![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
No, it's fixed per route.
Trans Atlantic fares
- Thread starter areksnumbr1sxylady
- Start date
No, it's fixed per route.
Redeeming miles for economy now is totally pointless as they've managed to con everyone into the fact that most of the fare is 'surcharge'.
Deleted member 11679
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Deleted member 11679
I have flown to the US on holidays a few times in the last 6/7 years. Costs have risen but some reasonable prices can be found, we are going in August with BA and a return landing in Tampa with a connection each time in Chicago was £725 each.
If you don't mind a connection this will bring thr cost down. Lufthansa were pretty competitively priced when we booked.
If you don't mind a connection this will bring thr cost down. Lufthansa were pretty competitively priced when we booked.
£725 to the East Coast is not a 'reasonable price', it is indicative of the sort of bonkers prices being discussed in this thread.
Soldato
What do you think is the best use of miles these days , for next year I'm torn between using them to upgrade to Premium Economy or the companion 'free ticket' option with Virgin. I'm leaning towards the former as the latter you need a full-price ticket to get the companion flight although with fares as expensive as they are I wonder if the gap between 'cheap' and 'full-price' isn't so bad now[TW]Fox;24469420 said:
^^ As you say a few years ago I always considered 350-400 to be a decent price for the East Coast and 400-500 for the West Coast, looks like you can pretty much double that now
Soldato
I flew to new york from edinburgh last month for £391 return, with BA.. which is about as low as I've seen this year. It's not just transatlantic flights.. last year you could get to croatia and back pretty cheap from edinburgh. This year not so (well, getting there is cheap, flying back isn't)
Checked that route, 800+ now.
July = school holidays. Busiest period of the year. Demand is high so prices are high. Simple really.
A few years ago, you had a number of factors causing very low air fares:
1. Fuel price was considerably lower (http://investexcel.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Brent2.png)
2. We were at the back end of a pretty large recession, so people were travelling far less for both business and leisure
3. There was over-capacity across the Atlantic. There were just too many seats flying back and forth, high supply = low price. This has corrected over the last few years.
Airplane ticket prices work very much on a supply and demand basis. If there is little demand, prices will be low, if there is lots of demand, prices will be high.
A few years ago, you had a number of factors causing very low air fares:
1. Fuel price was considerably lower (http://investexcel.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Brent2.png)
2. We were at the back end of a pretty large recession, so people were travelling far less for both business and leisure
3. There was over-capacity across the Atlantic. There were just too many seats flying back and forth, high supply = low price. This has corrected over the last few years.
Airplane ticket prices work very much on a supply and demand basis. If there is little demand, prices will be low, if there is lots of demand, prices will be high.
Soldato
We flew to Orlando at the end of August 2010 for £1700 for 2 Adults and 2 kids, the same flights one year later were £4000.
Yes, if only it were that simple. People are talking about more than just July. I never travel in the school holidays, for example.
Your own source shows us that fuel prices were the same a couple of years ago as they are now.
[TW]Fox;24470721 said:
Fuel prices peaked for a short period, but the average prices have been much lower over the period. As airlines generally hedge their fuel requirements, this smooths out the cost. We've had a sustained period of post $100 a barrel fuel prices and that has resulted in rather large 'fuel surcharges', whether you agree with them or not. You have to remember that airlines make their money from business passengers in general, where a fuel surcharge is smaller compared to the total ticket price.
Prices were artificially low a few years ago, airlines lost a lot of money during that period and tried to get as much cash inflow as possible to prevent themselves from going under. The market corrected itself in the last few years and airlines removed capacity. Prices are now at a more sustainable level. Good for the industry as it allows it to continue growing, but not necessarily for the average customer.
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I think we must agree to disagree that almost a grand for offpeak return tickets to the USA in economy is 'sustainable'. I'd imagine it will quite quickly result in demand destruction - I love travelling to the USA but frankly had I not already planned this years trip and already got myself really 'into' going I'd not be bothering as the fares are terrible value and it just annoys me to pay so much for an economy ticket.
