speedbird_one

Hello,

I will hopefully need to make a trip to San Francisco in June for an event, but I won't know until early April if I have a ticket to the event. I've been checking on flights with some very inexpert use of the ITA Matrix and at the moment I can see some flights with BA ex OSL for around £1200 in business. These look like good value to me.

My question is what's the likelihood of getting a similar deal in April for travel in June? I know it's almost impossible to answer a questions like that but I'd be grateful for any opinions on the matter. I'm tempted to take a gamble and book now as even if I don't get a ticket to the event, there are other reasons for me to be in San Francisco around that time.

Some more info -

- I am flexible on dates but need to be in San Francisco 12th - 17th June at a minimum.
- I am perfectly happy to do ex-EU.
- Needs to be J (or F).
- Would like to collect TP / Avios but not primary reason for travelling.

Thanks.

Cymro

I'm looking to travel to SEA at the same time and those are excellent fares for June - but also can't book as I'm waiting on others.

June is usually a tricky month because business and leisure travel are both relatively high.

If you know you can use the ticket anyway then it makes sense to book in my view. Of course that could be the trigger for the £795 to west coast from Norway sale...

Also if the times work for you, SVG and BGO are better for back-to-back than OSL, but OSL has more and better flights per day.

corporate-wage-slave

And greetings to you too speedbird_one, welcome to Flyertalk and the BA forum. It's good to see you here and I very much hope that you will continue to post here.

Definitely use SVG or BGO over Oslo! There are other good airports (AMS, BRU, DUS, CPH, GVA, GOT, PMI, KEF) out there too, see the relevant thread via the dashboard.

Indeed it is an impossible question, best placed in the hands of Mystic Meg, but she doesn't post here often (or got herself banned). So it's going to be down to your own skill, luck and judgement here. What I would say, however, is that if you are prepared to be flexible, and perhaps fly to any of a splendid list of West Coast destinations from SAN to YVR, and start from airports other than UK, Ireland, Norway, then I think something interesting will come up. These fares are very good but the change restrictions are understandably drastic (not in all cases, it's market led).

This is the sort of thing were pinging in an Avios redemption to somewhere vaguely useful is worth doing, even if it's only BOS - it's a useful refundable backstop if nothing good happens at the witching hour.

speedbird_one

Thanks for the welcome and the info.

By the time I looked again the CW fares from Oslo had increased to £1300, which spooked me a little with their volatility.

I've taken the gamble in the end and booked in the hope that I will get a ticket the event. In fact I decided to do the outbound LHR -> SFO leg in F (my first first) as it was a good opportunity to give it a try.

renwaldo

Fingers crossed you get your ticket for WWDC!

Cymro

I also ended up getting a little spooked, but put my trip back a week (as I had that option) and could have got CPH-LHR-SEA for under £1,100.

In the end I went with Y outbound and J inbound and got it for £740 all in, starting in Milan.