BA: Club World & First Sale Now On

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    continentalclub
    Participant

    Club World and First sale fares have just been loaded into the system:

    http://tidd.ly/a31eacd5

    – updated link now promo page is live.

    Examples:

    Club World

    New York from £1869
    Miami from £1949
    San Diego from £2319
    Calgary from £2189
    Kingston from £1419
    Grenada from £1629
    Buenos Aires from £2699
    Muscat from £1330
    Hong Kong from £2447

    First

    Boston from £2937
    Houston from £3097
    LA from £3467
    Las Vegas from £3627

    Relatively-speaking, the First fares are probably the most competitive; the New York Club fare is surprisingly or comfortingly high, depending on your point-of-view! Presumably a sign that confidence is returning to the market and yields are firming.

    Book by 21 June, fly June 9 to December 31, Saturday night stay and 28 day advance purchase required in some cases.


    Binman62
    Participant

    Underwhelming once again………

    Just checked flights I booked a few weeks ago and pleased to see that ex UK in the sale, is still and eye watering 75% higher than originating in Europe and using the same long haul flight.


    continentalclub
    Participant

    Exactly the same with the Lufthansa sale I’ve just posted too, Binman; all fares more expensive from Frankfurt than with a London or Manchester (et al) additional connection.

    That First fare to LA is just under half what it was yesterday, so anyone already planning to book one is likely to be fairly ‘whelmed’ today I’d have thought!

    Note that Lufthansa sale fares don’t normally earn full mileage however, whereas BA ones now do.


    Stretch
    Participant

    Will BA have another sale in Spetember for travel in December ’11/January ’12?


    continentalclub
    Participant

    Impossible to tell, I’m afraid Stretch, but the August UK Bank Holiday weekend is often a favourite of many carriers to launch an exUK sale.


    Binman62
    Participant

    Stretch..BA are the DFS of the airline world and there will be some sort of offer on a monthly basis for the rest of the year. September and on boxing day are generally the big sales in terms of hype if not deals.

    Continental club…..not sure i would agree with you about LH. I have just done a quick check of LH fares ex LHR and FRA to CGK in August EX LHR the fares ranges from £2537 to £7149 for business with the majority of seats at 7149 around the 17th. By comparison fares ex FRA on the same day are just Euro 3588 or 3963 Euro at their highest.
    HKG ex Fra is 3488 euro rising to 4998 euro but same flights ex LHR is £3089. ( This can be reduced to just £1900 if you are very flexible on dates though).

    Bottom line however is that foreign ops take their lead from BA and whilst they may undercut BA, their fares are not the sort of bargains available ex Europe. BA in contrast must compete against them in a lower fare Europe, hence the huge savings that can be made.


    Senator
    Participant

    Dear all,

    This is post is not intended to infuriate any of my fellow UK based brethren.. However, I am somewhat puzzled by the claims that “BA is s…. its customers in the UK with higher fares” etc…

    Are we not seeing the simple market forces in action? Isn’t this a simple Supply/Demand equilibrium? From the UK market, BA can charge these fares as the market is willing to pay this? Yes, perhaps there is a captive audience but is that not evidence that BA is on the ball?


    Travellator
    Participant

    Pretty pig sick at this have already booked HKG at £ 500 more each for Club assuming these would be the cheapest as HKG in general seems more expensive this year. Thanks BA you cost me a grand more for booking early !


    NTarrant
    Participant

    I think you are right Senator, from all the posts in the forum there is the feel that if travelling long haul it is cheaper to start ex-Europe on BA, or use another airline connecting through a European or ME hub.

    It is very much supply and demand and also knowledge. We on the forum are informed and enquire, but how many other business and leisure travellers are not? Far more, probably the majority. Therefore if the want to travel from UK to wherever they will pay the fare quoted, no questions asked


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Senator – you are absolutely right about BA pricing in line with market forces. Captive UK audience.

    However, more and more passengers are using ex-Europe fares, simply becasue of significant (up to 60%) savings.

