My Tier Point Run - The Saga Continues...

[@kevindonnelly6007]

Gripping drama! Was on the edge of my seat. Which was not rescheduled at any time during the video. :D

[@MattsPlanet]

Still baffled as to why Emmerdale or Corry hasn't bought the rights to these videos to use the storyline on screen...

[@Joe-lb8qn]

What a result. This also answers a question i asked on an earlier video in this subject.

[@MattsPlanet]

Aha! Just making a video about a tier point run I'm planning on doing later this year...

[@bowman7296]

That was very good Matt, lots of interesting thoughts about booking for teir points. Keep up good work

[@MattsPlanet]

Thanks Peter. Wasn't sure how interesting this would be for people, but it's tracking well so far!

[@Petertjeehh]

Wow what a rollercoaster! BA seems so fair to their customers. I can't afford paying (albeit in advance) for unforeseen changes made before or during such a trip at the moment, so I won't book at all at this point in time to avoid financial problems. I will book when I have more confidence and thanks to your detailed video's I know, at least, where to look and what to take in consideration. Thank you for that and glad BA takes the responsibilty to serve you as a valued customer by this re-booking offer!! Looking forward to those video's already 🙂👍🏻 Cheers Matt!

[@MattsPlanet]

Thanks Peter - I am lucky to be able to afford to have a decent chunk of cash in BA's bank for a protracted period of time... I hope BA realises that every booking is important right now and being a little creative will be good for them in the long run!

[@irishinusa1615]

Thank you for sharing!

[@MattsPlanet]

Still my favourite intro...

[@irishinusa1615]

@@MattsPlanet 🥰👊👍

[@finnishlad]

Finnair's Platinum Wing lounge is closed and unlikely to be open for a long time (until Asian flights are operating)

[@MattsPlanet]

Thanks Mikko - no saunas for anyone then...

[@saul9357]

So informative and an easy listen ! Great stuff Matt !

[@MattsPlanet]

Much appreciated!

[@irishinusa1615]

You never cease to amaze me. Great job 👏 👍.. great information 👍

[@MattsPlanet]

Ah, shucks. Thanks for that!

[@mikewarde2802]

Good Luck! I would like to know how the re-booking goes with BA. My First EX-EU TPR , is in Late Oct 21, so hopefully Ok, but nothing is certain in this current ongoing situation.

[@MattsPlanet]

Thanks Mike - I did indeed rebook although it needed to be onto BA codeshares only whereas the original itinerary didn't, so I couldn't replicate it completely. Pretty happy with what I've ended up with - will use it as an excuse for another video in due course so I'll keep the detail under my hat for now... Plumped for mid October but pretty confident that something in there will get cancelled so I can rebook again if October is still tricky. Thanks for watching.

[@deanmoloney817]

i want to set up a tier point for for jan 24 first ever

[@MattsPlanet]

The 355 day rule means you can start looking!

[@richard_london]

Another interesting video!

[@j2simpso]

