BA Club bargains to Hawaii

[Rollin]

So is there any catch to this ? If so I can't see one. We're off to LA and flying back from Denver in August for 21 days and was about to start booking flights. It seems I can get business class for £930 each from Dublin and get a Ryan air to Dublin for about £50. Similar flight from Manchester is £2500 so I'd be saving about £3000 for two passengers.

If so, thanks OP!

[bloomen]

Am I missing something?

With the majority of transatlantic flights I've checked it was about the same or cheaper to fly from London than anywhere else in Europe.

Proper long haul seems to be the same story. I guess increased tax is diluted by more competition.

[anonymous-user]

Rollin said:

So is there any catch to this ? If so I can't see one. We're off to LA and flying back from Denver in August for 21 days and was about to start booking flights. It seems I can get business class for £930 each from Dublin and get a Ryan air to Dublin for about £50. Similar flight from Manchester is £2500 so I'd be saving about £3000 for two passengers.

If so, thanks OP!

The only catch is if you want to avoid taking the last sector and ending up back in Dublin.

Eg if you fly DUB-LHR; LHR-LAX; DEN-LHR; LHR-DUB, then when you check in at Denver the agent will check your bags through to Dublin, and if you want to see them again, you will have to travel to Dublin.

The workarounds are (a) book the final sector from Gatwick or City to Dublin, as your bags can't be transferred between airports and so you'll get them back at LHR or (b) book the final sector the day after you land at LHR, but within 24 hours. Overnighting a stopover will get your bags back to you.

FWIW, when I've done this, I take the locator flight to Dublin or Amsterdam on day 1, and fly the first sector (DUB/AMS to LHR) the same day. That's a day trip I can do with a passport and a wallet and nothing more. Day 2 I turn up at LHR with hold luggage to fly sector 2 to N Am. Just make sure sectors 1 and 2 are within 24h of each other.

HTH.

[DanL]

Greg66 said:

Eg if you fly DUB-LHR; LHR-LAX; DEN-LHR; LHR-DUB, then when you check in at Denver the agent will check your bags through to Dublin, and if you want to see them again, you will have to travel to Dublin

Friends I was travelling with did this Dublin thing on a trip to Vegas with me. They simply asked at check in for their luggage not to be checked all the way through - didn't seem to be a problem.

Like your idea of the day trip to Dublin the day before though - makes things nice and easy.

[DJRC]

Can any of the route geeks get this done from Amsterdam, Munich, Zurich or Rome? I'm buggered if I can make that tool work like you lot.

[anonymous-user]

DJRC said:

Can any of the route geeks get this done from Amsterdam, Munich, Zurich or Rome? I'm buggered if I can make that tool work like you lot.

Where do you want to go, and what dates roughly?

[Sheepshanks]

Greg66 said:

FWIW, when I've done this, I take the locator flight to Dublin or Amsterdam on day 1, and fly the first sector (DUB/AMS to LHR) the same day.

The snag there is that if anything happens to your locator flight there's no breathing space and you're in a lot of trouble.

[anonymous-user]

Sheepshanks said:

Greg66 said:

FWIW, when I've done this, I take the locator flight to Dublin or Amsterdam on day 1, and fly the first sector (DUB/AMS to LHR) the same day.

The snag there is that if anything happens to your locator flight there's no breathing space and you're in a lot of trouble.

Usual model is to pick a morning (around 9-10am) locator and sector 1 back around 6-7pm. That gives plenty of margin for error, and destinations such as Dublin and Amsterdam have multiple flights a day run by more than one carrier. Worst case is I just buy another locator ticket at the airport. Of course, there's the risk of something such as fog really screwing things up, but that' sweat travel insurance is for. So I consider it low risk, relatively.

I've read of some people taking the locator at 6am, sector 1 back around noon and the long haul sector 2 that afternoon. That, to me, is like living an episode of Mission: Impossible from the 1960s, without the guarantee of a happy ending.

[DJRC]

Greg66 said:

DJRC said:

Can any of the route geeks get this done from Amsterdam, Munich, Zurich or Rome? I'm buggered if I can make that tool work like you lot.

Where do you want to go, and what dates roughly?

Same place as you did, same dates. You got a controlled baseline, I want to establish some deltas.

[anonymous-user]

DJRC said:

Same place as you did, same dates. You got a controlled baseline, I want to establish some deltas.

Follow the matrix.itasoftware.com link.

Select the "multi city" tab at the top.

Enter the following flights (you'll need to use the Add Another Flight link. Just enter the airport code and it will be recognised. Be aware that the dates are US style if you enter them manually).

1. DUB to LON (London all airports) 4 Aug
2. LCY to JFK 5 Aug
3. JFK to HNL 6 Aug
4. HNL to JFK 24 Aug
5. JFK to LCY 25 Aug
6. LON to DUB 26 Aug
Cabin: Business class or higher
Stops: No limit
Tick both boxes
Currency leave blank
Sales City: LON

That should produce the fare in the screen dump at the top of the thread.

Hit Search, then from the results page click on the Airline price you like in the header, then whichever set of flights suits.

