Have I missed anything??

A colleague and I need to pop to San Francisco in January (13th - 17th) and have gotten used to booking Ex-EU tickets to save substantial amounts of money. However, on this occasion I've searched everywhere I can think of and haven't been able to find a decent deal.

Booking direct with Virgin I get:

Upper Class: VS19 out/VS20 back £2,728.15

The cheapest I can find Ex-EU is: £2,803.74

I've tried Expedia, Hipmunk, Google flights and have searched for Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels, Helsinki.

Is there anything else I can try searching? Would be good to find a good deal, otherwise I think we'll probably just book PE direct with Virgin instead.

Thanks in advance for any tips

Not even BA/AA is cheap on those dates... I don't recall early January being within the type of times for the ex-Dub ones to apply, and even at that VS isn't often matching them, and the pound being flushed away fairy stories doesn't help...

However, if you feel an adventure coming on, the highly rated Turkish Airlines is offering £1515 via Istanbul, 4.5 hours to Istanbul, 13 or 19 hour layover and a near 14 hour flight to SFO in the end. Good job people seem to rate their business class quite highly then!

Actually, I didn't put your specific dates in, so not completely sure if that price is right...

Weirdly the Lingus is £1900 quid from Amsterdam via Dublin. Their business class from Dublin to SFO, is well, variable so I've read, with the cabin staff having the perchance of hiding once the food run is done, but you never can tell from online reviews.

Not even BA/AA is cheap on those dates... I don't recall early January being within the type of times for the ex-Dub ones to apply, and even at that VS isn't often matching them, and the pound being flushed away fairy stories doesn't help...

However, if you feel an adventure coming on, the highly rated Turkish Airlines is offering £1515 via Istanbul, 4.5 hours to Istanbul, 13 or 19 hour layover and a near 14 hour flight to SFO in the end. Good job people seem to rate their business class quite highly then!

Actually, I didn't put your specific dates in, so not completely sure if that price is right...

I did notice that Turkish Airlines was coming up with very competitive prices on most searches, and was actually tempted given what I've heard about their onboard product, as well as the Istanbul lounge. However the 30+ hour travel time is just a bit too much for me!

I did notice that Turkish Airlines was coming up with very competitive prices on most searches, and was actually tempted given what I've heard about their onboard product, as well as the Istanbul lounge. However the 30+ hour travel time is just a bit too much for me!

Sadly, that's just the way it goes. From what I've seen it's a period which is kind of excluded up to closer the time. I've personally done a Dub->BA1->LAS run on the 8th January a few years ago, so the time isn't complete excluded, but that was from an October/November sale...

As the prices currently are, it doesn't sound as if you're getting a bargain for PE at the current moment either. So perhaps hold back booking with hope of a sale?

I did notice that Turkish Airlines was coming up with very competitive prices on most searches, and was actually tempted given what I've heard about their onboard product, as well as the Istanbul lounge. However the 30+ hour travel time is just a bit too much for me!

Sadly, that's just the way it goes. From what I've seen it's a period which is kind of excluded up to closer the time. I've personally done a Dub->BA1->LAS run on the 8th January a few years ago, so the time isn't complete excluded, but that was from an October/November sale...

As the prices currently are, it doesn't sound as if you're getting a bargain for PE at the current moment either. So perhaps hold back booking with hope of a sale?

Thanks for the tips! I think I'll hold off for a little bit and hope for a sale. Any idea when a sale usually hits?

There's quite often a sale in Oct/Nov, instigated by BA in an attempt to fill its J cabins over the otherwise quiet Christmas period when business travel all but dries up.

Having said that it does seem that the sub-£900 East Coast and £1200 West Coast ex-DUB fares that were commonplace a year ago are now a distant memory.

There's quite often a sale in Oct/Nov, instigated by BA in an attempt to fill its J cabins over the otherwise quiet Christmas period when business travel all but dries up.

Having said that it does seem that the sub-£900 East Coast and £1200 West Coast ex-DUB fares that were commonplace a year ago are now a distant memory.

My best so far this year has been LA for c£1100 (April) and Chicago for c£850 (August), so there are still deals to be had

True, that ORD flash sale (to compete with UA I think) was a very good deal.

LA for £1100 was well before the Brexit vote and subsequent hit on the £ though.

Hopefully we'll continue to see some decent ex-EU sale fares but compared to last year, when NYC was routinely around the £1200 mark even outside a sale, things have changed.

[honey lamb]

Weirdly the Lingus is £1900 quid from Amsterdam via Dublin. Their business class from Dublin to SFO, is well, variable so I've read, with the cabin staff having the perchance of hiding once the food run is done, but you never can tell from online reviews.

Obviously Aer Lingus is using the ex-EU trick to woo people away from BA, VS, KLM and AF Good on them!

