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-   -   Best Flight Deals (https://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-57/best-flight-deals-705835/)

Derrygal Feb 18th 2011 2:04 am

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by Giantaxe (Post 9184187)
Imo, you have to sign up with people like TravelZoo for alerts on fares you're interested in. Otherwise you miss the deals that come and go in a day or two. I just got a San Francisco to London return for March for $420 including all taxes/fees. I was amazed because prices have consistently been in the $650 plus range even for winter. This was for an Iberia codeshare on a BA non-stop flight. Without being alerted to this fare by email, I would never have seen it.

That's a great price. Unfortunately that wouldn't work for me. I have difficulty getting time off work unless I give several months notice (6 months to be guaranteed the time off). I suppose if you could go at short notice you can get a better deal.

Giantaxe Feb 18th 2011 2:19 am

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by Derrygal (Post 9184447)
That's a great price. Unfortunately that wouldn't work for me. I have difficulty getting time off work unless I give several months notice (6 months to be guaranteed the time off). I suppose if you could go at short notice you can get a better deal.

Six weeks notice so not super short... my bet is that Iberia screwed up and entered a dollar amount for what should have been a euro or pound price. A couple of days later their fare was over $700 for the same trip. I've certainly got into the habit of pouncing on exceptional deals, which is why I think email alerts are so useful.

Bob Feb 18th 2011 3:42 am

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by Poppy girl (Post 9184435)
It can work out cheaper, bit of the topic but I have used twice now a firm in the UK part of the Thomson chain called Hotelopia and get hotels if not on priceline way cheaper then any US site.

trick is to clear your browser cache in between checking out the sites, they tend to not give you the best rates if you've been searching lots as they presume you're looking to buy :D

Poppy girl Feb 18th 2011 3:06 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by Bob (Post 9184570)
trick is to clear your browser cache in between checking out the sites, they tend to not give you the best rates if you've been searching lots as they presume you're looking to buy :D

;) :sneaky: :thumbup:

1uella Feb 18th 2011 3:24 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 
Kayak.com will search all of the aforementioned sites and will also give you alot of control over landing times, stopover airports, alerts, pricing patterns, etc. You can even choose which aircraft you'd like to fly on!

:D

soap addict Feb 18th 2011 3:30 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by tonrob (Post 9183902)
Mrs tonrob, the Sproutette and I are flying BA business class BOS-LHR-FRA and back for an outlay of just under a grand in August. It can be done if you have a decent credit rating and are prepared to put the effort in... :)

How the heck can you find business for three for a grand?

Some welsh contacts no doubt!!!

1uella Feb 18th 2011 3:38 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by Bob (Post 9184570)
trick is to clear your browser cache in between checking out the sites, they tend to not give you the best rates if you've been searching lots as they presume you're looking to buy :D

Wow, that IS sneaky!

AmerLisa Feb 18th 2011 4:27 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by Bob (Post 9184570)
trick is to clear your browser cache in between checking out the sites, they tend to not give you the best rates if you've been searching lots as they presume you're looking to buy :D

Thanks for the tip, Bob. Wouldn't have thought about doing that. We're currently looking at prices to the UK/Greece for August, so every little tip helps. :)

tonrob Feb 18th 2011 4:56 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by soap addict (Post 9185709)
How the heck can you find business for three for a grand?

Some welsh contacts no doubt!!!

$996 in taxes and fees plus 110,000 BA miles plus 2-for-1 Chase voucher. :)

Sheepdip Feb 18th 2011 5:53 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 
Been traveling back to the UK a few times in the last couple of months, sometimes on short notice and have found that the best price is usually within 3 or 4 days of the flight. $600 return the other day to LGW which included a short internal flight to CLT.

Poppy girl Feb 18th 2011 6:01 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by Sheepdip (Post 9185988)
Been traveling back to the UK a few times in the last couple of months, sometimes on short notice and have found that the best price is usually within 3 or 4 days of the flight. $600 return the other day to LGW which included a short internal flight to CLT.

I looked at the last week in June 1st week in July from SFO to LHR $1,484 :eek:

I do get friends and family with Delta through a friend but if it does not happen I needed to know my options.

naomi Feb 18th 2011 8:55 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 
Not that this was exactly a good deal, but I just discovered that Iberia Air buys a certain "portion" of seats on B.A.'s flights. Sometimes these tickets are cheaper than B.A., and you're on the exact same flight. I'm flying back with my daughter in July, and on B.A. the tickets were 1400 for an adult (slightly cheaper for my kid), and on Iberia they were 1100 (Seattle to London, return). So I "saved" about $600....they went up the next day, so I don't think those prices stick around. Of course, still way more than I wanted to pay...

Naomi.

mmhendrie Feb 18th 2011 10:17 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 
Just saw the Iberia reference. We got their email alerts just as we were about to book with BA (literally a couple of hours before), and checked them out.

We're flying LA to Manchester, so no airline has direct flights for that route. Our Iberia flights were with American Airlines (code share) - who I’m not a big fan of. BUT, the prices were so low vs. BA that we were able to buy 3 seats with Iberia for less then 2 seats with BA! We're travelling with out baby, so were going to go BA and ask for the bulkhead. But BA told me the bulkhead was not guaranteed and gets assigned 72hrs prior to the flight. They said it's pretty much always available, but I figured, there's a chance it wouldn't be, and we might have to hold the baby for the full trip. To pay less $ and get the baby his own seat, a guarantee of a spot to sit, was too good to pass up. I'd prefer the BA planes, but, I think juggling our 6 month old for 11hrs might take the shine off it!

We paid $550 (inc. all fees & taxes) for each of the 3 seats on Iberia: LA > Manchester return. And I was even able to do it through the AmEx travel site and knock a few hundred bucks off with my credit card points. BTW, the exact same flights with American Airlines (who's planes we'll be on) was almost $300 more per flight! Have to think Iberia screwed up, but hey, I'm sorted.

One thing I picked up from this booking experience, I found a site called www.seatguru.com - if you've not seen it, it's worth a look at. Its free, you punch in your flight #, it tells you your plane type, goes into detail about the amenities on the plane itself, and gives you a full seat map and rates each of the seats, telling you the the best/worst - as any experienced traveler knows, not all the seats in the same cabin are equal! I changed our seat assignments to those that had AC power in them for my laptop!

-Matt

Bob Feb 18th 2011 11:31 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 

Originally Posted by AmerLisa (Post 9185845)
Thanks for the tip, Bob. Wouldn't have thought about doing that. We're currently looking at prices to the UK/Greece for August, so every little tip helps. :)

It is a bit cheeky.

You check a site out and they hook you in with a fantastic rate, come back a day later or looking at other sites and you'll never find that rate again unless you've cleared your cache, their aim is hoping to freak you out into buying the next best deal.

It won't be massive uber savings, but if you're flying with a brood, even $50 a ticket racks up a chunk of change.

Jan Alaska Feb 19th 2011 6:43 pm

Re: Best Flight Deals
 
Check out Condor airlines, they have limited flights out of the US but are cheap cheap cheap. Flight from Anchorage to LHR usually around $1500 but half that through Condor.

Edit: just looked Condor ANC to Frankfurt (easy jet or ryan air hop to UK) $908 US
Continental / United $1244.


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