late into HKG and I missed my ongoing connect to SYD - they offered me a dreadful long re-route. Fortunately I had researched a plan B via Singapore, asked for it, and got it. However, my checked luggage didnt make HKG - we were re-united in Sydney when it arrived from.....Bangkok ! So be warned.... Edit: this raises an important point, people need to understand the nature of the connecting airports they use. Eg. If lufthansa tell me I have a 50 min connect in Munich, I trust them I will make it as they are super organised. On the other hand, CDG and Heathrow are terrible places to make connections if you need to change terminals.
Thanks - all good points. Short connections hand baggage only are a different proposition to connections with checked luggage. And give me SIngapore over London any day!
Hi Matt. Enjoyed watching this series - as keen to give a TP run a go later this year. I’m a little nervous about calling BA to book - as haven’t done this before. Do you just tell them in your case that you want a Sofia to Vegas return and you know the exact flights you want; or do you say you’ve found a flight on the matrix and this is the fare code etc. Any tips for the phone call would be greatly appreciated. (shame you couldn’t play the call - but totally get why you can’t). Many thanks Matt.
Thanks Akshay. I call with the dates and flight numbers to hand, having checked availability again just before I call. I usually say I'm chasing a price I found online and the agent usually gets excited and "plays along" - its a far more interesting call for them than the usual, mundane "ten days in Lanzarote" call they get... You can also chose not to tell them the price you're after until all the flights are in their system then listen to their surprise when the fare you wanted pops out!
One comment in regard to the painstaking detail here (great job) to arrage routings, the three trips ive taken in the past 18 months (and one i have booked in a few months time) that had multiple connections have had at least one change, up to and including flights literally being cancelled on one day and shifted to another with resulting large changes of flights plus other significant changes such as routing to end point via a different city. Manageable for me given i was not doing it for the avios or tier points and the destination was my goal, but could be disastrous if done just for tier points. . GIven you have to book these 180 days out or so, i wonder what % actually turn out as expected?
Great point! I did have a run booked and had something like 7 changes in the 4 months between booking and the whole thing getting canned cos of travel restrictions... I doubt many complex routings survive intact still but it is getting better!
These videos are so helpful! I have been tinkering on the matrix with SOF-LHR-JFK-LAX-SFO-LAX-JFK-LHR-SOF next April for £1165. Do you have any suggestions to enhance this itinerary in order to squeeze some more juice out of it? I have tried to add HEL in there instead of LHR but it doesn't like it!!
Thanks for watching Phin. HEL is a bit of a lottery but MAD can often work, as can BCN. I did SFO - JFK - MAD - LHR - SOF back to back to back a couple of years ago and it was quite hard work... I think LHR - MAD - JFK - LAX "feels better" when you're doing it! But even if you can't squeeze another 40/80 out in Europe its still a pretty good price. Good luck!
Hi Matt, amazing tier point run videos thanks so much for what you do. Can you do a tier point run over a short period ie just a few days? My thanks again.
Hello - thanks for watching! The current fares ex-Sofia require 24 hours at the turnaround point and a return from Sunday onwards. So you could depart on a Thursday arriving Friday, return on Sunday arriving (probably) Tuesday. So yes - although it needs to span a weekend and as you're travelling a long way there'll need to be a certain amount of elapsed time to complete all the flights!!!
@@MattsPlanet absolutely thanks Matt, much like yourself I enjoy the travel part and from the moment I leave my front door the fun starts. So quick turnarounds ie plenty of time on a plain is fine, now that I am able and have the BA Amex I want to try many of the tier points runs to get to gold from blue before October 8th this year. Of course the flights are all pretty comfortable too the further forward you get to sit of course. Your tier point run videos are incredible to help find these runs whilst being aim a premium cabin for great prices, so again my thanks.