I can currently fly to Sydney for about the same as San Francisco. This is by any metric slightly bonkers.
If it doesn't sort itself out then this year will be my last US trip for a while - plenty of other better value flights to other corners of the world. For now I've resigned myself to the ripoff that is a £700 indirect return in economy but I don't plan on repeating it. It isn't the entire airline industry thats seen this - its just transatlantic flights. It's still possible to buy sensible priced flights to Asia, Australia, etc.
For example for my dates in September..
Bangkok £491 (6000 miles)
Perth £738 (10000 miles) (Wow, this is actually a pretty awesome deal)
San Francisco £700 (5360 miles, so HALF the distance to Perth yet the same price..)
New York £532 (3400 miles)
As you can see, its just Transatlantic that offer terrible value for money right now. Looking at the seat maps for the US flights which offer such a facility pre-purchase shows almost all seats empty. So it doesn't look like they are having trouble keeping up with demand..
I can currently fly to Sydney for about the same as San Francisco. This is by any metric slightly bonkers.
If it doesn't sort itself out then this year will be my last US trip for a while - plenty of other better value flights to other corners of the world. For now I've resigned myself to the ripoff that is a £700 indirect return in economy but I don't plan on repeating it. It isn't the entire airline industry thats seen this - its just transatlantic flights. It's still possible to buy sensible priced flights to Asia, Australia, etc.
For example for my dates in September..
Bangkok £491 (6000 miles)
Perth £738 (10000 miles) (Wow, this is actually a pretty awesome deal)
San Francisco £700 (5360 miles, so HALF the distance to Perth yet the same price..)
New York £532 (3400 miles)
As you can see, its just Transatlantic that offer terrible value for money right now. Looking at the seat maps for the US flights which offer such a facility pre-purchase shows almost all seats empty. So it doesn't look like they are having trouble keeping up with demand..
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Man of Honour
Yup, thought I'd have a two week break with that in between.
[TW]Fox;24470849 said:
I agree and disagree.
Agree that the prices are really making me think twice about travelling long distance. I'm looking at paying £1100 for two stops each way to central America this Christmas and another £1k to Perth in April next year. The only way I can justify spending that kind of money is that I have already planned it all. It's even worse that the flight out is about half the cost of the holiday! On the other hand I disagree that it's only transatlantic flights that are affected, it seems to be a lot of places. For example last year you could get a trip out to oz for £750 over Christmas! However it may just be the dates for that as at the moment the beginning of April shows a massive price hike that doesn't go down afterwards. I'm hoping the flight prices will go down to those seen for the rest of the year, or on the other hand when the tickets foelr the end of may and June come out they may show another big hike in prices, with April next year being the start...
Soldato
I guess it depends, a half-full plane of people paying 1,000 a ticket earns just as much as a full plane of people paying 500 a ticket and costs less to run as well
Perhaps one benefit is that it'll remove the riffraff and make transatlantic flights a far more pleasurable experience (for those who can afford it of course!)
Perhaps one benefit is that it'll remove the riffraff and make transatlantic flights a far more pleasurable experience (for those who can afford it of course!)
You'd need to have been very lucky, thats the busiest and most expensive time for Kangaroo-route flights. I've never seen them sub 1k over Christmas even at times when it was cheap enough for me to get to Melbourne for £560.
Its not just the transatlantic flights that are much dearer. This time last year I booked a holiday to Japan for May, the flights were £800 return and we got them for £400 by using miles (we were only interested in lowest fare not maximum value).
The same flights next year are £1250, which is quite a big jump. I expect them to get a bit cheaper as it gets closer to departure but it is still a bike hike.
The same flights next year are £1250, which is quite a big jump. I expect them to get a bit cheaper as it gets closer to departure but it is still a bike hike.
Soldato
Said I would go last year and didn't. Said I would go this year and I have only looked at flights for the briefest of moments.