In August 2024, I had a job to do in Las Vegas, so I naturally started looking for the best possible option to fly there whilst earning as many tier points as possible and saving myself as much money as possible. The budget for the trip was for a return premium economy trip from London to Vegas direct, and of course I’d prefer to do it in business class and earn lots of tier points in the process, read on to find out how I did it.
Booking
When I began looking for tickets, I naturally started with looking at what the direct routes were, there is only one direct route from London to Vegas (on One World) operated by British Airways, and it was expensive! So I started looking for other options. My natural first choice for trips to America is to look for flights to other cities, with or without a connecting fight to my final destination. I’ve done this many times in the past with successful trips via places like Chicago, Dallas or New York and then connecting onto American Airlines to get to my final destination. On this occasion I couldn’t find anything particularly affordable. I tend to avoid New York when I’m flying to the West Coast as the flight to New York is 6 hours and the flight to the West Coast is only a little shorter, I’d rather do one long flight and one short if I can.
When this option dried up, I then started looking for other ways of doing this and that meant I had to look at starting from other destinations, being limited by One World airlines I could only go for places that have American airlines going for them, of which in Europe they were very few, in fact none at all for Vegas. The next option is to start looking for flights that go from other destinations in Europe but are on British Airways. This would mean positioning to another airport, then flying a British Airways flight to London and then picking up the London to Vegas flight from there. Now you might be thinking that the flight from London to Vegas plus an additional European fight would surely cost more money than just the Vegas flight alone? Not true. The airlines heavily vary the costs depending on the airport you start at and depending what market they’re competing with there. For example, if I fly from Germany, then they are competing with Lufthansa, so quite often good deals can be found. The same goes for other cities around Europe. And even UK and Ireland cities like Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin can have particularly good deals as British Airways are trying to encourage people from other parts of the country to use them for their entire travel plans. When I do the searches, I will usually look for flights on British Airways from Dublin, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Madrid, Amsterdam and Paris. You can do searches like this using Google Flights, just put in all the cities in the “from” box using the + button. So I chose the major airline centres plus some big cities in the UK.
This search yielded a route from Munich to Vegas, of course via London as it’s on British Airways. In full business class all the way and for much cheaper than the direct flight would cost from London alone. This looked very interesting so that was my outbound leg sorted, I just had to position myself to Munich first. I wasn’t so lucky for the return leg and British Airways turned out not to be an option, so I started looking at American Airlines routes. American operate a regular flight from Dallas to Frankfurt, so going from Vegas to Dallas to Frankfurt was a good option for the return and was also a good price in business. Going out from Munich and back to Frankfurt meant that it was easy for me to buy return open jaw ticket for Germany, all I had to do was to get myself positioned. I booked the tickets from Germany to Vegas, all through American Airlines as it happened, but because they code share with British Airways, everything appeared as normal in my British Airways app when it came to those flights. And of course, I get tier points and Avios for the entire four flights as normal.
This left me with the positioning flights to worry about, I had a need to fly on Lufthansa because I just status matched to them with a challenge to do some flying with them, read about that here, so I decided to book some cheap economy flights with Lufthansa to get myself in position. The outbound route to Vegas was a morning flight from Munich and an afternoon flight from London, so it was not sensible to fly over early in the morning in case of any delays or problems. I booked into the airport hotel and booked a flight for the night before, leaving myself plenty of time to go out to Munich, I have friends there I could visit as a bonus. For the return leg it was an overnight flight landing on Sunday morning, so I booked a lunchtime flight home from Frankfurt. I found that the option to upgrade to flexible was actually quite affordable, so I took that as a bit of a guarantee in case there any problems with the American leg.
To summarise, I had two bookings. The main booking was with American Airlines but for a British Airways flight from Munich to Vegas via London and return on American from Vegas to Frankfurt via Dallas. The second booking was a return Lufthansa flight from London to Munich and then Frankfurt back to London.
A warning about bookings like this
When you book flights like this that are completely separate, there are absolutely no guarantees and you have no protection when things go wrong. If my flight out to Munich was significantly delayed and I didn’t make my starting flight to Vegas, then I’m in trouble. Equally if I was late back from America to Frankfurt and I missed my flight home, the flexible ticket only goes so far to protect me. If you’re booking trips like this, it’s very important to put in safeguards against things going wrong.
