British Airways First Class Booked

Earlier in the week, I wrote about British Airways up-gauging the current 777 Denver service to a 747 with a first class cabin.  As it turns out, award availability in first was/is fantastic and I booked two tickets for a trip to Europe next May.  I have yet to read (beyond local press in Denver) much about the change in equipment and because of that, there is tons of first class availability.  For comparison sake, I have looked periodically at the DEN - LHR flight in business class and very rarely seen availability so this is a welcome change that probably won't last once more people figure it out.

Anyway...our original plan was to start in Vienna flying Austrian Airlines business class from New York...but this is way better - less flying time and a better product.

BA First Class

BA's award chart is distance based so the further you go, the more expensive (miles wise) the ticket gets.  We are starting the week in Amsterdam so flying DEN - LHR with a layover and then a quick hop over to AMS came out to 84,000 Avios and $495 in taxes.  I didn't have quite enough Avios to book both tickets so I booked the other on American for 62,500 American miles and $495 in taxes as well.



The ~$1,000 cash outlay sucks but I can rationalize that we're flying first class to Europe for less than the cost of a coach ticket.  On the way back, we'll be flying Singapore Suites again from Frankfurt to JFK - yay!

We are really excited to try a new first product and actually get to fly to another continent direct from our home airport.  I'll post more details about the itinerary as we get it together but wanted to share the great availability - whether you live in Denver or not - this new service could provide a great opportunity to use British Airways Avios to get to Europe next summer in style.

Searching for BA First Class Award Availability

Avios are valuable in that you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards into the program.  The booking engine is a bit clunky but once you get the hang of it, you can run a bunch of searches pretty quickly.

There are two seats left if you'd like to join us!

Even the week of July 4th (peak summer travel season to Europe) there are 3 seats left in first!