Jaenks

That route and fare was posted last year. Some segments do not have anymore availability on J or I, therefore the price is higher. Find proper travel agent, give fare rule and ask to search. Note, that some fare requires 180 days of advance purchase. You will find all the necessary information in this thread on pages starting from September 2021.

webstereo

I had the exact same problem and basically I just kept trying until I found one who knew what they were doing.

nufnuf77

I just booked a Sofia-LAX run just for fun (I am sure some of it will be cancelled and I will rebook to a more opportunistic dates).
1034 GBP for 800tps (with GUF possibility) --> well within TP run range!

squawk

Thank you @xenole, @vintagepilot, and @Confus for your comments and suggestions. The suggestion to fly to the US in WT or WT+ then bounce around there for a bit is a possibility, and might indeed be cheaper than an ex-EU (even, potentially, an ex-SOF).

It really does seem like another world! I did see the thread and hoped to join, but for personal reasons couldn't commit and I think the advance purchase deadlines have now passed (to say nothing of availability). Will get in touch with ISTFlyer on the off chance it might work out.

Looking at late August midweek, I was able to price this up for SOF-SFO as one example (fare info and Matrix construction in the spoiler). However, I didn't see any BA availability for the transatlantic or transcontinental legs at all for this price - only about £300+ more - so am I right in thinking this will earn fewer Avios as it is AA metal/AA code for those flights?






I also noticed that on some other days, it was showing more a expensive "J" fare by about £100 - I think it might have been the return LHR-SOF leg only being available in J rather than I, or something like that, pushing the price up.

Is this about as cheap as the 180d advance SOF fare gets? Or are there other West Coast destinations that could bring it down a bit more? I noticed that on the cheaper fares I did see, the transcontinental AA legs were booking into Y. My Matrix skills are not advanced enough to know how to exclude those - all suggestions gratefully received, as is any help from Matrix whizzes such as Nephoi ...

EDIT - I should always refresh the thread I've left open all day because I see nufnuf77 has shown that it is indeed possible to get it cheaper - but without HEL, so 160TP fewer.

nufnuf77

Yup I prefer to stick to BA and guf my tatl to F - finnair is OK but i prefer a more direct routing and higher cabin (and offchance of getting higher TPs anyways )

Markie

I managed this and then booked directly with GGL Phone Line.
Only challenge was the AY seats where I had to call in AY to help.

NA-Flyer

Good way to try the new Finnair business class hard product

willz3010

Newbie question, hoping for some pointers please.

I need to fly LHR>LAX between 18-20 March, then LAS>LAX>LHR or LAS>LHR anytime after 28 March. Happy to spend a bit more time either doing an ex-EU departure (as long as I make it to LAX by 20 March), or doing east-west coast trips whilst in the US.

Any recommendations for how I should go about finding the best routes/deals? I'm looking to try and find 600 TPs without blowing the bank!

ISTFlyer

Hi willz3010 , welcome to FlyerTalk

In most cases, most decent ex-EU fares require an advance purchase requirement somewhere between 90-180 days.

One exception would be Istanbul where the prices range about USD $2200-2500 that has a 7 or 14 day APEX as it's not part of the joint-venture thus you would be able to fly IST-LHR-LAX ( or maybe add JFK for more TP's ) for a decent price. Also one important thing is that most of the deal fares do not allow stopovers, thus if you would like to visit two cities with each being more than 24 hours, it's highly recommended that you purchase your own separate ticket between them.

If I'm also not wrong ex-Dublin also has a 30 day APEX, though, the most recent sale fares from Dublin doesn't include Los Angeles I'm afraid.

Jaenks

The question was about ex-EU departures. AFAIK Istanbul has never located in EU(European Union)territory and never will.

gcuk

ISTFlyer is undoubtedly aware of world geography. In the past, ‘ex-EUs’ have included starting places like Cairo and I’ve always taken the term to generically mean a non-UK starting point to save money.

I took ISTFlyer’s advice to be a proactive suggestion of an alternative solution to the question posed.

Jaenks

Someones past ex-EU naming errors like CAI must stay in past not in present. Nowadays even UK is not EU anymore but " ex EU " although in Europe. Proactive suggestions are generally good as long as they are not off topic e.g. some routes west coast-east coast or vv as was asked. Flights to IST or to CAI are far enough to not worth to start from for 600TPs. Search through BA Holidays is currently better proactive suggestion than to start flying from Kingdom of Zamunda(generally speaking).

Hydebear

Given the closeness of your travel plans Club, even exEU, is going to be very pricey. You could be better looking at going from one of the regional airports (eg MAN) to Heathrow then onto somewhere like SNA or ONT in Premium Economy (instead of LAX), but wrapping it up into a BA Holiday with car hire or hotel for the period whilst they have the double tier point offer. Would cost around £1500 with a car and get you perhaps around 380 TPs. Could then try upgrading at the airport to Club (from memory it’s around £650 each way if available - not guaranteed); one way, with the doubling, would get you another 100TPs. Do it both ways and with a bit of luck you could get near to your goal for around £2800. It’s not a run in this forum’s sense but would get you to your goal, more or less.

Dont forget, if you’re running for Silver ( which I may be wrong in presuming ) that you need 4 BA operated flight segments too…and if you want your points quickly be warned that the bonus TPs from BAH take up to 60 days to credit.


Edit - Also just noticed that there are exDublin trips to SFO around your dates for around £1150 return in Business with American - stops in PHL and PHX, but I’m sure more creative routings could be priced up. This routing has an overnight in PHX…and getting from SFO to/from where you want to be is fairly simple and quick.

PxC

Thanks to people mentioning DUB sale fares I didn't realise.
/
It doesn't seem to include LAX, does anyone know a way to mix this in for June? Best I can do is DUB-SFO and LAS-BCN back but its far from convenient.

aprilscot

First time thinking about a TP run so excuse my ignorance but I have a couple of questions for you experts.
I'm silver now with collection year ends on Nov 8. The flight I'm looking at leaves the US on Nov 7th but lands in Spain Nov 8 - will the points go to this year or the next?
Would I be better postponing the trip until after the start of the new collection year?