High US to UK prices today for July
Apr 26, 2019, 3:51 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2019
Programs: BA GfL
Posts: 109
High US to UK prices today for early July
I posted the other day re the cost of upgrading ex US tickets to CW.
Having examined the fees on ex US tickets I decided to book a WT ticket and upgrade to WT+
All week tickets from SFO to EDI have shown up at give or take £1000 in July. The kind of price I would expect. I was planning to book over the weekend.
Today SFO-EDI tickets in BA economy are showing up as a minimum of £1440 with 1 stop, indeed some days came up at £2000 or more a ticket still including a Saturday night.
Other airlines such as Virgin/UA are still in the £900s.
I can book using Avios as I am GGL, but is this some kind of weird glitch? Even changing the search to SFO-LHR BA's prices seem to have gone crazy today versus other airlines. Actually 1000 Avios would be worth around £25 on these tickets, one of the best uses of Avios I have ever seen.
Having examined the fees on ex US tickets I decided to book a WT ticket and upgrade to WT+
All week tickets from SFO to EDI have shown up at give or take £1000 in July. The kind of price I would expect. I was planning to book over the weekend.
Today SFO-EDI tickets in BA economy are showing up as a minimum of £1440 with 1 stop, indeed some days came up at £2000 or more a ticket still including a Saturday night.
Other airlines such as Virgin/UA are still in the £900s.
I can book using Avios as I am GGL, but is this some kind of weird glitch? Even changing the search to SFO-LHR BA's prices seem to have gone crazy today versus other airlines. Actually 1000 Avios would be worth around £25 on these tickets, one of the best uses of Avios I have ever seen.
Last edited by MrALIG; Apr 26, 2019 at 4:02 pm
Apr 27, 2019, 3:20 am
#6
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Glasgow and Asia
Programs: BAEC Gold, Hotels.com Gold
Posts: 510
WT+ to SFO-GLA are £300 cheaper than EDI and there is a redemption (according to baredemptionfinder) on the 4th July SFO to LHR so you could upgrade to CW. GLA-EDI on train is 1 hour 20 mins via cab + train.
If flying in WT then AA to Man via PHL is really cheap (£550) and there is a direct train from MAN to EDI city centre that takes 3.5 to 4 hours depending on if you need to change at york.
If flying in WT then AA to Man via PHL is really cheap (£550) and there is a direct train from MAN to EDI city centre that takes 3.5 to 4 hours depending on if you need to change at york.
Apr 27, 2019, 10:40 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2019
Programs: BA GfL
Posts: 109
Thanks for the ideas.
As they aren't locals I try to keep the itineraries reasonably simple for them.
I did try GLA and also a my phone to do the same search.
As pointed out the prices to Edinburgh in early July are expensive. The first 2 weeks in July are "Edinburgh trades" holidays. My wife also never gives me enough notice to get these things booked.
But what seems to be happening since yesterday is the the system is adding almost £500 onto a SFO-LHR return to make it a SFO-EDI. I checked and the LHR-EDI flights booked separately are £141 return. I don't know if this is another part of the extra charges for booking a flight beginning in the US, this wasn't happening when I checked the price during the week. I have noticed when travelling for work recently also that sometimes I don't know if I am leaving from London or Edinburgh and the fares can move up considerably when I start in Edinburgh(I work in London). I am sure that this didn't used to be the case.
Anyway I am on the phone with BA to do it as an Avios booking at the moment. I travel so much for work that I don't even make one long haul flight self paid per year so I may as well use the space release on this.
As they aren't locals I try to keep the itineraries reasonably simple for them.
I did try GLA and also a my phone to do the same search.
As pointed out the prices to Edinburgh in early July are expensive. The first 2 weeks in July are "Edinburgh trades" holidays. My wife also never gives me enough notice to get these things booked.
But what seems to be happening since yesterday is the the system is adding almost £500 onto a SFO-LHR return to make it a SFO-EDI. I checked and the LHR-EDI flights booked separately are £141 return. I don't know if this is another part of the extra charges for booking a flight beginning in the US, this wasn't happening when I checked the price during the week. I have noticed when travelling for work recently also that sometimes I don't know if I am leaving from London or Edinburgh and the fares can move up considerably when I start in Edinburgh(I work in London). I am sure that this didn't used to be the case.
Anyway I am on the phone with BA to do it as an Avios booking at the moment. I travel so much for work that I don't even make one long haul flight self paid per year so I may as well use the space release on this.
Apr 28, 2019, 10:58 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2019
Programs: BA GfL
Posts: 109
I think I have it booked now.
Today it is still the same. SFO-LHR £955, SFO-EDI £1441, LHR-EDI £100 give or take.
Clearly I could separate the bookings, but that just seems to be creating unnecessary hassle.
Just for fun I reversed the booking on the same dates EDi - SFO £620 return in BA and LHR-SFO £580. Maybe I should go see them!
I wonder if the ex US fees are messing up the pricing because of this below. Are BA adding US fees to the LHR-EDI flights.
I called to make an Avios booking in WTP. There was no availability in July going to the US even with a space release. So I asked for a price one way in WTP and one way in CW. They quoted £2310 in taxes and fees for two tickets. This seemed high from a previous dummy booking check, so I went away and made a dummy booking and got only £1750. I called back and someone checked. They said that my GUF2 was upgrading the LHR-EDI part of the trip to CE then the system was charging CW fees on the WTP flight from SFO and my price was correct.
Have spent over an hour on the phone trying to make this booking in the last week. Wish they sorted out jokers to work on line. The GGL staff must hate the whole nonsense of having to go and check availability etc.
Today it is still the same. SFO-LHR £955, SFO-EDI £1441, LHR-EDI £100 give or take.
Clearly I could separate the bookings, but that just seems to be creating unnecessary hassle.
Just for fun I reversed the booking on the same dates EDi - SFO £620 return in BA and LHR-SFO £580. Maybe I should go see them!
I wonder if the ex US fees are messing up the pricing because of this below. Are BA adding US fees to the LHR-EDI flights.
I called to make an Avios booking in WTP. There was no availability in July going to the US even with a space release. So I asked for a price one way in WTP and one way in CW. They quoted £2310 in taxes and fees for two tickets. This seemed high from a previous dummy booking check, so I went away and made a dummy booking and got only £1750. I called back and someone checked. They said that my GUF2 was upgrading the LHR-EDI part of the trip to CE then the system was charging CW fees on the WTP flight from SFO and my price was correct.
Have spent over an hour on the phone trying to make this booking in the last week. Wish they sorted out jokers to work on line. The GGL staff must hate the whole nonsense of having to go and check availability etc.