Strategy for a family of 5

[smckay]

I’m planning travel for 2023 and 2024 that involves long haul in CW. Initially I had planned to generate 2x 241 between me and my wife and then pay for a ticket for one of the kids. However, looking at the ‘taxes’ to USA at £800 per ticket I am starting to think an ex-EU routing might be better.

Anyone got recent experience of family long haul travel and their approach?

[The Savage Squirrel]

Depends on your own resources in terms of cash, Avios and time. Also depends on the differential between cash fares and Avios on your preferred route, remembering that Avios have a floor value of 0.8p via Nectar. Also depends on where you want to go and Avios seat availability – particularly with 4 seats required.

Don’t discount premium economy. I’ve seen east coast USA flights where econ was £700, PE was £850 and Biz was £4K. What does it make sense to book there? (particularly as that was Virgin so PE a step above BA)

However the number one factor is that your family is likely considerably less enthusiastic than you are about flying strange (to them) routings and also spending several additional hours sitting round in airports. This applies x10 if your family is quite young. Likely still very much worth it if it’s the difference between sitting in economy and Biz class to Australia. Not so much if it’s to east coast USA.

[NorthernLass]

Are the kids school age? If so, even paying BA’s ridiculous surcharges looks cheap compared to the price of school holiday travel! We usually manage to get 2/3 weeks in the Caribbean travelling in CW and staying in a very nice condo for the price of a fortnight in the Med in the summer by using avios and a 241.

[dougzz99]

It really is different for each person. One thing I would offer is not all ex-EU trips are the same. Going to Sofia for an extra 80TP is very different to a quick turnaround in Paris or Amsterdam. My own view of the most comfortable and leisurely ex-EU is going to Dublin, and taking the AA flight to Philadelphia or Dallas and connecting from there. Not returning to Heathrow feels less of a drag, and in Dublin you can pre-clear (USA border in Dublin) so you arrive in US as a domestic passenger, may that be a plus for a family of 5 in terms of stress reduction.
I think the new 241 vouchers can start in Dublin too, although these require BA metal so you’d be returning to London initially, although the tax/charges saving would be significant. I’m sure there’s a thread from someone that recently booked something like this with a big saving.

Look here https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/great-savings-via-dublin/

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .

[PGW]

Each to their own of course but flying to Dublin and then returning to London to take a transatlantic flight in BA CW doesn’t make a lot of sense to me when I can fly direct from DUB on AA or EI and save many hours of travel. I prefer to take the short direct Economy/PE flight from DUB to the East coast of the US with pre-clearance over spending avios, cash and extra journey time on a CW/F trip involving connecting at LHR and going through US Immigration at the end of the journey.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

Whether to do ex-EU very much depends on your family – age etc

I’m quite happy to do them because I’m a solo flyer so don’t have the same eencumbrances as others.

If your family like flying and won’t get too fractions then I would suggest flying to the ex-EU departure point the day before and stay over night and start your long haul trip the next day.

Doing back to backs is easier at some airports than others.

For example at AMS you get off the plane and you’re in the gate area – no security or immigration worries. At others such as DUB you need to do both and that can take time.

There is a very good back to back / turnaround thread on the flyer talk BA board

What you need to do is spend some time doing the calaculations as to whether going ex-EU is indeed a lot cheaper than ex UK direct and include the cost of the positioning flights and hotel(s) as well.

If both those vouchers are in your name then I’d put your wife on the cash ticket (not only will she then earn some avios and TPs) it will stop any issues with having a minor child on a separate booking.

[NorthernLass]

It sounds like OP intends to use 1 x 241 for him plus child, 1 x 241 for wife and child and book a cash seat for the remaining child. I agree this might cause issues – my teenager was on a separate ticket when we went to BOS recently as we had to change plans and take him with us at the last minute. There were no issues on the outbound but on the return he couldn’t check in online and we were told that this was because he was ostensibly an unaccompanied minor.

[memesweeper]

I would not put an under 16 on their own ticket. BA will require you to phone up just to book it. Any changes or complications will be murder.

Don’t forget you can put three or four passengers on a booking with a single companion voucher. One companion passenger is ‘free’ in terms of Avios, the others are charged normal pricing.

Although Club is nice PE isn’t as bad as all that, especially not on a “short” daytime long haul like US east coast.

[The real Swiss Tony]

Are you also overlooking the buy PE and upgrade to Club route? For TATL the extra YQ is I believe £100 and the APD is the same for both cabins. You’re then only paying c. 20k miles each per leg upgraded.

However I just looked at 2 J seats to Singapore using a 2-4-1. It was 175k Avios and £1550 in tax. So in round numbers that’s £2k a head, which is par for the course on Swiss with far broader availability. Be a bit more generous with the Avios valuations and you’re looking at it being in line with QR prices.

As a parent of three, we now use Avios for short haul and pick up the long hauls either UUA or buying astutely on whoever offers the best deal.

[NorthernLass]

memesweeper wrote:

I would not put an under 16 on their own ticket. BA will require you to phone up just to book it. Any changes or complications will be murder.

Don’t forget you can put three or four passengers on a booking with a single companion voucher. One companion passenger is ‘free’ in terms of Avios, the others are charged normal pricing.

Although Club is nice PE isn’t as bad as all that, especially not on a “short” daytime long haul like US east coast.

True – if you have enough avios you could make 1 booking for 2 pax and another booking for 3. This would also improve your chances of being seated together unless you’re going to fork out even more for BA’s seat charges (or are Gold/Silver)!

*Obviously you’d need a route with 5 CW tickets but if you’re flexible on destination this should be possible. NYC is your best friend here, especially if you’re open to flying out in CW and returning on the very short flight in PE or Y (on the day flight if you can get it).

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .

[smckay]

Thank you all, lots of great feedback. PE is very much an option I will explore.

[BuildBackBetter]

The new voucher has been incredible for us. Wanted to do a late booking for Dec and alarmed when Seatspy showed zero availability. When searching after selecting new voucher, I was able to book the tickets with no issues.