Incredible savings on ex-Europe fares to USA

I'm attending a wedding next June in Sicily and am looking at continuing the holiday directly afterwards in San Diego. Also keen to try BA's new direct service LHR-San Diego. Now I know there have been many threads over the years on mega business class savings (both on VS & BA) though purchasing a fare ex-Europe, eg. Amsterdam or Lisbon. Here's what I just found for dates in June 2013 for a BA Club World return ex Catania:-

CAT-LGW / LHR-SAN-LHR / LGW-CAT: £1,935

To purchase the identical BA flight but just LHR-SAN-LHR on the same dates is £3,245

Cash saving (two of us flying) = £2,620

Unbelievable Obviously we're in Sicily anyway so the 'hassle factor' of needing to do a UK - EUR hop to pick up the ex Europe flight doesn't exist since we'll be there anyway! Even better is that the flight from Sicily is to Gatwick, so home for the night before flying to San Diego the following day! On the return the routing to Sicily is via Gatwick which is perfect as it means the agent in San Diego will be forced to tag the luggage through to LHR only...we'll just collect luggage, go straight home and chuck away the remaining LGW-CAT ticket

Just gob smacked at the saving, serious £££

I've looked at how to take advantage of this when flying to Oz but failed miserably, your savings are amazing!

I can personally attest that ex-Italy has been consistently very good throughout the years. I once booked a RTW trip from there which cost in C what the Y RTW cost was ex-US! As the family lives there anyway, it worked out very well

Congrats on the fare and the trip to Sicily, it will be beautiful at that time of the year.

That's brilliant - congrats.

I know savings can be had x Europe, but that's a cracker.

Enjoy!

Fantastic savings - knew it could be done in style and you certianly have secured that!

Jon

This may be a daft question but do you have to start the flight at Caterina. I can save approx £500 by booking Mad LHR DXB, but could I miss the first leg and join the journey at LHR.??

[honey lamb]

This may be a daft question but do you have to start the flight at Caterina. I can save approx £500 by booking Mad LHR DXB, but could I miss the first leg and join the journey at LHR.??

Nope. Miss the first leg and the whole journey is void.

There are rumours that BA are now starting to credit miles/tier points only when all legs of a booking are completed. ie: no show for 1 flight and you get 0 miles/points. Still. look at the savings!

This may be a daft question but do you have to start the flight at Caterina. I can save approx £500 by booking Mad LHR DXB, but could I miss the first leg and join the journey at LHR.??

You can get good savings ex Amsterdam too. Just ensure that the last leg from London is from a different airport

ie: AMS - LHR - SAN - LHR / LGW - AMS

There are rumours that BA are now starting to credit miles/tier points only when all legs of a booking are completed. ie: no show for 1 flight and you get 0 miles/points. Still. look at the savings!

I have also heard similar, so if the saving is key, it shouldn't bother anyone, but if tier points are then you may well lose them all.

There are rumours that BA are now starting to credit miles/tier points only when all legs of a booking are completed. ie: no show for 1 flight and you get 0 miles/points. Still. look at the savings!

I have also heard similar, so if the saving is key, it shouldn't bother anyone, but if tier points are then you may well lose them all.

I would always prefer to use VS, and was au for many years. However I now live in Spain and there are no direct flights to LHR. My kids and grandchild live in the Uk and my sister in Dubai. Therefore the normal routing would be for me ALC to LGW or LTN hire car to LHR meet kids fly LHR to DXB on VS400. However the VS UC flight costs on this route have
soared from the original launch price of circa £1250 and now it's on average £2300 plus the connecting flight and transfer. I tried Emirates from LGW on their First suites and they were awful so very very reluctantly I priced BA business from ALC to DBX and although I would have to change at MAD and the LHR the price was less than £1700. for three people that's a saving of approx £1700. now I finally come to the point, I can make all the legs as I live here but the two other passengers would board at LHR as they live in GR London. From the replies given by Honey lamb and Slinky I am not sure as to whether the passengers could skip the first two flights but still be allowed to board. The tier points are of no interest as the kids don't fly regularily

Sorry for the long winded post.

I can make all the legs as I live here but the two other passengers would board at LHR as they live in GR London. From the replies given by Honey lamb and Slinky I am not sure as to whether the passengers could skip the first two flights but still be allowed to board. The tier points are of no interest as the kids don't fly regularily

If you miss the first of these flights then the whole itinerary will be cancelled.

