British Airlines in San Francisco
 

This morning in the news, they said a flight from SFO to Las Vegas is $44 one way, and something cheap to New York. Opened BA website, no flights SFO-LAS.

Are those papparazzis making things up on national TV? Can't be, they usually say half-truthes, not complete lies.

And it's certainly not April 1st, not even in Britain :))

Hmmm... any clues?

AA codeshare?

AA codeshare on BA with SFO as one of the city pairs? Nope, especially since AA doesn't fly SFO-LAS.

More likely is a holdover BA codeshare with USAir (ex-America West) with whom BA had extensive codeshare arrangements in the past. Still, I'd bet it was a goofup on the part of the newscasters instead.

Southwest?

ARRRGGGHHHH my mistake! it was about VIRGIN not BA! sorry for confusion!

and this is where I found at least some evidence:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl....DTL&tsp=1

In October, $44 one-way 3 flights a day, $149 1st class. Cool! (no, not going, just curios. Or maybe?)

Virgin <i>America</i> who are also offering first class SFO-JFK-SFO for something like $778. Watch out, UA and AA.

Don't confuse Virgin America (VX) with Virgin Atlantic (VS). VX is not directly controlled by Sir Richard, and the two airlines have separate FF programs, and so far, no codeshare, through ticket purchase, etc...

In fact, VX is an American airlines. To satisfy DOT's rule for foreign ownership, they have to go through a lot of stuff to show they're not controlled by foreign interest, and are owned mostly by Americans. And the CEO has to step down soon as well (even though he's American).

Anyways, they only have 8 FC seats (though very nice international business class type), so for now I think UA and AA will mostly ignore VX's fares.

I read on flyertalk that AA is matching VX fare - not sure for how long.

VA's website is inoperable currently, but you can call their toll-free number and pay $5 if you book the tickets.

When I was able to get into their site early Thursday morning the fare I was researching was actually cheaper at United.

It works for me, flawlessly I may add.

It's good it worked for you, but those of us living on the west coast of the US were affected due to a hacker getting into their website. It's available again but there is a time out error I'm getting now. A call to their reservations center was good. The agent was very patient and kind and said they're waiving the $5 over the phone booking fee since their site is still problematic.