tometoyou

Hi All,

Apologies if I have put this in the wrong place but have only just joined up.

I am planning a trip to San Diego/ San Fran next year from London and looking at flight options there is the choice between Air Austria or BA. I have tried to google reviews on austrian airways but looking at the flight detail I am not sure what type of plane etc/reviews I should be looking at?

it says it is a boeing 777 but operated by United Airlines so should I be looking at reviews for UA or just Boeing 777s?

The BA flights will be a boeing 777 and an airbus A380 on the way back.

Can anyone let me know a comparison in the service between BA and my austrian (or whatever you call them) will be flying economy, or point me in the right direction.

Sorry if these are stupid questions but have never really reviewed flights before and have just booked based on price,

deniah

operated by united means that - austrian only sells the ticket.

between british and united, go british.

MSPeconomist

Surely there are many other options.....

tometoyou

thanks for the replies, I couldn't see many more options for direct flights?

Thanks Deniah, any particular reason as the tickets with austrian airlines is around Ł550 and the Ba ones being around Ł850.

I have just found a flight using virgin Atlantic for Ł600 but flying in to LA and out from San fran so may look at that as an option.

nux

How far in advance are you searching? If you're looking more than 330 days in advance you'll likely only find limited options as some carriers won't/can't sell you tickets that far in advance.

LON-SFO direct is operated by BA, UA and VS.
LON-SAN direct is operated only by BA.
There are plenty of non-direct routings.

In economy with no airline status I would be mainly looking for the lowest cost direct routing on a carrier that does not have 'high density' seating. So on a 777 I would be avoiding carriers with 10 across seating in economy, but I think BA, UA and VS don't have this currently.

However, I would not be booking more than 9 months in advance unless I knew it was a low fare.

lhrsfo

I would strongly recommend the direct flight on BA over other options if it's San Diego itself you are travelling to - changing is a pain and it's particularly painful in US airports which are generally horrid.

If, however, you are up to a little drive on arrival (or, better, the following morning), you should consider flying to LAX non-stop and picking up a car there, and doing the drive in reverse on return. It's only 2 1/2 hours - about 120 miles - and you will benefit from a much greater range of flight options from London and probably lower prices.

On that route, you can choose between (in rough order of quality) Air New Zealand, Virgin, BA, Norwegian, AA and UA. Norwegian offers some very good fares but beware of the extras which can make them much more expensive.

deniah

yep - this is a great point: you'd have to do the immigrations, luggage re-check, another security, and sometimes even external terminal swap... big pain in the heiney

tometoyou

Thanks for all the info, definitely want to get a direct flight. I have looked return to LAX and they are very cheap Ł470 with BA (operated by American Airlines), Ł491 with Delta (operated by Virgin) and Ł491 with BA. These seem like cheap prices to me, looking at end of May 2016.

I am fairly flexible on where I fly to and from just have a conference in San Diego and then tagging a 2 week holiday on to the back of that, so was thinking of travelling up the coast to San Fran.

I don't have any airline cards but have just got myself a Amex Gold card so will atleast gets points using that.

ajGoes

You might want to consider the train, too. The Pacific coast is one of the two American regions with really usable passenger train service (the other being the Northeast). You can take a bus from LAX to Union Station, which is itself worth a look, and take a Amtrak from there to San Diego. Much of the ride is right along the coast.

superangrypenguin

British Airways

tometoyou

thanks for the suggestion ajGoes but I like the idea of driving and stopping off at various places over 2 weeks so would be easier to rent a car.

So looking at my options its a choice between:

Air New Zealand
BA
BA operated by American Airlines
Delta operated by Virgin

what would people suggestion from their previous experiences?

azimax

As you are going up to San Fran you open book your flight London to LAX and return from SFO to LON. On BA Virgin etc

nux

Are you excluding booking directly with American Airlines and Virgin such that the flights are both marketed and operated by them respectively?

To answer your question, there is not a great difference between those carriers in economy, and unless you want to book a return to LAX you can rule out NZ. I would first decide what routing you want, whether you want to book a simple return to LAX for example or an open jaw to/from SFO/SAN. That may then narrow down your options to carriers which operate directly. From there, price and schedule should be your primary determining factor.

tometoyou

Thanks for all the info, is there much difference between the different airlines when looking to book premium economy? i.e between BA Virgin and Air New Zealand?

Thanks again

nux

Yes, NZ offers a better product: http://www.airnewzealand.co.uk/777-300-premium-economy
In economy NZ offers a worse product with 10 across on their 777.

Note that Virgin Atlantic also offers premium economy.