My safeguards were making sure that my Munich flight was not only the night before but was also not the last flight, but one earlier so that if the flight was cancelled for any reason there’s at least a couple of other flights they could get me on that night. They could even get me on the first flight the next day which would get me there in time to turn around and come straight back again on the BA flight. Be warned, there is no option for you to skip the first flight on a route and pick up the second flight. If I don’t get on the first plane in Munich to transfer in London, then my ticket is cancelled. So, you can’t book a ticket like this and just not take the first flight and pick up the second flight, it doesn’t work. The reverse is sometimes possible, for example if I was coming back exactly the same way, i.e. Vegas to London to Munich, then I could ghost the last flight and get out in London. But that only works if you are travelling hand luggage only. This is called ghosting or skip lagging, and is a practice that airlines spend a lot of time detecting and penalising customers for, so I do not recommend it. I did get away with it once, read about it here.
On my return flight I was pretty confident about the Lufthansa flight home as it was flexible, so if there were major problems I could move it. And worst case scenario I end up in Frankfurt needing to get to London, there are plenty of budget airlines and even a train option that can get me home if I needed to.
Outbound flights
Positioning
The first part of the trip was London to Frankfurt, flying on Lufthansa which I was looking forward to as I had just earned Senator status through status matching. This flight was actually one of the important flights that I was required to do to complete my challenge to get long-term status with them. I arrived at London Heathrow terminal 2, the newest of Heathrow’s 4 terminals (there is no terminal 1). The major Star Alliance airlines here have a combined check in area with a lot of automation for self-checking in. I walked straight past this knowing full well that those with status get a manned check-in desk that’s hidden away behind the automated check-in area. There’s a separate queue line for Star Alliance gold, and I headed there to check my bag in for the trip. From there I headed straight to fast-track security, I was through in no time and ready for my lounge experience. Lufthansa have their own lounge here and it’s a short walk from security. Upon arrival at the lounge, I was issued with a QR code which allows me to go through the lounge to another lounge called the “Senator lounge” at the back. There’s a simple glass door with a scanner next to it, I scanned the code, and I was through. This second lounge was much quieter, as you might expect, but I’m not convinced to have much better to offer other than a bit more space with peace and quiet. There may be some better alcohol choices, but I’d have to study both in detail to work out that is true. They do offer a great variety of light snacks, in particular some really nice cookies. There’s also hot food on offer and I decided to take a light meal as I didn’t know when I’ll be eating again later.
Lufthansa’s A320 Neo offers a very similar service to that of BA short haul flights, you get a drink and a small meal in business class, and a chocolate before landing, which is always very nice. I also enjoyed a gin & tonic after eating. When I arrived in Munich, I headed straight to the airport hotel where I was staying for the night. My plan was to go and spend some time in the evening with some friends who live in Munich, but I chose to stay in the airport hotel as it’ll make things much easier in the morning when I get up to go and get my first flight back to London. After checking in, I jumped on the Munich underground and headed into town to meet my friends. At the end of the night, it was an easy job to get back to the airport, which I did by Uber, and I was in my room in no time watching the late-night comings and goings of the airfield. I do love an airport hotel for just sitting and watching what’s going on at night. After a good night’s sleep, I was up in good time the next morning to go and check in for my flight to Vegas. BA have their own check-in areas and a special lane for priority, so I headed there and checked in for Munich to London to Vegas. My bag was checked to go all the way through, and I was told I had to transfer terminals when I got to Heathrow, a first for me. British Airways don’t have their own lounge at Frankfurt, but Japan airlines do, and it is split into business class and first class. With my One World Emerald (BA Exec Gold) status I was allowed into the first-class section, which is a nice quiet little lounge where you can go see a little bit of the airport from. The flight back to London was an uneventful short hall hop back into terminal 5.
Changing terminals at Heathrow
As I was on a fully connecting flight, I didn’t need to go through immigration to the landside, and I could transfer directly to terminal 3 where my Vegas flight was going from. Following the purple signs, as they tell you many times, I was directed down towards the ground level where there’s a series of different waiting areas for buses to other terminals. The bus showed up almost immediately and we were off to terminal 3. The bus made an additional stop at terminal 5 C gates, which I didn’t know it did. A useful thing to remember should I be doing this again on a long-haul transfer. After that it drove around the airport and into terminal 3 where we released into the transfers area to go through another level of security before being let out to shops and restaurants.