@@sigmagaming504 Brill. Its a great hobby! Not as cheap as trainspotting, but who want so stand in the rain for hours!!! 2 quick tips for free as this video is a bit old... The best Sofia trips have a 180 day advance purchase rule (not 6 months - call me a pedant!!!) so an October 1 trip needs to be booked by 1 April... Good fares can be found with shorter advance purchase rules but the best are 6 months. Some nice ex-Dub ones around now... And I managed to price up SOF-LHR-HEL-JFK-LAS-RNO (Reno) and return for about £1,450 which kicks out 960 tier points. It took a while to find it, and it contained some pretty awful connections, but it was possible!!!
HI Matt, thanks for this. I tried booking a TP run by calling both AA and BA and both were unable to do it despite me having the ITA matrix codes and validated routings. BA managed to do it but it was nearly GBP800 more than ITA matrix was quoting. What is the alternative? Thanks so much
Thanks for the info Matt, I have family moving to Jakarta so will be looking to get out there from London. Seems the best value is to go Qatar via Doh price wise and its a double as its two long hauls. Any suggestions for maximising that way would be useful! Love the videos 😀
Thanks Michael - never actually been to Jakarta but am keen to go so I have looked recently! Ex London will be 2 flights but expensive - Qatar and Cathay would be good options with great products. Going Ex-EU would mean three flights but much less cost - Qatar ex OSL would be where I look first but there are usually a few options. You'd obv then have to buy a flight to (eg) OSL to kick off the cheaper ticket, but it'll be much cheaper overall. Be cautious as some very Eastern European cities are
Matt. love the videos and have watched this series and ITA Matrix more than a few times. BUT, I don't know how you kept the price on this at less than £1,100. I tried this for August 23 and substituted SOF for OTP, included HEL twice instead of MAD and from an original price for OTP to LAS BABY, of a couple of grand, it shot up to over 11k. Any ideas why this might be? YNWA.
Hi Steven. That price was a year ago, before inflation, before Ukraine and before the world went a bit bonkers... So the days of £1,100 prices may well be behind us, for now at least. Double HEL is tricky to squeeze in - you probably hit an MPM limitation - Maximum Permitted Mileage. Doubling back to HEL both ways adds a lot of miles and so probably broke the fare, knocking it into the higher, full fare bucket. The key is to find a tolerable fare in Google Flights, recreate it at its most basic level in Matrix, then add each extra leg, one by one, checking each time that the fare holds with each extra complication. And if you're still holding close to the original fare until you add a second HEL, that's probably the reason. Each extra leg will change the fare as each extra airport adds extra fees and the like, but it should still be recognisable as the original fare for most of the steps.
Thanks for these videos. I would love to book your routings but still worry about covid tests, quarantine and other restrictions. Where do you find how many points each section earns?
You're welcome! Booking is another word for gambling right now. The BA website has an Avios flight calculator which also shows the tier points a routing earns: www.britishairways.com/travel/flight-calculator/execclub/_gf/en_gb?refevent=bah_ecavscalculat/execclub/_gf/en_gb After a while you get to know that a short leg is 40 tps (with short haul plus in Europe earning 80) and a long leg is 140.
My thoughts are fantastic! If there's more than one person travelling... For more than 5 days/nights... And you book a hotel/car for the duration of the holiday... Even if you don't collect the car... I believe the holiday has to start in the UK too. So for some it will be fantastic. For many (including me) its interesting but I won't benefit.
Hi Matt what about the tier points getting to sof ? Also in your previous videos re avios and household accounts I don't think you mentioned that one drawback - you can't book for someone outside your household. - sorry if I am wrong about both points - but you have been entertaining me on a sleepless night !
