Fare Alert: Manchester/Dublin To Chicago Business Class From $1,680

The fares I’m seeing vary depending on what time of year you’re looking to fly and, while the best fares appear to be for travel in 2018, there are some reasonable fares available for travel this year too.

ITA Matrix is showing fares in October from $1896 roundtrip…..

…and when you drill down into the results you find that the best fares are found by booking through American Airlines….but Delta is in the mix too:

This is what a routing with American Airlines looks like….

…while the marginally more expensive flights with Delta look like this:

There are actually two benefits to the Delta fare over the American Airlines fare:

• Fares don’t have to be booked until 31 October
• Stopovers are permitted in Europe at a cost of 75 GBP each.

Moving into January the fares don’t look like they drop by much if you believe the headline number Matrix shows in its calendar…..

….but if you’re prepared to start and end your trip in different cities you can get the Business Class fare down to $1,680 for roundtrip travel.

Here’s that fare priced up on AA.com:

If you’re not comfortable flying in and out of different cities then you can pay a bit more and book return flights out of Dublin on BA for $1,850:

These fares can be found all the way through into the summer but, if you’re using the ITA Matrix search, be aware that the calendar view isn’t working all that well so you’ll need to drill down into the results to get the best fares.

Something To Consider

Be careful what aircraft you book yourself on to as not all are equal.

For example:

You could book this trip….

…or this trip:

Both trips cost the same, are for the same dates and route through London and Philadelphia…..but there is one key difference.

The first fare books you on to an American Airlines Dreamliner while the second books you on to a BA 777.

The American Airlines aircraft will have a cabin that looks like this and which offers direct access to the aisle from all seats….

American Airlines 787-8 Business Class

…while the BA Business Class cabin will resemble a flying dormitory and will offer seats that look like this:

British Airways Club World

If you’ve never flown in Business Class before the BA seats will be a fantastic step up from anything you’ve flown in before but, if you have experienced modern Business Cabins before the logical choice is the American Airlines seat – it’s considerably better.

Bottom Line

Flying in and out of different cities may not be the most efficient way of flying to the US from Europe but the fare is definitely one that’s worth taking note of.

All the fares I’ve mentioned can be found on the individual airline’s websites (at the time of writing) and on sites like Orbitz and Expedia so there should be no trouble finding them. Good luck!