British Airways sale on vacation packages

Thanks, Lola. I played with the dates, nd found I wouldn't save any money, but could have a free rental car for week. That's Tulsa to Paris in May and June. $2450 each, for Premium Economy. If we needed a car it might work... But not really, and we don't need a car.

Sigh. Thanks for posting this, though. Somebody out there will find deal.

Don't be sceptical, those prices are genuine. I've taken several of those sale packages and they were excellent value for money.

Their flight and vehicle packages are great too. My most recent package worked out at 14 pence for the car for a week (I did several dummy bookings to determine the separate prices)!

I was just looking for someone else and actually found a nice deal in early September. Roundtrip from Kansas City ( via Chicago) and four nights in the very nice Rembrandt Hotel for $1500 per person. I believe the hotel alone would be almost $1000 for four nights, but I did not check.

Edit: the 4-star Rembrandt, booked direct on the hotel website, would be £1088 for the same four nights, or around $1389. Almost as much as the total cost of the package with flight and hotel. So it is a genuine deal.

I'm not clear on this, but it sounds as if two people buying that package from KC would pay about $3000. If the hotel could be booked for $1389, that means there's $1611 left over to pay for the two airline tickets. That may well be a deal from Kansas City, but I wouldn't call it a screaming bargain. But perhaps I'm misunderstanding the deal.

I am from Kansas City, and I would scream for an $800 fare.

Yes, it brings the airfare down to around $800 per person, for London in high season (early September), from an airport that apparently is normally more expensive.

The price for the flights alone on the BA website (same flights, same dates) is $1252.

Of course the package price is only a benefit if one is interested in a hotel with double room.

Saving over $400 per person in airfare is very worthwhile. I read carelessly and thought we were talking about travel during the winter rather than in September. That makes a great deal of difference.

I have only one experience with these British Air vacation packages and that was regarding a trip to Gibraltar. The sale was GREAT and I took advantage of it.

I'm on EasyJet's email list, and awhile back I received an advertisement for air/hotel package originating in London. They wouldn't meet my needs, but for someone who wants to combine time in London with a city escape elsewhere in Europe, I bet there are deals to be had.

BA used to offer a deal occasionally where Business Class was the same as or cheaper than Economy. Sigh.

BA used to offer a deal occasionally where Business Class was the same as or cheaper than Economy. Sigh.

They still do, in fact it's quite often I'll see business class prices similar to economy and that's not even during a sale. Last summer we bought first class seats on the return flight from Miami as they were only £100 each more than business.

I'm not sure of the reasons for the price fluctuations particularly as we buy our tickets pretty much a year in advance.

This happens as the commercial demand drops off in the height of summer whereas the leisure demand rises. You can even in rare occasions find business class cheaper than economy ...

Right now business class is a couple of hundred dollars more than Premium Economy. It is actually in our ability-to-pay range, at least on some select flights, but last year we flew Premium and were well pleased. Real food, free wine and beer, and sufficient leg room.

The added benefits of business over premium economy are the lay flat seats and lounge access. The lounges in Heathrow are excellent particularly British Airways and Virgin although I tried Cathay Pacific's this summer and I was impressed with that one, very quiet and serene.

US lounges aren't so great but better than nothing although the new AA Flagship lounge in Miami is very impressive and hopefully will become a benchmark for other American lounges.

For a couple of $100 long haul both these benefits are worth it to me.

Our "loyalty status" with BA gives us lounge privileges, as long as we're flying BA. We do like the lounges; we've had a couple of flight delays that were made tolerable by lounge access.

If Business Class is only $200 more than Premium Economy it would be well worth it. Those flat bed seats allow us to arrive rested and able to hit the ground running. We still have to adjust to the time change, but do not experience "travel fatigue."

Our "loyalty status" with BA gives us lounge privileges, as long as we're flying BA.

Your loyalty status with BA allows you access to any lounge in the OneWorld alliance irrespective of who you're flying with except those that are reserved for first class passengers such as The Concorde Room or with lifetime Gold status.

JC, are you sure? That's great news. I think I may have known that at one time, but forgot it when we started looking at AirFrance and KLM. Thanks for the reminder.

For anyone who is an AARP Member, British Airways is still offering a discount. The amount varies by cabin and has to be booked by Jan. 31st, 2019. Has anyone ever done this? They’ve had a variation of this offer that they’ve renewed annually, but it’s always a “wait and see” if they’ll renew.

JC, are you sure?

Yes, as long as you're silver or above (or equivalent). Bronze and Blue do not allow access if you're not flying at least business class.

We like to lounge hop, particularly at Heathrow, to see what's on offer and to move if one lounge is particularly busy.

Thanks, JC; yes, we're silver.

Patty, the AARP/BA discount doesn't cover all flights. We have used it in the past, but this year we have yet to find a flight with the discount that fits our needs. If we check our preferred flight through AARP, we get exactly the same total price as we do when we try BA directly. Oddly, the different legs of the same itinerary are different going through the different websites, but the total is the same.

Do check into it though; it saved us $200 a few years ago.

We got a pretty good price on British Airways last Monday night for an open jaw SEA-CDG, FCO-SEA so we just grabbed it while it still showed up on the computer. The layover on the return flight is only 1.5 hours at LHR, but it is their booking, so BA will get us home eventually. We still waiting for our EU refund from last summer’s flight delay, but lovely Christine has high hopes that it will process through this time. She telephoned personally, so that made me hopeful that it will finally happen.