BA First: SEA-HAM RT $3250
 

BA FIRST FOR $3250
BA J FOR $2044:
https://www.google.ca/travel/flights...XNUEgYIARAAGAA

There seem to be quite a few cities around the western half of the US with either sub $3k F (sub $2k J) fares or just a few dollars over it to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (DACH). Even some surprising cities are offering them...

Would you like to perhaps provide an example or two?

I pretty easily found several options using Google flights, I was looking at LAX-ZRH (11/7 to 11/14) and found options from MCI, PHX, DEN, MSP, IAH and SEA to ZRH as well around the same time. I was able to get LAX-ZRH in Club World down to $1,600 using both AARP and Chase BA 10% off, and found an intriguing for my family MCI-ZRH with a stopover in London in Club World for $2k (Chase BA 10% off doesn't work since it's not all BA metal, AARP does). Looks like everyone (DL, UA, LH, etc.) has matched the Club World fares from DFW for this, DFW-ZRH is about $1.8k on a bunch of different airlines/alliances.

Edited to add: DFW-ZRH can be done for $1.5k in Club World and $2.5k in First using AARP and Chase BA 10% off.

Thanks OP. Fares are also valid on open jaw trips.

For example, SFO - MIL (RT) in F is $2,750 per person inclusive of the AARP discount. [I had not known that the AARP discount still functioned on F tickets, but it does, at least for our 2022 May-June itinerary.]

btw, one serious potential advantage of BA F is their YouFirst service. We used them this week, all via email, to cancel an existing trans-Atlantic itinerary, ensuring that we would receive an e-Voucher (and not the dreaded Future Travel Voucher). If you, like we, dread the idea of having to waste time in phone queues to reach BA's best agents, the YouFirst service may be your answer. We initiated contact with them here.

Just booked a $2k BA J fare MCO-BER, MUC-MCO for next summer on the new A350. Using the Amex portal took about $50 off.

I rarely see J deals out of MCO so this felt good. The only weird thing is that BA charges for seat selection in J, $130 to just select a seat.

If you are a One World Sapphire or Emerald, you don't have to pay for seat selection. (I have no experience with Ruby, so I cannot say) . Finish your booking without choosing seats. I assume you are crediting to AA, as I did. Be sure to put in the FF program you want to credit. Once the ticket is issued (which only took about 5 minutes), go to Manage My Booking and it will allow you to choose seats for free. It will also reflect the correct baggage allowance..

I don’t have an AA account or OW status. It’s just amusing we’re at the point of business class not including free seat selection.

Search FT and you’ll find 10 years of conversations about this, and you can post as much as you’d like about it there. 🙂

I'm reviewing these fares again (with hopes that we won't be on "Variant Sigma" by next June) and there seems to be an oddity happening right now concerning J vs. F:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4e2d212fc1.png

I mean, if you insist that I fly in First...

Is there dates for this fare. Like the sample you provided? TEDisgone with chase and aarp that might be like 1k each way for 1st??

I think it was an error. Most likely confused due to AS segment. (It was only those routes via SEA that seemed to do this) However the price for F above is now correctly showing as J. The price shown for J is now correctly showing as F. However BA isn't letting you book F right now, only J. Think they caught on very quickly.

It's pretty wide open all the way through June but here is one: PDX-BER
AARP gets it down to almost $2,800.

San Francisco is also wide open and I was able to price it down to $2,540 with both AARP and the Chase discount:
SFO-BER

I'd take the SFO fare because even with a separate ticket to/from PDX, it'll still be cheaper since we can't use the Chase code on non-BA flights.

Yeah, system was confused on which was F and J price for Tedisgone post. The $3k approx price is for F. $1.5k for J.

Maybe there's a misunderstanding of the screenshot I posted? I went all the way through to seat assignments and these are definitely F seats. Unless the system will fail at the final stage, J is (for now) more than double F. I do see that some of the alternative dates I was looking at have dried up today... Still thinking about it but I won't cry if my dates are gone by the time I finally click the Purchase button.

What dates are you looking at? Your pricing is exactly backwards from what I see. Ie the F price is really J and v.v. on everyday I look at via Google Flights.

I just realized your screenshot is from BA website, where pricing I shown each portion, not RT. RT your fare prices out to $3000 approximately. Helps if post that price is OW, not RT, especially since thread is about RT.

You likely have a flight that just happens to be full in J. Most employees cant book F, even if cheaper a lot can't.

