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Seattle to London flight in December Prices

I am wondering if $1200 RT economy per person is reasonable these days. We are flying during the holidays. I've been watching and waiting for a month now and the prices stay close to this.
Anyone traveled within the last six months pay this much? Is this average rate these days?
I am using Kayak and hoping to fly British Air, but will fly other carrier if direct flight and price is right.
Feedback appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Posted by
11027 posts

Buy ticket from the airline

With oil prices rocketing up, i would lock in the fare now before surcharges are added or rates go up more to account for the increasing fuel costs

My $0.03 ( 2 cents adjusted for inflation)

Posted by
330 posts

Have you considered Icelandair SEA to LGW (London Gatwick) for your dates? While it’s not a non-stop flight, considering the other options out of Seattle, if you’re flying main cabin, it can be a cost effective alternative. We’ve flown that route before and it’s what I would consider an easy 90 minute layover in KEF (Keflavik) in Reykjavik, Iceland. And, at the time, we felt that the savings was worth the inconvenience of a connection.

That said, I understand that not everyone enjoys the beehive of activity at KEF with the huge early morning shuffle of arriving and departing flights. I’ve seen others on this forum describe it as chaotic with no place to sit. We just thought it was very busy and crowded for such a small airport, but well organized.

And, I agree with Joe32F, the collective wisdom here is to look on the aggregators, but book directly with the airline.

Posted by
4495 posts

A nonstop regular economy American Airlines flight on the Alaska Airlines website is $1030. Use Google.com/flights to select the fare and dates and then pick "purchase on the Alaska Airlines website" at the bottom of the page. It will roll over to Alaska.com with the ticket fields populated and ready for purchase. If you already have an account at Alaska.com login first before searching. You may be able to find this fare just searching on Alaska.com but I wouldn't bet on it and there is no advantage in doing so. AA.com is offering this flight at $1080 but AFAIK there is no advantage to booking an airline ticket on an airline's website vs a partner airline's website.

Delta is offering basic economy nonstops at $1000 on their website, $1150 regular economy.

I am actually having to work to find fares as high as you state straddling Christmas Day. Yes, one airline will consistently be 20% higher than another on the same itinerary, sometimes for years. If you are waiting for fare parity where BA will cost the same as others it may not happen.

Adding that I see you posted this query in February and another poster pointed you toward American as being cheaper. Seems that I have wasted my time.

Posted by
26829 posts

I've bought several transatlantic tickets on United's website for flights on European carriers). Those were regular Economy tickets, not Basic Economy. The disadvantage is that in some cases it's difficult or even impossible to select a seat more than 24 hours before departure time. I've always been able to get a plain-vanilla aisle seat anyway, so I'll continue to do this if it saves $50 or so. (I also have a United credit card.)

Posted by
4495 posts

acraven: Normally European airlines charge for transatlantic seat selection so even if you had booked on say Lufthansa or Swiss then you wouldn't be eligible for free seats before 24 hours anyway. Saying that as a SkyTeam person without experience with those airlines transatlantic.

Sometimes I wonder if the forum should be split between the Delta SkyTeam people and the United Star Alliance people because the advice is not always mutually applicable, only half joking.

Posted by
16024 posts

The only American Airlines non-stop flights from Seattle to London are on British Airways planes (with an AA flight number). That low price is for “Basic Economy”: no changes allowed, no free checked bags, board last.

For Main Cabin on the same flights, it is $1206, the same as the price quoted on the BA website. This fare has change fees, but you can make changes. One free checked bag per person.

For either class, whether you book on AA or BA, you will have an additional fee if you want to choose your seats early, before online check-in time. At that time, if you haven’t paid to choose early, you will be automatically assigned seats, but you can change for free to any seats still available.

Posted by
4495 posts

The only American Airlines non-stop flights from Seattle to London are on British Airways planes (with an AA flight number). That low price is for “Basic Economy”: no changes allowed, no free checked bags, board last.

No, it’s regular coach on American Airlines. The BA flight leaves an hour earlier.

I don’t know when it starts but there is an American Airlines nonstop running in December (there is also a Delta nonstop and a Virgin Atlantic nonstop— 4 nonstops to Heathrow on different airlines). Looks like American is cashing in on the Alaska Airlines hub, ditto Virgin Atlantic cashing in on the Delta hub.

7:30 PM
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Travel time: 9 hr 40 minOvernight
1:10 PM+1
Heathrow Airport (LHR)
American AA 156
Economy
Boeing 787
Ticket also sold by Alaska, Finnair, British Airways, Iberia

Posted by
16024 posts

Tom, you are right. That AA flight did not show up when I looked at prices for December on the AA website. Just the two on BA that I know as BA 52 and BA 48 (our usual flight). I don’t think AA156 existed a couple of years ago—-I have not seen an AA plane at the international terminal at SeaTac (S gates) when we’ve been there for the BA flight departing just 2 gates away. But SeaTac recently finished an expansion of their international flight capacity, so maybe this new AA flight is the result.