£1,000 business class fares to NYC are back (with restrictions) – is it a sign of market softness?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• BJ says:

  20 May20 May 05:47

  It’s a sign that it’s a low yield destination 🙂

• Etk says:

  20 May20 May 06:08

  Hopefully means that the ridiculous charges on reward seats will start coming down

  • BJ says:

    20 May20 May 06:29

    No, it doesn’t I’m afraid. With a reward seat you are buying fully flexible tickets for a minor ammendment fee, £35 in the case of BA.
    With these £1000 fares no changes or refunds are usually possible but when they are they come with hefty penalties. What might bring reward surcharges down is a drop in oil prices but even then don’t expect them to fall as quickly or as far as they rose.

    • Pb says:

      20 May20 May 07:05

      There has already been a substantial drop in oil prices , but I assume it will depend on how the airlines have hedged and even what the losses on those trades may be . Having said that much seems to have gone up and the sellers are very reluctant to give up the extra profit that they are now enjoying , increased overheads of course are an issue .

      • BJ says:

        20 May20 May 07:20

        I wouldn’t expect much of a drop if any tbh. Same with cost of living crisis and supermarket prices.

        EK and SQ have been paying their staff huge bonuses from those profits, I doubt IAG will follow them, preferring to keep it to themselves, but let’s see.

    • Paul says:

      20 May20 May 12:45

      Ha ha ha… the idea BA would ever voluntarily drop their rip off fees did make me laugh. Not even during covid!!

• James says:

  20 May20 May 07:19

  On the more recent few trips I have had to NYC this year, flights both ways have been cancelled, as has happened to colleagues. I get the sense airlines (particularly BA) are reducing the number of flights and consolidating passengers. When I did get on other flights, found the load to be exceptionally light. Turns out that when banks start limiting non-essential travel and when tourists need a mortgage to have lunch in Manhattan, demand for NYC-LON collapses.

  • Tim says:

    20 May20 May 12:46

    I imagine your examples are snapshots. Ticket prices have been historically high so the need to fill every seat is reduced, but on my several JFKs a month it has been very busy each time. BA have a shortage of long haul aircraft owing to retiring 35 of them in 2020. There is no consolidation of JFKs. There’s a consolidation of their entire network, including wet leasing or lending the routes out to American, because they simply don’t have enough hulls.

• The Savage Squirrel says:

  20 May20 May 07:29

  Business class cabins have pivoted to a greater proportion of leisure travel post 2020. Is this a sign that current US $ strength and US pricing for, well, everything, is putting the UK/European leisure traveller off the USA?
  I have always been a fan and modestly frequent leisure visitor of the USA but am now disinclined until/unless points balances allow me to at least cover accommodation costs, simply because so much better is available elsewhere for the same cost.

  • jj says:

    20 May20 May 07:44

    I also suspect that this is about the attraction of NYC as a leisure destination.

    It’s purely anecdotal, but friends and colleagues are reluctant to travel to the USA right now due to the outrageous cost of hotels, bars and restaurants. And, post pandemic, NYC is seen as a much less attractive destination, with boarded-up shops, mass closure of interesting independent businesses, ubiquitous public drug use, widespread homelessness, and a general air of squalor.

    Why pay through the nose to eat in a chain restaurant with addicts sleeping on the sidewalk outside? Other choices are available.

    • SamG says:

      20 May20 May 07:49

      Agree. So I imagine at off peak times for business demand e.g. Tue/Wed there is excess capacity in the front cabins

      We’ve also steered a couple of events away from NYC due to high costs – they’d have generated ~100 international J seats of travel. If that is being replicated then that’ll eventually have an impact

      • jj says:

        20 May20 May 07:59

        Just checked the data on nyctourism.com. international visitors to NYC in 2022 were more than 30% down on 2019, the final year unaffected by the pandemic. Brits are the biggest international visitors, higher even than Canadians.

    • Jonny says:

      20 May20 May 08:11

      I totally agree about prices becoming ridiculous in NYC ($17 + tax + tip for a glass of house wine in every bar!)

      But I have no idea what NYC you’re visiting when you talk of squalor and chain restaurants. Have you been spending all your time in midtown?

      • GM says:

        20 May20 May 19:17

        I mean, I’ve only been there 4 times since May 2022 (with another coming up), but definitely don’t recognise that disaster of a city description. There are some changes, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same lovable chaos.
        The prices, however, I agree with. SO expensive for everything, and the tipping culture has become even more out of control.

    • Rob says:

      20 May20 May 09:24

      Whilst NYC was noticeably a bit of mess in May 2022 when I was there, two subsequent visits (last October and last month) showed things pretty much back to ‘normal’, especially in terms of getting a large proportion of the homeless off the streets.

      • executiveclubber says:

        20 May20 May 09:37

        What a truly vulgar thing to say

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      20 May20 May 10:19

      I’ve never seen any public drug use on any of my visits to Manhattan pre and post pandemic. If anything there are fewer on the streets now.

      But I also see homeless people on the streets here in sunny Brighton where I also see some closed up chain and independent shops and litter as well.

