CONFUSING AIRFARES

[bixy]

Can anyone explain to me why British Airways will not let me book a single flight Paris - Manchester, when I am making the booking from the UK?

Perhaps you could also answer the following: why I am able to book the same single, same airline, on the SNCF [yes I said SNCF] web site for 90+ euros and the same website offers the same journey, same day, nearly the same time with Air France for 600+ euros?

What on earth is going on with airlines and their fares?

Patrick

[Baz]

Patrick,

I think the reason you cannot book a single fare from Manchester to Paris on the BA site is that you are not clicking on one way fares. In the blue box headed "Book Return Flight" you must first click on "Book one way and multi city" which is on the first line of the blue box. Then you will find you can book single flights.

Hope this helps.

Baz

[Rascalb]

I think you will find that these new lower prices are only available on return journeys. It states this in the terms and condition box that comes up with the flight options/prices for you to choose date/price. They also operated like this last year when I flew the same route.

[bixy]

Baz, it's Paris - Manchester I was trying to book. Manchester - Paris was not a problem. I assumed it was something to do with booking from the UK for a starting point not in the UK.

There's something weird about these fares. It's not just the airlines. Eurostar is the same. A single fare three times the return. It defies all logic, but perhaps I'm just getting old...

Patrick

[Baz]

Patrick,
If you want to book a single Paris to Manchester you might find BA (France) as a solution http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_fr
or alternatively a phone booking may be an alternative.

With the non low cost airlines single fares have always been out of proportion compared to the returns, how they arrive at their charges I have no idea.

Baz

 

[Gardian]

It's all very frustrating.

I've posted about the problems with booking train fares up or down from this part of France before. Xmas 2004, after hours of messing around on the SNCF site, managed to get 2 round trips to London, 2nd class up to Lille, 1st on Eurostar, same on return, for E500 the pair. Thought that was excellent value and v civilised.

Tried the same again last Nov for Xmas - E1200 !! Checked Ryanair and to my amazement, got 2 round trips (out 23/12, back 28/12) for about E250. If we'd been prepared to travel back on the 24th, it would have been significantly less.

I guess that we're all in favour of market-driven pricing, but it can be so time-consuming.

p.s. Never found anything other than silly prices with AF - are they still in business?  

[Loiseau]

I am not sure if this is a similar problem to the one you are describing, but I have had difficulty booking a British Airways flight originating in France (i.e. Nantes to London).  My French base is a residence secondaire, so my credit card is a UK one, and the British Airways website wouldn't allow me to use that for making a booking *starting* in France. It did say in the notes on their site that they are trying to sort this problem out, but to get round it at the time I had to get a France-resident friend to book for me, using her credit card.  (Trouble was that I had to get her and the card to come with me to Nantes just in case the check-in staff insisted on seeing the card that the flight was booked on!  For the record, nobody wanted to see it, but you can never be sure...) 
I can't remember what the single fare was.  It was more than half the return fare, but it was much better than the old days when it would have been three *times* the return fare.

Angela