Don’t start in the UK

SteveEG

A tip I haven’t seen is to start a long haul from another country. A few years ago we were going to South Africa over Christmas. The direct Virgin flight from Heathrow to Cape Town was £1400 return economy. Skyscanner found that Amsterdam to Heathrow with BA, then the same Virgin flight was £620 return. On the way back we just checked the bags as far as Heathrow and left there. We did need to have a night in Amsterdam the day before on our way out but a cheap easyJet flight and night out in the ‘Dam is no hardship. You do need to take the first segment though, I otherwise they will cancel the other segment. 

eskbanker

I've certainly seen that tip mentioned in the context of avoiding the UK's long-haul Air Passenger Duty charge, but the substantial price variance you quote won't just be due to that!

michaels

Did similar (same route in fact), again about 5 year ago and flew business BA to CPT for less than the economy fare direct.  EasyJet to AMS and then BA to LHR, carefully booking the return leg via LHR with a self transfer to LGW to make sure they did not through check the bags.

bagand96

It's quite a well known strategy on Frequent Flier forums, especially for Business class tickets where the savings can run into thousands, people have had long haul Business tickets ex-EU for little more than the Premium Economy price ex-UK. You do need to have the time to do the positioning leg though, but it's great if you can make it part of your holiday!

There's many reasons, not just UK APD, when selling seats from an European departure point they are only offering an indirect flight so can't charge a premium and have to compete with many other operators.

michaels said:

Did similar (same route in fact), again about 5 year ago and flew business BA to CPT for less than the economy fare direct.  EasyJet to AMS and then BA to LHR, carefully booking the return leg via LHR with a self transfer to LGW to make sure they did not through check the bags.

A very good point on short-checking bags.  Seen reports of some airlines are becoming wise and claiming they "can't" do it, especially if you have a short connection in LHR, in which case it wouldn't make sense.  A change of London airport, or an overnight stopover is a good "hack".

35har1old

bagand96 said:

It's quite a well known strategy on Frequent Flier forums, especially for Business class tickets where the savings can run into thousands, people have had long haul Business tickets ex-EU for little more than the Premium Economy price ex-UK. You do need to have the time to do the positioning leg though, but it's great if you can make it part of your holiday!

There's many reasons, not just UK APD, when selling seats from an European departure point they are only offering an indirect flight so can't charge a premium and have to compete with many other operators.

michaels said:

Did similar (same route in fact), again about 5 year ago and flew business BA to CPT for less than the economy fare direct.  EasyJet to AMS and then BA to LHR, carefully booking the return leg via LHR with a self transfer to LGW to make sure they did not through check the bags.

A very good point on short-checking bags.  Seen reports of some airlines are becoming wise and claiming they "can't" do it, especially if you have a short connection in LHR, in which case it wouldn't make sense.  A change of London airport, or an overnight stopover is a good "hack".

Several years back booking flights to New Zealand instead of flying from Belfast flew from Dublin to Heathrow 
The rest of the trip was identical the difference was so large I thought I was being scammed it wasn't until i was on the plane I believed it was legit 

 

jimi_man

My wife and I are doing a two week USA holiday in June, flying into Vegas from Dublin and out of Phoenix to Barcelona (we are doing a fly drive walking holiday if that makes sense!!!!) in Business (BA Club and AA First) for just over £1100 each, which also gives BA Silver Status in one trip. 

We have all the time in the world to do positioning flights and are treating it as part of the holiday. 

We always do hand baggage only on holidays, but also, with three flights each way the chance of your bag making it to the destination at the same time as us, are somewhat slim! It also helps with transferring on the way out at Philadelphia as the wait for bags can be a while sometimes. 

Doshwaster

Usually not worth the extra time/hassle for economy flights but if looking at business the the savings can be huge.

Just need to make sure you have a plan to cope with delays/cancellations of the positioning flight.

michaels

jimi_man said:

My wife and I are doing a two week USA holiday in June, flying into Vegas from Dublin and out of Phoenix to Barcelona (we are doing a fly drive walking holiday if that makes sense!!!!) in Business (BA Club and AA First) for just over £1100 each, which also gives BA Silver Status in one trip. 

We have all the time in the world to do positioning flights and are treating it as part of the holiday. 

We always do hand baggage only on holidays, but also, with three flights each way the chance of your bag making it to the destination at the same time as us, are somewhat slim! It also helps with transferring on the way out at Philadelphia as the wait for bags can be a while sometimes. 

