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Old Mar 18, 2019, 9:42 am
  #14  
zblacktiger
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: American, Air France
Posts: 35
Originally Posted by mczlaw
The self-appointed experts will always tell you just about any deal you think you found is garbage, much worse than some other vaguely described deal they claim to have seen "floating around" at some point.

I actually spent the better part of the last two months bird dogging a good Oneworld west coast to Paris fare and can tell you with a fairly high degree of certainty that $3300 isn't a bad price for a nonstop lie-flat route (meaning no FI, for example) to your intended destination. There are plenty of good east coast US to Europe fares, just like there are plenty of west coast to Asia deals. But most fares from west coast cities (I typically check YVR, SEA, PDX, SFO and LAX) to PAR have tended to price beginning in the low $4k range. Getting anything below $3.5k direct into PAR is fairly rare. I finally jumped a week or so ago on a BA J fare from SEA at $3100 (then used AMEX points to minimize cash out of pocket). It wasn't great, but it does get me into LHR directly on a lie flat and includes the hop across the Channel in J. I also saw some west coast to LON fares during my vigil, but if your goal is to fly all J, that extra segment will run you over $500 at xmas time. Eurostar hasn't even published its holiday rates.

It's kind of like trying to time the stock market: if you keep waiting for that really great deal some guy on the Internet claims is just around the corner or out there if you just look a little harder, you may end up paying a whole lot more in the end. Yes, those unicorn deals do popup from time to time--I've been fortunate to get on a few over the years--but you have to be a little lucky with your timing and have a lot of flexibility. Below is a snip of some BA J fares. I'm pretty sure my trip is one of the 90 day advance fares, but it isn't readily available. Whatever you decide to do, OP, good luck and happy travels.
Flying to London is a possible option especially with the good prices shown in the table. I have a lot of flexibility and schedule. Just make sure I understand correctly, will these fares are these available soon for booking?
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