Great video as always, Matt. I'm in a similar boat as you with regards to international travel. As you're likely aware the border remains shut here in Australia with Sydney going into a full lockdown due to there being any COVID cases and the fact that only about 10% of Australians are fully vaccinated. In any event, I bought a heap of Air Canada Aeroplan points back in April 2020 when they were having a fire sale on them. In essence, I bought enough miles to fly in business class from Sydney to Toronto and back in business class for around $2,400 CAD. Aeroplan Booking Take 1: ===================== In May 2020 I booked Sydney to Toronto return on Air Canada in business class for travel in December. Then schedule change and was forced to accept Brisbane to Toronto (again no biggie given its proximity to Sydney). Then that got cancelled and I was pushed back to Sydney to Toronto. More minor schedule changes that had no material impact on the trip.Then all of a sudden in October it all got cancelled due to government restrictions from you know what. Called up Aeroplan and said they couldn't do anything for me and I'll just need to look for new flights on their search engine. Aeroplan Booking Take 2 ==================== At this time Aeroplan also announced they were switched to a dynamic points system for making redemptions (e.g. we're gonna charge you double for your redemptions easily), meaning if I wanted to secure the bargain I found with Aeroplan points I needed to find availability and made the booking ASAP. With only 3 days to spare from the change, I found the availability I wanted: even better I could use the free stopover rules on Aeroplan to get the itinerary I *really* wanted. So now the new itinerary for departure in August of this year was now set :Sydney to Saint John, New Brunswick on Air Canada via Vancouver and Montreal all in business class. Then Saint John to Toronto in business class, then for the return, Toronto to Haneda on Air Canada and Haneda to Sydney on ANA again in business class. Seemed like a solid plan, surely by then Coroni will be over and thing will be back to where we want them to be with a vaccine in sight? Nope! Fast forward to March and this time Aeroplan was so generous to rebook me on the following itinerary (and it's a doozy): Sydney to Saint John via Abu Dhabi, Zürich and Toronto (first two Etihad, third one AC) all business class. Remaining part of the itinerary stayed the same. A weird itinerary, but again not too bad especially now given I get to try another airline's business class product. Then in May another set of sweeping changes. First a more direct routing from Sydney to Saint John, this time just via Abu Dhabi and Toronto on Etihad and Air Canada. Most importantly the return portion has changed: now I'm flying Toronto to Sydney via Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda. See a problem there? Whilst in pre-COVID times this would not be an issue (heck I've done this connection before in 2018), the present rules in Japan make such a connection illegal as it would require entering Japan to make the connection from Narita to Haneda.Then at the end of May just to make things more interesting AC decided to move my flight to Saint John such that it left Toronto before I arrived in Toronto. I waited for a while this time to see what other changes came out calling Aeroplan to see what my options were which they stated could either be rebooking the flights for next year but I need to maintain the exact same routing and find Saver availability for each flight (nearly impossible) or simply push it back 30 days. This week I decided to do the latter, figuring I would roll the dice on this one as the Federal government has halved the number of flights to Australia due to you know what meaning the flights I'm rebooked on will likely take a cancellation again and I'll have more bargaining power then. The new itinerary I've now got is: Sydney to Saint John via Abu Dhabi, Toronto then Saint John to Toronto as before lastly, Toronto to Sydney via Los Angeles. Toronto to LA in Premium Economy on AC (will try upgrading to J once saver availability comes out) then LA to Sydney on United in Business class. The interesting thing here is Aeroplan had to go out and by half of these tickets as Z or even J fares (the latter for United). I can't for the life of me understand why they endevaoured to do this since it likely would've been cheaper to just push everything off by a year with less stringent rules. But again, we'll cross that bridge when inevitably those flights get cancelled due to you know what. In the back of my mind, in the worst case scenario, I may have to cancel all of this out if these flights actually happen (which seems unlikely) meaning I would get the mies and taxes and fees back. However, I've got some back up travel planned. For one thing, I have an unused coupon with United valid till the end of March for SYD > LHR (I booked this as part of a LHR > SYD return on United in November 2019. I took the outbound flights to SYD for my studies but you know what happened and had to cancel the return portion), so I could potentially parlay the Aeroplan points into a one-way Heathrow to Sydney (with Toronto stopover) flight in business class, thereby getting about the value I put into them back (side note: Heathrow is notoriously a cheap starting point for flights to Australia, especially on US carriers who have to fight their Asian and European rivals who can offer shorter flights and arguably a better transiting experience although I maintain that LAX is heaps ahead of SIN especially if you are travelling in business or have status). Lastly as for the US banning people who have been to the EU and UK and parts of Asia I'm of two minds of this one. On the one hand, you're quite right that the science doesn't really support these travel bans when the bulk of Americans have been vaccinated and many countries are now providing proof of vaccination. However, the status quo for me as a Canadian studying in Australia is quite good since I forgo such travel bans. I suppose you could argue that the US should move to showing proof of vaccination to enter, but be careful what you wish for! I'm fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca and at present the US doesn't recognize getting two doses of AstraZeneca as being vaccinated despite the overwhelming evidence that it's highly effectively against you know what.

[@MattsPlanet]

Thanks for that - I can sense the hope and excitement with every rebooking, and the crushing disappointment when each booking gets cancelled... I vented a bit about Australia in my last video - since then I've read some stuff that suggested that the "powers that be" benchmarked the AZ vaccine against Australia's zero Covid environment rather than against the real world, which is completely bonkers and could have implications for years... I've also heard rumblings that the reason why America won't relax, is that Europe and the UK won't relax things the other way as no-one vaccinated in the US has anything more than a scrap of paper proving it - which is easily fakable. The UK and Europe have a handy-dandy app gizmo that is much more secure. So vaccination free travel in Europe for Americans is likely to be tricky for a while yet and the Americans are reciprocating on principal. You have my sympathies mate - at least being in Aus was tolerable but with all the lockdowns that advantage has gone...

[@GLAFly]

Great video Matt, but a real shame that the US restrictions mean its likely to be delayed. One bright point being that you've been "freed" of the Sophia legs for now (especially in light of the news today re Bulgaria). Hoping things open up and you're able to get going soon. I'm hoping my October trip is able to go ahead too.

[@MattsPlanet]

Cheers... I have also now rebooked - also for October. But knowing the rules a little better made me more confident to do so as I am pretty confident that something will be cancelled allowing me to do it all again if we're stull banned from the US by Oct.

[@GLAFly]

@@MattsPlanet kind of my view as well. I'm due to start my ex-eu run from Dublin, so if there are any cancellations ill be trying for a change of origin to Glasgow (also helped by it being in the 300 mile rule), but given I've restrictions in travel for the first half of November and my Tier point year ends on 8th Dec, it might stuff up my gold ambitions for this year. Will just have to wait and see.

