UK to New York flights - are there any bargains around?

UK to New York flights - are there any bargains around?

Author
Discussion

gtijon

Original Poster:

18 posts

139 months

Saturday 28th May 2016
quotequote all
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?

schmalex

13,616 posts

205 months

Saturday 28th May 2016
quotequote all
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.

ukwill

8,871 posts

206 months

Sunday 29th May 2016
quotequote all
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.

gtijon

Original Poster:

18 posts

139 months

Monday 30th May 2016
quotequote all
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 biggrin

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?

DangerMonkey

587 posts

215 months

Monday 30th May 2016
quotequote all
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

Edited by DangerMonkey on Monday 30th May 21:14

AWG

854 posts

155 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
quotequote all
One word... Norwegian!

The future of flying across the Atlantic.

djc206

12,239 posts

124 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
quotequote all
Premium with Norwegian for about £800 which looks pretty good. La Compagnie business for £1000 but not a flat bed. I'd be tempted to try La Compagnie

NordicCrankShaft

1,719 posts

114 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
quotequote all
Don't know about premium or Business class but we've just booked flights with Norwegian going from Olso to JFK for just over 200quid return....Dirt cheap.

I also fly with Norwegian from Bergen to Gatwick about 10-15 times a year and they run an absolutely fantastic service!

Willlll

105 posts

125 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
quotequote all
AWG said:
One word... Norwegian!

The future of flying across the Atlantic.
We paid £180 Gatwick to LAX and then £220 for the return.

Brilliant service and the price was spot on.


downthepub

1,373 posts

205 months

Tuesday 31st May 2016
quotequote all
Head for Points in recent times has mentioned decent business class seat deals connecting via Dublin, worth a look. Another option is Iceland Air with their flights connecting through Reykjavik.

bakerstreet

4,755 posts

164 months

Wednesday 1st June 2016
quotequote all
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.



BertieWooster

3,228 posts

163 months

Thursday 2nd June 2016
quotequote all
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.

djc206

12,239 posts

124 months

Thursday 2nd June 2016
quotequote all
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 country