Mixed flight classes on British Air Multi-city

Jane, if no one replies (who has that experience...I do not), I would suggest calling British Air and asking them to walk you thru it on the web.

While there is typically an airline fee if the live agent books your flights, there is no cost (unless that is very recent) for them to coach you along the way on-line (I have had that help a few times). Sometimes, if I am combining FF points and buying some legs, pr even if paying for all and having a hard time, I find it totally worth it to pay the $25 (or whatever it is for live agent ticketing) just to get exactly what I want while I have a great airline agent on the phone who is making it happen and be done with it.

Although I would not normally book things this way, I would do this as separate one way tickets (one way Tulsa to Rome including how every many stop that requires, then Rome to London and London to Tulsa). It might cost more, but I see no other way of getting what you want other than calling BA and paying the assistance fee.

The problem may arise because of the European leg of the flight. BA only offer business and economy on intra European flights, there is no premium economy. I've tried replicating your journey but the BA site is experiencing difficulties at the moment.

From my experience when reaching the page where you select the flights you are offered the choice of class which is where you could select business class on the way out and premium economy on the return. Have you reached that stage in the process?

Jane this is complex enough that you might want to use a travel agent (AAA?). I think they can be helpful when bookings are complex. Yes, costs a little but IMHO, worth it.

The BA site is now working and I can see your issue. When booking individual flights you are offered a choice of economy, business or first (if available) but when booking multi city you only have an option to choose one class for all flights, clearly an issue with the website design. I would recommend calling BA and have an agent book the flights with your required class. I don't see any advantage by booking through a travel agent, you'll pay more despite being able to do it yourself through BA direct.

Call BA. We found them to be very helpful.

I agree with calling BA. If they want to charge a fee, ask it they will waive it since this ticket is not bookable online. The worst they can do is say no.

I also agree there's no advantage in using a travel agent. All they will be able to do is call BA for you, and they'll charge you BA's fees (if any) plus their own fees.

Thanks, everyone. I'll see what it looks like with two one-way tickets, but I bet I end up calling BA and asking for help.

I briefly considered calling a travel agent who is a friend of some folks in our local travel group, but last year the price he quoted me was higher than what I could get online. He's evidently great if you just tell him "Get me from here to there, and back home, for the cheapest possible price" but I added some wants that limited him.

Thanks for all the help. I'll probably wait a while to book, unless I see a drastic change in the prices. BA used to have an annual business class sale, although if they had one last year I missed it.

I just checked. A one-way ticket from Tulsa to Rome next May, business class, is $9077. I don't think we'll be trying that method any more. :-)

I also have inferred from something on the website that changes to individual legs of the journey can be made by choosing "Manage My Booking," but only after the booking has been made. I'm not ready to commit yet; as I said before, I'm hoping for a flight sale.

As far as I could tell, BA didn’t have a business class flight sale last year. Last year, what I got was a “vacation sale” where they were offering deals on things like hotels. I got the same kind of sale this year a few weeks ago. I’ve looked at their one way fares before and they were far more expensive, but things can change. Are you old enough for AARP? BA has a flight deal with them for flights booked by January 31,2020.

Patty, I am definitely old enough for AARP! I've been checking their link to BA regularly; but I haven't yet today.

And yes, I did try the BA Vacation Sale, but there was nothing there that worked for us. And I believe you're right that BA didn't have a regular rate sale last year; I check their website daily - did last year too.

Thanks for your tips. I'll check through AARP again.

Edit to add: I just checked AARP, and there are no AARP discounts on our routes and dates. Sigh.

As far as I could tell, BA didn’t have a business class flight sale last year.

They had several (we got a fantastic deal to Kuala Lumpur this December) but I suspect they're country specific with more sale fares being offered from UK based departures. They've just had a 'luxury' fare sale that has either just finished or is due to very soon however I didn't see any mention of it when I logged into their US site via a VPN.

