Planning a trip home in July 2022 LAX-LHR-LAX. All of family are duel citizens so under any covid rules (which are hopefully gone by then anyway..... surely...) entry/exit are Ok. I have taken a look at flights and as far as I can tell the only airline taking reservations is BA. Prices are Ok, but nothing special. Air New Zealand is infinelty better than ropey old BA but they are not showing any flights for then. Skyscanner or similar only returns BA flights. Have all the other airlines given up and what do you think we should do -buy flights now "because all the other airlines are going to go bust" or "wait until they set up schedules and bag a post covid bargain early next year"? Or am I just doing it wrong!?

Air NZ is probably like Qantas. While the borders are largely closed they aren't showimg flights because of the high likelihood of having to cancel them and refund everyone.

Air New Zealand don't fly the London to LA route anymore. NZ1 and NZ2 are only going to New York when it all starts again

I think Virgin are starting soon, perhaps have a look on Virgin Atlantic or may be United Airlines?

Checking random dates in July 2022

American I see 2 daily non-stops that are not codeshares operated by AA

United I found 1 non-stop

Virgin Atlantic has 2 non-stops

I checked the airline sites directly, whether these flights will actually operate as scheduled next summer is anyone's guess, but tis the schedules they have as of now.

Air New Zealand announced in October 2019 they were axing LAX to London so unless they announced someone to come back, I am not sure they plan to operate the route anytime soon as the initial announcement for the cut was made pre-COVID

https://simpleflying.com/air-new-zea...ngeles-london/

United during peak times (Summer) use to have a couple of flights a day doing that route and from my experience with them they have been good. I believe more airlines will re-open that route if and when the US border opens to most so you will probably have better options then.

Whichever airline you choose I would not hold out for a post Covid bargain. I suspect prices will skyrocket once restrictions loosen up. When the price is right for you I would book with whoever has the most flexible policy regarding change and refunds. I have cancelled three trips with BA and although the wait to get through to the call center is ridiculous (on line chat is better) I have had my money fully refunded each time, which is better than UA and AA who will only give you a credit with quite a limited time to use it. If you book a BA flight that is scheduled for your dates but is not actually flying today then should the pandemic continue next summer there is a very good chance that flight will be cancelled and you will be entitled to a full refund in those circumstances.

I cant offer any advice specifically.

But i too cancelled several trips last year with BA and found the process fairly smooth and eaay to deal with. I currently have a voucher/credit with them that they have extended until the end of 2023 its not a huge amount as i only paid a deposit ans was waiting until the last possible moment to pay the full balance. I arranged the refunds/credit via online chat/email.


As above i cant see it getting cheaper, once restrictions are lifted supply will not cope with demand as many routes have been lost.

agree. I just booked Christmas flights and cancellation policy is very fair. Also ridiculous wait times for call center.

United just extended a significant ETC I got back in Feb 2020 (because they moved my seat) from 24 months validity to December 31, 2022 so that seems to indicate that think it will take longer for travel to get back to “normal”...

Prices are pretty high. I've paid right around $1.5K for each of the 3 US to EU flights I've taken in the last few months, This is coach on UA... My US to UK flight next month came in at, yup, $1.5k . These are on heavy travel days with no latitude to pick and choose as I have to be somewhere on a specific day.

BTW. I can recall the $400 UK-US flights on AA in the mid to late '90's. Ah those were the days!

I think it it way too early to predict 2022 summer schedules, COVID or not. I agree that cheap flights are likely gone, especially with the budget airlines basically gone. I had actually booked flights with Level airways (a sub. of Iberia) for Christmas and they cancelled all their flights to SFO from Oct to Mar. They were only offering a flight change or voucher but I submitted a claim online for a full refund and received the credit on my credit card 2 days later. Amazing service. We are now booked to Alicante, Spain on Delta from SFO in "Delta Comfort" class for $1,140 which I am very happy with. I did this same flight in July and was impressed with Delta. Both times I booked through KLM as it saved several hundred dollars and as I transited through AMS I received excellent service there with an overnight delay, better than other passengers who held Delta tickets. I will mourn the loss of Norwegian for years to come, we always had good, inexpensive flights with them.

..... whomever flies direct. There was a time it was cheaper to fly Icelandair and have an layover and bonus holiday than to fly direct to LHR.

I generally can't stand connections, IMO just pay attention to their overall refund policy; or is it cost effective to re-book the ticket for different travel dates as events and travel plans unfold over time. Sometimes I will find a business class fare for close to the cost of econ and econ plus.

Just want to point out US airlines direct doesn't mean non-stop so if you ever look at US airlines and see direct, look closely as there is probably a stop.

Although these days most if not all US airlines say 1 stop or 2 stop or non-stop as the direct confused people, caused a lot of problems when it was more often.

Google Flights is your friend.

I consistently fly LAX-LHR on BA. It’s been flying every day of the pandemic.