I've flown Aer Lingus to SFO (as well as to JFK and ORD) in Business and have found their product to be very good. As you will see in my TR, I went with no great expectation, especially as I had flown several other carriers in J as well as VS and I was pleasantly surprised. I certainly never experienced the cabin crew hiding after the meal service and indeed when the staff designated for J went on their mandatory crew rest, others from the main cabin came to look after the cabin.

Since that flight, the J cabin has been configured and now has alternate rows of 1-2-1, 1-2-2 flat-bed seats so that couples can sit together unlike the UC cabin.

There are way less deals this year than I have previously seen. Last year in August we booked Vegas in June for £1,100 with wide availability, this year I haven't seen one deal to West coast from anywhere for close to this price for next summer yet... but I am hoping but I think this loophole has been tightened up significantly especially on routes back via the UK.

There are way less deals this year than I have previously seen. Last year in August we booked Vegas in June for £1,100 with wide availability, this year I haven't seen one deal to West coast from anywhere for close to this price for next summer yet... but I am hoping but I think this loophole has been tightened up significantly especially on routes back via the UK.

Why would they want to tighten it though? Most UC flights I take still have empty seats, even with Ex-EU seats being sold so cheaply. In fact I know of a couple of people who only fly UC because they can get a cheap Ex-EU deal. Surely for Virgin it's a great way of selling seats they might not otherwise have sold, without overtly devaluing the product?

I don't buy the argument that customers will be getting cheap tickets instead of paying full price. If you can afford the full price, or if a company is paying for your tickets, it's very unlikely you're going to go through all the extra time & hassle just to save a bit of money.

Ex-EU, in my opinion, opens them up to a customer base that simply wouldn't be buying tickets at the full price, and in this economy that's a good thing. Look at how Emirates is now talking about unbundling their business class product, so they can sell cheap seats that won't offer any of the ground services that usually come with it.

Edit: If anyone's interested in reading the comments from Tim Clark (Emirates CEO): http://bit.ly/2cirWct.

For the specific comments on Business Class scroll down to the question "Is it possible you might focus on selling discounted business class seats instead?"

I don't think there's been any tightening - the ex-EU fares are still there but for UK customers they've mainly gone up because of the change in value of the £ since the Brexit vote.

Remember fares are calculated in the currency of the country where you start your journey, so for DUB or AMS it's the €. 12 months ago a €1500 fare cost £1100, now it's £1300.

I don't think there's been any tightening - the ex-EU fares are still there but for UK customers they've mainly gone up because of the change in value of the £ since the Brexit vote.

Remember fares are calculated in the currency of the country where you start your journey, so for DUB or AMS it's the €. 12 months ago a €1500 fare cost £1100, now it's £1300.

While true, I don't think this is what he's referring to. The typical ex-Dub to US one has a general fare of £1500 now, which would have been £1300, however, his complaint is that they are all £2900 quid. I'm no expert on such fares, but I did know that some times of the year sell out anyway... Could be that. Could be a busy weekend for SF (isn't it MLK day around then? Presidential inaugeration? Not sure what effect that has).

Plugging more west coast ones in, I notice BA etc do do 3-4th of Jan cheaply to LAX at £1550, so there do seem some hotspots of ex-Dub cheapness still in place, so more likely to be outside the typical period, and SFO not being on the list. 5 days from 13th of Jan can be got for £1850 on Ethiopian air, which I vaguely remember being reviewed ok the one time I saw a review.

I do not know the whys, all I was doing was posting a comment that reflects the research I have done over the last few years.

As far as I can see (and I have been looking) with VS specifically there are and have been far less deals anywhere near the 1,100 - 1,200 mark for next summer to LAX or LAS specifically than over the last few years, obviously the exchange rate will have some impact but nothing like the figures that are being quoted.

I sincerely hope this is not the case but anyone who looks at this option from DUB, AMS or BRU must have noticed the difference in availability.

[honey lamb]

but I think this loophole has been tightened up significantly especially on routes back via the UK.

What loophole? The ex-EU fares are perfectly legitimate and are offered by BA and VS to entice passengers from those countries away from their local carriers. If you choose to take that option, you are entitled to do so.

I agree with the others that the Brexit vote and its effect on sterling has something to do with it. Some years ago I booked a fully flexible ticket with VS and subsequently changed to booking. The amount to be refunded took six weeks to process and in the meantime the euro went into free-fall against the pound and I lost over €300.

5 days from 13th of Jan can be got for £1850 on Ethiopian air, which I vaguely remember being reviewed ok the one time I saw a review.

I flew them this year DUR-ADD-DUB (my TRs are in the Other Airlines section) OK, so I flew economy but what I saw of the Business section didn't inspire me with confidence and besides, there was NO GIN in economy!!