Originally Posted by Swiss Tony

I have a lot of sympathy with the OP (and we now have to buy 5 seats....)

Would never dream of doing an ex-EU, but have maxed out the miles & 241 voucher this year to get to the West Coast. Out on F, back in J, under £3k. A colleague of mine wanted to take his family to YVR at the same time and the best he could do was almost £5k in Y!

Without wanting to sound in the least patronising, we do less long haul travel now, the BA reward flight savers can be brilliant value in Europe and I'm also more than happy to look beyond the flag carrier (discounting for the loss of avios of course).

For me, BA have painted themselves into a bit of a corner with the fees to pre-assign seats - I have status at the moment, but I don't know if that will last either, so the 2014 travels really are open season for who will give me the best price.

Other thing however is you say BA are pricey in summer - I'd agree with that in Y, but bargains in J - especially if you time it well - abound. Easter 2012 we went to Florida. 5 of us, BA J cost between £8k and £9k, out of Gatwick, back to Heathrow. Using Thomson out of slightly more convenient BHX in the back of the bus would have been about £6k.

I'd rather drop one trip in four and fly J each time, than suffer the alternative...