[@GLAFly]

@@MattsPlanet I had a couple of AA cancellations for October through yesterday (you might be in a similar boat), and was able to use the opportunity to tweak my travel plans. Still going in October around the same dates (well, assuming the USA is open for UK travellers by that point, without the limitation of not having been in the UK for the previous 14 days), but was able to move my ex-eu DUB start/end point to GLA (within that notional 300 mile rule), which was a win for me, as it's now saving me from two positioning flights in either direction (GLA-LHR-DUB and back again). Still lots of uncertainty, but hopefully it goes ahead, and if not then it's back to rebooking again.

[@MattsPlanet]

Shifting DUB to GLA is a win. Word is that opening up should be late September / early October so fingers crossed. Had 3 of my rebooked flights shift timings already but none actually cancelled so sticking with what I have for now...

[@GLAFly]

@@MattsPlanet im not setting off until the 20th, so fingers crossed its open by then - without any daft restrictions.

[@irishinusa1615]

Great information. The Covid layer on our tickets has been a blessing. This vlog should help many. 👍👍👊👊👊

[@MattsPlanet]

Cheers

[@irishinusa1615]

@@MattsPlanet 👊👍🥂🍷🍷😎

[@webstereo]

Does the ability to change the fare because of the cancellation come under the "book with confidence" policy?

[@MattsPlanet]

I believe so. Or the "try to keep the customers money and not have to give it back to them" policy!!! Which is ok with me in this instance!

[@jessopd]

Now catching up with your channel Matt, which I'm finding very informative and has inspired me to investigate my own tier point run. I'm almost ready to book it but would appreciate your advice on a couple of things before I do please. Firstly, I'm looking at starting the run from Sofia, arriving on the inbound flight from LHR, due to arrive 50 minutes before the outbound departs. Having never been to Sofia, is 50 minutes enough time to pass through the airport to get to departures in time? Secondly, I like your advice about ensuring the booking is made using BA flight numbers to ensure you receive the correct amounts of Avios. Do all American Airlines flights have a BA codeshare flight number? I've found a couple of them but not all? I have now subscribed to your channel and have received notification of your latest upload, which I will watch once I've finished this! I would appreciate your advice. Thank you. David

[@MattsPlanet]

Hi David - welcome aboard. Better late than never! I assume by now, you've understood my humour... Thanks for the support! In Sofia you're talking about a "back to back" - arriving and leaving on the same plane. There's an excellent thread on Flyertalk which ranks every BA destination for back to back suitability - www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1964325-back-back-immediate-turnarounds-ba-destinations.html. In the wiki, Sofia its rated as excellent - arrivals decant into the departure area (like in AMS and CPH) so its very low risk as you don't have to go through security to get back to the gate. I'd spend a few minutes googling whether anything's changed because of the "you know what" but I'd be quite confident of the plan working - you need to have checked in before leaving London and be travelling HBO... On the other hand, Sofia is quite a nice place and is well worth a night if you have the time... Bucharest is better though, in my opinion! Re the avios - I find that Matrix is good but not infallible when presenting code share numbers... I'd have the BA or AA flight number to hand when calling - let the agent know you want BA flights and they may be able to offer options you might not have seen. Don't be scared to call and abort if you're not getting the answer you need. Some more research with the knowledge gained from talking to the agent can pay off. My experience is that the agents love dealing with someone who knows what they're after and is trying to finesse an option - they are rooting for you to succeed and can help - its much more fun for them than the usual caller looking for two weeks in Alicante....

[@jessopd]

@@MattsPlanet Thanks for your prompt reply. Yes, I'm definitely travelling HBO and will do some more research, including on Flyertalk which I've also now discovered after watching your content. I was intending to call BA to book so I'm encouraged by what you say about them wanting to assist with such situations. Thanks again. David

[@MattsPlanet]

I'm excited for you! Flyertalk can consume your life if you let it, but there's some great stuff in there. Let me know how it goes...

[@jessopd]

@@MattsPlanet Will do!

[@jamespaul9929]

Hi Matt-I’m Jersey based and am intrigued by tier points running-but how can I work out the tier points for each leg of my flight having found a flight on matrix and is there anyway to confine the run to Europe? I’d like to get silver and only have 175 tier points as I normally fly economy short haul. Thanks

[@MattsPlanet]

There's a calculator on the BA website which will tell you leg by leg. Probably better to go to flyertalk's BA section as there's a wiki on there which explains it well. Might take a little finding but all the information is handy if you're interested. It's not that difficult - 40 TPS for a short leg 140 for a longer one with a few exceptions to be aware of along the way. Thanks for watching!

[@haddockman30]

It is a pity that you are missing the Sofia legs.

[@MattsPlanet]

Yes and no... I've been to Sofia before and liked it, but as I'm not chasing tier points right now, the added complexity of adding a country to an itinerary is something I'm happy to swerve!