    Instead of increasing the fares for the “captive UK audience” why not consider a fairer price sturcture to disuade UK passengers buying ex-Europe fares.

    This is one of the reasons why the carbon emmission programme is such a joke.

    **higher prices for direct prices = lower carbon emmissions

    **lower prices for indirect flights – yet a much larger carbon emmission footprint

    However Green/enviromentally friendly I may be, a lower ex-Europe fare wins hands down each time. So really all these market forces are really quite “un green”!

    Does anyone actually pay the Carbon emmission offset???


    Gin&Tonic
    Participant

    Will never pay the carbon offset as far as I am concerned that’s what the aviation tax should contribute to or am I being cynical when assuming the UK treasury actually invest a direct tax back into its source?


    Binman62
    Participant

    The reason fares are high ex LHR is that Heathrow is full and competition constrained.

    BA draws the majority of their UK passengers from a relatively small geographic area around LHR which just happens to also be the most affluent in Western Europe.
    Out with the M25, and certainly north of Birmingham / Manchester BA have almost no market share having abandoned the English regions, Scotland and Northern Ireland to others a long time ago

    Capacity to Scotland / English regions is predominantly point to point, and as I have noted just this week fares undercut rail by some margin. When did we ever think that would happen? EDI LON in 4.5 hours is highly competitive with air, in terms of time; with the result BA have to undercut fares.

    Having abandoned the UK in favour of London, (evidenced by complete lack of national advertising campaign for at last 3 years) BA has to use the capacity they have to from Europe to fill those seats that would otherwise go begging. This supports both their long haul operations and the point to point traffic to Europe. However they have to compete against major players who do not operate at capacity constrained airports and who in turn have to compete with Asian and Middle East carriers and the associated service levels they offer. As a result you see fares at levels they should be at here. You also see deals the like of which simply do not happen here such as Silver cards for 1 flight and mileage deals that far outstrip anything ever offered inn the UK. The same holds for the USA though there the deals tend be miles for credit cards in the hope BA can lift their profile.

    So it is supply and demand, but it is also artificial in that runway capacity, if improved would almost certainly bring greater competition and thus lower fares. Alliances have also not helped fares, they do allow for costs control and perhaps better integration of services but they do nothing for fares especially in F/J. Add to this mix the use by BA of 777 for long haul and in the near future Dream liner. The use of these aircraft also limits capacity particularly in M and WT+ but also to some extent in business (versus an A380 for example) and in turn allows BA to price more aggressively.

    It is not a situation that will alter any time soon and as a result forces passengers like me who are price sensitive premium travellers to look elsewhere. I have been a fan of BA for 25 years but the last 3 years have seen such a decline in service standards and such an increase in fare levels that they no longer offer value for money, from the UK. I have become a Euro cheat and a EU departure passenger as I wished to retain both status and miles. The latter is no longer a draw for me as the redemption opportunities have been very seriously eroded in the last 3 years also.

    As someone who travels predominantly now for leisure I am amazed that BA simply do not offer the sort of fares available ex Europe, ex the UK, but on a highly restricted basis. I know my flight to Hong Kong will have dozens of upgrades from M and WT+ to J and F both ex LHR and ex HKG in August. It happens every year and I have in the past benefited from it. Why then do they not offer better J class fares at the time of sale to what is clearly leisure traffic and who will take a flight on a specific date and time come hell of high water?

    At the end of the day it is their business and I have to decide if I will travel with them. Currently there is no compelling reason to do so and they do not currently offer this passenger value for money.


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    Splendid, Binman62.

    More seats for the rest of us!

    I still enjoy flying British Airways; the price point is often excellent value for money, and naturally we are free to purchase tickets in whatever market best suits our personal circumstances.

    http://www.newclubworld.com still represents a very solid offering, and especially so when combined with the 10% IAG Shareholder discount.

    £1250 rtn to Muscat is great value.


    Travellator
    Participant

    VK – Not at 3K return when sale price is about £ 2.5k

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