West Coast – Europe Business Class Awards for 2 Passengers Most Days Mid-Spring/Summer

by Gary Leff

British Airways is launching a new route, San Jose – London Heathrow, on May 4. It will be operated by a new Boeing 787-9. And business class award space is out of this world good for 2 passengers.

There appears to be 2 business class seats available pretty much every day (but not first class though) from May 7 through end of schedule.

These awards do entail paying fuel surcharges whether redeeming British Airways, American, or Alaska Airlines miles. Here’s the one way cost with American miles for one passenger:

(Booking two one ways rather than roundtrip can save on fuel surcharges.)

But West Coast – Europe non-stop award space, especially when it’s open for a wide swathe of dates, is rare. Some will find it worthwhile.

British Airways business class isn’t as good, in my opinion, as business class on American’s 787 or Delta’s or American’s 777s. But it’s business class. From the West Coast.

(HT: Al S. and also written up at One Mile at a Time)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Gary,

    I priced out LAX-SJC-LHR-EDI for 50K in J, but the taxes and surcharges came to $536. Isn’t that a little high?

  2. No one seems to be talking about the other BA flight starting on the same day, also with massive business class availability for 2 to the West Coast…

  3. Someone really needs to mention that the BA J product is long past its “past due” date. It ain’t that great and then on top of that you get to pay huge YQ and have to deal with the mess that is LHR.
    I don’t get why this is so exciting. They had a great chance with the B778/9 purchases to upgrade their J to something current, but missed the boat completely.

  4. I agree. I’m not sure why this is so amazing for a sub par product 1 year out for fees almost as much as ticket in coach. Use your BA or AA miles more wisely.

  6. C’mon friends. What is this other opportunity? Theoretically you’ve got yours, how about doing Gary (and me) a favor and spilling the beans. This childish bs irks me no end…..

  8. Gary – Sorry I missed your sentence at the end:-) I just can’t stand having to step over sleeping people, having FAs reach across to serve food and having to awkwardly ignore total strangers below 10K feet! But, some diehard BA enthusiasts still love this stupid arrangement.
    BTW I am finding really good value in your recent posts.

  10. @SST

    Wasn’t trying to “hide” any opportunities. I just know how things disappear once they get on sites like these. It appears to me BA has added an 747 direct from LHR to LAS, making 2 flights a day on Thu, Fri and Sun. Very hard to find award availability on this route. VS is worse. It’s flight 271 and it seems wide open when I went to check my options yesterday.

  11. @SST

    And mine is still on hold while I wait for the LGW-LAS ticket I cancelled to get put back in my account. I’ll feel much better once it’s ticketed.

Comments are closed.