ffman999

Hi! I’m trying to book a one way flight to London for a family of five. Given BA’s outrageous surcharges, is the only way to get there reasonably either by doing Condor and then buying a connecting to London or IcelandAir’s “business class” seats? Any advice would be very helpful.

sullim4

Economy class, premium economy, or business? Guessing Y since you need 5 tickets? What airport do you want to fly from?

AA is one option. EI (Aer Lingus) is another option, sometimes you can find reasonably priced economy class. Flying from Canada (e.g. YVR) will sometimes lower the BA surcharges.

If you want to get more creative, you could fly to CDG on Air Tahiti Nui and take the Eurostar train to London.

Personally, I have found the Y airfare to LHR cheap enough from an airport like SEA during non-peak travel times that I've always paid cash. I tend to save miles for J.

ffman999

I usually fly J. Sometimes I do a mix of miles for a few tickets and paid for a few. Based in Seattle but sometimes fly from YVR, SFO, or LAX.

notquiteaff

Condor can fly you via FRA (on LH for the second leg), but probably not on AS awards. Their revenue tickets can be bought one-way without penalty. Condor and BA doesn’t work on the same AS award either (only one partner).

Do all five have to be on the same set of flights?

eponymous_coward

Iceland Air has surcharges as well. Not as high as BA’s but $150ish on a one way adds up for five tickets.

American would be minimal surcharge (as low as 22.5k in coach one way + slightly under $6) but I doubt you’re going to find 5 J on an award involving AA (lol). To be honest 5J on any AS partner via award is going to be like finding a unicorn. I actually think AS is not an amazing program for this given that you can’t mix and match partners so you are pretty much stuck with fairly limited options. You would be better off with AA or AF/KL.

AA 155/156 out of SEA to LHR has been an award paradise (which is why AA is 86’ing it this fall, offpeak likely gets you your own row in Y).

I’ve never seen cheap one ways to LHR using cash on anyone other than LCCs, it’s usually a very expensive fare. Key in OP’s post is “one-way”.

frankvb

Icelandair used to have fairly reasonable one-way pricing in Y, but indeed for just about every other carrier it would be (much) cheaper to book a return, one-way in J/PE/Y and back in Y.

eponymous_coward

Icelandair is pretty close to an LCC…

PDXPremier

22.5K for AA for saver Y is the best deal out there in my opinion....booked KOA-PDX (over one month stopover)-LAX-LHR for 22.5K this fall/winter...with the free MCE seating as 75K, it was a no-brainer. The idea of flying to Iceland is always interests me, but I'm not going to pay more miles for a low cost carrier.

ffman999

Thanks for all the tips and wisdom. I see some Air Lingus J availability at the lower rate but need to connect through Chicago or other cities.

cyborg

I've seen decent fares on BA from SFO-LHR, so perhaps you can use AS mile for positioning and return?

Cheers,

-Cyborg

sullim4

I dunno, I have had a lot of luck with this, at least pre-pandemic. In 2019 for Easter, I was able to get $200-ish one way on VS in economy light nonstop and I see Westjet currently has one-way fares in the $375 range in Sept/Oct from SEA and sub-$300 from YVR. VS isn't BA and WS isn't AC, but they are plenty comfortable, they fly newer 787s, and the legroom is comparable to BA.

kileysmom

If you are thinking this summer, you're about six months too late to get much on miles, let alone 5. Also, while BA's fees are high, I find they often are the same or close enough to the same to not be a problem when compared to the cost of a positioning flight or train from somewhere in Europe to London. Try looking at departure points that use the biggest number of J seats aircraft but with business travel reaching pre-pandemic levels, there probably aren't many available, Also, you will do much better if you can split up into 2, 2 and 1. Is that possible? I am usually looking for 1 seat and find that when I am looking for just 2 the availability becomes less and 3 starts to cut it down to nothing. Are you determined to fly in the same class? If you can split into smaller bookings in J, PE etc. you might find luck. Also try Manchester? Again though train fares to London might eat up more than it's worth. It's often easier to find mileage seats to a point in Europe through London and then re-position but, again, back to London is expensive. I wish I could get paid for all the hours over the years that I've spent chasing mileage and decent fare tickets! Of course as you only want one way, you pretty much eliminate BA for a paid fare because their one ways are really expensive compared to a return fare.

Mwenenzi

Travel when?
The more self imposed restrictions the harder it will be. Or totally fail.
Getting 5 off business class awards SEA-London is a very tough ask.
Options

• Some award and same cash
• Split your party
• Fly to different destinations
• Fly on different dates
• Fly anywhere USA to anywhere EU/UK and with separate local positioning flights

AKLifetimeFlyer

Simple: Fifth Freedom Flight on SQ #51 from IAH to MAN, and take the high speed train from Manchester to London.

Repooc17

Simple? I think not.

A few logistic issues:

1) good luck finding 5 SQ awards, even in Y (OP provides no dates)
2) Assuming #1 successful, OP + travel companion would have to incur more costs on both ends, by positioning to IAH, and getting from Manchester to London