      • jj says:

        20 May20 May 11:12

        Maybe it’s improving. I hope so, as I certainly wish the city well. But when I last visited just over a year ago, I saw public drug use every day and the whole city stank of cannabis. We walked about 30,000 steps a day, though, and saw a lot of places.

        As for Brighton, it’s reputation is well known and is certainly a deterrent for visitors.

        • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

          20 May20 May 15:15

          still one of the post popular visitor destinations in the country.

          It’s not perfect but like NYC it’s not the cess pit some try and make it out to be.

  • Gordon says:

    20 May20 May 08:11

    I have mentioned this before so apologies for repeating myself, As there is talk on here about the ridiculous cost in the US now, Just an example, I toured the west coast for 3 weeks last month, Prices were crazy everywhere, In Las Vegas as well as the $50 pn resort fees, there were 2 litre bottles of Fuji spring water in the rooms for $25, The exact same bottle was in walgreens on the strip were $3? There used to be liquor on the weight sensors in the rooms but now it’s water? Bigger mark up I guess, Obviously also a mini bar under the counter which I was too scared to open, Another example is a club sandwich at LAX for $16.50. Traveling east is the best cost effective option for now it seems.

    • Chris R says:

      20 May20 May 09:05

      Not long back from Vegas. A coffee in Starbucks was $9 + tax. Practically £10 for a coffee! I know there’s a Vegas premium on stuff, but this is ludicrous.

      • Paul says:

        20 May20 May 12:54

        Honolulu hotel and eating out costs were sky high for what was a very mediocre offering. A black coffee in Starbucks was over $7 plus tax and of course they want a 15% tip. Steak dinners well north of $100 and a meal in the olive garden, 1 main, 2 drinks 1 desert was $100 plus tax and tip.
        A small Grannery loaf was $12 on big island and a Costco pineapple grown in Hawaii was $3:50. In Tesco they come from Costa Rica and cost 95p.
        I know some BA crew who won’t leave their hotels in Denver Seattle or NYC as they don’t feel safe!!!

        • David says:

          20 May20 May 14:29

          You’ve posted this same comment before.

        • Gordon says:

          20 May20 May 15:16

          I believe he has, But why point that out, Comments police?

  • ATP says:

    20 May20 May 08:50

    +1. We came back from NYC in April feeling substantially poorer than we expected. We cancelled our (avios) flights to USA in September and have now booked Thailand instead. The £ still goes substantially further in Asia, not to mention service is radically better.

    The St. Regis New York wanted a ridiculous $400pn extra to give us twin beds instead of king. Thankfully they relented in the end.

    • Gordon says:

      20 May20 May 09:42

      Yes agree, I am returning to Thailand in a couple of years, I love the place. I am still waiting for a refund from Thai airways for a cancellation from covid, Fingers crossed.
      See attached for an update this week for anyone in the same situation.

      “Regarding your ticket number ****************
      Please kindly be informed that we acknowledged that your ticket is holding
      on to the refund process. However, we would like to inform you that, since
      Thai Airways has stepped into the rehabilitation proceedings since 2020,
      THAI will process the refund in sequential order by no later than 31 March 2024
      as scheduled within the time frame in accordance with the business rehabilitation plan.

      Please note that the refund can be exchanged to travel vouchers value as paid.
      The travel voucher will be issued to ticket holders which can be used as part
      of payment for next booking on THAI Airways or Thai Smile flight, valid through
      31 December 2023. If you would like to get the travel voucher for next travelling,
      please feel free letting us know again for further assistance”

• masaccio says:

  20 May20 May 07:55

  Meanwhile flights to the Caribbean…

  • Gordon says:

    20 May20 May 08:15

    Yes, 12 days until my flight to Dominican Republic at a reasonable cost? That’s far enough away from the US for me not to worry about becoming bankrupt, Even though it’s an AI property.

  • Chris W says:

    20 May20 May 09:45

    DR and Mexico are about the only affordable destinations in the carribean once you are there though.

    Barbados is very expensive even if you get a cheap flight.

    • Rob H not Rob says:

      20 May20 May 15:02

      Likewise Bahamas.

    • Londonsteve says:

      21 May21 May 09:36

      Don’t forget Cuba. The largest and by far most interesting island.

      • Gordon says:

        21 May21 May 10:26

        Have to be carful with Cuba, If you visit it will flag up and you could get refused entry to the US.

• Dan says:

  20 May20 May 08:07

  Why take this when I can use avios plus £1000s in taxes?

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    20 May20 May 10:22

    Not everyone has (or even collects) avios!

    • Peter K says:

      20 May20 May 11:15

      I think Dan was being sarcastic.

• Matarredonda says:

  20 May20 May 08:40

  About time the rip off fares came down with many airlines reporting record profits not before time.
  Hopefully hotel prices will follow the same trend soon

• mart says:

  20 May20 May 08:51

  USA is getting ridiculous for everything
  Actually makes Dubai our go to place now feels cheap in comparison

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.