Anyway to get a cheap single on BA?

Hi guys, I think I know the answer to this as I have looked far and wide but maybe someone has some magic trick I don't know.

I am looking at trip to Moscow, not till next May the group of friends I am going with are going out and back on EZY, but I think I am going to tie it up as a bit of a longer trip.

My general plan was to fly out Premium Economy on the BA 747/777 that operates that route, spend four days with the lads and then "InterRail" back from Moscow via Poland and Germany and probably spending about another week to 10 days on the continent most likely coming back to the UK on Eurostar. (With all of my railway travel concessions etc most of the above is pretty much free and the Eurostar is £40 for a First Class single for staff!)

Now when I priced this as a return with BA out in PE and back Y, I could get it for roughly £350 which I didn't think was bad. Then when I looked at a single just for the outbound, Y was £600 on its own and PE was £1200!! Is there any way around this?

Now the obvious answer is to book the return and not use the return portion, or possibly do it on a multi city and fly back from somewhere closer to home, which from Berlin for example got me similar results to the Moscow return, but there was no option to upgrade the outbound flight to PE, as obviously PE is not offered on the true "Short Haul" hops from TXL.

Secondly, just a straw poll, is PE worth it for a 3.5hr flight to DME? And what is interesting, is that on the BA website when selecting flights PE was marketed as PE and NOT WT+ is this something specific to Moscow/Mid Hauls or is it totally different to WT+?

Cheers in advance guys.

As you say you know the answer already.

It's the lack of a Saturday night stay that is driving the price up. So looks like you'll have to book that return then just accidentally forget to use the return.

Not sure how arriving by plane then leaving by Train will look to the Russian Immigration people though.

They appear to be very hot on checking visas and passports etc and operating by the rules.

That's a very good point I hadn't considered, but I guess they must see it quite a bit with people flying in to do the Transiberian Express route!

I suspected that the apparent lack of a Saturday night away would kill the prospects of doing a single air fare, it just grates me a little, paying for something that I am not going to use, yes I know it's cheaper than not buying it, but it just seems wasteful, to me, and to the airline I guess.

My immediate thought was the same as tontybear's...what will Russian Immigration make of this? I have never visited The Motherland, but imagine the border control police are rather officious, and maybe not in the best of moods after they came second in the Eurovision Song Contest !

I think your best option would be to call BA and speak to them if you are planning a multi-city trip.

As for WT+. I have flown BA WT+ TATL to BOS and back. If the price is not significiantly more, I think the leg room and 2 seat config on the window rows is worth it. But prices can vary greatly. Get them cheap and I would maybe go for it but they can escalate in price and that would not make it worth the extra cost IMO.

The new WT+ cabin, now on most 777's, is nice. The old WT+ 747 cabins are old and showing their age. I would pay for the former, not for the latter. Aircraft changes can occur also rememeber. But for a 3.5 flight to DME it is your call as to whether it is worth it over Y.

You can fly BA First on this route, a must for the Oligarchs I imagine.

I think just for safety sake I will shoot a few emails off to the company that the Russian embassy use to process the Tourist Visas to see if I can get any conclusions from them regarding the different modes of entry/exit.

Thanks for the info Maxiumus, the 777 seems more common on the route than the 747 so should be a nicer cabin!

If you check out The BA Source website it will tell you which 777s have been upgraded and which 777s are fling the route. No guarantees but will give you an idea.

http://www.thebasource.com/boeing777-200er.html

The BA235 & 237 are serviced by A321s so will not have WT+. Although yesterday a B767-300Er flew the BA235.

The BA233 is serviced by 777-200ERs, some of which have PE upgrades (2010 cabin), some of which have not (2000 cabin).

If you have any Avios and there's availability, then you can book a single that way?

That's not a bad idea actually I don't have enough Avios but it might work out more economical to buy them. I will have a look thanks for the suggestion!!

The situation is quite fluid as we are now actually looking at doing the Trans Siberian Express so I might be able to do it as an open jaw return to DME and back from PEK which was coming out at £790 for WT+ which I thought was exceptional value if we do go that route!