Hat tip to this Flyertalk thread, it’s possible to purchase tickets between several cities in the UK and several cities in the US — in business class — for under $100 roundtrip.
You have to originate in Europe. This works from London, but not exclusively so.
This was first discovered on United, but it appears to work for most carriers. Here’s some of the airlines that the ITA Matrix will price an itinerary like this in business class — in Danish Kroner (so you’ll want to use a credit card with no foreign currency fees when purchasing).
And here’s ITA Matrix pricing first class, it even prices for Swiss and Lufthansa first class.
The question is, where to book. It was initially suggested to use United.com, and indeed you can get the price to come up there, but with a US billing address for your credit card the site may not be willing to let you purchase what it prices in Danish Kroner. And Expedia.dk doesn’t seem to price itineraries this way.
You may need to experiment with booking sites to find one that will allow you to price this way in Danish Kroner and let you purchase with a US credit card.
Let’s walk through pricing at United.com: the way you buy in Danish Kroner is just to walk through a purchase and then when you reach the ‘Complete Purchase’ stage after you’ve selected an itinerary, you have the option to change your billing country.
Change your billing country to Denmark and the website will price in Danish Kroners (DKK).
You may need to pick your flights again, but pricing will be very favorable — sale pricing will be revealed, instead of $11,000 or more you may see prices of just over 500 DKK or US$80.
Indeed, I was able to select an itinerary in business class between Newcastle, UK and San Francisco for 559 DKK all-in (US$85).
But as I say, a US credit card forces you back to US dollars and a higher price. Your credit card may or may not allow the purchase to go through leaving billing country as Denmark.
Suggestions?
Update: One Flyertalk member using United.com says,
on the last page after entering my us address and zip I left the country as Denmark.No problem at all
Another says,
use paypal as payment method and then you can pay with paypal with a danish billing adress with no issue whatsoever
Update 7:23am Eastern: This works from the UK to other parts of the world, too — here’s first class London – Sydney roundtrip.
And here’s first class London – Johannesburg roundtrip.
Update 7:32am Eastern: Remember that American AAdvantage will give you 3000 – 12,000 bonus miles per segment for long haul international first class and many business class fares on American or US Airways flights or on codeshares operated by British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines and Qantas.
Update 7:37am Eastern: A Flyertalk member points out,
you can do stopovers in US on the way to south america 2 trips 1 ticket.
[Honolulu] is a valid stopover point to South america by the way
Update 9:13am Eastern: Confirmed this is still alive.
- You can join the 50,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Is there a play to be made here with Paypal or another 3rd party site that has international versions?
Aren’t there reports that they check your ID at the time of check-in and if your address on ID isn’t in the ticketing country; then they may not allow you to get on flight?
How about using a vgc?
I went incognito mode, changed to DKK currency and did the search. When I paid, I put my credit card information in but left the country as Denmark. My credit card processed and got the reservation email.
I used Chase Sapphire btw
Reports of address matching at check-in? Since passports don’t have addresses, I fail to see how that would work.
Expat living in London and just got two first class tickets LHR-SFO for $163! Was able to use my Sapphire card with Denmark billing country.
Amazing deal if it goes through
Gary,
Is it possible to depart from any other European city outside of the UK? I have tried multiple locations without any luck and wondered if there were specific parameters that require a UK origin.
Great post!
Irishmpk
I haven’t seen any options outside the UK that work with this.
How about oneworld (AA) routings? I can’t for the life of me get this to price out on AA.
I can’t wait to see how this plays out. Since US rules currently require honoring mistake fares… but does that apply when you make your point of sale another country? IANAL but I can see some airline legal eagle try to use that as an out.
Where can I book LHR-SYD?
I too would like to know how to book OW itins..
How can one book One World Carriers? Like BA
If it could be booked, LHR-DXB-JNB in First on EK for kr30!
LHR-DXB-SYD in First on EK for 624 DKK !
Just found LHR-SYD (RT) for DKK1240 on Qantas/Emirates First Class, at Matrix. But have no idea how to book it. Any thoughts? 🙁
Deo, how did you book EK ??????
It’s giving me the value in GBP…
Thanks!
@Lucas: No, ITA matrix shows the same, we haven’t found a method to ticket it yet.
If anyone is interested in LHR-JNB, Swiss first can easily be obtained for 686 DKK from United’s website.
Mayby this is a reason:
“We are writing to inform you that Emirates is planning a migration to their new fare system on the 11th of February.
This might cause an API outage, which is expected to occur for 12 hours starting at 11:00am DXB time. However this should only impact meta search publishers using the API.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your hard work on the program
Kind regards,
The Emirates Affiliate Team”
Deo, how did you book EK?????
It gives us the price in GBP…
Thanks
If we book through United, are there any good choices for carriers that partner with both United and AA or US and will let us assign the earned miles to AA or US Airways?
