UK <-> NYC or Philadelphia

[MikeG]

I'm planning another trip to the UK next year, and am looking at booking a personal side-trip for 2 PAX to the USA.

I'll be aiming to go Business or First from London to either one of the NYC airports or to Philadelphia. Visiting people in Philadelphia and in Alabama (HSV).

The taxes for flights departing London are around £500ea.

I did a little experiment of a flight departing Dublin and coming back to LHR, and it shaves £300+ea off the taxes.

Has anyone had any luck with any other points of departure?

Note: I read the older thread covering this, but doubt things are the same as they were back then.

M

 

[HarryTheFlyer]

I'm planning another trip to the UK next year, and am looking at booking a personal side-trip for 2 PAX to the USA.

I'll be aiming to go Business or First from London to either one of the NYC airports or to Philadelphia. Visiting people in Philadelphia and in Alabama (HSV).

The taxes for flights departing London are around £500ea.

I did a little experiment of a flight departing Dublin and coming back to LHR, and it shaves £300+ea off the taxes.

Has anyone had any luck with any other points of departure?

Note: I read the older thread covering this, but doubt things are the same as they were back then.

M

Mr Harry and I just booked a segment JFK>LHR (AA F Class) and then CDG>LHR (BA whY Class) with a 4 hr layover in LHR and then LHR>BOS (BA F Class) for the return.
All ticketed on the same PNR, but the benefit of going back via Paris was a saving of about A$1000 in taxes because the return didn't originate in London.
It may not be ideal using Paris as your transit point, but definitely worth a look.

 

[RooFlyer]

I did a little experiment of a flight departing Dublin and coming back to LHR, and it shaves £300+ea off the taxes.

Has anyone had any luck with any other points of departure?

The difference sounds like the UK departure tax at work. Its much more for long haul business/First departures than short haul (ie into Europe).

If you need to depart from the UK and don't need to use BA, try an itinerary that takes you from (say) LHR to Paris (Channel Tunnel??) or Frankfurt and then the trans Atlantic leg.

 

[MikeG]

The difference sounds like the UK departure tax at work. Its much more for long haul business/First departures than short haul (ie into Europe).

If you need to depart from the UK and don't need to use BA, try an itinerary that takes you from (say) LHR to Paris (Channel Tunnel??) or Frankfurt and then the trans Atlantic leg.

I did that this year by booking a separate flight LHR-FRA for the return out of FRA. The other option is to depart LHR within 48 hours of arrival thereby negating the departure tax - though not sure how to claim it on a separate PNR to the arrival.

 

[MikeG]

Mr Harry and I just booked a segment JFK>LHR (AA F Class) and then CDG>LHR (BA whY Class) with a 4 hr layover in LHR and then LHR>BOS (BA F Class) for the return.
All ticketed on the same PNR, but the benefit of going back via Paris was a saving of about A$1000 in taxes because the return didn't originate in London.
It may not be ideal using Paris as your transit point, but definitely worth a look.

Because Dublin is closer (as the crow flies) from JFK, the actual cost of the flight in QFF points is lower than on the continent. As long as there is Business/First class availability, its all good I guess.

 

[dajop]

If you're stopping in NYC first, or driving to Philly, all good. If not, and going straight to Philly via public transport, might want to factor in the cost and/or inconvenience of landing in JFK vs EWR - with the latter after taking the airtrain you get straight onto Amtrak for the one hour journey vs having to get from JFK to Penn station for the Amtrak ride.

 

[jpp42]

Are you limited to QFF points and/or OW airlines? I assume this is implied since this is the Qantas forum, but you didn't specifically mention that it's a points booking? If you might consider going via AMS and SkyTeam, I can see J fares on KLM for around AUD $3.4k return to JFK (nonstop) or AUD $3.7k to HSV (via ATL/DL). Depends on dates of course but given that's only twice the Y fare might be a reasonable deal if you're after a paid fare and can get to AMS.

 

[MikeG]

If you're stopping in NYC first, or driving to Philly, all good. If not, and going straight to Philly via public transport, might want to factor in the cost and/or inconvenience of landing in JFK vs EWR - with the latter after taking the airtrain you get straight onto Amtrak for the one hour journey vs having to get from JFK to Penn station for the Amtrak ride.

I’ll be driving, but good point.

Post automatically merged: Nov 28, 2022

Are you limited to QFF points and/or OW airlines? I assume this is implied since this is the Qantas forum, but you didn't specifically mention that it's a points booking? If you might consider going via AMS and SkyTeam, I can see J fares on KLM for around AUD $3.4k return to JFK (nonstop) or AUD $3.7k to HSV (via ATL/DL). Depends on dates of course but given that's only twice the Y fare might be a reasonable deal if you're after a paid fare and can get to AMS.

Was going to be using points. Although May pay cash for connecting flights to HSV etc

 

[yaziyo]

I've also recently been having a fiddle with trans-atlantic Qantas points options and the taxes (real-taxes, not the airline charges that people call taxes) are very high if you leave the UK on a long flight in premium classes.

The cheapest way (in terms of $) to use Qantas points I found from EU to US was either Iberia from Madrid or Finn Air from Helsinki. Dublin is cheap as an airport but you'll probably then end up flying on BA which has high carrier charges anyway compared to those other two. Then to get to mainland Europe from London you can tack on another flight onto the itinerary (as long as your time in mainland Europe is +24 hours, else you'll stay pay the UK taxes) or purchase a separate ticket.

Another option is AF or KLM from Paris/Amsterdam. These also have high carrier charges, but are still cheaper than flying from London.

I was looking at flights to Texas, but to NY/Philly shouldn't change things too much I imagine.

 

[Muppet501st]

We did LHR-PHL on BA in J a couple of weeks back and they use the old 6 across config. Only positive is that immigration was a quicker (in my experience) than arriving into JFK.