This summer (June or July) my husband and I are going to England/Ireland/Scotland as our 10th wedding anniversary celebration. We want to fly into London or thereabouts from Boston and then get around on land while we’re there… we want to stay 10 days to 2 weeks or so. We’ve so far found in the $700-800 each range for airfare… does anyone work for an airline or travel agency or anything else that gets them discounts? Please?
Opal, in my search for my flight to Sweden last month, I exhausted nearly every resource. These were the best.
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Travelocity and Expedia. The two best on-line travel agencies. You’ll probably find the same fares on both, but they use different systems, so be sure to check them both.
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Savvio. This is who I actually bought my ticket to Stockholm from. What they do is find the cheapest fare from an airline and then discount it. Over time, it goes down about 10%.
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Hi Opal! (sorry, couldn’t resist)
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The Trip also has good information on trans-atlantic fares; I used them, too, in my search for the perfect flight.
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Check the airlines’ sites, too: last time I went to the UK, I took Virgin Atlantic, and recommend them. Also, British Airways (make sure they lock the cockpit door, though!), and a few of the American airlines (Delta, USAirways, American) fly to London. I’m not familiar as to who flies out of Boston, as I do my international travel from Dulles, but I’m sure Boston is a good place to leave from.
Good luck!
I’m assuming you’ve already called the discount services. If not try Travelocity.com or 1-800-FLYCHEAp.
IANATA, but I did plan a very similar trip at the same time of the year for my honeymoon about five years ago – didn’t actually get to make the trip, for various reasons, but did all the planning.
I know the Atlanta market better than Boston, but the fares you’re being quoted sound like they’re pretty much the standard non-sale fares. That being the case, there’s no advantage to buying now rather than waiting it out – you’ll still be able to buy the same fares months from now, unless I’m very much mistaken. The hope is that there’ll be a sale on this route between now and then.
Doing a little checking online myself, I’m seeing plenty of flights in June for around $600 each round trip into Gatwick, picking the travel dates completely at random (6/13/2001 to 6/27/2001).
Your prospective travel time is, of course, peak season for England. You may find a sale fare, but it isn’t likely to be dirt cheap. Anything below $500 I’d pounce on. You’re going to see the best fares typically on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. You may save some money by considering alternative airports; it’s even possible that if someone had a really cheap fare to a continental destination, it would make sense to fly there (Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels) and take surface transportation to England. You might also want to watch fares from other departure airports; New York (JFK), Newark, and other major international airports are probably the best bets.
If it were me, I’d hang tight for now, set up a automatic fare watch on Travelocity or Encarta, and wait for a sale.
“Encarta”, is of course my brain-fart version of “Expedia”; never use it myself, preferring Travelocity, but I was trying to be ecumenical and all.
Good point rackensack - definitely look at flights to Western Europe. It’s less convenient but may well save you money. The connecting flights from Paris or Amsterdam to London will only take about an hour.
Sure. I just did this. HEre are some rates I got:
expedia.com=$1000-1500 [from monterey], suntrips.com: $749.00 [ includes hotel & car from sf, so add 10 hours for bus travel time & $60 bus fare, yuck].
Then tried unitedairlines.com & got a perfect flight schedule from Monterey for $507.00
I called united & asked their rate that way for the same flight, you know by phone, they said $596.00. I said, ‘but its only $507 on your web site’. The person said, 'so order from the web site."
There’s a hint.
Opal-- after trying all of the above, once you get a line on your rock bottom ticket price, put a reserve on the seats (24 hrs) , then try Priceline subtracting 15-20% or so.
Note: On Priceline international flights, you don’t know exactly what additional taxes/surcharges will be, but you are given an outside figure. be sure to take this into account when determining your bid price.
I’ve gone to Europe on priceline tix before (in summer no less – peak season) with no problems.
$700-$800 from the east coast??? That sounds high, even for the summer.
Cheap Tickets has always worked pretty well for me. Priceline added $100 in taxes the one time I used them for an international flight.
I don’t think flying to Europe rather than London will save you anything, but flying in and out of NYC rather than Boston probably would, if you can find a cheap shuttle between Boston and NYC.
Alternatively, Aer Lingus might have good deals between Boston and Dublin.
If you’re actually in Boston, I’d recommend checking out the travel agents that serve the Irish community as you can often get very good deals from them, even if you’re flying to England.
Don’t forget to check Icelandair - sometimes they have great deals going. You’d have to stop, and likely change planes, at Keflavik, but that’s not much of a hassle. It’s a tiny, tiny airport, and the flight times are well-coordinated.
The reason I’d be flying out of Boston is that we’d drive up there, meet my mom at the Boston airport (she’d be coming in from AZ, we’d be driving up from VA) and hand over Nicky. She’s going to take care of Nicky for us while we’re overseas… gonna take him up to the lake in NH… I suppose we could catch a train or a bus or something down to NYC… or make my mom fly into NY instead and hand off the kid, dog and car to her there…
Also try your local travel agency. Ours has a London special, 5 nights with air for $499.00 Yet British Airways charges $1400 just for airfare.
Icelandair is the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. But I checked their fares for late June and it looks like they’re charging about $1,250 (including tax) for two round-trip tickets between Boston and London which didn’t seem a good enough deal to post. They do sometimes have great bargains, though. http://www.icelandair.com BTW, I wouldn’t consider the layover at Keflavík to be an inconvenience, but a much-needed opportunity to stretch my legs.
Using lowestfare.com/cheaptickets.com or trailfinders, in about 10 trips across the pond I have never paid more than $500, even when travelling mid-July. Changing the dates by a day or two either way can really pay dividends.
android209, lowest ticket prices are if you work for the airline a certain number of years. Then you can get round trip first class from SF, Calif to London for $75.00 from British Airways 