Hi Paula. Thanks for the comment - I thought my videos might help insomniacs!! Getting to Sofia to start the run is really a separate project. There's 3 options, only 1 of which would earn tier points, which is buy a flight on BA - its unlikely that you would be able to do that in a way that cost much less than £5 per tier point. #2 is redeem some avios to get there, although have an eye on the 1p per avios goal. Or fly there on a completely different airline, which won't earn any tier points but might be cheaper. I've not sorted my flight to Sofia yet and will leave it closer to the time - I might fly there indirectly on another airline to get some content for the channel. And of course coming back too. Cos you need to fly that last leg to Sofia. Ahem. Let's move on... If you have a household account you can book a flight for someone outside of the household, although you need to add them to your "friends and family" list first before you can make the booking. Quite simple to do though. Thanks for watching and I hope you return to normal sleep soon!
That sounds a little high - that would be £2.20 per TP, but I think its still reasonable. Plenty of people who are happy to pay £1.50 per TP on their ticket are actually paying £2.20 or more when you consider hotels / transfers / positioning flights. So it all really comes down to your personal psychology... If you're having a great trip somewhere AND achieving status and its costing you $3 per TP, that sounds great! Where do I sign up??? If you are trying to achieve status over a weekend, you've had a big row with the other half about the stupidity of flying somewhere just for status (plus you're leaving the other half behind when you go!!!!) and you're subject to audit when you return on how much you spent, then $3 / £2.20 is probably a little too much!
P2 (Spouse ) will be 15 tier points from Gold with 45 days to go. BOOKED LGA-DCA $250 round trip in first and should warrant 80 tier points each. I know it’s overkill but I am new enough to not be confident a economy will not net the 15 points.
@@craigs.codycpa1068 Ah, right! It is annoyingly hard to predict whether those short economy flights will yield 5 or 10 TPs... $3 to secure Gold is absolutely fine - could make a fun day out! As a CPA you'll understand that marginal costing has a different psychology to average costing!!!! And those surplus TPs still count towards lifetime gold!
Coupled it with 2 nights at Park Hyatt on Amex FHR which also puts me 2 nights closer to Globalist and I get to attend a Travel in Points meetup! Checking off a lot of boxes, but I wanted to know Tier points wise if it makes sense to keep it in my back pocket if I need a run for Gold in the future! And it looks like it’s ok.
I rang up BA to book a tier point run giving the woman on the phone all of the details precisely from ITA Matrix and she sounded as if I was a complete lunatic! "No way, this is not possible to have all of these flights for that price" :( Why didn't they do it for me?! :(
One of my favourite AVGeek acronyms is HUACA - Hang Up And Call Again. If the agent you get doesn't understand/agree/comply, hang up and spin the lottery wheel by calling back. You'll probably get a better agent.
Thanks Matt, reassuring to know I’m not missing something obvious - HUACA!
There's been a lot of staff turnover and many agents these days are, ahem, less experienced, lets say...
Fantastic videos Matt. I had gold until last year from frequent business travel, but am now struggling to keep silver. This is very helpful, and I will make it my mission to get back to gold without business funding! Good stuff!
Thanks - this week's video might be helpful in your deliberations!
You are a clever fella Matt . I’m going to try for 600 points for silver initially, looking forward to doing some flights in business .
Ba careful! Its addictive...
Me again, still bringing up the rear...That last point about the hidden value 'earned' via the Avios awarded blew outta the water! Thanks so much for your insight and tips, I'll be dabbling with the ITA Matrix thingie in due course to plan my epic TP run/holiday. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK 👍
Matrix is a great hobby to take up! Fills those long winter evenings....
Thanks again for another great video! Just starting to learn how to use and take advantage of the Matrix ITA site. Your videos on how to use it help a great deal! 🏆🏆🏆
It looks a wee bit different these days but the functionality is the same...
Hi Matt, I took your advice and watched part 2 again before part 3 and now I understand, so ta very much 👍😀 .
No worries! Hope its all helpful!
Thank you very much for your videos Matt and thanks to HfP for promoting your videos - very informative and funny too! I'm slowly learning how the Ita Matrix work - your online video tutoring in Tier Point Runs Part 2 and 3 are immensely helpful. I just can't believe how much you could save just by starting journey from outside the UK, Sofia especially. Thanks Matt!
