Playing the 'positioning flight' game - have I got this right ?

stevie11

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

hello stevie
on the next trip you take, have a look at NCL as well as MAN. For the last 2 trips I've booked, MAN has been more than £200pp more expensive than NCL :beer:

Hi Murphy, yes will search for NCL although getting from NCL back home (15 miles from Man) may have its own inconvenience/expense.


As a recent example I bit the bullet even though it would be cold in December and booked Dub-Las via Lhr for a week returning to Man for £350 with BA/AA, it worked out more expensive returning to Dub. There has been some great ex EU deals with BA/AA recently.

Ames

So how does this whole thing work? I've tried googling and reading threads on here but I'm still not sure, do you just keep trying random cities to start from until you find something cheaper? When I've tried the flights cost about the same, so I must be missing something.

dickydonkin

stevie11 wrote: »

Hi Murphy, yes will search for NCL although getting from NCL back home (15 miles from Man) may have its own inconvenience/expense.


As a recent example I bit the bullet even though it would be cold in December and booked Dub-Las via Lhr for a week returning to Man for £350 with BA/AA, it worked out more expensive returning to Dub. There has been some great ex EU deals with BA/AA recently.

I was sorely tempted yesterday with ORD for just under £800 and the one that really got me was Seattle booked through AA but flying on BA - all out of Germany or Switzerland - both pulled last night.

I cannot complain as I have had some good deals so far this year with a few more to come.

stevie11

dickydonkin wrote: »

I was sorely tempted yesterday with ORD for just under £800 and the one that really got me was Seattle booked through AA but flying on BA - all out of Germany or Switzerland - both pulled last night.

I cannot complain as I have had some good deals so far this year with a few more to come.

Same here I have had some great deals this year, I try for AA flights usually but don't mind BA if on AA codeshare (AA flight numbers).


Was the ORD flight in J?

jpsartre

Ames wrote: »

So how does this whole thing work? I've tried googling and reading threads on here but I'm still not sure, do you just keep trying random cities to start from until you find something cheaper? When I've tried the flights cost about the same, so I must be missing something.

It's not entirely random, for whatever reason some cities tend to be better (i.e. cheaper) starting points than others, e.g. Dublin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Oslo. The BA forum on Flyertalk has a thread which keep tracks of premium cabin deals (link below. Of course, that only covers BA and allicance partners). It also helps if BA has an ex-EU sale going on.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1709344-premium-fare-deals-j-f.html

Murphy_The_Cat

Ames wrote: »

So how does this whole thing work? I've tried googling and reading threads on here but I'm still not sure, do you just keep trying random cities to start from until you find something cheaper? When I've tried the flights cost about the same, so I must be missing something.

This is a fair explanation of how it all works.

a good starting point would be to go to google flights (very user friendly) and input a return trip (you can do one way and multi stops, but we're just running an exercise here) of a trip that you fancy say LHR - LAX - LHR going out on Sat 3rd Nov, returning on Sat 10th Nov and I've got a price of £573 for the 10.15 flight returning on the 16.35 flight.
Now doing the same trip as DUB- via LHR - LAX - via LHR -DUB comes out at £401 and you'll take the same flights to/from Heathrow- you've saved £173, but you need to include your positioing flights to/from Dublin (plus the cost of your luggage), plus an overnight stay.
Will that cost you more than £173 ?

Going back to Google flights and doing DUB -via LHR - LAX - LHR the price is still £401, but now you only need the one positioning flight to Dublin.
The above examples in economy.

If you were to do the same flights in Business, the LHR-LAX-LHR would be £2728, but doing it DUB-via LHR- LAX - via LHR- DUB the fare would be £1919, a saving of over £800 per person.

The above are purely an example that I picked at random - the potential savings are quite mind boggling.

Dublin is quite a popular start/finish point as there are plenty of low cost carrier flights from airports around the UK and stacks of connecting flights into Heathrow.

happy flight searching !!!!:beer:

stevie11

Ames wrote: »

So how does this whole thing work? I've tried googling and reading threads on here but I'm still not sure, do you just keep trying random cities to start from until you find something cheaper? When I've tried the flights cost about the same, so I must be missing something.

In addition to the good advice already given some ex EU passengers would rather get back to back flights, more info on the BA forum on flyertalk. I think these are more common from London where there is usually more choice. If positioning to Dub I also prefer to travel the night before then I know I am in situ for the early morning flights usually though Lhr in my experience.

Ames

OK, so you're flying out to somewhere and then back into the UK for the 'real' flight? That's probably where I've been going wrong.

Yeah, I wouldn't take a risk with timings, it'd be staying the night before.

Murphy_The_Cat

stevie11 wrote: »

Hi Murphy, yes will search for NCL although getting from NCL back home (15 miles from Man) may have its own inconvenience/expense.


As a recent example I bit the bullet even though it would be cold in December and booked Dub-Las via Lhr for a week returning to Man for £350 with BA/AA, it worked out more expensive returning to Dub. There has been some great ex EU deals with BA/AA recently.

When I travel, there are always four of us, so the saving really adds up:j

( I live in Cumbria, so its a shorter trip to MAN, or usually quicker trip through NCL security/checkin), so its 6 of one, half a dozen of the other !

Murphy_The_Cat

Ames wrote: »

OK, so you're flying out to somewhere and then back into the UK for the 'real' flight? That's probably where I've been going wrong.

Yeah, I wouldn't take a risk with timings, it'd be staying the night before.

spot on - and yes, I go the night before as well (try and avoid the last flight of the day)