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British Airways announced a new route to Oakland yesterday and in doing so took on Europe’s best transatlantic low-cost carrier – Norwegian. I have no idea how British Airways intends to compete with Norwegian on a long-term basis but they appear to be starting the fight with some incredibly low fares….and that’s fantastic news for travelers.
British Airways World Traveler Fares From £377 Return
Here are the more important fare rules:
- Book by 16 November 2016
- Travel 16 April – 26 June 2017 or 20 August – 21 October 2017
- Minimum stay – 5 days
- Maximum stay – 12 months
- No stopovers permitted
- No charge for infants without a seat
- Fares are non-refundable
Availability
To say that I’m surprised at how much availability there is would be an understatement!
Here’s what the ITA Matrix search is showing right now:
April
May
June
July
August
September
And yes, I’ve checked, these aren’t phantom fares – they’re very real:
British Airways 777-200
British Airways will operate it’s new route between London and Oakland using its 3-class Boeing 777-200 aircraft and that offers Economy Class passengers just 31″ of seat pitch (leg room ) and 17.5″ of seat width.
Hardly spacious but marginally better than American Airlines.
The trick to getting a bit of extra comfort on this aircraft is to book and exit row if at all possible.
Having just flown BA Economy Class on a 9 hour flight to Miami I didn’t mind the slightly narrower seat in the exit row (it’s narrower to accommodate the tray table in the arm rest) but I loved the acres of leg room I had – that made all the difference to me.
Bottom Line
I don’t like travelling Economy Class (I’m spoiled) but even I’m considering diving in on this fare for a trip later on in 2017.
£377/$460 for a round trip fare between the UK and the US West coast is almost unheard of nowadays and represents great value for money.
Ignore the fact that Oakland has just about nothing to offer (cue a rash of emails from irate Oakland residents) and focus on just what a fantastic part of the world the surrounding areas are.
With San Francisco, Sausalito, Napa and Sonoma on the doorstep and the fantastic “Route 1” drive down to Los Angeles not that far away either, this is a great place to visit …especially for a fly drive vacation.
Take it from a naturalised Californian – this is definitely a part of the world you should check out…and at these prices you’d be silly not to 🙂
Featured image: Mark Harkin via Flickr