Thanks Arn. Matrix is well worth an hour or two's time investment!
An education, thanks. I look forward to trying this out once travel is back on the agenda.
Thanks David. The trip I booked here has had a couple of timing changes but it still intact... Fingers crossed July sees some sort of normality.
Thanks Matt I tried that! Followed your video in depth! Try calling back again and hope for a different agent?! Is there a department you’re aware of other than just “reservations”?
HUACA is always an option - Hang Up and Call Again... If the Matrix work was a few hours before the call then the fare can disappear... I call the gold line as I'm usually renewing gold and the guys I've spoken too seemed to like the challenge so have really got into it!!! Otherwise its just persistence sadly...
2 years late, but remember that the agent used by the OW lounges in BCN only allows a very few hours before they kick you out. If you've got a long connection you'll be dumped into the seething masses for the rest of your time. I now avoid BCN for just this reason, though ymmv.
Thanks Ian - good to know!
Great videos Matt, just what I need to plan some flights for next year. Really enjoyed your style of presenting. 👍
Thanks Stuart - glad you like it.
Thanks Matt, really enjoyed these videos, I need to be in the US early September for ten days, so may do a similar run, so I can spend a few days in Vegas before returning to UK.
Glad you enjoyed them. Good luck booking a trip - keep an eye on the 6 month advanced booking window for some of these great fares.
Excellent videos. Best explanation I have seen online. When the world returns to normal I very much look forward to trying this out!
Thanks Tommy. "When the world returns to normal"... Words we've all said a thousand times!
Matt, really loved all three of these videos! Thanks for making it so clear. I would love to see more types of these videos, especially if travel returns to normal later this year :)
Thanks - uploaded part 2 of a series on Ex-EU flights on Sunday which may be interesting, but there'll be more coming. Not being able to travel makes me focus on these kinds of videos rather than actually flying!
@@MattsPlanet just watched them now! Look forward to watching many more this weekend!
Keep up the good work Matt. Great information thanks
Excellent videos Matt. I watched all three!
Thanks Jonny - hope you got something from them.
@@MattsPlanet Just booked my first ever TP run. £2099 for 980TP Hooray! It got quite complicated in the end and wasn't as good as other itineraries you see around, but I managed to work in visits to cities I had never been to and seeing my Mum! Can you make another video how to do a great TP run starting from the US east coast please?
Well done - 980 TPs is pretty good. Hope everything holds and you are able to actually visit the places you've booked when the day comes!
Starting from the US East Coast is trickier as the competition ex the US tends to be higher so the prices are higher accordingly, but the same methodology would apply. Use Google flights to find targets, then Matrix to explore the fare rules and find the optimisations. Will put a dedicated video on the to-do list thought nevertheless.
Congrats again
Hey Matt, another great explainer video! I managed to bag a Paris to New York leg in BA Premium Economy (200 tier points) for about £300. Just hoping the travel restrictions ease so I can make the flight over to Paris now!
Thanks - another month to 6 weeks and I hope things will start to thaw a little.
What a scarf 🧣 👏🏼
Ha ha!
Really great work you've done here. thank you.
Thanks - glad you got something out of it.
Matt. Thought I'd share this with you, as your videos have been so helpful and our cards run out at roughly the same time. In Round Trip mode, on ITA Matrix. OTP-HNL. Routing codes, LHR HEL JFK LAX. RTN = LAX JFK LHR. I Have tried to get a second European leg in, but not having much luck. YET. Yes I've put it into multi city mode but still can't get another European leg in but I'll keep trying. Checking on BA Avios calculator this is worth 1160 TP at a cost of £2777 or 2.39PTP in September. In Aug it was £2452. Having seen some of your TP runs, I don't know if in todays current climate, whether this is good or bad. Also there is the TP's to get out to Bucharest and back, which for me is a run from Manchester via LHR which is another 240 TP for a grand total of 1400TP if I'm right.