Can I ask how you booked this - surely the booking system does not count Dublin-Vegas and Phoenix-Barcelona as a return?! Thanks

eskbanker

michaels said:

jimi_man said:

My wife and I are doing a two week USA holiday in June, flying into Vegas from Dublin and out of Phoenix to Barcelona (we are doing a fly drive walking holiday if that makes sense!!!!) in Business (BA Club and AA First) for just over £1100 each, which also gives BA Silver Status in one trip. 

We have all the time in the world to do positioning flights and are treating it as part of the holiday. 

We always do hand baggage only on holidays, but also, with three flights each way the chance of your bag making it to the destination at the same time as us, are somewhat slim! It also helps with transferring on the way out at Philadelphia as the wait for bags can be a while sometimes. 

Can I ask how you booked this - surely the booking system does not count Dublin-Vegas and Phoenix-Barcelona as a return?! Thanks

Most flight booking engines will support itineraries more extensive than a simple out-and-back return - BA's one is labelled as 'multi-city'.

jimi_man

michaels said:

jimi_man said:

My wife and I are doing a two week USA holiday in June, flying into Vegas from Dublin and out of Phoenix to Barcelona (we are doing a fly drive walking holiday if that makes sense!!!!) in Business (BA Club and AA First) for just over £1100 each, which also gives BA Silver Status in one trip. 

We have all the time in the world to do positioning flights and are treating it as part of the holiday. 

We always do hand baggage only on holidays, but also, with three flights each way the chance of your bag making it to the destination at the same time as us, are somewhat slim! It also helps with transferring on the way out at Philadelphia as the wait for bags can be a while sometimes. 

Can I ask how you booked this - surely the booking system does not count Dublin-Vegas and Phoenix-Barcelona as a return?! Thanks

Hi (A rather verbose reply - apologies!) 

Well I find the flights on Google Flights then fine tune them on ITA Matrix (a TA booking tool). If you have that set up properly then it provides a link to booking direct with the airline - usually BA or AA. You can use the BA multi city tool as well but I’ve always found it has mixed results. Indeed BAs IT isn’t the best and in my case the fare didn’t work on BA so I had to book and ticket it through AA whose IT is significantly better. No huge difference other than you can’t upgrade whereas you can with BA. Given that 5 out of the 6 flights are in the highest class anyway I didn’t think this was a huge issue. 

But BAs multi city tool will allow you to book any type of routing, though above about six sectors it gets a bit confused. In which case you’ll have to call and book. 

I should also point out that there are two aspects to this. 

1. A cheap business fare to the destination. 
2. Maximising Tier points (the OneWorld system of awarding FF Status. 

In my case 1. was more important however I also took into account 2. as well. This means breaking your journey into smaller segments. A 2000 miles journey is the most efficient way to accrue points so stopping on the East Coast of the US means two 2000 or so miles sectors. The type of fare (needs to be booked 180 days in advance, midweek departure usually and includes a Saturday) allows two transits in the US for no extra fee, hence the slightly convoluted routing. 

However BA are changing their FF system so 2.   will no longer be a significant aspect and in future it will be down to getting the best, quickest, most direct and cheapest routing. The price will be similar but the journey easier. 

Finally I should add that this isn’t exactly Money Saving!! An economy fare is usually far cheaper. However we enjoy flying, it’s part of the holiday for us. We don’t buy new cars, do all our own DIY, rarely eat out, never get takeaways and also we can afford it. £570 each way for three flights each way means that the transatlantic sector is only around a couple of hundred pounds. Given that it’s a flat bed in BAs Club suite, I consider that pretty good value! 

michaels

Thank you

I am looking at spending 3-4 weeks US west coast this summer.  Will need to take bags which pushes up the original 'economy' quotes (from google flights) by a couple of hundred into the 750 territory.

Looking at stopovers on the east coast both ways as DKs would like to do New York and I prefer not doing 10+ hours in economy, especially not overnight - breaking in New York on the return means we can take two day flights and avoid an overnight.  However this then adds bag costs and an expensive overnight hotel in New York - whereas would be happy to do an overnight direct back from the west coast if it was on a flat bed.  Seems like adding a stopover adds considerable cost if you are more than 24 hours on the ground but if less than 24 hours it simply counts as part of a single return fare to the final destination and adds no cost.

TLDR:  If we could get somewhere near 1100 business class and that included bags and not doing the NYC stopover on the way back that would not actually be much more than the economy option.