The current F fare is lower than J. Nothing unusual about it, happens quite frequently on BA when F is on sale (and J isn't).

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f39978b850.png

If I could just get this to work between ORD and JNB :p

I was looking at the end of September for this deal, but I got busy and things got picked over fairly quick. We were able to get December into Munich (SFO-MUC-SFO) for the Christmas celebrations. Not as low as $2,500, but we were able to get $3,050 for the dates we wanted. Throw in the AS elite and redemption miles (I'm 75K) and this is a decent way to get to Europe for the holiday season. Getting BA to properly display, price and ticket this deal is a bear as their systems continually re-price items higher and lower as you search. Still with a little work we figured it out. 2022 appears to be fairly open, going to look at something for the spring.

Yes, I realized after the fact that you were only giving the OW pricing not RT. THUS $3.4K looked like normal RT F and $1.5I looked like normal RT J.

Correct, the thread title clearly states $3.2K RT in F and nothing less.

This doesn't seem to be widely available anymore, but I was able to find SFO-LCA RT in BA F for $3,028. I chose to route SFO-LAX-LHR-LCA-LHR-LAX-SFO. Priced out via ITA Matrix and booked on AA using powertools because I had a bunch of AA GCs to use. My assumption is that you could book it through BA as well to take advantage of AARP and Chase, but I didn't try.

SFO-LAX is on AA, LAX-SFO is on AS, and the other segments are BA.

This'll push me over 75k for the year with my rollover from Jan/Feb 2020 and earn a ton of redeemable miles along the way between the flying and the qualification bonus. With several paid business oneworld fares booked for next year, I wanted to make sure to maintain 75k (and it seems unclear if AS is going to extend). In addition, it'll be nice to finally go somewhere after so long.

Sample Google Flights - 2021
Sample Google Flights - 2022

Nickohrn, great find!

This got me to looking for a flight later this year - found this beauty to Lisbon (SFO-LHR in BA F, LHR-LIS in Club Europe) for just under $3000.

https://www.google.com/travel/flights/s/HGhV

Booking this itinerary online at https://www.britishairways.com/en-us...ember-benefits saves one an additional $200.

Just booked DEN-DFW-LHR-CPH in BA/AA First for next March for $2,684 roundtrip after the $200 AARP discount. 580 TPs. Hopefully AA's DFW First Dining will be open by then.

Thank you for including link for us more clueless who can then book more easily after you more adept bookers do your thing. Appreciate it!

Looks like my last login was in 2013 but here it goes.
I am showing BA at $2996 in F out of BNA.
BNA-BSL

What is the AARP discount you refer to? What carriers or fares does it apply to?

Thanks.

John H

If you are a member of AARP (which anyone can join for $12 / year) you can save $200 on business and first class fares booked through British Airways. On the promotional page, it doesn't reference first class, but it still seems to work.

Oh, great -- thanks. Am a member.

John H

Seems like the F flights are now $1k higher than J. Bummer. Was just thinking I'd be able to pull off a miracle to preserve 75K. Hesitate and lose out :D If anyone sees anything ex-US (ideally SEA/SFO/PDX) around Thanksgiving appreciate a ping :)

Noticed this as well. I wanted to slightly change a flight next April, and was going to do so this evening. Everything was raised in price and we decided to keep the current itinerary (SFO-LIS-SFO). Nice while it lasted.

BTW, also looking to preserve 75K.

The fare is back for Larnaca again for a few hundred dollars more:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0c5d8d5497.png
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d8de86b2f7.png
AARP and Chase discount should get you to a nicer price point if you're still looking to travel / status run. This is ex-SFO. If you're SEA based, I believe you can route through SEA on the way home and miss your connection if that is convenient to you.

Athens is also available, which is pretty nice. It wasn't available the last time I looked and now I'm considering whether to change my previously booked trip to Cyprus to head to Greece instead.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...3e9b261f7c.png
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f77c11810b.png

I was able to buy a ticket SFO-OTP in F for a bit less than, which is also neat because OTP is > 1000mi from LHR, so I'll earn 580 BA tier points total for the whole trip. Alas, I don't see the fare anymore.

Just FYI, I bought a SFO-ATH ticket in F the other day for just over $3,000, including AARP discount, that departs in late September. Looking forward to it! (assuming Greece doesn't cut off access to vaccinated Americans, that is)