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It’s been a while since there’s been a hot deal worth hopping on. No longer. British Airways and American Airlines have an absolutely fantastic sale for flights to London (and a few EU cities too) with the caveat that no one knows when the braintrust that be in Downing Street, will elect to free the public from the public.

All jokes aside, there’s $1280 to $1500 business class to London and beyond on sale right now, and that’s worth a punt, particularly with BA’s flexible cancellation policies. If you have AARP, which is available to any age, you can save an additional $200 per person on the fares already quoted.

Yes, a $1280 fare would be $1080, and all the $1500 fares would become $1300. All the info on saving $200 per ticket is easy, and registration for $10-12 which can instantly save $200 can be done in minutes, not hours.

Update: snooze you lose! These fare are now gone, and the new lowest prices are $1800 (or $1600 after discount) to Milan or Rome. No more London. GSTP Premium members ($25 per year) received these deals early last night with 12+ hours to book! Subscribe?

a seat in a plane

USA to Europe In Business Class

British Airways and American Airlines have some incredibly good fares to the UK, and also to a few European cities, alas on more limited dates. But let’s focus on London and the UK at large — Milan and even Santorini have some limited avail.

If you search on Google Flights, or British Airways (note: American flights are bookable, but only if you make the booking for AA flights via British Airways), you’ll find a wide open range of dates where business class is $1500 or less, even from the West Coast. That also means first class is just a mere 20,000 Avios upgrade away, in many cases.

Cities which definitely have $1500 or less include: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and Boston. Miami has select dates under $1300 to begin with, which makes for near $1000 round trips. Beat that?

a city with lights and bridges
Image by Pierre Blaché from Pixabay

Date Range

Depending on the departure city, you’ll either have from now until the end of September, or through the end of the year.

Keep in mind the UK has an intensive policy toward international travel right now, which is scheduled to be in effect until May 29th. It could be extended a bit longer, but recent data suggest it’s unlikely to be much longer.

Read as: May travel or earlier is going to be an issue, but from thereafter its anyone’s guess. Early fall, late summer or winter seems plausible to the max. Again, check the cxl policy before booking. That’s on you.

How To Book

You can book these fares directly with British Airways, at BritishAirways.com. Here’s an example of a bookable fare. If you want to use AARP discount, be sure to login first with AARP, then click the member benefit link to go to BA from there.

Again, if you’d like a refresher on how to trigger, or sign up for that $200 off AARP discount, head here and just focus on the steps, rather than the old fare. Here’s a Google Flights link which shows pricing from many cities.

Just change dates, or departure city to find your dream trip. And remember, those prices are pre AARP discount.

These should also be bookable via Amex Travel, Chase Travel and other providers. These allow you to use points to cover some, or all of a ticket, but the airline thinks you paid cash, so you earn full miles and elite status points accordingly.

Fingers crossed for your trip. If it works out, you’ll be feeling pretty jammy about sitting in business for less than many in economy paid for the trip! Oh! If you need reviews of the British Airways A350 Club Suites, or the newer 777 Club Suites, here, and here.

Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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8 Comments

  1. I didnt see any incremental benefit with AARP (they often dont overlay additional discount on already heavily discounted tickets), but a quick reminder that you CAN get additional 10% discount with the Chase BA card.

    1. Anyone seeing this still available? I was about to book a LHR trip last night when the pricing doubled. Checking multiple dates and gateway cities in US, but not seeing any availability for the fare any longer. Was it a mistake fare?

      1. It’s gone now, sadly. Not a mistake, but a limited appetite sale, where they want to clear a few seats, and our readers tend to clear them very fast!

  2. Have just trawled the BA site and there must be some other trick as the lowest round trip NYC to LON I can find is $3700. Can you provide more insights if there are any?

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