advice on Lhr fares needed
 

hi all, I'm looking to purchase a ticket on united for travel between London and the west coast for travel next spring. it seems that there is a fare sale this week, but I'm not familiar with fares in this market. I checked the fares for October, and they seem to be about the same price at 580 gbp. would you advise me to get the tickets now for next year if I have the firm dates, or do you think something better usually comes along at the end of the year? thank guys

Expect to pay around 550 to 680 on average at the moment depending on routing or metal flown. Fares have gone from up rapidly over the last few months and to add to that K fares (the cheapest most restrictive economy tickets) look like they've been pulled for the UK market with T fares now the norm. Before booking ahead saved you money but that also seems to have changed. I used to book the lhr-sfo route usually 3 months in advance. I'd be happy for a sub 600 return fare at the moment, I managed to get my Oct trip for just under that amount. Hope that helps

I do this route all the time (and have been for years), and I think it's unlikely to come down much from the levels you're seeing now if at all. So I guess there's no disadvantage to buying this far in advance. There may, in fact, be an advantage if you can find R inventory, in which case you could possibly upgrade one or both of your flights if you wanted. (it's expensive though, $550 plus 20,000 miles each way to upgrade the lower fares)

And booking early, you'll have a better choice of seats of course (see SeatGuru.com etc)

Oh, non-weekend fares are sometimes slightly lower (maybe $25-$40)

Good luck!

yes. it does very much. thanks. I remember looking at new york fares last year and they were going for under 400 quid. the sale fares this time however have gone up to 489. I'm not however going to New York this time, but LA. I was hoping for something under 500 pounds. no longer realistic I suppose?

and yep I,m getting non weekend fares. Monday to Monday

circa 500 GBP is *possible*, but not nessecarily likely at this stage for October. 580 seems reasonable to me.

this is for next march/April... is that the low season for LA?

I think that you have a good price overall, esp if your dates are around easter - end March / start of April. Looking back to last easter when I did the lhr-sfo route it was 550ukp having just checked my old bookings.

Sorry, mis-read your post. As pointed out above, that's a pretty busy time of year. Still seems reasonably fair to me.

alright thanks a lot guys. this is sound advice.

just for info, the pre sale fares were around 650 gbp. I have been watching it for a while and it has been stuck at this level.

and oh btw, this refers to the nonstop flight only. I believe one stop fares can go down to under 550' but I really loathe the idea of having to go through security a few times on such a trip, not to forget the stresses of connections, and having to arrive at late night

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/04/15...n-airfare.html

sorry to revive this. I couldn't help thinking about it all week, but found this interesting article. I know I am potentially going to buy an air ticket some over 30 weeks in advance but it's quite remarkable that last years sweet spot for European flight from the US was already 22 weeks in advance...

ps it turns ou the fare for the dates I want under this sale is really closer to 600 pounds :(

On the day the sale is supposed to end, I got my ticket at 574 GBP. Nebulously, United made a few fare adjustments as if they knew I was monitoring the fare. I think it's a fair price, although I feel a little jittery about buying this so far out in advance (Like some 30 weeks out). I think it's the right move, like everyone on this board does THANK YOU ALL...

You've got a good price! Just ensure you keep on top of your booking for any schedule changes and seat swaps - this is almost guaranteed this far out. As I mentioned before the LHR-SFO-LHR for last Easter (booked Nov 2011) was 550GBP but fares have increased since then, my most recent flight in June was 640GBP (Booked April 2012) and I booked this coming October (booked June 2012) for 594GBP. Now pin all your efforts on planning the rest of your trip and enjoy!

Interesting history on the fare (rises), ajlowe444. Thanks. You might like to know that there is a BA sale between LHR and SFO (and LAX, for which I got my tickets) starting today, for travel from 19 August till next year. I don't know if you fly with them, but I usually fly *A only.

If there's a sale on BA then UA will match it within 48 hours