It's a very long run out, but ok on the way back. I still have work to do, I know there's better, shorter time trips out there, but I am just glad I got something to work in the Matrix.
No doubt you'll have something better. :))
Thanks
Steve. YNWA.
Hi Steve. I did declare loyalty in these videos so indeed, YNWA!!! That doesn't sound like a brilliant fare - I think I said elsewhere that pricing is a bit spikey at the moment. I have a feeling that BUD is a better option, even if you only get 40 tps each way for that first leg.... A fun trip for sure but perhaps not a brilliant option... And a second Euro stop is tricky and may be trickier to HNL - Maximum permitted miles and all that. MAD is the first one I'd try, then HEL. Perhaps BCN too... I'm looking at taking advantage of the double holiday tp offer when I renew... If you add a car to flight bookings to OTP, even if you don't pick up the car, it would double the TPs. So from MAN to OTP that would be 480. You pay a little more for the car hire but it still works out to be a good £/TP booster. If you cut TPs by starting in BUD you can get them back by doubling the TPs to position. Needs to be a min of 5 nights, but wrapped around a HNL run that should be OK...
@@MattsPlanet I did check out Bud-HNL in August, but that is almost 3k and requires a 24hr 40min overnight layover in HEL on Embraer unless you want to pay 13k then you get other options. I'l look at other options. Interesting tip about the car. Thanks
Steve. YNWA.
Matt. The other issue I found with my choices was that the flight from HNL-LAX has a layover of 40mins to 1hr:10 mins depending on what time you fly. Not good. What would you consider as a minimum layover time for comfort and ease of transiting?
Cheers
Steve. YNWA
Matt, Ive really enjoyed watching and learning from your Tier Point run videos. I've watched them a few times as there's always something you miss the first time round.
I'm thinking of booking a splash and dash for January, from LGW to Marrakech (Business class) in a day to gain tier points and to take advantage of BA's generous offer on Avios from LGW which ends on the 24th of October 22. If you've been to Marrakech, what do you know about Lounge access there? Or, can you recommend any other cheap, 80 point destinations for a same day turnaround with quality lounge access as I'm going to be there a good few hours.
Thanks Steve
I went through Marrakesh years ago but I don't recall having status so didn't use a lounge... Very few lounges at outstations are much to write home about though!!! Flyertalk has a generally excellent resource on BA lounges - here's the Europe one: www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1411664-ba-lounge-database-europe.html This gives an overview and the threads that follow are usually kept up to date. I saw that BA in OTP / Bucharest just started offering access to a lounge for the first time in years... Sofia is another one to look into although I think both are from LHR... LGW tends to be holiday destinations where getting lounge access at all is a bonus...
Awesome!!!!!!!! Many thanks
That was a cracking fare!
@@MattsPlanet Fantastic fare. The process certainly requires brain cells and coffee lol 😆 great job 👏 👍
Outstanding stuff Matt. I came across tier point runs years ago back when I was crew at BA and it's bloody addictive! Got a Vegas trip coming up which I'm currently trying to get maximum TP's from. Your ALG start point was not something I had considered; lo and behold it takes just over £100 off the total price. Currently looking at ALG-LHR-JFK-LAX-LAS return. Got any ideas for further refinement or alternative routing?
ALG is alluring - but you will need a multiple entry visa for Algeria, even if you plan to drop the last leg. Multiple as you'll use a single visa to start the trip and they won't check you in for the return leg without another open visa, which means you'll need to get a multiple entry one up front. You can't declare that you don't plan to take that flight as the repricing police will swoop in... And getting a multiple entry visa to Algeria is not easy, or cheap I believe... Not done it and I'd love to go to Algeria, but that's the reason why it's not more commonly the stating point of choice...
