oyster

I have a question for those of you that use che cheaper ex-EU fares for work - how do you manage to fit the flights around your work schedule?

Let's say you need to be in New York for meetings all day Wednesday. If you fly direct from London then you can get an outbound at approx 8pm meaning you get a full working Tuesday in London and a full day of meetings in NYC on Wednesday. Then coming back you can be in the office in London first thing on Thursday.

However if you go ex-EU, let's take the nearest ones AMS and BRU, in order to be in NYC for Tuesday night you'll need to take Tuesday afternoon off work. And then you'll be lucky to be back in the London office early afternoon on Thursday.

In practice, how many actually do this?

Globaliser

If you live or work near LCY, you may be able to do an LCY-AMS-LCY rotation on Monday, then work a full day on Tuesday before flying on an 8 pm LHR-NYC.

Ditto you could leave work early on Thursday (which may be a bad day at work anyway if you've been in a short overnight flight on Wednesday night) and do the last LCY-AMS-LCY rotation to finish the ticket.

LondonElite

Unless you dictate your own travel schedule, or run you own business, or are very cost conscious, chances are you don't. That is part of what's behind this pricing structure.

LondonElite

And remember, BA prices them thus way to allow feeder traffic, not to give Londoners a roundabout way to cheaper fares.

LondonAndy

+1: That's what I do. Leave work a bit early, go out and back on the same plane (normally from LHR rather than LCY) the evening before the long haul flight, and then do the same the evening that I arrive back in London (which is a bit painful after a long haul flight the previous night!).

chris1979

work???

I've not done it for a work trip but you could easily get an evening flight to AMS, stay the night in an airport hotel (yes, adds some cost) and take a 7am to LHR or LCY and get on an early morning flight to JFK / BOS etc just like you might have done.

Yes, if your pattern is an evening flight to your destination, you'll struggle doing the 'positioning' and London rotation outside of work time - though as said upthread, you can do it the night before.

oscietra

Use to be a lot better value when you could take an extended stopover in London at either end without being charged extra - two pleasant long weekends in Europe to get you ready for or help you wind down from a longhaul trip or holiday, which could be taken whenever.

You can still do this, of course, but you do pay a premium for this now which can make the saving marginal.

The increased cost of longer layover is slightly offset by being able to use the Shareholder discount exEU.

corporate-wage-slave

Plus the fact that the overwhelming majority of the UK workforce does not live in London or indeed the Home Counties. In that situation adding a dog leg to DUB, BRU or AMS may not cost much time.

lhrsfo

Perhaps, but I'm not sure that you could say the overwhelming majority of the UK workforce who travel abroad on business live outside London and the Home Counties - indeed, it might well be a minority.

windowontheAside

For most of my clients it seems that a TATL flight is enough to merit a 'travel day'. So they wouldn't put in a full day at the office before going off to LHR.

I guess instead of working from home for a morning, you could just work in lounges or onboard.

SCSA

I booked an ex-Dublin to NYC flight for later this month. I'm flying Club for less than you'd pay for WT+ from LHR, but getting to Dublin turned out to be a squeeze. You basically have to take a full day off work for a flight that departs 18:45 from LHR. I have things I can take care of in Dublin and will go the night before, but it's a tougher call.

LCY can be your friend if you work it right, but the times have to line up. In my case I could've taken City Jet at 13:45, landing 15:00, but any delay would've caused me to miss my BA flight from Dublin at 16:00.

DirkGently

I'd always assumed ex-eu was predominantly used by those of us paying for our own flights. Can't speak for anyone else but I'd get no thanks from my firm for saving a few hundred quid doing a flight out of AMS or BRU, especially if it meant losing half a day out of the office. And if something went haywire en route and I missed the connecting flight, i'd probably get fired. No upside, basically. Certainly not worth risking for a small amount of TP.

windowontheAside

I do ex-EU for work, but I don't work regular hours so managing my time is my call. But the ££££ count so flying ex-EU can sometimes allow me to travel J when the client is only willing to pay discounted Y.

MPH1980

Indeed - if I built in enough time into the route - e.g. spending an entire weekend in advance to do it ... it might be acceptable.

Eat in to work time ... that's bad.

planestupid

Why would ex-EU flights mean you lose time on the return flight? I'd just get off at LHR and forfeit the last leg.