Lounge hopping and off to Vegas
Terminal 3 is one of my favourite terminals when flying on a One World airline, because it has 4 separate One World lounges. As they’re so small, and to help manage with capacity, each lounge does allow people from other One World airlines to enter it when they’re not busy. The Qantas lounge has a gin bar, the American lounge has pick & mix sweets, the BA Lounge has good champagne and some nice food, but by far best is the Cathy Pacific lounge for food, drink and amazing views. I headed immediately to Cathay Pacific, which also has a separate first-class section, which I’m allowed into with my status. In there they have a proper sit-down restaurant with a menu and table service, where I enjoyed a delicious lunch. And then took a drink and sat on one of the reclining chairs looking out over the airfield. When it got a bit busier, I decided to go and explore, I didn’t feel like a gin at Qantas today, so I decided to go and see if there were any changes to the British Airways lounge. Nothing significantly changed there but there was plenty of champagne on offer. The one big change for me was the restaurant in the British Airways “first” lounge is now exclusively for first class customers, whereas it used to allow anyone to eat in it. This might be because the increase in long haul flights operating out of terminal 3 and the lack of Concorde lounge. Before long, it was time to board, and I headed off to my A350 for my 9-hour trip across to Vegas.
London to Vegas in a Club Suite
Thanks to my status, I was able to book 1A, right at the front of this very new A350-1000 aircraft. Delivered to BA in January, this was one of the new layouts with plenty of Club Suites and no first class. Perfect for “holiday” routes like Las Vegas that attract less first-class customers. After settling in with my welcome drink I was presented with the full menu. This consisted of two full hot meal services, as it was a day flight leaving at late afternoon and arriving around dinner time. You can see the menu I was offered below.
I went for chicken and chicken, with my choice of cocktail to wash it down. A lot of people have been critical about BA food recently, but I found this to be perfectly acceptable, it’s not gourmet dining, but I am happy with that. I want to feel satisfied with my meal and I was more than happy with the offering. Drinks and snacks were available between meals, and I settled down to watch a couple of films. I then had nap for a couple of hours and woke for dinner before landing. For dinner I opted for the pie, which was also good.
The Club Suite is a lovely way to fly and, in my opinion, up in the top 5 business seats available today. I was able to adjust the chair for relaxing while watching a film, sleeping, or just at a gentle angle for dozing while listening to music. I love a window seat, but I also like having the aisle access without bothering anyone, so it’s a win win.
Arrival into Vegas was quite easy, and thanks to having Global Entry, I was in, collected my bag and off to the taxi rank in no time.
Return trip – 3 flights
Just to recap, the first part of my return trip was Vegas – Dallas – Frankfurt on my main American Airlines booking, all in business, followed by the final leg home from Frankfurt to London on Lufthansa with the final part of that return booking.
The first part was an early morning, domestic flight from Vegas to Dallas. American do not have any lounges in Vegas, but thanks to my AMEX Gold Card, I have some Priority Pass lounge vouchers, so I cashed in one of those to get into the lounge. It was very basic, not much food on offer and a poor drinks selection. But it was early, so I was happy just to have somewhere quiet to sit until my flight.
As this was a business class ticket, I was sitting down the front in what they call First Class on American Domestic flights. Admittedly it is a far better offering that European short-haul business class as you get a decent sized reclining seat. I picked 2A, rather than 1A, as I knew with this design of seat, row 1 doesn’t get great leg room. And with a seat in front of me I can hang my iPad out of the pocket at the top to watch without holding it. I ended up dozing for most of the flight to Dallas, and I awoke for final approach and my 4-hour layover in Dallas airport.
The first thing to do on arrival is change terminal, as I was quite far from the international departures. After a short train ride, I was through and headed to the American Airlines Flagship lounge. But, before I went in, I was told there was an aviation museum in the airport, so I decided to check that out first. I was essentially a wide corridor with some display cases, but there were a couple of interesting things in there. There’s a picture below. Anyway, off to teh lounge.