Otherwise Sofia is still the origin of choice, albeit with a 6 month advance purchase. Athens is more expensive but might be an easier spot to start from. But it changes all the time and its pretty quick to flush out options on google flights or matrix...
I don't answer every comment this quickly - I just happened to be on the site and had a moment!!!!
@@MattsPlanet I would never dream of dropping the last leg...
Appreciate the heads up regarding the visa and the quick response! Keep up the good work, looking forward to what you get up to next.
I've done the Helsinki shuffle back when Finnair were offering amazing deals to attract pax to their arctic route to Asia , and the connect was less than an hour. We were late arriving from London but fortunately the HKG flight hadnt left, so I got that OK. But we were late into HKG and I missed my ongoing connect to SYD - they offered me a dreadful long re-route. Fortunately I had researched a plan B via Singapore, asked for it, and got it. However, my checked luggage didnt make HKG - we were re-united in Sydney when it arrived from.....Bangkok ! So be warned....
Edit: this raises an important point, people need to understand the nature of the connecting airports they use. Eg. If lufthansa tell me I have a 50 min connect in Munich, I trust them I will make it as they are super organised. On the other hand, CDG and Heathrow are terrible places to make connections if you need to change terminals.
Thanks - all good points. Short connections hand baggage only are a different proposition to connections with checked luggage. And give me SIngapore over London any day!
Hi Matt. Enjoyed watching this series - as keen to give a TP run a go later this year. I’m a little nervous about calling BA to book - as haven’t done this before. Do you just tell them in your case that you want a Sofia to Vegas return and you know the exact flights you want; or do you say you’ve found a flight on the matrix and this is the fare code etc. Any tips for the phone call would be greatly appreciated. (shame you couldn’t play the call - but totally get why you can’t). Many thanks Matt.
Thanks Akshay. I call with the dates and flight numbers to hand, having checked availability again just before I call. I usually say I'm chasing a price I found online and the agent usually gets excited and "plays along" - its a far more interesting call for them than the usual, mundane "ten days in Lanzarote" call they get... You can also chose not to tell them the price you're after until all the flights are in their system then listen to their surprise when the fare you wanted pops out!
Great video! Very informative!
Glad you enjoyed it!
One comment in regard to the painstaking detail here (great job) to arrage routings, the three trips ive taken in the past 18 months (and one i have booked in a few months time) that had multiple connections have had at least one change, up to and including flights literally being cancelled on one day and shifted to another with resulting large changes of flights plus other significant changes such as routing to end point via a different city.
Manageable for me given i was not doing it for the avios or tier points and the destination was my goal, but could be disastrous if done just for tier points. . GIven you have to book these 180 days out or so, i wonder what % actually turn out as expected?
Great point! I did have a run booked and had something like 7 changes in the 4 months between booking and the whole thing getting canned cos of travel restrictions... I doubt many complex routings survive intact still but it is getting better!
Great video, thank you!
Glad you liked it!
These videos are so helpful! I have been tinkering on the matrix with SOF-LHR-JFK-LAX-SFO-LAX-JFK-LHR-SOF next April for £1165. Do you have any suggestions to enhance this itinerary in order to squeeze some more juice out of it? I have tried to add HEL in there instead of LHR but it doesn't like it!!
Thanks for watching Phin. HEL is a bit of a lottery but MAD can often work, as can BCN. I did SFO - JFK - MAD - LHR - SOF back to back to back a couple of years ago and it was quite hard work... I think LHR - MAD - JFK - LAX "feels better" when you're doing it! But even if you can't squeeze another 40/80 out in Europe its still a pretty good price. Good luck!
Hi Matt, amazing tier point run videos thanks so much for what you do. Can you do a tier point run over a short period ie just a few days? My thanks again.
Hello - thanks for watching! The current fares ex-Sofia require 24 hours at the turnaround point and a return from Sunday onwards. So you could depart on a Thursday arriving Friday, return on Sunday arriving (probably) Tuesday. So yes - although it needs to span a weekend and as you're travelling a long way there'll need to be a certain amount of elapsed time to complete all the flights!!!
