How To Use British Airways Price Match Guarantee (Hint: There Is One)…

News flash: British Airways has a price match guarantee, and it could save you real money on your next flight. How much? Up to £200 per ticket – which is nothing to laugh at and absolutely worth pursuing. Unlike many air travel “price guarantees”, British Airways offer isn’t nearly as complicated or frustrating as you might think, there are just a few rules and tips to know from the start. Here’s how to make sure you always get what’s fair when you book your flights, via the BA price match for flights that start in the UK…

The British Airways Price Match Guarantee

Basically, if you find a cheaper ticket for the same British Airways flight, on the same day, in the same ticketed class on the same day you book your BA ticket with BA, the airline will give you a voucher for the difference, and double if you’re a member of the British Airways Executive Club. This only works for one way or round trip flights from the UK. It works in every cabin.

In short: it’s free to join the Executive Club, and for the simple reasons of potentially getting double the vouchers you should join right now. You book a BA ticket with BA, find one cheaper the same day elsewhere for the same thing, you save. Simple enough. Just keep in mind, a ticket in basic economy and economy are different things. The BA site actually has a great write up…

This claim process doesn’t work for the following…

• Flights on other airlines.
• Flights starting in other countries. 
• Cheaper flights found on sites from other countries. 
• Flight + hotel package bookings. It works for flight only.
• Special coupon codes or private sales others can’t access.

Getting Technical To Make Things Easy

You’ve probably seen fare codes mentioned somewhere on your booking before, like S, H, I or T. These codes signify which type of airfare you purchased and the change, cancellation and upgrade policies for that specific fare. Even in economy, there’s quite a few different fare types, each with their own letter and the same goes for Premium, Club World and First. Don’t get stressed, it’s easy…

You can’t book a full economy fare with bags and then price match against a basic economy fare. To get your fare matched (and get double the difference) you need to make sure the lower price you find elsewhere is the same fare code and has the same flight number. Here’s how to do that…

When you’re booking with British Airways, you want to click “Flight Details” while selecting flights. When you do, you’ll get a pop up like this one, which specifies the alphabetic letter code you’re booking. You can then go ahead and search on another site such as Expedia and see if you can find the same flight for less. On Expedia, you’ll be able to see the fare booking code on the final page before you enter your payment details. It looks like this…

Compare, Screen Shot, Book

Comparing is the big key here. Once you’ve found the price on BA, go out and check for deals which are lower elsewhere on top search engines like Skyscanner, Google Flights, Ebookers or Expedia. If you do find a lower fare, you must take a screenshot of the better deal, with the date captured as well. British Airways actually gives you a guide on how to do that. You’ll want all itinerary details including flight numbers, method of payment, website name and date and time included. All elements, such as credit card charges count toward the final total comparison. You should…

• Search on BritishAirways.com
• Find the price of your flights, all in, with card fees included.
• Compare against top UK booking sites and online travel agencies.
• Make sure flight, cabin and booking codes are the same. 
• Screenshot what you find on the competing site. 
• Book with British Airways. 
• Submit your claim here with screenshots and info.

To get your claim, you need to book with British Airways, so be sure to make your booking and submit your claim from there. You can’t just call and have them match the price first. As long as you follow the rules, BA has an impressively good reputation here for honouring claims, albeit in the form of one year validity vouchers, rather than cold hard cash. But hey, for double the savings, it all counts…

It Really Does Work

There was recently a great British Airways offer of two people in business class for £2100 all in for two. A few UK travel websites had the same fares for around £2000 all in, which means that everyone who bothered to compare and use the price match guarantee received vouchers for £200 per person, which turned £1050 business class into £850 business class, after netting the vouchers. That’s not too bad at all…