The only partners I can think of still in common are Hawaiian Airlines and Jet Airways. I do not believe that Jet Airways flights earn qualifying miles unless booked as an AA codeshare. And the Brussels flight doesn’t earn miles. I haven’t seen any Jet flights come up in searches.
I have a confimed booking 1st class on Lufthansa LHR-MUN-JFK in July. Followed through on United and received the confirmation email. 480DKK, about ~85USD
Just want to say thank you, event if it doesnt go throught 😉
LHR-SFO July 5 United First, and LHR-JNB Roundtrip in Swiss First for the Christmas Holiday….maybe one of them will hold up!
I have been following the thread on FT. So far, I haven’t seen anyone who has booked this anywhere that did not require them to commit fraud to receive the lower prices, correct? I am not exactly a paragon of virtue, but manipulating the website and lying about your billing address seems to me to be a bit beyond the scope of just taking advantage of a mistake fare.
Please note that these comments do not apply to all those Danes who have taken advantage of this “sale”.
Has anyone booked on anything other than United?
Trying to book BA from LHR>BKK
from paragon of virtue on CNN “whoa is us, the airlines aren’t treating us fairly” … to this, in 24 hours.
@dale m – I do not feel badly about sharing this.
I don’t ever threaten to sue or complain to DOT when tickets aren’t honored. But if airlines are going to provide these experiences I think it’s fair to want to be one of the folks they provide it to.
Personally I haven’t booked any of these tickets, but it’s news in the frequent flyer world and I’m reporting on it.
And I never put myself out as any kind of ‘paragon of virtue’ I just want to make sure members are aware of the value of their miles, when programs change the rules or value proposition on them without saying so. Bringing things to attention, whether it’s Delta or pricing issues.
(And if facts matter, it wasn’t CNN it was Fox and it was 44 hours ago that I was on.)
Gary, thank you for sharing this to us! I do look at FT for premium cabin discount fares but this is a really really good deal! I myself just booked one trip. It went through and I received the confirmation email but now just waiting for it to be ticketed.
Gary, thank you! LHR-SFO-HNL-EWR-LHR all for $93 leaving Friday in J/F. Just nice to escape the winter cold!
Just first booked lhr-phx-ord(stopover)-lhr for $85 and lhr-ord RT for $140 on United. Used trick of saying CC country is Denmark. Worked fine.
The only way to take advantage of this sale/mistake is to either to genuinely live in Denmark (with a real Denmark billing address) or to commit fraud.
@Doug — If you think it’s fraud to use a Danish website as an American, don’t do it. Let others try to get the deal.
FWIW, I think the odds are high that these tickets get cancelled, which will likely bring you (odd) joy.
I was able to get it to book tickets for my family of five (worth about $30K). Got a confirmation email and all from United. But…then I decided I agreed with the fraud argument. This just isn’t right. So I cancelled mine. Was hard to key that button…but it’s not a mistake if we have to lie to get it.
I booked 6 trips, but while I would love to fly on these flights, I now feel it isn’t right and have started to cancel and refund the bookings. To me, it was fun while it lasted to think about flying Swiss First and Lufthansa First on an A380…
Just booked LHR – DFW (stop in FRA) first class on Lufthansa for $85! Here’s how I did it:
1. Went to Google flights.
2. Searched for LHR-DFW one-way and selected Lufthansa as my airline.
3. Select date (for me was May 28).
4. Selected the option to book via United.com and then follow the rest of the instructions as TPG laid out (set country to Denmark).
5. Use my Barclays Arrival+ card, billing country = Denmark, but the rest was my US address.
Worked 🙂
Let’s hope it holds up. That would be an insane deal!
@Drew — the idea that it’s “fraud” for Americans to book this and not Danes seems silly to me. Everyone (Danes and Americans) knows that UA isn’t intending to sell its transatlantic First Class seats for $75. So is it “fraud” to buy a mistake airfare? That’s WAY too rich an argument for me. If UA honors the fare, great. If not, the world goes on. I just wouldn’t want to be the guy who cancels his cheapo ticket for moral reasons, while “less moral” folks get the benefit.
@iaphphx – If you were in Denmark the Danish site would be the one that populates. Whether you were an American or any other nationality. If anything in some cases companies take advantage of American’s and charge a higher price then if local. For instance look at booking flights in a lot of South American countries.
doesn’t work for me: We’re sorry, but united.com was unable to complete your request
I entered the actual US address but left the country Denmark.
any ideas?
It’s dead.
United caught on…only pricing in usd now 🙁
Got error message on United.com upon attempting to purchase. Now United is not pricing in DKK but rather in USD at the normal fare
Looks like they removed Denmark from the list of available Billing Address Countries…