SFO PE prices 2006

I was looking to book two trips to SFO in PE next year: 22/3 - 31/3 and 14/6 - 23/6. I've priced these tickets up on the VA site and they're coming out more expensive than your average restricted PE ticket to SFO.

Had a quick look on ExpertFlyer and there is no availability in K for the two inbound flights (+/- 1 day as well).

Surely this can't be a case of our American cousins planning their holidays so far in advance?! I thought I was the only one! In your guys' experience, is K availability likely to open up over the next couple of months?

The annoying thing is that BA's cheapest WT+ tickets are available for those dates... but am I that desperate for the extra inches?!

Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Neal

[preiffer]

Strange indeed. The seatmap for the 31/March is showing only 4 taken in PE, 2 in Upper and 15 in Y (that's taken, not available [:0])

Yet the availability shows J7 D7 Z0 W7 S0 K0 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X7 N1.


I wonder if someone hasn't hit a "magic button" yet to release the apex fares...? [:?]

Originally posted by preiffer
I wonder if someone hasn't hit a "magic button" yet to release the apex fares...? [:?]

The weird thing is that 1 April availability shows J7 D7 Z7 W7 S1 K0 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X7 N0

and then on 3 April all classes are wide open J7 D7 Z7 W7 S7 K6 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X7 N7

Unfortunately my travel dates aren't really that flexible!

Originally posted by preiffer
Strange indeed. The seatmap for the 31/March is showing only 4 taken in PE, 2 in Upper and 15 in Y (that's taken, not available [:0])

Yet the availability shows J7 D7 Z0 W7 S0 K0 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X7 N1.

I wonder if someone hasn't hit a "magic button" yet to release the apex fares...? [:?]

Yeah, I've seen a similar thing on dates in Jan when I may have to do an SFO run - no K and no Z, yet empty seatmaps in W and J cabins.

Cheers,
Mike

My reckoning is that people are booking earlier & earlier these days. When I booked S class PE to SFO returning from BOS (for upgrade to UC) for travel next September, I was amazed that our first choice dates were not possible. I guess this is down to lack of G in UC rather than available PE S fares, still surprised though that even though I was booking the return flight exactly eleven months in advance (ie. the earliest possible it is allowed to book) the FC agent said there were were no G's left on that flight!

Yup, I'm finding that too - am booking for a conference out in SLC in March time, and trying to find a PE fare for o/b 18/03, i/b 01/04 returns £1,271.90 (IIRC from FC, that's S o/b and W i/b) [:0]

I also seem to remember that K availability on the VS020 is very limited anyway - certainly every time I've looked (even many months in advance), I've rarely seen the K bucket show anything other than 0 [:(]

Cheers

Michael

Hi,

I am sure that this is due to the now reduced number of seats available for PE out of LHR. As these are quite long sectors most people would be happy to pay a premium for extra leg room and the upper deck. Also as VH still offer a good upgrade deal I am sure that many holiday makers snap these up over 1 year in advance (I do this myself in fact!)

I was recently looking for PE to LA and having a similar problem even though it is for the middle of 2006!

Hope this helps.

Neil.

[Scrooge]

Kind of goes along with what i've been finding on trying to book LAX-LHR

take a look here

Thanks for all the replies guys. It's kind of frustrating - I thought I was being clever by planning ahead and travelling in what I thought would be an off-peak period!

Now the question is, how far does one's VA loyalty stretch?! I can't afford the prices being asked for in PE (still paying off my student loan!). So, do I travel VS Y and give up the legroom or travel BA WT+ and give up the mileage?! Decisions decisions...

[Scrooge]

honestly,(putting flame suit on)any company has to earn my buisness,for the most part VS has done this,however if the price difference is to great then,sorry but im flying BA,I have both a FC account and an Exec club account and earn miles( I fly WT+ at least before anyone brings up the stupid Y earning)either way.

WT+ and PE are pretty much the same thing so as I said before it comes down to price,if VS is close im picking VS.

Originally posted by neal
Now the question is, how far does one's VA loyalty stretch?!

I'm sorta lucky that the company will pick up my flight bill - but given their "Cheapest flight/routing/class" policy, they probably won't be happy at £1200+ [:0]

One other option I was looking at was going out a couple of days earlier and coming back a couple of days later - that brought the fare down to £702.45 using the PE offer....but the offer's recently ended *sigh*

So, as regards VS loyalty, I'll probably end up flying to JFK, connect to SLC from there, and return from SFO - depending on price. Like I say, this is for a conference, so it's quite different to travelling for leisure....

Cheers

Michael