NathanL104

Good Afternoon,

I've been planning my bachelor party in London for about 6 months now. 4 of us are heading to London and flying home from Frankfurt.

I have had revenue tickets for two of us for a while now...and now I'm stuck one week out without tickets to London for September 1.

One passenger is flying from LAX to LHR and one from PHL to LHR. For six months, nothing has seemed to open up (looking in economy) for LAX to LHR or PHL to LHR. I only need flights to LHR as I have flights home.

I have miles with AA, United, and Skyteam so I could fly any one of them. Does anyone have any advice? My hope now is that something will open up at the last minute but perhaps I'm missing some kind of trick.

arollins

I see award tickets on AA from both LAX and PHL in Anytime Economy, 47.5k miles. You are one week out, on a US Holiday weekend. Better secure those. Looking at other possible destination, Dublin, give the same results.

emika

Are you just looking for saver awards or are full price awards ok? For the latter, nada on United even with CC perk (extra award inventory) but both cities have lots of options for 65k miles one way. I do have an United CC so not sure what you'd see without the CC.

JPG3392

Three suggestions:

1. If the Philadelphia passenger can leave a day earlier AA is offering a saver award on August 31 PHL-FRA-LHR, with the transatlantic flight on AA and the second flight on BA. BA will impose a surcharge, but it shouldn't be too high on this short flight.

2. Have you looked for saver awards to European destinations other than London? If you can find a saver seat to BRU, CDG, AMS or DUS (Air Berlin), travelling on to London would not be too expensive.

3. AA miles can be used to book travel on IB, but it's not possible to check availability or book award travel involving IB online at aa.com. You can check the schedules for PHL/LAX--Spain--LHR online, and then phone AA to check availability and book an award ticket. IB does impose a surcharge, but its fees are far lower than BA's.

NathanL104

Thanks for the suggestions--I really want to get him on our 10:05 BA flight from PHL to LHR, but there's just no space (even with fuel surcharges it'd be okay). That's frustrating because there are tons of open seats on that flight, but maybe just because BA doesn't let you pick a seat.

I think as a last ditch effort I might get a T class fare from PHL to FRA and then I see space from FRA to LCY on british airways...I could meet him at LCY after we land at LHR

LAX to LHR I'll probably bite the bullet and use the Anytime award. That's gonna be rough but I got myself into this mess thinking I could make all of our trips easier.

beckoa

That flight is about sold out...

DL has seats on the 31 and 2nd, but no saver on the 1st.

Duke787

Seeing one option on UA for saver Y but it's less than ideal (also available in saver J).

Routing is PHL - FRA - HAM - LHR on LH and EuroWings.

There's also a fair amount of partner saver J from JFK, ORD, and IAD via FRA and ZRH (I only bring up partner saver J since it's 5k more than Standard Y so you might as well).

SK AAR

Dude, there is no way an award seat will open up on BA68; the flight is sold out. You need to rethink your strategy.

Adam1222

For future reference, it's not the best idea to wait for 6 months for a holiday weekend for TATL travel if you need to travel on a specific date. You probably could have booked on Norwegian in coach for a reasonable price 8 weeks ago. Now Norwegian LAX to LGW is $650 one way, which is still probably cheaper than a BA award with surcharge.

Finnair is selling the AA PHL-DUB flight for $484 on 9/1.

Duke787

Take another $100 off if you book in NOK on the Norsk site. And $625 for Low Fare+ with baggage and seat selection on the Norsk site. Likewise $836 for PE on the Norsk site for JFK - LGW and $681 for Y - both fully JFK options fully refundable in case award space opens up last minute.

NathanL104

Thanks for the input--I used an Aanytime award for the LAX to LHR flight and found a suitable flight for the PHL to LHR portion that hit my wallet fairly hard.

Lesson learned.