To check or not to check? That is the question!

[gpuk]

Hi all (sorry long post)

I have a question that might be ethically dubious but I'm going to ask it anyway! :o)

My parents have emigrated to South Africa and every year my brother and I fly over there to spend christmas with them. Unfortunately, this is the time of year that everyone else also tends to visit SA and so airline tickets jump from £600 each to an average of £1,300+ (even if you are booking now i.e. 5 months in advance).

Having made the trek for a few years we have begun to get wise as to which route, airline and date combination is likely to yield the lowest price. If you're lucky and you find the needle in the hay stack, you can find tickets for about £700 albeit usually with horrendous connections and going via the middle east but given that my folks are retired and they pay for these tickets, a £1,200 saving is very much worth having.

This year a new possibility has presented itself... I have now emigrated to the south of France (nr. Perpignan) but my brother still lives in the UK. After doing hours upon hours of research I stumbled across a BA flight that departs from BCN, connects in LHR and then flies straight to CPT. The dates are perfect and the departure times are civilised. More importantly, tickets are only £656. Bizarrely, if you book the same flight just from LHR to CPT the price jumps to £1,340!

I'm sure you can see where this is going....

My cunning plan was to book my brother on a cheap Easyjet flight from MAN to BCN, we would then meet in the airport and fly out to CPT (via LHR). On our return, my brother would "miss" his connection at LHR and take a one way BMI flight back to MAN.

Beautiful I thought! If I too wanted to stay a few days in the UK on my return I could do the same (i.e. "miss" the LHR connection and take the same BMI flight back to MAN with my brother). I would then jump on an Easyjet a few days later back to BCN.

Only one glaring problem.... how do I stop our bags being checked all the way through to BCN from CPT? Will they get wise to my little plan if I ask the CPT check-in person to only check them as far as LHR (would they even do this?). Also, if at all possible, I'd like to avoid needlessly delaying the plane (and upsetting everyone) at LHR.

The only bullet proof solution I could think of was to simply fly with hand luggage - but I think this might be a bit optimistic given we'll be in SA for 11 days....

[VS-LHRCSA]

You should be able to check them through to LHR only, if you ask them. If they question it, which as a CSA, I wouldn't, you could always claim something along the lines of 'you don't trust T5, etc'. Pax have said it to me loads of times and it's quite a believable excuse.

[gpuk]

Thanks VS-LHRCSA.

I like the T5 excuse... very devious!

Question: if I ask the check-in person to only check through to LHR do they have to do this or can they simply refuse my request? i.e. what tends to be the policy? Just want to know my options as sometimes the BA check-in staff at CPT are less than friendly (if it's been a busy day).

[VS-LHRCSA]

I was always trained to do it if asked by the passenger. Can't see any reason why they won't play ball in CPT.

A little story.....when I was in Customer Relations, it was not uncommon to deal with passengers who had bags broken into somewhere between JNB, LHR and beyond. Bottom line, BA (nor any other airline) are not liable. I know CPT is largely different to JNB but if you're 'worried' about your bag, you could stress that you want to have your bag on arrival in LHR, so that you can see that it arrived okay with nothing missing. Of course, you know the real reason you want your bag but to a check-in agent, it's not an unreasonable request. Have a good trip.

[gpuk]

Thanks! I'm going to go and book it all right now :D

[PAXboy]

gpukstumbled across a BA flight that departs from BCN, connects in LHR and then flies straight to CPT.
Eh??? I know the ZA route fairly well, having travelled it since 1964 and what makes me query this is the simple point that the BCN route is operated by A320 with the occasional (and very much nicer) B757. The JNB and CPT routes are always 744s. Granted I have not checked every single flight for Dec as that is tedious but in your position, I would.

It is true that a flight from BCN via LHR to CPT is possible in their booking system but (i) it would mean a change of a/c and terminal and therefore two flight numbers are involved (ii) I suspect it is a glich. That is, I think that the fare and sector combination that you have found is an anomoly. If so, then you need to book ASAP and print everything out and retain every item of electronic info, in case they change their mind.

If you want to PM me, then do so by all means and good luck.

[FormerFlyer]

Hey

have you priced it up with a legitimate break of journey in UK ie: as a stopover. The fare rules may allow you to do this anyway.

Just a thought, if you've not booked & printed everything as suggested!

cheers ;)
FF

[al446]

One glitch I thought of is EZY's reliability or lack of at times, delays and cancellations are not unknown so I would suggest bro is best doing an overnight in BCN.

[PAXboy]

Here is one for the future gpuk ...

These guys operate from Tunisia across North Africa and Southern Europe. http://www.afriqiyah.aero/

I understand that they have applied for a license from TIP to CPT, with the intention of collecting pax from their regular short routes and running them down to the other end. Once established, this could be your answer.

[Johnny F@rt Pants]

EZY don't fly MAN to BCN:}

[gpuk]

Hi all

Sorry for the late reply guys!

To answer PAXboy:
Yep, you are correct in that the fare is based on an aircraft swap at LHR (A320 for BCN-LHR and B744 for LHR-CPT). I have bought this via amadeus.net / Terminal A and should have my e-tickets later this week. I've held off booking all the supplemental BMI/Easyjet flights until I have my e-ticket. I can, however, see my flights on checkmytrip.com (so assume they are in the system?).

Re: TIP-CPT. Thank you very much!! That looks like the needle in the haystack for next year :)


To answer FormerFlyer:
Very good point! I should have thought of this earlier... I've just spoken to Terminal A (the people I bought the ticket from) and they have said that no changes to my ticket are allowed... bugger :(


To answer al446:
I think we'll just have to live dangerously and leave everything to the "ducks of fate" :)


To answer Johnny F@rt Pants:
You are right, they do however offer EMA-BCN which is fine for my purposes.


Thanks everyone for your thoughtful input - here's hoping I get my e-tickets and the plan works!

[PAXboy]

Well done gpuk, looks like you have a good solution. Your statement:
have bought this via amadeus.net / Terminal A answers my question - you are NOT buying your ticket from BA. An agency has put a package together to get the business and may have contracted to sell X,000 such packages and from other Euro locations as well.

[parabellum]

Somewhere in the small print it may just tell you what breaks you can make, if LHR is allowable, (it is the only one, after all!), then as far as bags go just say you are breaking your journey in LHR, what VS-LHRCSA says sounds good value too.