It feels like everyone wants to fly to London during the summer, and as a result, the fares become outrageously expensive.
However, now you can fly business class to London during the city’s peak tourism season at a discount: Airlines are selling business-class fares to London for $2,600 and less. If you want to avoid the mass crowds of summer tourists in London, there’s also ample availability of marked-down business-class fares during the spring, fall and winter.
Business-class fares to London can go for as high as $6,600, so these deals allow you to fly to London comfortably without paying the hefty business-class price tag.
Fares for a deal like this can change frequently, so we highly recommend booking your flights as soon as possible.
Deal basics
Airlines: Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Icelandair, TAP Air Portugal and United Airlines.
Routes: From Boston, Chicago and New York to London.
How to book: Search through Google Flights to find your best dates, and then book directly with the airline of your choice.
Travel dates: April to December.
Book by: ASAP.
Sample flights
Currently, there are plenty of discounted business-class flights from Boston, Chicago and New York to London; you can fly to London anytime from late spring to winter this year and find a good business-class deal. While the three major U.S. airlines have cheaper business-class fares to London, we found that Icelandair had the most availability.
Here are some of the flights we’ve flagged:
- Icelandair: Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to London Gatwick Airport (LGW), starting at $1,900 (includes a layover in Reykjavik).
- Icelandair: Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to LGW, starting at $2,042 (includes a layover in Reykjavik).
- Icelandair: O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to LGW, starting at $2,256 (includes a layover in Reykjavik).
- Aer Lingus: BOS to LHR, starting at $2,146 (includes a layover in Dublin).
- Icelandair: ORD to LGW, starting at $2,194 (includes a layover in Reykjavik).
- United: EWR to Heathrow Airport (LHR), starting at $2,427.
We recommend using Google Flights to determine availability and then booking your flights on the airline’s website; direct airline bookings are more reliable if your flight is canceled, delayed or has a booking change.
Finding a good business-class deal to London is a matter of playing around with the dates on Google Flights. We found that April and May, along with September to December, had a lot of business-class fares for less than $2,000. If you wanted to visit London in the summer — which is one of the most popular times of the year — fares were typically less than $2,500.
For example, if you were to fly from one of New York’s three major airports to London, Google Flights showed some business-class fares during June and July going for as low as $2,101.
Suppose you decide to fly from New York on June 20. In that case, Google Flights gives you two options: an Icelandair flight that departs Newark and has a layover in Reykjavik and a slightly more expensive United flight that also departs from Newark but is nonstop.
Let’s say you don’t want to deal with a layover, so you choose the United flight. The carrier also offers a returning flight from London that keeps the fare in the $2,500 range.
Remember that fares can change quite frequently — especially if it’s a good deal. At the time of publication, we found that the United fares to London for the week of June 20 rose from $2,434 to $2,576, which is still a fairly solid deal, but it is slightly pricier.
Also, fare discrepancies can appear on Google Flights due to the availability of third-party booking sites. In this case, Google Flights shows a United business-class ticket to London for $2,335, but that’s only if you book your flight with a third-party site.
These seats are a part of United’s Polaris business class — and we at TPG are big fans. United’s Polaris business class comes with lie-flat seats and access to the United Polaris Lounge. Passengers also receive priority boarding, a free carry-on and two checked bags.
Maximize your purchase
Be sure to use a card that earns bonus points on airfare purchases, like The Platinum Card® from American Express (5 points per dollar on airfare booked directly with the airline or through American Express Travel, on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year), Citi Prestige® Card (5 points per dollar on airfare), Citi Premier® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve (3 points per dollar on airfare), American Express® Gold Card (3 points per dollar on airfare when booked directly with the airline or through Amex Travel) or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2 points per dollar on travel). Check out this post for more on maximizing airfare purchases.
The information for the Citi Prestige Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Bottom line
This is a really solid deal for business-class flights to London — especially during the city’s peak tourism season. However, we recommend snagging these tickets as quickly as possible, since fares are subject to change frequently. Even when we were looking at United flights, the fares suddenly jumped, so book with caution because deals like this don’t come often.
This content was originally published here.
