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

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Whilst a lot of people in the travel business are being very bullish about continued high prices for 2023, it is very clear that nervousness is creeping in for the Autumn and beyond.

The current British Airways sale has New York return flights from London for £1,296 albeit with limited travel dates.

JetBlue has been offering a similar fare from Gatwick recently, with decent availability from September.

Skyteam cheap flights uk to new york business class

SkyTeam has now popped out the first £1,000ish return to New York we’ve seen since the pandemic. Admittedly it is from Inverness, and so benefits from the lack of Air Passenger Duty, but it’s a sign of something.

For an extra £240 you can made this fare fuly refundable.

Pay £150-£250 more and you can book these fares from London or other UK airports.

Do you really want to lock in a New York trip for Jan-March 2024 now? Probably not, unless you’re looking for a cheap way to earn or keep Virgin Flying Club status.

It’s one of the signs that deals are creeping back though.

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Comments (94)

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

  • sam says:
    20 May20 May 08:51

    This is the reason i keep holding off from visiting NYC.
    I have a VA companion voucher which meant to sweeten the deal but it doesn’t feel like a big saving.

    For 2x UC tickets. it cost 115 points and a massive £2k in taxes.

    While i understand the extra perks of flexibility of tickets, it still doesn’t feel like a great deal to be proud about.

    • James C says:
      20 May20 May 09:56

      And not least at those reward prices you’re spending £3150 (£1150 worth of points plus £2k in fees) to buy two seats which you could pick up for £1k each on a revenue basis on by starting in INV.

  • BC8 says:
    20 May20 May 09:01

    Next, if anyone could drop the business class prices / release some award seats to Australia near Christmas, that would be great. Why my sister had to get married near peak Christmas season, I’ll never know! Only thing I can think of at the moment is Qatar double avios rewards, pretty terrible use of miles, but still better than the outrageous cash price.

    • Rob says:
      20 May20 May 09:21

      Not a terrible use of Avios on that basis 🙂

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      20 May20 May 10:10

      +1. The best use of points is always for something you really want/need!

    • NorthernLass says:
      20 May20 May 10:16

      Have you tried searching a) from the regions and/or b)with a companion voucher?

    • Harry T says:
      20 May20 May 10:45

      Qatar availability is generally pretty good, have you tried tweaking your departing UK airport or starting from a nearby European airport like DUB, which has the added benefit of less taxes? You could also fly into, say, Melbourne instead of Sydney, and use Avios on QF for the short hop between the cities. We had no issues finding two seats to MEL from EDI for next January (peak season), so I’m optimistic you can find something with a little tweaking and/or patience.

    • Paul says:
      20 May20 May 12:32

      If you have Amex membership reward points try looking at Delta partner rewards ex AMS CDG FRA and Rome. 90,000 one way. I did this last December for literally flights just 36 hours later for a funeral. To get home try Going via Bali on a one way then cash fares ex DPS on CX and SQ TK or QR for about £1500-£2000 one way J. The overall cost then stays below £3K
      You may have to overnight in DPS but that’s not a hardshipgood luck

  • tony says:
    20 May20 May 09:01

    Just to add to the chorus here I’m confident this is a US specific issue and not one that reflects wider demand.

    However interesting to note a general culling of Air Asia flights around SE Asia this summer messing up my travel plans a bit.

    • SamG says:
      20 May20 May 13:59

      That is standard form for them, sell a quite fictional schedule and then cancel a chunk of it nearer the time. Can be a pain indeed

      • tony says:
        20 May20 May 15:15

        Ok thanks for that. Never used them before but no choice on this trip. Our tour agent made a similar comment when I mailed last night to ask again about changes! We are just a couple of months out now so I am hopeful it’s all locked down.

  • Chris W says:
    20 May20 May 09:45

    NYC is freezing cold in those months and eye wateringly expensive.

    Leisure travelers are staying away hence cheaper flights

    • the_real_a says:
      20 May20 May 12:32

      The costs are out of hand to the point of feeling scammed. Last years visit was the last for a while.

  • NorthernLass says:
    20 May20 May 10:23

    Agree totally with the comments about US pricing and hope they are starting to realise there how much this is putting off tourists! My current strategy is to use HH points for the nicer Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn properties which generally offer free parking and no resort fees as well as still having a genuinely free breakfast option!
    Planning to visit NYC next year and fly home from EWR but we’ll stay in CT and maybe make 1 or 2 day trips into the city for museums and theatre.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    20 May20 May 11:00

    Over the last few weeks, the last week in particular, Secret Flying has been finding loads of flight deals across many airlines, that’s how I booked Mauritius

  • Judge says:
    20 May20 May 11:46

    Interesting to see such reasonable fares re-emerging on fully flat intercontinental flights, when it is a struggle to find sub-£1000 Club Europe flights to many European destinations at the moment, e.g. Italy or Greece. Even economy is often over £500-600. And no hope of Avios availability to rescue you from these prices. Then once you are there, hotel prices are completely crazy, often 2-3 times (or more) than just 5 years ago. What chance of this ludicrous pricing changing? What’s driving it? Pent up demand from rich Asians and Americans? Europeans certainly aren’t suddenly richer, quite the opposite, and let’s not get started on us Brits.

    • Harry T says:
      20 May20 May 11:54

      If you’re looking at Europe flights in July and August, it’s probably normally to see very high fares at this stage. It’s peak season and many will have booked in advance due to school holidays etc. I agree that hotel prices have gone completely bananas since the world “opened up”. I hope we see this demand tail off soon. I suspect savings that some people accumulated during covid will be running out.

      Regarding Avios availability, it almost always pops up last minute (around 24 hours out or a bit earlier). So, depending on your personal flexibility, you should be able to get seats very close in.

      Personally, I’m glad I travelled a lot during covid and built up healthy hotel and air miles balances, as the covid cash pricing was excellent and now I can burn the points during the era of revenge travel…

  • Judge says:
    20 May20 May 12:09

    Late summer and outside school holidays, but same story. It amazes me that many hotels are almost or completely sold out at these rates. As you suggest, there surely isn’t a bottomless pit of savings, hopefully pricing will become more reasonable in the next couple of years.

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