UK to New York flights - are there any bargains around?
Discussion
I'd like to get some flights to New York during November. A while ago there were ridiculous bargains on business class seats if you travelled via Ireland, with the advantage of being able to clear customs in Ireland. Are there still bargains around?
Are any of the transatlantic carriers comparable with Emirates business class, or are they a good distance behind? Can you get lay flat beds? To be honest, to swallow the cost difference for business class, it would need to be pretty damned good to justify it - £1K+ extra on flights could go a lot further on hotels.
If there aren't any serious business class bargains, I'll be looking at "premium economy" - how do the different carriers compare?
Are any of the transatlantic carriers comparable with Emirates business class, or are they a good distance behind? Can you get lay flat beds? To be honest, to swallow the cost difference for business class, it would need to be pretty damned good to justify it - £1K+ extra on flights could go a lot further on hotels.
If there aren't any serious business class bargains, I'll be looking at "premium economy" - how do the different carriers compare?
Very few Business Class cabins stand up to Emirates.
I flew back from Toronto last night on an Air Canada 777 in business. Compared to the Emirates 777 and A380 I came back from Manila n last week, it was a dull, grey, depressing place to be. The food was nowhere near as good, the IFE was much more restricted and it it was generally a much more "unspecial" experience.
I flew back from Toronto last night on an Air Canada 777 in business. Compared to the Emirates 777 and A380 I came back from Manila n last week, it was a dull, grey, depressing place to be. The food was nowhere near as good, the IFE was much more restricted and it it was generally a much more "unspecial" experience.
One of my US colleagues recommended this:
https://www.lacompagnie.com/
Downside is its Luton / Newark. Other than that, it looks like a great deal.
https://www.lacompagnie.com/
Downside is its Luton / Newark. Other than that, it looks like a great deal.
Cheers for the info. La Compagnie look like they've done some bonkers £500 return flights in the past - if that comes up I'll be like a rat up a drainpipe
If not, Virgin's premium economy looks like the middle ground option that's reasonably special without costing > £1k return. The only issue there is that it looks like I'll need to get down to Heathrow to get decent prices.
Are there any decent carriers operating out of BHX and MAN to NY?
If not, Virgin's premium economy looks like the middle ground option that's reasonably special without costing > £1k return. The only issue there is that it looks like I'll need to get down to Heathrow to get decent prices.
Are there any decent carriers operating out of BHX and MAN to NY?
Yeah you can fly from Manchester with Thomas Cook - coming in at about £600 return, premium cabin to JFK in November. Economy is a bargain atm.
Edit
Also check out Skyscanner.net. There's a couple of other carriers out of MAN but they're 1) mostly American and 2) expensive
Edit
Also check out Skyscanner.net. There's a couple of other carriers out of MAN but they're 1) mostly American and 2) expensive
Edited by DangerMonkey on Monday 30th May 21:14
AWG said:
One word... Norwegian!
The future of flying across the Atlantic.
The prices of their flights always look competitive on the searches in SkyScanner, then you add on some basic extras and they are the same price as the larger airlines. This is what we found wen we were looking at Florida flights. The future of flying across the Atlantic.
I'd recommend you head over to the forum on Flyertalk, in particular the BA section, as it contains a wealth of information on what you are after. There are a lot of threads on ex-EU flights (departing from outside the UK) and DUB and AMS are often particularly good in respect of bargain business class flights. If you do this then you would need to take a positioning flight from the UK to your departure airport of choice though.
A quick example:
Flying DUB-LHR-JFK on 12th November and back on the 19th would cost €1920 (c£1477) with BA. Flying direct from LHR-JFK and back on the same dates costs £2833. You can get a return positioning flight from LHR-DUB for around £120. So total cost if you went from DUB would be around £1600 - a significant saving compared to flying direct from LHR.
There may well be cheaper options if you try different airports.
A quick example:
Flying DUB-LHR-JFK on 12th November and back on the 19th would cost €1920 (c£1477) with BA. Flying direct from LHR-JFK and back on the same dates costs £2833. You can get a return positioning flight from LHR-DUB for around £120. So total cost if you went from DUB would be around £1600 - a significant saving compared to flying direct from LHR.
There may well be cheaper options if you try different airports.
BertieWooster said:
I'd recommend you head over to the forum on Flyertalk, in particular the BA section, as it contains a wealth of information on what you are after. There are a lot of threads on ex-EU flights (departing from outside the UK) and DUB and AMS are often particularly good in respect of bargain business class flights. If you do this then you would need to take a positioning flight from the UK to your departure airport of choice though.
A quick example:
Flying DUB-LHR-JFK on 12th November and back on the 19th would cost €1920 (c£1477) with BA. Flying direct from LHR-JFK and back on the same dates costs £2833. You can get a return positioning flight from LHR-DUB for around £120. So total cost if you went from DUB would be around £1600 - a significant saving compared to flying direct from LHR.
There may well be cheaper options if you try different airports.
I've used this method myself but for a journey as short as New York personally I think it's a bit pointless unless you're trying to retain a tier status. I see little value in turning a 7 hour trip into a 12 hour trip just to go club especially outbound which would likely be a daytime flight. But yes it highlights just how much we get ripped off for J and F flights in this countryA quick example:
Flying DUB-LHR-JFK on 12th November and back on the 19th would cost €1920 (c£1477) with BA. Flying direct from LHR-JFK and back on the same dates costs £2833. You can get a return positioning flight from LHR-DUB for around £120. So total cost if you went from DUB would be around £1600 - a significant saving compared to flying direct from LHR.
There may well be cheaper options if you try different airports.
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