@@MattsPlanet absolutely thanks Matt, much like yourself I enjoy the travel part and from the moment I leave my front door the fun starts. So quick turnarounds ie plenty of time on a plain is fine, now that I am able and have the BA Amex I want to try many of the tier points runs to get to gold from blue before October 8th this year. Of course the flights are all pretty comfortable too the further forward you get to sit of course.
Your tier point run videos are incredible to help find these runs whilst being aim a premium cabin for great prices, so again my thanks.
@@sigmagaming504 Brill. Its a great hobby! Not as cheap as trainspotting, but who want so stand in the rain for hours!!! 2 quick tips for free as this video is a bit old... The best Sofia trips have a 180 day advance purchase rule (not 6 months - call me a pedant!!!) so an October 1 trip needs to be booked by 1 April... Good fares can be found with shorter advance purchase rules but the best are 6 months. Some nice ex-Dub ones around now... And I managed to price up SOF-LHR-HEL-JFK-LAS-RNO (Reno) and return for about £1,450 which kicks out 960 tier points. It took a while to find it, and it contained some pretty awful connections, but it was possible!!!
Sounds kinda fun to be honest Haha. I'll have a look for that one as that's a great points haul 🙌
HI Matt, thanks for this. I tried booking a TP run by calling both AA and BA and both were unable to do it despite me having the ITA matrix codes and validated routings. BA managed to do it but it was nearly GBP800 more than ITA matrix was quoting. What is the alternative? Thanks so much
Try forcing it through with Powertools - pretty good at linking to AA.com.... See my latest matrix video!
Thanks for the info Matt, I have family moving to Jakarta so will be looking to get out there from London. Seems the best value is to go Qatar via Doh price wise and its a double as its two long hauls. Any suggestions for maximising that way would be useful! Love the videos 😀
Thanks Michael - never actually been to Jakarta but am keen to go so I have looked recently! Ex London will be 2 flights but expensive - Qatar and Cathay would be good options with great products. Going Ex-EU would mean three flights but much less cost - Qatar ex OSL would be where I look first but there are usually a few options. You'd obv then have to buy a flight to (eg) OSL to kick off the cheaper ticket, but it'll be much cheaper overall. Be cautious as some very Eastern European cities are
@@MattsPlanet wow ok thankyou very much I will get looking!!
Matt - Have you ever tried claiming 'Original Routing Credit'? -and if so - how? and did it work?
Never had to actually. I'd start with an email to customer service then escalate by call if you don't get a quick answer. ORC is the phrase to use
Matt. love the videos and have watched this series and ITA Matrix more than a few times. BUT, I don't know how you kept the price on this at less than £1,100. I tried this for August 23 and substituted SOF for OTP, included HEL twice instead of MAD and from an original price for OTP to LAS BABY, of a couple of grand, it shot up to over 11k.
Any ideas why this might be? YNWA.
Hi Steven. That price was a year ago, before inflation, before Ukraine and before the world went a bit bonkers... So the days of £1,100 prices may well be behind us, for now at least. Double HEL is tricky to squeeze in - you probably hit an MPM limitation - Maximum Permitted Mileage. Doubling back to HEL both ways adds a lot of miles and so probably broke the fare, knocking it into the higher, full fare bucket. The key is to find a tolerable fare in Google Flights, recreate it at its most basic level in Matrix, then add each extra leg, one by one, checking each time that the fare holds with each extra complication. And if you're still holding close to the original fare until you add a second HEL, that's probably the reason. Each extra leg will change the fare as each extra airport adds extra fees and the like, but it should still be recognisable as the original fare for most of the steps.
Interesting thank you!
Glad you liked it!
Thanks for these videos. I would love to book your routings but still worry about covid tests, quarantine and other restrictions. Where do you find how many points each section earns?
