I've been looking at flights from LON to SEA (stopovers or direct, any LON airport, any carrier) and back for later this year and have run into a slight problem. The tickets originating in the UK are twice the price of those originating in the USA. The price of the tickets in general is not a problem, but the disparity in prices has me stumped. British Airways tell me that it's either a) the exchange rate (absolute rubbish), b) Prices are set by some shadowy government organisation and they have no choice (sure) c) They can't compete with subsidised US carriers so have to drop their prices (odd, considering AA have the same price differential and say similar things).

My question is, is there any way to circumvent this awful situation or am I going to have to suck it up and pay the price they quote on the web?

Did you try looking at what prices you could get with http://www.itasoftware.com ?

I have often seen the situation go the other way - people from Britain seem to get cheaper flights!

I'm sure there are other solutions, but if you don't mind going to YVR instead, there are several cheap charter options.
http://www.flyzoom.com
http://www.canadian-affair.com
http://www.airtransat.com

YVR is certainly cheaper with the charters but that website wasn't any cheaper at all. Looks like it might be a charter airline unless something changes on the price front.

That website is the site of the company which writes the software used by Orbitz, amongst others. The tool that is up on the website is the most powerful tool I know for searching published fares. If it won't produce a cheaper published fare than can be seen elsewhere, I usually take the view that it doesn't exist - country of sale/country of inventory issues aside.

BA have a monopoly on LON-SEA nonstops and their pricing reflects it. You might consider hopping over to AMS and getting the NW nonstop AMS-SEA, or going out of Gatwick and connecting via the east coast US on USAirways or Delta.

Also, flights.com has consolidator airfares (last time I checked).

Yonatan

If you do go to YVR, this service is an efficient shuttle between Vancouver downtown, YVR, Seattle downtown, and SEA:

http://www.quickcoach.com

True, but the border crossing into the States can be hell, with lengthy backups on the weekends... don't know what Meiji's dates are, but five hours on a bus may not appeal at the end of a ten-hour flight, plus Canadian customs...

Depending on the times, I think I'd prefer a nonstop flight plus a bus ride to SEA, rather than a connecting flights with layovers. Total time door to door might well be less with the first option.

But it all depends on how the times line up, and of course what the cost is.

Looking at random midweek travel dates in mid-June via Expedia, Air Canada will do LHR-YVR-LHR for US$830. They'll do LHR-YVR-SEA-YVR-LHR for $931. So the connecting tag by air to Sea-Tac is only another $101. Considering that Quick charges $59 return for the bus from Vancouver Airport down to Seattle, I'd fly.

If you can get that all on one ticket with reasonable times, I would fly the YVR-SEA leg. If not, I probably wouldn't.