Gaza

Lets take your example and work it through:-

EDI-AMS or BRU - cheapest one-way fare will be circa £80 including taxes. Lets assume the OP does not stay overnight and avoids hotel and other costs associated with an overnight and commences their BA flight straightaway and hops over to LHR and owards to ORD. By the time they arrive in ORD they will have had a very long day and probaly lost the benefit of CW.

On the return they would travel as far as LHR and "miss" the final leg to AMS or BRU and take a separate flight from LHR to EDI, again at a cost of about £80 one-way. They would hope the inbound from ORD was on time as they would not be through ticketed and I doubt BA would be understanding enough to allow a change FOC.

The approximate £350 saving has been erroded to £270. Is that worth it? Not in my opinion.

frankvb

But the point krug was making is that if you want to do a weekend break somewhere (AMS/BRU/...) the saving is still fine - for the additional cost you will get a weekend break! Fly out on a (cheap) one-way to AMS/BRU, return on the first leg of the ex-EUR trip. Then have a (long) stopover and finally do the LON to ORD trip. It will be a bit more complex for the OP to do this from EDI unfortunately, needs an LHR-EDI return trip as well.....

Gaza

That is exactly the point I was making. Assuming the OP does decide to take a long weekend the costs escalate.

£80 for a one-way to BRU/AMS/CDG
£200+ for hotel, taxis, other costs
£150 for the LON stopover charge
£120 for LHR-EDI-LHR round trip
£80 for oneway LHR(orAMS/BRU/CDG)-EDI at the end
Total £630

Using AMS as a reference the saving over an ex-EDI is £338. The "free" weekend in AMS actually costs £292.

matthewuk

I do a fair bit of MFU (ex-EDI) on BA and UA.

I have found the connection costs to add the EDI-LHR-EDI segments are often quite high (£160 per person?) compared to what you could buy them for seperately (£70?). Particularly booking well in advance which is almost a given if you are MFU-ing.

I therefore usually tavel on split tickets - often going down the night before the long haul sector as it extends my holiday by an evening and removes all the anxiety associated with onward connections at LHR. At also maximises Molton Brown Spa and Terraces time at LHR. There are a few threads on best hotels on LHR in this forum - you can usually get something <£75 which I think is OK particularly if travelling as a couple.

The downside to split tickets is you are not protected if you miss your onward connection (when coming home I don't care - even if I had to *buy* another ticket my insurance would cover me) and for WT+ fares you don't get some EC Tier Points and a few miles you would on a single ticket. There is also potentially a checked luggage allowance downside depending on destination.

You also probably won't get lounge access on your domestic segments if seperate tickets unless, of course, you get yourself to Silver.

Macspreader

My referred-to-above ex-ARN trip was based on an ex-INV start and end. With the ARN trip in winter the costs were still fine - I burned 30,000 Hilton points for a weekend in Stockholm, paid for a carpark at ABZ and had £320 left over for spending money, compared with a straight trip.

On the way back I left a decent connection time and had a split ticket. I also had travel insurance to pay for any delays that extended beyond MCT.

After time in the icebar, you could argue that I saved no cash, but I'd argue that I had a free weekend in Scandanavia !

Prospero

I am very much in agreement with Gaza on this one. Direct services between EDI and AMS/BRU/CDG/CPN/FRA/HEL do exist but apart from AMS and perhaps FRA, all are cost prohibitive for the purpose of positioning to a EU starting city. For example:

Between EDI and FRA, LH's cheapest promotional fare is £156, requires an overnight stay on the outbound and returns into EDI at 17:30.

Between EDI and AMS, KL's cheapest promotional fare is £97, requires an overnight stay on the outbound and gets you into EDI at 15:30.

Between EDI and BRU, BD's lowest fare is £180 and returns into EDI at 17:20.

Between EDI and CPH, BD's lowest fare is £214 and returns into EDI at 20:45.

Forget HEL. Direct flights with AY operate We/Su only and fares begin at £678.

Adding a European city mini break to either end of the ORD trip does make things marginally more palatable and its something the OP may be considering after reading the broad response so far on this thread.

Fourier

Wow. Great info all, thanks.

As it's pretty much a solo work trip, I won't really be able to take much time either end. As several have pointed out, this makes an EU reposition a bit less attractive, and a bit more of a faff, if you have to get back to EDI.

I think I'll take the advice and look again immediately after Christmas for ex-LHR fares - I presume there will still be reasonable availability then...

If I book EDI-LHR separately but use BA, can I 'amalgamate' them later, so that for example I can book my bags through direct to EDI on my return?

Thank you all for your responses, what a fantastic resource. If I pull this one off I might get the bug - can't see myself desperate for another trip down the back of the plane!

krug

The Sale opens on December 28, usually, but those fares are rarely MFU-able.

Do not right off exMAN-JFK - a nice flight on a venerable 767, but flat beds and quite cheap I hear in WT+ MFUd to CW.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi Fourier,

On BA with two separate tickets , you will be able ot get your bags checked thorugh to EDI on your return and to your US destination outbound.

Regards

TBS

Prospero

MFU eligible fares were actually offered as part of the Winter 2005/6 world offers sale. The separate special promotion to selected destinations that was running at the same time did muddy the water somewhat as the latter turned out to be ineligible.

Digging through my records, on 11 Jan, I ticketed a T fare and applied the MFU for EDI-ORD. Price came in at a very respectable £890 + 25k BA Miles.

As TBS added, providing you plan plenty of transfer time at LHR, travelling on separate tickets is a seamless experience. You'll also be entitled to use the domestic lounge facilities at EDI on your outbound and LHR T1 on the return.

Fourier

If I can get a similar deal I'll gently bite their arm off...

Is that true if I'm not a silver+ card holder? I imagined that a cheapo from EDI wouldn't allow lounge access until LHR.

More Champagne Sir?

Very true and also if you MFU a domestic connecting flight, I believe that makes it into a fully flexible bucket, and therefore eligible for Tier Points and also (for BA Blues) eligible for pre-seat selection. I'm not 100% sure of the above, could somebody please just confirm? Thanks!

highpeaklad

I'm travelling MAN-JFK-MAN in March MFU'd to Club for £490 .

Chris

Jenbel

problem now with MAN for the OP is that he'd need to fly either Flybe or BD out of EDI, with no interlining onto the BA service. What a shame BA isn't a national carrier anymore