You're welcome! Booking is another word for gambling right now. The BA website has an Avios flight calculator which also shows the tier points a routing earns: www.britishairways.com/travel/flight-calculator/execclub/_gf/en_gb?refevent=bah_ecavscalculat/execclub/_gf/en_gb After a while you get to know that a short leg is 40 tps (with short haul plus in Europe earning 80) and a long leg is 140.
Hi Matt, any thought on double Tier points in September? Thanks Alastair
My thoughts are fantastic! If there's more than one person travelling... For more than 5 days/nights... And you book a hotel/car for the duration of the holiday... Even if you don't collect the car... I believe the holiday has to start in the UK too. So for some it will be fantastic. For many (including me) its interesting but I won't benefit.
Hi Matt what about the tier points getting to sof ? Also in your previous videos re avios and household accounts I don't think you mentioned that one drawback - you can't book for someone outside your household. - sorry if I am wrong about both points - but you have been entertaining me on a sleepless night !
Hi Paula. Thanks for the comment - I thought my videos might help insomniacs!! Getting to Sofia to start the run is really a separate project. There's 3 options, only 1 of which would earn tier points, which is buy a flight on BA - its unlikely that you would be able to do that in a way that cost much less than £5 per tier point. #2 is redeem some avios to get there, although have an eye on the 1p per avios goal. Or fly there on a completely different airline, which won't earn any tier points but might be cheaper. I've not sorted my flight to Sofia yet and will leave it closer to the time - I might fly there indirectly on another airline to get some content for the channel.
And of course coming back too. Cos you need to fly that last leg to Sofia. Ahem. Let's move on...
If you have a household account you can book a flight for someone outside of the household, although you need to add them to your "friends and family" list first before you can make the booking. Quite simple to do though.
Thanks for watching and I hope you return to normal sleep soon!
Matt would you look at $3/ Tier point a decent number for a tier point run?
That sounds a little high - that would be £2.20 per TP, but I think its still reasonable. Plenty of people who are happy to pay £1.50 per TP on their ticket are actually paying £2.20 or more when you consider hotels / transfers / positioning flights. So it all really comes down to your personal psychology... If you're having a great trip somewhere AND achieving status and its costing you $3 per TP, that sounds great! Where do I sign up???
If you are trying to achieve status over a weekend, you've had a big row with the other half about the stupidity of flying somewhere just for status (plus you're leaving the other half behind when you go!!!!) and you're subject to audit when you return on how much you spent, then $3 / £2.20 is probably a little too much!
P2 (Spouse ) will be 15 tier points from Gold with 45 days to go. BOOKED LGA-DCA $250 round trip in first and should warrant 80 tier points each. I know it’s overkill but I am new enough to not be confident a economy will not net the 15 points.
@@craigs.codycpa1068 Ah, right! It is annoyingly hard to predict whether those short economy flights will yield 5 or 10 TPs... $3 to secure Gold is absolutely fine - could make a fun day out! As a CPA you'll understand that marginal costing has a different psychology to average costing!!!! And those surplus TPs still count towards lifetime gold!
Coupled it with 2 nights at Park Hyatt on Amex FHR which also puts me 2 nights closer to Globalist and I get to attend a Travel in Points meetup! Checking off a lot of boxes, but I wanted to know Tier points wise if it makes sense to keep it in my back pocket if I need a run for Gold in the future! And it looks like it’s ok.
I rang up BA to book a tier point run giving the woman on the phone all of the details precisely from ITA Matrix and she sounded as if I was a complete lunatic! "No way, this is not possible to have all of these flights for that price" :( Why didn't they do it for me?! :(
One of my favourite AVGeek acronyms is HUACA - Hang Up And Call Again. If the agent you get doesn't understand/agree/comply, hang up and spin the lottery wheel by calling back. You'll probably get a better agent.
@@MattsPlanet Good point!