Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

I've just been looking at flight prices with British Airways to LHR from Newark, NJ (EWR) on direct flights. Now I thought that most prices to the UK were currently around $1000, but I've just found fares (with a range of dates and flights + and - a 7 day period, I hypothetically typed in 3rd July outbound with the return leg a month later).

There are fares as low as $498 for a round trip + the unfortunate airport taxes of $198 = grand total of $696.81.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...ource=original

Of course, once the seats are gone, they're gone at the cheapest prices and then go up to the next price band in the same class. I once read that airlines review their prices every 20 minutes...... :eek:

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

so true, I once called BA for 2 return flights from LAX to Manchester, was quoted $5000 for both tickets in Business class, when I called back 15 minutes later to book they had gone up to $11,000 and I ended up paying $6000 for 2 economy class flights... :mad:

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

I've quite often found with BA that if you end up paying a high price for economy seats, you get upgraded when you check in (if seats are available of course).

I've just seen the memo my husband has sent to his secretary to book our home leave flights....he's given the wrong flight number (I hate the overnight flights and try to take a morning flight, arriving in the evening at LHR). I bet the ticket has been issued now and can't be changed. Grrrrrr.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

They have a sale on until 30 June. As for the sale fares, the airlines have to guarantee that they have at least 10 percent of their lowest class seats available for the sale. Problem is they use the same booking class for the lowest price seats as they do for the sale fares.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

If a travel agent issued it and it's been less than 24 hours since it was issued, the ticket can be voided-one of the benefits of dealing with a travel agent, rather than buying online............. Of course seats have to be available for the flight you really want.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

They load fares into our reservation system 3 times a day. Today I had several reservations that went up 10-20 bucks from original price.
Also BA is going to start charging a fuel surcharge on their tickets.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

I have just booked 3 tickets today with Continental from Newark to Manchester in July/August for a total of $2,020.00, which is $1,500.00 cheaper than if I'd booked it 2 months ago.

I would prefer to fly BA or Virgin but there are no direct flights from Newark to Manchester with them and the drive to JFK is a nightmare from here. Being 45 minutes from Newark (or Philly) and my parents living 15 minutes from Manchester Airport the whole trip from door to door usually takes between 10 and 11 hours.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

Sounds to me like CO and Virgin decided they'd better get on the bandwagon. Good, need some competition as well as a break. We're flying over sometime in August I think for my husband's visa interview in London and then going up to Brum so he can see his family. Fingers crossed we get a break on the fare since we have to stay a hotels the whole time we're there, :( .

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

Question for Cindy (you're a travel agent, I think?):

If you buy air tickets and then discover that the price has gone down for your flight, do most airlines refund the difference? I'm sure I've read that somewhere, but I think this might have been an article regarding domestic US flights with airlines such as United or AA.

If you can get a refund - and I'm assuming the onus is on the passenger to ask for a refund on the difference or travel vouchers - how do you claim it?

I can imagine that it's tough for travel agents these days (unless they do mostly corporate booking) with so many airlines enouraging online booking directly with them, plus of course websites such as Orbitz, Expedia etc.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

Yes I manage an agency-do both corporate and leisure-two very different animals, :).
If the airline will refund the difference, then there is a possibility that they may charge an administrative fee for this, :rolleyes: , but the refund is usually in the form of an MCO (micsalaneous charge order) or a credit to use on future flights with an expiration date of a year usually.
No doubt, the online competition is there for us, but travel agents still have a few tricks up their sleeves, that the average person booking online doesn't know or CAN'T do using a website. Since it is our profession after all, we do try to know more than the client, ;) .

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

can you actually get morning flights from the East Coast to England? I've tried every time to look for them, the night flights are such a pain and mess up your body so badly, but I've never been able to find them. I've gone from La Guardia, JFK and Philly and had to have night flight every time. But then I am going to Manchester.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

As far as I know all transatlantic flights into Manchester are overnight and arrive within 2 hours of each other. :(

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

Yes....I'm on the BA 186 from Newark to LHR on 2nd July; it leaves Newark at 08.15 and arrives at Heathrow the same evening at 20.05.

I always try to take the morning flight....I can't stand the red-eye as the flight is too short going eastbound (6 hrs 40 mins) to get any sleep by the time they've been around with the meal service (even if you've already eaten before boarding the plane you still get disturbed as the cabin lights are on). Also on a night flight you don't get to use the in-flight entertainment. My husband takes the red-eye all the time....doing a full day's work in NYC, straight to JFK or EWR on a flight to London and then straight into a meeting there after freshening up...I guess at least he gets the fully-flat beds in Club but it's still a short transatlanic crossing so not much sleep really.


Also Virgin Atlantic has a morning departure from Newark (EWR) on flight VS 018 leaving five minutes after the BA flight, departing at 08.20 and arriving at LHR at 20.00.

I've always personally found that jet-lag tends to be worse when flying eastbound... from trial and error over the last 10+ years of living overseas, it really does seem to help on long-haul flights (eastbound or westbound) to land at the airport late in the day so you can reach your final destination and go to bed for a night's sleep and awake refreshed the next day.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

I hate the red-eye flights too but want the journey to be as short as possible so have never done the morning flights to London and then on to Manchester.

We usually get to my parents' house about 10.00am and sit chatting until after lunch then go to bed for a couple of hours. My Mum wakes us up at 'teatime' and then by the following day we are right as rain. Saying that our 8 year old daughter stays awake the whole day and goes to bed at 9.00pm and doesn't seem to suffer from jet lag at all.

Re: Wow! Cheap peak season fares to UK
 

I wish I had a fraction of the energy that kids do....

most of the flights from Texas are overnight flights eastbound. Not ideal, but in summer the days are long so you can take a good nap in the "morning" and still have plenty of daylight left. However, clearing customs when your brain is mush is not fun.

The only way I see to avoid this is to fly to the US east coast, spend the night, and continue the journey in the morning, but this would usually be significantly more expensive.