Trans-Atlantic air fares

It's called Summer.  We went in Dec...was around $4200...including the $380 per person "fees"...we are going in July and it is $5400....peak time...limited seating..= higher prices.

You can lower it by doing several stops but I'd rather pay more and get there quicker

I fly back to the UK pretty frequently, in fact I am going in 2 weeks.  I managed to get the flights on premium economy with BA for under $1000 (Standard economy cabin was more expensive apparently it's nearly full ......someone will have to explain that to me as I still don't get it), I was pleased with this, then realized, last year I was paying much, much less for flights.

For the last 5 years now I have maybe flown that route 4 times a year, typically starting in the UK, but it started 5 years ago around 400GBP a round trip, now it's over 800GBP a round trip.  Every now and then I will score lucky and the travel management team will get me a flight for a bargain. 

You are spot on the prices are higher, but it has been going this way for a while now, I don't think it's lost revenue from the Volcano, I try to stick with BA/Virgin as the experiences I have had on the flights have been excellent, but you may find cheaper flights with Continental/United. Also depending on where you are going in UK you can fly from US to Dublin then hop over to Manchester with the like of Aer Lingus.  Not exactly first class travel, but the staff are super nice, the planes modern and have all the amenities of the likes of Virgin etc.  

also if your dates are flexible, you may try mid week flights out and back, avoiding weekend travel tends to bring prices down with some airlines as people (business types especially) fly at weekends. 

If you are doing online searches, it is always worth calling the airlines too, you could search for hours and miss an opportunity hidden somewhere, a simple question to the airline direct booking line like " I would like to fly between these dates for the least cost please?"  It works for our travel management team at least and they tend to get pretty good results.

I fly this this route pretty frequently from the west coast. Prices have been creeping up - one other factor is that some carriers have cut capacity thereby increasing demand and price.