£1,100 business class fares ex-Scandinavia across all alliances to US West Coast

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Just after Christmas I wrote about some of the excellent deals available in the British Airways sale in Club World if you were willing to start your trip in Dublin. Prices are (they are still bookable) as low as £1,100 return to Hawaii.

Something odd is clearly happening in the Scandinavian airline market as oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance are all now fighting it out with similarly priced fares to the US West Coast.

These fare are available for travel from now until the end of October.

Basically, you can take your pick from various airlines and various alliances if you are looking to build up status with someone in particular. Taking a random set of dates (1st – 10th July) Expedia offers me for Oslo to Los Angeles:

£1,069 return – KLM via Amsterdam (SkyTeam)

£1,086 return – Lufthansa / Air Canada via Frankfurt and Montreal (Star)

£1,087 return – Brussels Airlines / United via Brussels and New York (Star)

£1,101 return – Lufthansa via Frankfurt (Star)

£1,161 return – British Airways via London

It is also worth checking fares from Copenhagen which are similar – albeit with a little less choice.

You should shave a couple of pounds off these fares by avoiding the Expedia fees and booking directly at ba.com, lufthansa.com, klm.com etc depending on alliance.

If you want to head to the East Coast, SkyTeam business class tickets to New York start at £921, albeit Oslo is a major diversion from the UK to head to NYC! Good for British Airways tier points of course.

Category

Lufthansa and Miles & More, oneworld alliance partners, SkyTeam alliance partners, United Airlines and MileagePlus

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Stephen Franks says:

14 Jan14 January 07:01

Perhaps off topic but can I book Hawaii with BA on a 241? I can’t seem to get an Avios price for HNL.
- Rakehey says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 07:14
  
  I don’t think so – 241 has to be on BA metal – and BA don’t fly there.
  
  Use it to e.g. LAX (if you can find availability) and use more Avios on AA to do the last leg to HNL
  - Stephen Franks says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 07:15
    
    That explains it thanks.
  - Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 08:25
    
    You can, however, do interesting things with an open-jaw 241 booking. Rule is that the open jaw ‘berween’ distance has to be shorter than either leg. Since HNL is in the middle of the pacific, you could for example book LHR-LAX and NRT-LHR using the 241.
    - LondonFoodie says:
      
      14 Jan14 January 11:08
      
      Too bad I just find this out now… was thinking of ways to do RTW via Tahiti, but ended up taking the long way and back via Asia in order to use the 241 (and get to see a few more places along the way)
- timezonehopper says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 07:14
  
  No you can’t. Amex 241s are only valid on routes where all the flights are on BA planes. This isn’t the case to HNL since you will need to fly on AA at some stage of the trip.
  - reds says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 09:26
    
    Can you do 3 or 4 segments on a 241? Perhaps Andrew meant BA metal on LHR-LAX and NRT-LHR. And make you own way from LAX to NRT via HNL with another airline.
    Last year, I did LHR-NRT and PEK-LHR on a BA 241 with JAL from NRT-PEK for the open jaw.
    - Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      
      14 Jan14 January 13:21
      
      Bingo
Paul Molyneux says:

14 Jan14 January 07:10

Can anyone tell me whether I can stopover in NY for a few days with BA on the above fares and if so how to book. Want to spend weekend in NY whilst gaining max tier points and unsure of how to go about booking. Flyertalk threads are a little confusing on the subject.

Journey would be

Oslo – London
London – NY
NY – Los Angeles/San Francisco
Then however I would return back to UK
- Anon says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 07:25
  
  Not unless the fare allows stopovers, which most discount fares including these do not allow. You could book an open jaw and separately book NYC-LAX for example.
- Brian says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 07:26
  
  Best thing is presumably to call customer services…
  - anon says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 09:32
    
    Why? The agent will likely just give a price of £2k+. Best not to waste time on the phone and use ITA Matrix to read the fare rules and find an itinerary you want.
- @mkcol says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 08:08
  
  Quick answer is no. The BA sale fares don’t allow stopovers, only connections of up to 24 hours.
  - Andy says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 12:24
    
    The long is yes it is possible if maximising tier points isn’t your primary objective.
- Brendan says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 09:25
  
  The AA sale fare allows 1 stopover in each direction for an extra €100 each. However you would need to return to Dublin as i don’t think you can transfer through London.
  - Andy says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 12:20
    
    I think you can combine the BA sale fare and the AA sale fare. If he only wants to stop in New York in one direction, then it should be possible to do DUB-JFK-LAX with a stop in NY (for 100EUR extra) and then on the return LAX-JFK-LON-DUB, with no stops.
    
    This won’t maximize your tier points though.
    - Brendan says:
      
      14 Jan14 January 15:55
      
      Not so sure you can. Let me know if you manage it though!
  - Chris says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 21:45
    
    I’m by no means an expert on fare rules. But isn’t AA sale one free stopover in each direction, plus one other at €100? That’s the way I interpretted the rules on the flights I checked
    - Andy says:
      
      15 Jan15 January 09:45
      
      It is 1 free in CLT or PHL only…
      
      ORIGINATING AREA 2 –
      2 STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT – 1 IN EACH
      DIRECTION
      LIMITED TO 1 FREE AND 2 AT EUR 100.00 EACH.
      1 FREE IN CLT/PHL
      2 AT EUR 100.00 EACH.
Jason says:

14 Jan14 January 07:42

Thanks to Rob’s highlighting, I managed to book two of these Dublin-Hawaii trips at this price right over the Easter holidays. On the return leg I’m flying into LHR but have the London-Dublin leg ex LCY. I priced it up without that last Dublin leg and (as expected) it was >£500pp more expensive.

