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British Airways & American Airlines have published a number of incredible Business Class fares for travel between the UK and Los Angeles for travel throughout 2019 but, as the fares expire today, you’ll have to be very quick if you want to book them.
The fares I’ll be discussing below aren’t for the faint hearted as they originate and terminate at different UK airports (neither of which is a London airport) but the deals are genuinely very good indeed and, if you read through to the end of this post, you’ll find a mind-blowingly good tier-point run that’s actually the cheapest deal of the lot.
The Basic Fare Rules
- Fare must be booked by 7 January 2019 (TODAY)
- Travel outbound on Mon/Tue/Wed
- Travel inbound on Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri
- Saturday night stay required
- Maximum stay is 12 months
- No stopovers permitted
The Routings
There may be other routings available but the best that I have found involves outbound flights departing from Inverness (INV) and inbound flights arriving into Manchester (MAN).
This is the sort of routing you’ll find…
…and I’m pretty sure that most will agree that a sub-$1,600 roundtrip Business Class flight between the UK and LA is a very good deal indeed.
The routing above is a good one as it ensures that you’re booked into a long-haul Business Class cabin for most of the journey but you should be careful to avoid routings like this one (via Philadelphia)….
…where you’ll be flying across the US in a non flat-bed American Airlines A321.
From what I’ve seen so far these fares are only available for travel on British Airways transatlantic flights which means that there’s no option to book the far superior Business Class seats found on the American Airlines 777s. With that in mind, for the flight back from LA I suggest booking the British Airways 787 Dreamliner (reviewed here) as it’s probably the best option available:
Fare Availability
The fare is available during various months of the year and seems to first appear in March:
April looks pretty good….
….and you’ll find the fare appearing through September….
…and into November too:
Finding & Booking The Fare
I used the ITA Matrix Search to find this fare and here’s an example set of search parameters which should help you find the fares with the shorter journey times:
Naturally you should customise the search to suit your own travel dates and preferences.
The flights can be booked via American Airlines, British Airways or pretty much any of the major OTAs but, if you’re having issues, I suggest using the multi-city tool on Google Flights (it seems to work pretty well):
The Tier Point Runs
At the beginning of this post I promised you a fantastic deal on a Tier Point run….so here it is.
The key here is to route the flights via London and JFK.
The London – JFK flight will earn 140 Tier Points as will the JFK – LAX flight so, once you factor in the short-haul flights, the routing I’m about to show you should earn you 640 Tier Points.
Here are the search criteria I used….
….and here’s an example routing and fare:
$1,415 (~£1,114) for the roundtrip Business Class fare is a stunning deal and means that each Tier Point is costing approximately $2.21 or £1.74.
On certain dates you’ll find the fare can be even lower and I’ve already booked this exact itinerary for just $1,389 (~£1,094).
If you have trouble finding this fare online (the British Airways website doesn’t seem to like it very much) I suggest trying AA.com or, failing that, use the Matrix Search to find the flights that suit you best and then use bookwithmatrix.com to price it up with an OTA.
Note: This Tier Point run will work for trips to San Francisco too (although availability and pricing will vary from the LA itinerary).
Bottom Line
I’m not meant to be chasing airline status this year but there’s no way I was ever going to pass up a fare which gets me home to LA and which earns me 640 tier points as well – I booked the trip moment I found dates that worked for me.
Don’t forget that this fare expires today so, if this is something that would work for you, you have to book today (probably by midnight UK time).
Anyone else jumping on this fare?
A BA B789 J class more comfortable than in their other aircraft? The last time I flew on their B789 J class from EWR to LHR 18 months ago, I promised myself never to do it again! It was worse than a dormitory and I couldn’t sleep a wink with people constantly brushing past me in the aisle seat. The aisles in the BA J configuration are narrow. Not much better in the window seat either, I’m not a big guy 5’10” and medium weight / size.
So B747 or B777 for me. Going to search for flights now, thanks for the tip.
I guess it’s down to personal taste (and possibly down to which seats you book) but, for me, the 777 (which I happen to be booked on using this fare) is easily the most dormitory like of all BA’s long-haul aircraft while the 787 offered the best onboard experience out of all the BA Club World cabins I’ve flown in over recent years.