To make it choose between the best origination/end point, enter DUB, AMS, MUC, ZRH and so on.

ex-AMS instead of ex-DUB for thoe dates is showing at £1695. ex-CPH is £1630. ex-DUB looks to be the best deal, but there's a ton of info here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-exe... and some good prices listed ex-BRU, CPH and ARN.

[Sheepshanks]

Greg66 said:

Of course, there's the risk of something such as fog really screwing things up, but that' sweat travel insurance is for. So I consider it low risk, relatively.

You can worry too much about these things, but even good travel insurance tends to max out at a grand for missed departure and it always concerns me that that's probably not enough.

[DJRC]

Greg66 said:

DJRC said:

Same place as you did, same dates. You got a controlled baseline, I want to establish some deltas.

Follow the matrix.itasoftware.com link.

Select the "multi city" tab at the top.

Enter the following flights (you'll need to use the Add Another Flight link. Just enter the airport code and it will be recognised. Be aware that the dates are US style if you enter them manually).

1. DUB to LON (London all airports) 4 Aug
2. LCY to JFK 5 Aug
3. JFK to HNL 6 Aug
4. HNL to JFK 24 Aug
5. JFK to LCY 25 Aug
6. LON to DUB 26 Aug
Cabin: Business class or higher
Stops: No limit
Tick both boxes
Currency leave blank
Sales City: LON

That should produce the fare in the screen dump at the top of the thread.

Hit Search, then from the results page click on the Airline price you like in the header, then whichever set of flights suits.

To make it choose between the best origination/end point, enter DUB, AMS, MUC, ZRH and so on.

ex-AMS instead of ex-DUB for thoe dates is showing at £1695. ex-CPH is £1630. ex-DUB looks to be the best deal, but there's a ton of info here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-exe... and some good prices listed ex-BRU, CPH and ARN.

So a £600 difference despite all the talk above about it being "much" cheaper to use any of the European airports. This rather highlights my point about who you ended up with a cheap flight. Its one airport not a collection of airports, its a specific date (the month of August) and its one destination. Ignoring City and going via difference routes comes up each time for August to Hawaii with similar prices.

If its just random and unique chances rather than a systematic process then its a lot less useful and I have to get someone like you to do the searching for me one shot at a time a la the old game "Battleships". I want to be able to pick a location, a month and then any of a collection of airports that will be cheaper than Heathrow...because as we have just demonstrated above its not "European airports are so much cheaper than Heathrow" etc. In this case its just Dublin at a specific time to a specific city.

[anonymous-user]

Hey ho. I've just booked a pair of club flights for the summer, to match the dates and destinations of two I had already booked, saving myself £2.8k over flying from Heathrow. Off to pack my bucket and spade now.

[Rollin]

[anonymous-user]

[Silver993tt]

Pillskii said:

No doubt a very cheap deal, but is Hawaii really worth nearly 2 days of travelling and multiple transfers? And the same again on the return.

Exactly. Surely the aim is to spend the least amount and the least time on an aircraft? Fly ecomomy and end up saving enough to pay for a 5 star hotel for a week.

[anonymous-user]

Silver993tt said:

Exactly. Surely the aim is to spend the least amount and the least time on an aircraft? Fly ecomomy and end up saving enough to pay for a 5 star hotel for a week.

Good idea.

Except cheapest club ticket (above) £1097.

Cheapest currently available one stop (Vancouver out, Houston back) economy ticket in August showing on matrix.itasoftware.com: £1209. 21.5 and 24.5 hours in economy. Ouch.

Good luck finding a five star hotel for a week with a £112 hole in your pocket!

[tim0409]

Just off the phone to BA having booked the following -

Dublin - London City
London City - JFK (night in New York) - on the Club World only A318
JFK - Miami for 10 nights First/Business Class (American Airlines)

then the same in reverse. Paid in euros with my Halifax Clarity card so worked out £930 each which is great deal even when you factor in the extra trip from Edinburgh - Dublin (Ryanair £20). TBH I like flying club world so it isn't much of a chore.

I frequent the Flyer Talk forum which is an excellent source of info/flight deals.

[Welshbeef]

tim0409 said:

Just off the phone to BA having booked the following -

Dublin - London City
London City - JFK (night in New York) - on the Club World only A318
JFK - Miami for 10 nights First/Business Class (American Airlines)

then the same in reverse. Paid in euros with my Halifax Clarity card so worked out £930 each which is great deal even when you factor in the extra trip from Edinburgh - Dublin (Ryanair £20). TBH I like flying club world so it isn't much of a chore.

I frequent the Flyer Talk forum which is an excellent source of info/flight deals.

That's an amazing deal as currently BA to Sofia cattle class for 2 in March second week works out to be £800 return for two adults. If you are getting club world and that distance for such little more the mind boggles at how much BA are using the short haul routes to subsidise these super deals.

Frustrated flyer.

[anonymous-user]

tim0409 said:

Just off the phone to BA having booked the following -

Dublin - London City
London City - JFK (night in New York) - on the Club World only A318
JFK - Miami for 10 nights First/Business Class (American Airlines)

then the same in reverse. Paid in euros with my Halifax Clarity card so worked out £930 each which is great deal even when you factor in the extra trip from Edinburgh - Dublin (Ryanair £20). TBH I like flying club world so it isn't much of a chore.

I frequent the Flyer Talk forum which is an excellent source of info/flight deals.