AA have different lounges for different types of flyers. The Admirals Club lounge is designed for short-haul frequent flyers and business class (domestic first) customers. The Flagship lounge is a slightly more premium experience for frequent flyers, business and first passengers all on long-haul routes. It has a restaurant within it for an even more premium dining experience for proper long-haul first-class passengers. Read about my trip there here.
Today I was business class and BA Gold doesn’t get you into the nice restaurant, so I had to make do with the buffet. But it was very good, lots of choices. I found some very tender brisket along with rice and veg to enjoy. I left the lounge early to check out where my gate was and to stretch my legs a little before this longer flight back to Europe. I managed to spot my flight coming in and a rather interesting creation around my gate area.
The main flight
Boarding was quite easy, premium passengers called early, and we boarded quickly. Once on board I was offered the usual pre-flight drink and I settled into the seat. I’d chosen 1L for this trip, (no first on this flight either), as I like the front row and I like to swap sides on the way home. The seat was very similar to the BA Club Suite, but without a door.
As this flight was a decent length, (9hours 40minutes), I had planty of time for dinner, a movie and a sleep. I was very impressed with the food on American, I’d heard that they had upped their game, and I wasn’t disappointed.
For starter I took an aubergine salad, which came with my main side salad, bread and oil. Then for the main I had some succulent chicken, which was juicy and marinated in a lovely flavour. All served with veg. Dessert was ice cream with caramel sauce and nuts. Simple choices for me, but it was all really good.
I did of course have some Qatar pyjamas with me, so I changed into those and settled down to sleep. There were a few bumps in the night, but I like that when sleeping on a flight. And I’d asked to be left alone to sleep in as I knew I’d have breakfast in the lounge in Frankfurt.
After landing, I headed into Frankfurt airport to collect my bag and check in again for my final flight home.
The last flight
We’d actually landed about half an hour late, but this was ok as I’d left plenty of time before my final, non-connected, flight home. I retrieved my bag, and I’d planned for this, so had small carrier bag loaded at the top of my suitcase ready for a swap. With my pyjamas stowed in luggage and clean clothes for the day retrieved, I headed to check in.
Of course, I get to use priority check in and fast track security, so I was back through airside in no time. Having been officially in Germany for less than an hour. I headed to the Senator lounge to freshen up.
Back to a lounge and home again
Upon arrival in the lounge, I headed straight for the showers, and I found out there was a small wait, so I was given a buzzer so I could go and enjoy the rest of the lounge until a shower was free. I had just enough time for a quick orange juice and the buzzer went off.
I was very impressed with the showers here in the lounge, way better than the British Airways units. There was a sink, a toilet and an are to store you luggage and clothes while changing.
I took my time to enjoy a nice long shower, freshen up and put on some clean clothes. I then headed out into the lounge for breakfast. There was quite a wide selection of choices on offer. I even noticed they had an American themed event going on and were promising wings at lunch time. Having just come back from there I decided I didn’t need any more. I grabbed some food and picked a seat near a window to wait for my flight. It wasn’t very busy today (not sure why there was a queue for showers), so I had a free choice.
The final flight home was uneventful, I was in 1A, so good for a quick exit in London. They offered me a snack on board, but I knew it wouldn’t be to my taste, so had already eaten in the lounge.
After landing, the bag was delivered quickly and I was away home.
Bottom line
This trip was a bit of an experiment, flying to Germany to fly to America. Flying back home to fly away again was very odd, however it worked well with a night out with my friends in the middle, so it didn’t feel too strange. Taking 2 flights to get back to Europe, to only then take another flight to get home did feel a little much. But it was a good way to save money and earn some welcome tier points. Would I do it again? Probably. I would never do it without all the lounge access, that shower after my long flight from Dallas to Frankfurt was essential. I would certainly keep to the same planning rules, leaving a whole night between unconnected flights is certainly less stressful. As for the flights, BA have the better seat for long haul, but American have the better food. Short haul, American’s “first class” seats in business are certainly more comfortable than BA’s economy seats with an empty seat next to you. Next time I do this I will probably try it with different airlines, maybe Swiss and United to see what they are like.