Sorry to bring up this old topic - and it is slightly diff to the title, but any help would be appreciated.

My sister and brother in law want to go off to Australia for a month or so and want to go Club / Upper.

I mentioned the ex-EU departures and they are interested - as anyone would be to save a few bob !

One salient point is that they do have a holiday place in Malaga so could legitimately fly from there without making it a too convoluted journey.

1) If they booked this way, could they go from Malaga (AGP) to LGW on day one, then LHR to SYD the next day so they could stay the night at their home here in the UK or does it need to be one continuous journey?
2)If they choose to stop off on the return in somewhere like KL, are the savings still achievable?
3) Are there specific sites to book this through? I have played around with Expedia.com (putting my home as Spain) but there didn't appear to be any savings (£4k vs EUR4.7k).
4) Is it dependant upon the departure airport - the various threads I have read on this allude to AMS?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Spiceke

[honey lamb]

Sorry to bring up this old topic - and it is slightly diff to the title, but any help would be appreciated.

My sister and brother in law want to go off to Australia for a month or so and want to go Club / Upper.

I mentioned the ex-EU departures and they are interested - as anyone would be to save a few bob !

One salient point is that they do have a holiday place in Malaga so could legitimately fly from there without making it a too convoluted journey.

1) If they booked this way, could they go from Malaga (AGP) to LGW on day one, then LHR to SYD the next day so they could stay the night at their home here in the UK or does it need to be one continuous journey?
2)If they choose to stop off on the return in somewhere like KL, are the savings still achievable?
3) Are there specific sites to book this through? I have played around with Expedia.com (putting my home as Spain) but there didn't appear to be any savings (£4k vs EUR4.7k).
4) Is it dependant upon the departure airport - the various threads I have read on this allude to AMS?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Spiceke

1. Yes that is a possibility. Some of the fares do have an overnight stay in London.

2. It depends on the carrier

3. Not all flights have these savings. It depends very much on the competition on the various routes. I tried Dubai last year ex-AMS but it was cheaper on VS from LHR. Try other sites such as Orbitz or Kayak but you may find they are much of a muchness

4. Although AMS is the most quoted other airports such as Copenhagen and Lisbon have been cited as giving cheaper fares. I've only used AMS because it has the best connectivity from my home airport

Thanks HL

I guess if you put a gap of say, 2 days, on the AGP/ LGW and LHR / SYD part of the journey it would 'force' a stop over.

Thanks HL

I guess if you put a gap of say, 2 days, on the AGP/ LGW and LHR / SYD part of the journey it would 'force' a stop over.

Can be done, but one thing to bear in mind is that if you have a connection of over 24 hours you then have to pay UK Departute Tax, which in a premium cabin isn't an insignificant amount, if you're connection is les than 24 hours then you avoid this!

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Spiceke

Have a look at this guide, which gives you great instructions on how to look for BA fares. You can also use this tool to search for other airlines.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1046882-read-first-ultimate-guide-all-things-british-airways.html#post13303030

Without knowing the rough dates of travel it is hard to give a definite answer, but I suspect that going ex-AGP will make things more pricey. Looking at random dates in February and March (on BA), for instance, it was c. £3,700 ex-AGP, but only £3,400 ex-CPH. £3,400 is a reasonable saving from a normal ex-LHR price of £4,000 -- especially if there is more than one traveller.

Wow...

I just mucked about some more and there are some terrific Etihad fares -- a return ex-AGP to SYD for £2,551... Or ex-ATH for £2,031.

This was for Feb 2013 -- so may be irrelevant to your situation.

at240

Many thanks - I will pass on the tips.

Spiceke

I've done an identical thing for next April - CDG-LHR-IAD-DCA-ORD-MCO-MIA-ATL-LHR in WTP for just over £1000. Where as if had departed from LHR it would have been double.

The LHR-Paris sector was sorted with 4500 Avios and £13.50. Not bad to save around £1000.

And it includes as many stop overs as needed - anything up to 365 days in fact - just use the multiple destinations part of the booking engine.

This is where the one world alliance really works and it must be hurting VS. this year I took 9 of my family UC to Jamaica with VS. However it's Turks and Caicos next yer and this mean a trip Via MIA. We would love to use VS but UC on VS is approx £2500 and we would then need connecting flights from ALC to LHR and from MIA to PLS taking the the total cost to over £3200. A multi stop ticket via one world with all flights business class is £2400. so Avios joined and flights with BA/AA