Mind the gap: the Avios itineraries BA shouldn't be showing you
Have you ever been searching through the BA website for Avios tickets and come across a fare that looks like this?
If you haven't, then what this ticket is offering you is a flight from Heathrow to Doha, and then a flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo Haneda.
See what's missing?
A whole flight between Doha and Hong Kong!
Now, we are a proponent of "springboarding", which is basically travelling as far as you can with points, before using cash to travel the rest of the way.
So you may think I'm a fan of what's being offered here? No.
What I worry about here is that some poor person searches London to Tokyo, and goes to buy this ticket expecting travel the whole way, but instead they get abandonment of themselves and their luggage halfway.
Yes, I know there is a big red box in the middle, but I am thinking on behalf of the Avios novice whose eyes may only be drawn to the nice looking cabin selection boxes on the right hand side.
The other thing I've noticed with these itineraries is that the gap between flights can be unachievable. Take this next example, Heathrow to Frankfurt, make your own way from Frankfurt to Hong Kong, and then your final ticket from Hong Kong to Tokyo Narita.
Except, it's actually physically impossible to get between Frankfurt and Hong Kong in that gap, as there are only two direct flights on 23 February, neither of which arrive into Hong Kong at the right time needed to make the connection, and if you look at connecting flights, you're going to miss the connection by hours, if not days.
I'm sure I can imagine the meeting being had when they decided to let the system come up with itineraries such as this ....
"People are complaining that they can't find availability when they search for flights, how should we combat this? Shall we release more seats on flights? Shall we make an easier to use flight search so they can find what is actually available? No, let's gaslight them with the illusion of availability, but let's give them options that are only achievable with teleportation!"
Will these options suit someone? Yes, I'm sure there is a very small minority out there who like this, and that's fine. But the BA website already allows us to toggle whether we want to make a booking with or without stopovers, then please give us a toggle for these results, because I'd rather my search wasn't cluttered with the unachievable.
Sam
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