$85 Business and First Class Sale Fare, Europe – US on Several Airlines

Hat tip to this Flyertalk thread, it’s possible to purchase tickets between several cities in the UK and several cities in the US — in business class — for under $100 roundtrip.

You have to originate in Europe. This works from London, but not exclusively so.

This was first discovered on United, but it appears to work for most carriers. Here’s some of the airlines that the ITA Matrix will price an itinerary like this in business class — in Danish Kroner (so you’ll want to use a credit card with no foreign currency fees when purchasing).

And here’s ITA Matrix pricing first class, it even prices for Swiss and Lufthansa first class.

The question is, where to book. It was initially suggested to use United.com, and indeed you can get the price to come up there, but with a US billing address for your credit card the site may not be willing to let you purchase what it prices in Danish Kroner. And Expedia.dk doesn’t seem to price itineraries this way.

You may need to experiment with booking sites to find one that will allow you to price this way in Danish Kroner and let you purchase with a US credit card.

Let’s walk through pricing at United.com: the way you buy in Danish Kroner is just to walk through a purchase and then when you reach the ‘Complete Purchase’ stage after you’ve selected an itinerary, you have the option to change your billing country.

Change your billing country to Denmark and the website will price in Danish Kroners (DKK).

You may need to pick your flights again, but pricing will be very favorable — sale pricing will be revealed, instead of $11,000 or more you may see prices of just over 500 DKK or US$80.

Indeed, I was able to select an itinerary in business class between Newcastle, UK and San Francisco for 559 DKK all-in (US$85).

But as I say, a US credit card forces you back to US dollars and a higher price. Your credit card may or may not allow the purchase to go through leaving billing country as Denmark.

Suggestions?

Update: One Flyertalk member using United.com says,

on the last page after entering my us address and zip I left the country as Denmark.No problem at all

Another says,

use paypal as payment method and then you can pay with paypal with a danish billing adress with no issue whatsoever

Update 7:23am Eastern: This works from the UK to other parts of the world, too — here’s first class London – Sydney roundtrip.

And here’s first class London – Johannesburg roundtrip.

Update 7:32am Eastern: Remember that American AAdvantage will give you 3000 – 12,000 bonus miles per segment for long haul international first class and many business class fares on American or US Airways flights or on codeshares operated by British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines and Qantas.

Update 7:37am Eastern: A Flyertalk member points out,

you can do stopovers in US on the way to south america 2 trips 1 ticket.

[Honolulu] is a valid stopover point to South america by the way

Update 9:13am Eastern: Confirmed this is still alive.


About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. @David

    It is generally recommended that you do not call in these circumstances. My understanding is that calling will typically result in losing any chance at the booking. There are no guarantees about how this will play out, but I think your best chance would be to avoid calling at least for now. Did you provide an email address? Have you checked your spam folder? Good luck!

  2. When I booked with Western Union option to pay it said to include $80 service fee with the ticket money. Now I look on the United website and it says $14.95 fee. Does anyone know which one is right? Maybe they jack up the rate for Danish buyers? I want to pay the lower fee of course but don’t want to risk getting flagged over a few bucks.

  3. Assuming the tickets are honored: would putting frequent flyer account information for a Star Alliance partner airline earn miles based on United’s fare-based system (i.e. practically nothing since these were cheap) or would they earn based on distance flown (if that is the partner airline’s own earning system)? Thanks!

  4. I tried to pay for my tickets Western Union last night and they would not accept the payment at all. But now I see that my reservation says:

    Thank you for choosing United Airlines. Your purchase is confirmed. You will be promptly notified once the internal processing of your reservation has been finalized…etc.

    Is this what everyone else is seeing? Maybe my tickets are free. lol.

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