Jane, what price are you looking for on the Business Class (outbound) leg? Right now I am seeing $1615 for next May, Tulsa to Rome via Dallas or Chicago, then London. That is not bad at all, BUT all the flights listed have the US to LHR long haul flight on an American Airlines plane, not BA. I can only get it to show flights for that leg on BA metal if I use Chicago or other major BA hub as the starting point.

Maybe a BA agent on the ohone can put you on a BA plane if that is what you prefer, but it may change the fare.

If you do call to book, don't ask for "multi-city"; what you want is a roundtrip flight from Tulsa to Rome, with a stopover in London on the way back.

There is another way to book this: book roundtrip Tulsa to London on the BA website, with the outbound leg in business class and the return in Premium Economy. Then book a separate "nested" roundtrip flight from London to Rome and back to London. Yes, this has the disadvantage of putting you on separate tickets for the outbound flight, meaning your flight from London to Rome is not protected, but if you build in sufficient time between the flights ( at least 4 hours) you should be OK. Separate tickets are not as big a risk going that direction ( to Europe) as it is coming home, where missing your home-bound longhaul flight would be very expensive.

The advantage of this approach is you can fly to London on a BA plane ( if that is what you prefer for the business class leg). Right now the cost for the outbound flight Tulsa to London next May is $1584. The return in PE is around $800.

The nested flight to Rome and back to London is around £135 roundtrip for some flights, or less if you choose the Basic Economy ( hand baggage only, no seat selection unless you pay).

If you choose this "separate ticket" approach, make sure that your flight TO Rome departs from Heathrow, not one of the other airports they use for some Rome flights ( Gatwick and London City). For the return flight from Rome back to London it does not matter, since you are spending the night in London.

Wow, Lola, thanks for the ideas. These definitely give me some more options. I'll follow up on them soon.

Thank you, and thanks to all for your suggestions.

Hmmm, I checked the AARP site again, and one of the legs of our flights has been discounted $100. Still don't know if I'm ready to pull the trigger, though. But it's tempting. But it has us back home close to midnight, which I'm trying to avoid.

I need to call BA, I guess, to see about breaking the journey home.

I also tried Lola's trip of nested flights. It could work, if all went well, but is considerably more expensive. I could just give up and take the 8:00 a.m. flight home from Rome; it gets in to Tulsa about 7:30 p.m. That would get us home by about 8:15 or 8:30, if everything is on time.

I should have some free time next week. (Finally. Long story here, but I've been tied up for weeks with other things.) If I find a free hour or so, I'll call BA and discuss options.

Also be careful that some planes do not have the true Premium Economy and just Extra Legroom like Economy Plus and AA's Main Cabin Extra. On BA you do have a real Premium Economy but I prefer Lufthansa or Air France to BA as I have read reviews on BA where some of their planes have a poor World Traveler Plus cabin and experience. One review said BA's staff primarily serviced the regular Economy Class before WT+ and there were not enough drink refills.

Head on over to FlyerTalk and you can read about the various products.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, Daniel. It's amazing how much information and how many resources are out there.

I'm checking airfare too. American will let you mix airfares, at least for our flights.

Interestingly, multi city flights are more expensive than round trip, even for exactly the same itinerary. Our Tulsa - Rome - Tulsa trip is over $2000 higher if we book it as multi-city for exactly the same flights.

I'm playing with several options; my DH suggested taking the cheap flight home Rome - DFW via Dublin, then spending the night at the Dallas airport hotel, with an easy hop home from there the next day, but that's when I discovered that you pay a premium for multi-city.

I still haven't called BA to try "round trip with a stopover," which sounds like the best bet. Or just taking an earlier, but more expensive (by about $600 each) out of Rome.

Yes, I meant to call BA this week, but as John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." Too true.

And our travel group meets this weekend; some of our travel pals may have an idea.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. We'll figure something out. Worst case scenario is we get home late night. We've done it before, but that makes for a long long day, with "real life" kicking in early the next morning.