[EasternPedlar]

I know many of the UK based posters on this forum use ex-Europe fares as they are often cheaper, even if travel is routed via London.

Have you thought of the implications of Brexit on access to such fares ? Airlines can, and do, impose residence requirements for fare deals. I’ve just seen some extremenly tempting transatlantic fare offers on BA, ex USA, but they come with a rider that they are for US residents only.

BA isn’t able to put residence restrictions to exclude UK residents from ex-EU fare deals as EU regulations don’t permit them to. I’m sure that will change post Brexit!

[MartynSinclair]

About 7 – 8 years ago, Qantas and Lufthansa restricted certain ex-Europe fares to residents of Germany. This caused me to fall out with the travel agent in Germany who I was dealing with at the time (BCD Travel) as they were told NOT to sell tickets to non Germans.

Then internet sales took off and business was moved from agents to internet.

I think its far too early to see what the effects of BREXIT (if it still exists) is on ex-Europe tickets… As of July 2016, UK remains within the EU and ex_Europe tickets are thankfully still available….

[MarcusGB]

KLM offer World Business Class fares Ex Amsterdam from Euros 1,712 to Bangkok, with most continents and destinations incliuded to a maximum of E 2,000. You can then link in a flight for £95 return from any UK airport, better than from LHR.
You do not have to double back like as with BA!
So no penalties.

This saved me at least £500 in taxes and LHR charges each flight, so £1,3/400 return, compared to £1,800+ ex LHR on many other Airlines.

You can also get cheaper fares on Etihad from AMS and many other Airlines paying in Euros.

Since the devaluation following the Brexit vote, roughly the £ – Euro was 1.31, currently 1.16.

But if you have a Euro account or an EU bank, makes it cheaper paying in Euros now.
Having said that, KLM have fares from LHR @ £1,580 to places such as Hong Kong, KUL,SIN, BKK, and even open jaw (into Singapore, back from KUL).

So i would stay with my long haul flights ex EU.

I make the same savings with Etyihad ex Dublin, CDG, AMS.
To Australia, this can be saving over £1,1000- half price in First!

[lonetraveler]

this is off-topic, but can you elaborate on what an ex-Europe fare is?

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=638291]this is off-topic, but can you elaborate on what an ex-Europe fare is?

[/quote]

Instead of flying London to Hong Kong, you fly Oslo to London to Hong Kong. Flights are considerably cheaper as the pricing structure targets people willing to take an indirect route.

Advantages – can save a lot of money especially in premium cabins, and you can benefit from the miles/TPs on the extra legs.

Disadvantages – time consuming – turns a 1 flight trip into a 3 flight trip, you have to get to/from your starting point on separate tickets which creates a risk if your positioning flight goes wrong and can also be a pain with baggage management.

[MarcusGB]

It is relevant to being an Ex Europe fare. KLM market their fares from the UK on some routes less than from Amsterdam, especially they are cheaper in economy long haul ex LHR.
just as BA market from Amsterdam to get through traffic for transfers, so do KLM. Etihad have to match the market rate in Euros, so as stated, if i left from Dublin or CDG, i have had both First and Business fares half that as from LHR.

Ex Europe can save much money, but consider the Euro fall, local Airlines, not just BA.
Residency restrictions vary worldwide, Malaysian have always had rates for Malays, military, government, even people with disabilities.
Middle Eastern countries also have the same, and market for religious festivals, which exclude others.

Having lived in Australia, you will mostly find every International Airline charges twice the fare from Sydney to London, than starting from Europe / London. A Business return to London ex Sydney can be $9,500+
We can pay less than £1,900 at times, £3200 the average Business rate.

If you travel into an EU country on a different ticket especially with a day between, it would not be possible to start charging for EU nationals or Dutch or French only.
In Europe at least there will be less difference, but the European Airlines will still want the UK Business.

[EasternPedlar]

It’s pretty easy for an airline to restrict internet sales to local residents – they block cards with billing addresses outside their target area. I experienced that last week while trying to book a ticket on LAN Peru. Lan Chile was no problem, but the Peruvian site has lower fares for residents which require a credit card billed in Peru. It’s hard to predict if European airlines will use similar tactics, but I’m planning to get a Europe-billed card as part of my Brexit planning! Mrs May has been pretty clear about the direction in which things are heading, so I am reluctantly coming around to accepting the inevitable.

I find airline pricing both puzzling and fascinating. It always amazes me how it can make sense to an airline to sell the same route for hugely varying prices depending upon where one starts one’s journey. The UK’s generally an expensive place to buy tickets, and BA is in no small measure to blame for this. It’s funny seeing BA as the under-cutter in other markets, for example in India, where they have been extremely aggressive.

Digressing a bit, have any of you thought about Brexit contingency planning at a personal level ?

[LuganoPirate]

Personally I don’t think Brexit will make any difference to the ex UK fare structure and certainly will make no difference as to where UK citizens buy their tickets unless of course Mrs. May imposes exchange controls which I highly doubt.

There are a number of ways to circumvent instances where the airline restricts ticket sales to local residents (and I don’t think there are many of these restrictions in place but happy to be corrected) and one of which is to purchase though a local based travel agent. I’ve done this on many occasions in the past without any problem at all.

there was also a time when booking with Swiss or Lufthansa, ex MXP, I’d be given a CHF fare. If I booked without logging in, then I’d get the lower € fare and I’d then add my Senator details after, but that seems to no longer be the case.

[LuganoPirate]

Just to answer your second question EasternPedlar, I’m making no contingency plans as I don’t think very much will change!

[MrMichael]

I also don’t think much if anything will change. The reason for ex Europe fares is simply for BA to feed from Europe its long haul flights from LHR. I don’t know what the figure is but long haul flights have a significant number of non UK originating pax. I doubt BA will make it difficult for UK citizens to book for an example an ex Oslo flight, the world is more global than it has ever been and such practices are I doubt in BA,s interest.

[LuganoPirate]

I think what makes the UK more expensive is that we are an island, and getting to the continent is always a bit of a hassle. For a lawyer or other professional who is billing his time at say £250 (or more) an hour, the extra 6 – 8 hours (return) needed would soon outweigh the cost savings.

Being the other side of the water, places like AMS, FRA, ZRH, MXP, CDG etc are much easier to reach from each other, with some being just an hour away. It’s almost as quick for a Dutchman living in Rotterdam to reach Brussels as it is Amsterdam, so those and other airports have to compete more as there is a genuine and relatively easy choice of competition for consumers. The Belgians regularly target offers to the Dutch, and the Dutch target them to the Germans so it’s no wonder fares are lower than the UK where the easy choices being London, Manchester or Birmingham are really no choice at all.

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