Gynna

I have never travelled in business class, but am now considering treating myself as I have been a caregiver for two for many years. I would like to fly on AA or UAL since I have miles in their programs already. No award tickets available for my only travel period option - Sept 14 -Oct 17.

I have a hold on AA until Friday for HNL-BCN and return CDG-HNL with livable stops. The price is $4,500. Is this a good price or should I take a chance that the fare may go down at least $300 and if so, how long should I wait?

Thanks for any insight

sparkchaser

Buy now. There is no guarantee that the price will drop.

RoamsAround

I'll say this, if anyone could give a definite answer to that question they'd become millionaire selling their expertise to people on travel forums all over the world. It's impossible to predict when or if airfares will change let alone whether fares will go up or down.

The best approach is what you've already done - monitor fares to your intended destination so you have an idea of the 'fare range", sign up for airfare alerts on the various airline and trail sites. When you see a fare that you can live with go ahead and book it, you never know how long it will be available or if prices will go up or down.

Gardyloo

Business class to Europe from the US is a funny thing; ironically prices tend to be lower in mid-summer than in the shoulder seasons. Presumably this is because actual <i>business</i> travel falls off. For your route, the prices for June-July with a similar stay-over (just over a month) are around $400 cheaper than for your dates.

As a rule, business class fares from the west coast for less than $3000 round trip are regarded as a "good deal;" (yeah, I know...) Adding the legs to and from the mainland in first class simply adds to the total. I don't think $4500 is a terrible deal; however I suspect that waiting a month or two won't hurt you either. It's still early days in the context of transatlantic premium cabin bookings for the autumn.

So I'd also monitor the sites and especially use the month-long search function at ITA - http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm for a month or so, just to get a sense.

Also remember that you'll get full mileage credit for your UA and AA accounts if you use any of their partners, such as Lufthansa or Air Canada for UA, or Iberia or British Airways for AA. I would also look at flights to bigger hubs - Paris, London, Amsterdam, Madrid - just to see if there might be some advantage in flying to more competitive markets, then either training it or taking an inexpensive intra-Europe flight for the final legs. Ya never know.

simpsonc510

I think it sounds like a good deal. Can you check to see what fare class it is? If it is a discounted fare (which it sounds like it is) once those fares are gone, they are gone.

Gynna

Thank you all for your quick responses.

The booking code for the longer flights to/from HNL - LAX is A and LAX to LHR is I. Is that what is meant by fare class?

sparkchaser

Correct.

For AA, A is "Discounted First Class fare. YUP- fares, RTW fares, SWU and Award Upgrades" and I is "Business group fare 3rd tier fare. YnCUP-fares. Lots of conditions, but upgradeable as of October 6, 2009"