TransAtlantic Crusing & The Cost To Fly

I needed to buy a one way Toronto-Rome for my inlaws last fall.

The prices were all in the 1000. range. I got them a one way BA ticket from Cheapoair for $560. I thought that was a fair deal. Would not normally deal with this consolidator but BA had numerous flights to LHR and on to Rome so the risk was low.

I've posted before, but here's a list of potential options for one way flights from carriers that will sell you a one-way discounted ticket

 

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We are taking a TA cruise next April 21st, on Celebrity ,sixteen days with 3 or 4 days stay over in London. My question is at what point do we start looking for one way flights back to Calif. from London? And is one airlines better then the other, probably fly premium eco. or business class. Have back issues and need the leg room I'm 6'4.

We are taking a TA cruise next April 21st, on Celebrity ,sixteen days with 3 or 4 days stay over in London. My question is at what point do we start looking for one way flights back to Calif. from London? And is one airlines better then the other, probably fly premium eco. or business class. Have back issues and need the leg room I'm 6'4.

Are you looking to pay cash or use miles for this flight?

One other factor is that the UK has a very high departure tax (Air Passenger Duty) that is added to ticket prices. (The rate is twice as high for premium cabins as for economy.) You can avoid this by flying home from some other European country, even if you change planes in London without stopping over. Sometimes it's actually cheaper all in to fly to, say, Paris or Amsterdam, and fly from there, or fly from London to some European city (e.g. Madrid) and cross the pond from there, since the APD is much less for departures from the UK to other European destinations.

Probably us credit card or cash undecided at this time because we are flying with another couple. I know he will want to fly business class. Couple of years ago flew Air France to Calif. and I had lots of leg room in business class.

Base upon what you are saying flying to another European city is do able, for our return to Calif.

Only a couple of airlines have "true" premium economy between the UK and USA, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Probably us credit card or cash undecided at this time because we are flying with another couple.

If you want to fly premium economy, then Air New Zealand (as I noted above) may well be perfect for you. True discounted one-way fares from LHR to LAX in the premium economy cabin as well as in economy.

Don't let the APD issue drive your decision-making. We're not talking about that much money: £138 for premium economy, business or first class. The difference in fare between different fares or airlines' fares, or the different airlines' surcharges on different routes, can make amount of APD immaterial to your decision-making.

In addition, you can't avoid the long-haul rate of APD by flying LHR-XXX-LAX on one ticket. To benefit from the lower short-haul rate, you would have to split this into a purchase of two separate tickets, with all the additional risks that involves (primarily misconnection risks, but sometimes you can't through-check bags on two separate tickets).

The real benefit of including a European city in your routing is to get the benefit of lower fares on XXX-LHR-LAX compared with LHR-LAX fares. Lower fares, together with the APD saving, can then add up to a lot. But you then do have to pay extra to fly LHR-XXX. And you have to fly LHR-XXX-LHR-LAX to get the benefit of all of this, and you may think that's too much hassle compared with just flying LHR-LAX even if it's a bit more expensive.

Thank you for all the information. I will share with my friend and since time is on our side we will keeping watch over fares.

We are coming home from England this summer on the Queen Mary. Cunard is charging us $310 to fly from JFK to London. We are coming home from Italy in November on Celebrity's "Silhouette". "X" is charging us $350 Logan (Boston) to Rome. I could not get anything close to those fares booking on my own.

I'm adding this to my above post. I inquired about upgrading to business class. It would cost us MORE for a 9 hr flight then it is costing us for a "Concierge Class" veranda cabin for 15 days! It'll be rough...but I think we can endure sitting in economy.

We are coming home from England this summer on the Queen Mary. Cunard is charging us $310 to fly from JFK to London. We are coming home from Italy in November on Celebrity's "Silhouette". "X" is charging us $350 Logan (Boston) to Rome. I could not get anything close to those fares booking on my own.

Great prices.