American Airlines, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and more big flight sales

Former_MSE_Natasha

[title=http://images2.moneysavingexpert.com/images/dp/wtd_underline.gif] What's this about?[/title]
Update: These sales have now been extended until 9 Feb 2010. There's also a code to get an extra £20 off the flights via broker Opodo (see £20 Opodo Voucher forum note).

Right now many big airlines, including American Airlines, British Airways, Continental, Delta and Virgin Atlantic, have released an abundance of seats at knock-down prices as part of their New Year sales, from both London Heathrow and Manchester airports.

Return journeys to New York start from £288, Boston £298, Bermuda £409, plus others, including most taxes & charges.

Sale prices are very similar across all carriers, as they're desperate to compete against each other for business, but hunt them down the right way and you'll find which airline is offering the journey at the very cheapest price.

[title=http://images2.moneysavingexpert.com/images/dp/wtd_underline.gif] But don't search 'em direct...
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The dates you can travel vary according to airline and destination, but most are available between 6 January until 30 November 2010, with some exclusions over Easter and the summer holidays. For most carriers you have until 26 Januray to book - subject to availability - except for Delta and Continental, where it's 11 and 19 January respectively.

A couple of days ago flights to New York were showing up at around £350 return at cheapest. Right now, you can nab 'em for less than £290; a pretty decent saving considering taxes alone cost more than £210.

• Got a specific date & location in mind?
  
  If you fancy going away to a certain destination on specific dates, don't bother looking at the sales direct, as the results are included in the cheap flight screenscrapers Kayak* and Travelsupermarket* and Fly.com.
  
  So use those and it'll show you the sales costs and also the cheapest general cost, so you can see if it's worth it. See Cheap Flights guide for more info.

• Just browsing for a bargain?
  
  In this case, it's worth looking at the specific sales at American Airlines, British Airways*, Continental, Delta and Virgin Atlantic* websites details yourself for available dates and destinations, and seeing if it's worth planning your getaway around them. Then compare them to the best of the screenscrapers above.

Remember, for safety, pay on a credit card to get extra protection. See the Section 75 guide for full info and of course remember the British Airways strike issue isn't resolved yet - so there could be another ballot there.




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* Using these links helps the site stay ad-free and free to use, as they’re ‘affiliated links’ which invisibly take you via price comparison services like Moneysupermarket or affiliate sites, this then means if you end up getting a product this site gets revenue

You shouldn’t notice any difference, the links don’t impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things we write) is NEVER impacted by the revenue. If it isn’t possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, its still listed in the same way. The following links BA, Virgin, Kayak and Travelsupermarket are identical unaffiliated links provided for the sake of transparency. Click on the following link for more details on how this site's financed.

richardw

BUT the BA strike issue is not yet resolved and cancellations may have non recoverable linked costs.

GentleGiant_2

No need to look on third party sites for most Airline tickets. You get the best deals directly from the airlines sites. Only use if comparing prices and have no affiliation to an airline or have no intention of collecting frequent flyer miles or points for any airline.

Also worth checking on both http://www.americanairlines.co.uk and http://www.aa.com for the same flight - you can search and show all classes at once as sometimes you can get cheaper business than economy tickets! or cheaper first than business tickets! The reason to check both sites, is that I have found cheaper tickets on the UK version that the US one and vice-versa.

Also consider doing an AA challenge. Essentially if you can fly more than 5 or 10,000 miles inside a 3 month period (or earn more than 5 or 10,000 points (more points for higher class tickets)) you can go directly to Gold or Platinum status on their membership scheme.

If you do a Platinum challenge (10,000 miles or points) you get one world sapphire status which is recognised by BA, and allows you to check in at first or business class desks (irrespective of ticket booked) and use the lounges without any further cost (again irrespective of the class of travel booked) - check out http://www.oneworld.com for the benefits and member airlines. (which are quite good)

A return to many US destinations will often earn you 10,000 miles (especially if you have change of plane), so is worth it.

We have all done it several times and will do it again.

One final tip - sign up for the challenge after June 16th (if flying after this date) as your Gold or Platinum membership will last for up to 20 months (end of February 2012) - before June 16th, it will expire end of February 2011.

Sharratt4

Anyone know why San Fransico has been excluded from the BA Sale?

luci

GentleGiant wrote: »

No need to look on third party sites for most Airline tickets. You get the best deals directly from the airlines sites.

This isn't always the case. We have found flights slightly cheaper direct on the airlines' own websites. However last time we booked our United flights were £140pp cheaper with NetFlights than they were with United.

PurplePow

Is it safe to book with BA at the moment? Don't want to book my dream trip to NY next year if something's going to go wrong...

fifeken

GemmaC25 wrote: »

Is it safe to book with BA at the moment? Don't want to book my dream trip to NY next year if something's going to go wrong...

See post #2 above.

ferf1223

GentleGiant wrote: »

We have all done it several times and will do it again.

I thought you could only do the platinum challenge once? I did it earlier this year with a return to Vegas and if we're happy with the results when mine runs out my husband will do it (if it's still available).

rpstdavids

Sharratt4 wrote: »

Anyone know why San Fransico has been excluded from the BA Sale?

I think it is in the sale, just not advertised for some reason.

Just done a dummy booking for March and it is coming out at £388, the same as LA for that period in the sale.

Innys

The price on the Virgin site is slightly more expensive than booking through Expedia for NYC in late August

dmg24

I hate to state the obvious, but this is on the wrong board!