(FARE WAR) Direct Virgin Atlantic Business Class to San Francisco £1086 Return!

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UPDATE: Direct flights now available with Virgin Atlantic for just £1,086:

Note that although the return flight is listed as Air France, that’s just because it’s a code share. In reality, it is a direct Virgin Atlantic flight.

I wrote about BA’s superb Business Class fares to New York yesterday (from £770 return!), but if you prefer the West Coast, there are great options direct from London. For example, you can fly Business Class to San Francisco with either British Airways or United from £1,174 return.

I know it says Finnair, but they are actually BA flights that Finnair codeshares on.

As usual, Google Flights tends to be the best place to start when trying to narrow down dates:

You should be able to find decent availability from January 2021 all the way through to July.

One you’ve whittled down your options, I would switch to Momondo to find the very cheapest fares.

Word of warning

The best airline fares can often be found through sites like Momondo, which send you to an Online Travel Agency (OTA) to book, rather than booking direct with the airline. Cheaper fares are great, but you should also consider the potential extra hassle of using an OTA, if your flight is cancelled or something else goes wrong. You can read about InsideFlyer contributor Craig’s experience here.

In general, I am personally happy to accept the risk of booking via an OTA, as long as the cost saving makes it worthwhile. That risk may not make sense for you though. Regardless, always use a credit card (ideally one with decent customer service) and make sure you have good travel insurance.

How many Avios/Miles would I earn?

If you booked British Airways flights and credited them to BA Executive Club, you would earn about 16,000 Avios (and 280 Tier Points).

A potentially better alternative though would be to credit the flights to Alaska Mileage Plan, where you would earn nearly 27,000 miles, worth ~£400.

Bottom line

Transatlantic travel may still seem like a bit of a pipe dream for many of us at the moment, but there are good reasons to think that COVID-19 vaccines might be widely available sometime in 2021.

Are you tempted to book travel for next year yet, or still waiting?

Hat tip: TravelingForMiles

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