Newbury newbie

I need to book 4 seats to Hong kong and back fron Singapore on fixed dates in February 2020. Economy is currently coming in around £750 but i may also opt for Prem Econ at double that. So I'm looking for some expert advice here. Is that price a good one? Is it likely to fall or rise in the short term? Are there any BA Seat Sales being mooted to take place soon?

Another question, i can see two filghts a day to HKG out of LHR. one at 18.00 ish on a B777 and one at 21.00 ish on a A380. We'd like to get there sooner but drawn to the A380 due to there being more twin seats in Economy. We'd be flying mid week on the Wednesday and i was wondering whether there's any data, or people know how, as to how full the earlier B777 flight gets. I guess I'm gauging the liklihood of getting that filght and hoping we get a 'spare' seat in our back of the cabin triple configuration?

Any advise appreciated.

flatlander

I would go on the A380 to HK especially in the lower classes. The back of the upper deck A380 is the best BA economy experience, much better than the 777.

£750 isn't a bad price for that distance in economy overall but lower fares are available. You might see a sale between then and now but that sale would likely be the BA winter sale and that is uncomfortably close to your travel date so if you "must travel" then you take some risk of a higher price if the sale does not deliver. However at the moment I am seeing a lot of availability like this:

F9 A7 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E5 T0 Y9 B9 H6 K3 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0

i.e. the lower fare buckets are not open at all. I expect they will be available sometime between now and then.

Twice that for premium economy seems a bit high and again that is driven by the lack of availability in lower fare buckets. T is not open and nor are the lower economy buckets that allow use of Dual Inventory Fares (books into the T bucket in this case but requires inventory to be available in the low economy buckets, i.e. the flight has to be only lightly sold in both economy and premium economy). I expect those to come available in the future too.

Overall I suggest leaving the situation to mature and keeping an eye on the fare buckets and prices, until the premium economy DIF fares become available. These will get you into premium economy for something like £900.

All this applies to the Singapore return too.

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk Newbury newbie, and welcome to the BA forum.

I'd only reiterate that the A380 is a much, much better aircraft in any cabin compared to 777s, all the more so for the relatively long sectors in the frame here. Upper deck, and in particular WTP , on the A380 is one of the best places to be when flying economy. There is no point arriving zonked off the earlier 777 compared to a bit later on the A380 and feeling a lot better for it. And you should assume that BA will run all aircrafts to/from HKG and SIN pretty much full, they have fare management to a quite amazingly fine art on those routes.

If you want to save money, more so in Club World, have a look at departures from DUS / HAJ / TXL, my cheapest CW return from DUS was only a little over £1,000 and WTP was somewhat cheaper than ex UK too.

Dover2Golf

Do you particularly want BA?

AY have fares from about £560 with the long sectors on the A350 - the only plane that beats the A380 in terms of comfort and experience.

You can find lower still with Swiss and Etihad - below £500.

wb1969

£750 is a poor price in WT. I did it that trip last month and paid £430. In WT+ you should pay around £900.

Wait for a sale or look at prices exEU.

Edit: avoid the 777 at all costs if you have the option for A380.

Globaliser

Just a word of caution about this: for myself, I would not regard the order of flights as necessarily writ in stone yet for northern winter 2019/20, for reasons that I gave in this post: BA Hong Kong equipment changes

However, if the usual order is to be restored for northern winter 2019/20 (ie the 380 operates the earlier BA31 and the 777 operates the later BA27), it would be good if BA were to get on with it to reduce the problems caused when the swap was first brought in for northern winter 2018/19.

If the swap remains in place, there is also a possibility that some individual days will be different from the usual pattern, just as before. At present, the only differences are days on which BA31 does not operate, so that the 380 operates BA27 as the only flight each day. That was not what happened last time.

amt

Newbury newbie

corporate-wage-slave

A lot of frequent flyers here subscribe to ExpertFlyer, which provides these fare bucket details. There are other tools and Apps which do similar things but there is usually some sort of cost involved for some of these tools. There is a thread in this forum where FT volunteers dig out these details on request, it would need to be for specific dates and ideally flights. You will find this Availability thread via the BA Forum Dashboard, on the rare occasions it's not near the top of the forum anyway, it's a popular thread.

Deltus

If you do opt for the 777-300 on the LHR-HKG leg due to the scheduling, note that there are some window pairs down the back in the last few rows. Not a great option if you're fussed about meal choice, but probably the best place to be in that cabin in terms of hard product (if travelling as a couple).

flatlander

I used ExpertFlyer. I recommend paying up for it; it'll cost you about US $100 a year and you can then look up the availability as you need. Given you want four tickets, you won't have to save much to pay for itself.

GlasgowCyclops

CX out LGW-HKG in PE (WT+) on the A350 is great. Then back on BA and you may get a bargain. How are you getting from HKG to SIN?

bisonrav

Would just reiterate that the A380 is a far better experience than a 777 if that's the choice. I think the air pressure is different and it really does make a difference.

My benchmark for that sort of trip in WT direct would be something around £550, in WT+ about £1000, and you can also find J deals ex EU for relatively low fares, say £1300 if you don't mind multiple hops. When you say the dates are fixed, are they rigid around the start date and return, or is there a specific window you need to be there? That can make quite a difference. What are the dates? If you give details someone can have a dig and see what's about. One factor though is that you may hit Chinese New Year which increases the demand for flights quite significantly, so you may end up having to bite the bullet on price.

Newbury newbie

EMIC

Chinese New Year 2020 - falls early next year - late January - think around 25/26th. So add in the 3 week statutory holiday madness, you should be lucky and miss the inflated prices in HK by the time your cruise starts!

Others have much more knowledge on the flights / aircrafts......

Enjoy