I’ve never done an ex-Euro journey like this before and given I have no intention of getting the LCY-DUB leg and so many Avios/Tier Points (41,000/780 on this itinerary) plus the relatively expensive re-pricing at stake, I’m pretty concerned about skipping that last leg.

Should I be concerned? Has anyone actually been “caught” from their first instance of doing this?
- richie says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 07:51
  
  You need to think about it differently. Collect you bag from Heathrow, and if you don’t manage to get to lcy in time for your flight then there is nothing you can do. They wont charge you unless you are doing this every week/all the time.
- Andy says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 12:22
  
  From what I have read you are only at risk if you are a repeat offender.
tony says:

14 Jan14 January 08:04

I don’t believe this is a fight between the airlines noted above, more an all out war against Norwegian.

It’s the same on the LON-SZG route. Prices are significantly lower than they used to be, and lower than LON-INN, which tallies with the fact DY have started flying to SZG again this winter.
- Andy says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 12:26
  
  Norwegian don’t have business class though do they?
Ralph says:

14 Jan14 January 08:24

I just booked NY ex DUB, started with economy fares at £450 r/t and then was presented with business class upgrades at circa £350 each way. I then compared the ex-LHR on the same basis and the businesses class legs were circa £750 each. I booked ex-DUB in C and got to Dublin the night before for 4500 Avios and £17.50.My question is this: How or why can BA justify charging £400 more for business class from N.Y.to LHR over N.Y.to DUB? :-*
- Jovan says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 08:56
  
  First of all, different markets – different prices. No need to justify…
  
  Also, don’t forget, APD and other taxes on LHR departure in Biz is a good chunk of that difference.
  - Ralph says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 11:01
    
    I only asked about the return leg, no apd on that one. It is frankly unjustifiable to charge £400 to return to DUB than LHR
    - Jovan says:
      
      14 Jan14 January 13:43
      
      OK, in that case it just an issue of different markets charging different prices.
      - Ralph says:
        
        14 Jan14 January 16:52
        
        Thanks for replies, again, it is BA and the plane has to fly in to LHR on both circumstances. I know it is pricing for different markets. I am saying that it is scandalous that BA can charge so much more for their indigenous market.
      - Brendan says:
        
        14 Jan14 January 18:28
        
        Thats part of the reason though. Most people don’t want to spend their time on planes, therefore the direct flight is the more expensive one. You say “the plane has to fly in to LHR in both circumstances” but that is why it is cheaper to DUB – because the people then have to wait about an airport and board another plane to get to their destination. Its a convenience charge of sorts.
      - @mkcol says:
        
        15 Jan15 January 00:17
        
        Well then don’t fly them & choose a cheaper carrier offering the same thing.
- Simmo says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 09:01
  
  That’s the thing… BA don’t have to justify.
  People pay that price for convenience of flying from London and mainly because they just don’t know about these sorts of offers EX-EU!
- anon says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 09:37
  
  No different to any other retailer charging more for the same product in the UK that is sold in other parts of Europe or elsewhere in the world for less.
  - Rob says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 10:33
    
    Non-UK airlines charge less from the UK than they charge from their own hubs, it works both ways.
- Andrew S says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 10:03
  
  because most Biz flyers do not pay their own bills.. 🙂
Brian says:

14 Jan14 January 10:14

If you were lucky enough to find 3V cards in Tesco, you could use those to get John Lewis vouchers from highstreetvouchers.com…
- Andrew S says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 10:22
  
  I do have these, but I have a use for them. Also i think you are limited to about 5 per month on High Street Vouchers?
Andrew S says:

14 Jan14 January 12:49

Polly – do you spend the 3v`s in seperate transactions? Or is there a way to pay with multiple 3v`s in the same transaction that i have missed?

Thanks!
- Andrew S says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 12:51
  
  Sorry i think that might be what you are saying. You buy £25 JL vouchers in each transaction.
  - Polly says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 23:21
    
    Yes that’s what I do, 2x £10 1x£5, lots of them, I usually buy them x 10 sets of vouchers as individual purchases. Takes about ten minutes. Then use them all the time in Waitrose. Got a TV from JL that way too.
florida says:

14 Jan14 January 14:30

I have taken an exDUB flight twice in the last 6 months, and it didn’t seem to be a problem. Another one booked soon, WTP+ for the price of economy ex uk pretty much. However I need to get back to Scotland rather than just skip off in London, so the question is what is the best course of action here – “my plans have changed and I need to go to EDI instead” – last time they wouldn’t let me check my bags through to EDI instead of DUB as that would require changing the ticket. Or better to go on Little Red so that it doesnt draw attention?
- Alan says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 20:44
  
  Whilst Little Red remain an option I’d go with that myself. Amazing Flying Club earning rates and incredibly low redemption rates (esp if Gold) with them – 1,250 FC miles and £17 for my EDI-LHR flight!
  - Chris says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 21:43
    
    Haven’t tried to book a redemption lately. Is it just the gold that gets that lower rate or everyone on the booking?
    - Alan says:
      
      14 Jan14 January 21:46
      
      I’m not certain but would suspect that as long as the Gold is making the booking you’d get all the flights at the reduced price. You need to call in to book them though – the agent I spoke to hadn’t heard of the offer but in fairness to them they asked me to email it in to them and then called me back an hour later to confirm she’d sorted it.
    - Nick Burch says:
      
      15 Jan15 January 09:06
      
      I’ve booked the discounted gold redemption for my girlfriend when I wasn’t flying on the booking, and they were fine with that. (I as the Virgin Gold paid the miles and the money, she got to take the flight, everyone was happy!)