VSLover

agreed the F pricing on the transcons has been weird when looking forward. much like the OP i've routinely paid approx 2500 round trip in the last number of years, mostly at "off times" and mostly on the SFO route.

i have noticed for future flights that they routinely price at 5k for SFO and LAX which is certainly not worth it as i find the J seat much more comfortable in general and only prefer F for the privacy and extra BA tier points. but from 599 to 2500 each way, its a no brainer!

Adelphos

Historically I have paid $1,500 to $2,000 round trip for transcon J (Delta, AA, JetBlue) with a corporate discount. I have occasionally updated AA J to F with miles. As Kacee said, $2,500 for F is probably abnormal.

In general, airlines expect normalized traffic patterns starting from spring through fall and are trying to price aggressively. If demand is not there, prices will come down before September.

Fraser

Indeed, I can remember paying about $2300 for a oneway JFK-LAX in 2006 on the 767-200 in F.

Do you have a BA OnBusiness account? If not sign up for AA Business Extra, it's a revenue based program for small businesses and you earn points (in addition to personal BAEC earnings) which can be redeemed for, amongst other things, BXP1 upgrade vouchers, you can earn points on British Airways flights too. You earn 1 point for every $5 spent and 650 points is enough for a one segment upgrade. So $3250 of spend allows you to upgrade on the transcontinental 3 cabin flights.

I am US based (NYC) and run my BA Gold and AA Business Extra together and it's pretty lucrative combination. Generally speaking the 3 cabin F transcontinental flights are priced way above what I'm comfortable paying relative to what I get in J (especially since I travel with my wife for the most part on transcons) but A class availability is generally pretty decent so if I can't score a decent F fare off the bat then I'll check A availability at the time of booking and use the BXP1s or just monitor ExpertFlyer.

Your sub-$600 F flight is rare as hen's teeth, probably a mistake to be honest. J on the other hand, for less desirable flights such as the super late JFK-LAX can often be had for $600 or less with F sometimes below four figures too.

One other consideration not yet mentioned is the JFK-SNA flight. I was looking at flying into OC next week and the prices were a little keener than JFK-LAX. Obviously in the opposite direction you're forgoing the Flagship ground experience but that's all a personal toss up on savings and considered worth of the those benefits, plus whether SNA is a viable option from a location standpoint.

hyperspace

same boat, I’ve routinely found similar F round trip fares taking a Thursday redeye and coming back on a Sunday or Monday. It wasn’t that all flights would cost like that. But also didn’t seem that hard to find that pricing when using Google flights and being able to be flexible on date. Now it’s just a blanket $4800 for all dates/months.
I travel BA usually once or twice a year us-Italy.

I really only do this trip once a year, so it’s just a treat I’d pay with my money for recreation, I don’t think business or spending oriented programs would make sense?

Thank you all for the insights and recommendations.
ill probably get a J ticket, which is a very nice product anyways, and see if an opportunity to buy miles and upgrade presents. I don’t have any AA miles currently.

hyperspace

do you know if a J ticket upgraded with 15k miles to F will earn full TP for BA?

dll

Now that JetBlue and AA are partners, I'd encourage you to explore JetBlue Mint. You lose out on Flagship/FFD access, but food, service and onboard product are stellar. If you search carefully and can find a flight operated by the new Mint Studio, even better.

Edited to add: re-read and see this is for purposes of Avios, so JetBlue not helpful in that case. Otherwise reco for trying JetBlue still stands!

mrow

not 100% sure but I have AA EXP and BA Gold and the rule on BA is usually that you get TP for the COS booked any upgrades don’t enhance this.

platbrownguy

I was a Mint fan until i got a seat that wouldn't stay inflated. The seats are electronically controlled air cushion seats and they are failing more and more. In a full flight, all the FA could offer was to keep resetting the seat (which felt like sitting on a hard metal bench when it would deflate) and to offer a $100 flight credit. Not great for a $1200 one way to Vegas. When that happened, I did some inquiry and it seems like it's a growing problem. Maybe the new Studio is better. But I have a hard time recommending B6 anymore.

hyperspace

yeah mostly i prefer AA so that I can get the nice Avios and Tier Points credited to BA.
I did try Mint once, in the big throne. It was nice but to be honest almost too much, felt really clunky. The service and product are nice but at that price I do prefer to have at least Lounge access at the airport.
I think F on aa transcon is so nice with the single lie flat seat and the small separate cabin, feels so exclusive. I know service can be hit or miss, but in my small experience of one trip a year, it's been nice. Also I dont expect or request much so easy to please.

jcatman

I've used various upgrade instruments (Business Extra BXP1; Systemwide Upgrade; Miles + Copay) to move from Business to First on many of my transcontinental tier point runs.

Only once did I earn 210 Tier Points after the upgrade. That's because the agent mistakenly moved me to an "F" ticket instead of an "A" ticket. Bank error in your favor.......

hyperspace

ah! good to know! thank you for sharing!

sfozrhfco

Guess you haven't flown Mint in several years. The new A321NEOs don't have inflatable seats and are all suites with aisle access. The regular Mint planes haven't had those problems for a couple years now.

platbrownguy

This was literally two months ago. All the FAs on the flight were sick and tired of the problem that I was experiencing.

VSLover

haha i was going to say it is a mix of legacy and new mint on the transcons. more success on the LAX route as opposed to the SFO route.

but yes some of us now have to stick w AA for the BA tier points...and frankly the legacy mint seat i'd rank third in comfort behind AA J and F

as for the question on upgrades and how BA processes the TPs, i think pre or early covid they would mistakenly apply the upgraded tier points but i recently had a paid upgrade from J to F and the J TPs were applied despite being in an appropriate F earning fare bucket...it seems they have tightened up their backend systems.

Kacee

Nice soft product on Mint but that seat is absolutely awful, even when it doesn't deflate.