BA expert?

[fifinefairy]

Hello everyone

After our amazing trip to Florida in 2010 looking into going to california but am struggling with the flights...

Until June flights are just over £1000 each way from jersey to San Francisco and then on 1st July they go up to £1516 each way until 2013 feb which is as far in advance I can see.

This uniform rate has made we wonder if this is a standard rate until flights don't sell at that price. Anyone with any knowledge as there are five of us travelling its £5k extra in flights!

Thank you
Emma

[Guest]

Pricing policy with some of the airlines is a little strange and BA prices can fluctuate. Have you tried (only if it suits of course) connecting via Dublin or other hub as the competition from certain airports is much greater. We live in Northern Ireland and have often been able to get BA flights to many parts of the USA from Dublin which have been much cheaper that flying direct from London. Sounds crazy I know but on one occasion we were £200 per head cheaper + of course had the conecting flight from Dublin to London included!

[becky2203]

Which cabin are you looking to fly in? Just a quick check on the ba website found return flights in May are £600 or less in economy which seems pretty good to me. £1000 at this time is more like a PE price and again is probably what I'd expect to pay. July flights go up to around £1000 for a return, which I'm guessing is the school holiday effect but wouldn't know as I never have to travel then.

The main problem I can see with the BA flights is that you have to do jersey to Gatwick then travel to Heathrow to go direct to SFO.

[fifinefairy]

We would be flying business. It's cheaper to fly from jersey than to book the flights from London.

The flights haven't just gone up in July and august - traditional school holiday period - but are the same price every day from July 1st to mid February.

[Guest]

Confusion is because that is the price for one leg. Currently business class return Jersey->SFO (via Gatwick and Heathrow) in August is showing at £3,120.95 for the round trip.

If you are going direct from Heathrow, it is about £200 more expensive. I guess that would be for two reasons:

a) You are going to incur some cost for the transfer from Gatwick to Heathrow.

b) Given you have to take a flight to a hub airport anyway, plus the extra transfer cost, BA must figure you might decide to go from Paris, Frankfurt or somewhere else instead so offer a lower price for more flying!

Don't know why the prices are so fixed for such a long period, maybe it is because you are going business class and there is less variation with holidays and so on?

I have noticed over the past week whilst waiting to book PE flights to SFO and back from LAX that Virgin and BA are tracking each other's prices. The price went up by a pound and a bit one day, then another pound and a bit the next day, and BA and VA fares were exactly the same down to the last penny.

[Guest]

I got World Traveller Plus flights for £700 each flyong on 23rd July and return 22nd Aug from Dub to Vegas with BA, they had similar prices when i booked to LA and San Fran

[fifinefairy]

Thanks Tourman

After reading your post I discovered that Aer Lingus travel from Jersey to Dublin and then Dublin to US at that time of year and it will be about £1,000 cheaper per person!

There does seem to be a change in the middle though so looking at routes.

Would still rather go BA because of the flyer miles but at this cost it's now worth it.

[Guest]

West Coast BA in CW used to be steady at £1700 return from a domestic connection - over the past few years it has risen to an average of around £2100 even during the summer season in my experience. £3000 seems to be incredibly high unless the prices have been pushed up again?

If you have miles, it could be worth booking WTP and using 25k miles to upgrade to CW?

[Harry]

We paid £1520 for three flights (returns) Heathrow to LAX (22/08/12 for 2 weeks) that was with BA

[pammiep]

Originally Posted by Harry

We paid £1520 for three flights (returns) Heathrow to LAX (22/08/12 for 2 weeks) that was with BA

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Can I ask how far in advance you booked these? We're going next June so I'm wondering when is best to book the flights. Thanks