Book flights before Visa appointment??
Jul 29th 2015, 7:14 pm
#16
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 128
Re: Book flights before Visa appointment??
Yes we should check whether there's a budget. The travel policy states we have to fly economy as it's under 9hrs 😞
Jul 29th 2015, 9:44 pm
#19
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Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 39
Re: Book flights before Visa appointment??
I always booked cheapest tickets on Continental/United, I would say I had to change my tickets about 50% of the time (I was doing LHR/DUB-EWR maybe 2 or 3 times a month), as long as you book with an american carrier all tickets are basically flexible, you just pay a change fee of about $200 plus any fare difference, worst case you end up having paid $200 more for an individual ticket assuming you pay a full Y fare and the change fee, but on average you save. I worked out that even if I had to change every ticket once it was still cheaper on average per ticket than buying a "full fare" ticket every time with free changes. The difference is basically that you are prepaying to change even when you don't need to.
I agree - most tickets have this facility, but make sure you ask the booking agent - there's a long list of booking classes, each with slightly different fare rules/change fees (the lowest fare classes do NOT allow any changes, even for a fee).
Personally, I saw a good deal on a business fare a couple of weeks before I went to the embassy, so I took a chance and booked it - but I was reasonably confident in my chances of getting an L1 (I'd had one before, my employer has a blanket petition which is regularly used etc). Admittedly this was a risk - and according to our immigration lawyer who prepared the petition, the L1 category has been coming under more pressure/scrutiny recently - so you need to have a strong case.
Good luck!
Jul 30th 2015, 11:14 am
#20
Septic Sprout
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 7,994
Re: Book flights before Visa appointment??
If you are considering booking now because you can change with a fee plus fare difference if needed, then consider the downside that this will lock you into one airline. By the looks of your prior posts you're going to be flying London-New York, right?
If you book with, say, BA - who's to say that if you need to make a change then Virgin or AA aren't the ones with the cheapest fares still available on the new day you wish to travel? The change fee can pale into insignificance compared to the amount of the fare difference when you're talking about the last few seats on a flight due to leave within the next few days.
Try making dummy searches on various airlines for the route to fly within the next few days and see what happens to the fares if you want to get a gut-feel. This isn't foolproof though as conditions may differ now versus the window of dates you're actually likely to fly in.
I see now that your husband's employer is paying, so presumably as long as you stay within the rules then the fare is insignificant. In that case you might consider whether there is any advantage at all to booking now. There are plenty of flights between London and New York each day so it's massively unlikely that you'd run into any kind of problem regarding availability.
If you book with, say, BA - who's to say that if you need to make a change then Virgin or AA aren't the ones with the cheapest fares still available on the new day you wish to travel? The change fee can pale into insignificance compared to the amount of the fare difference when you're talking about the last few seats on a flight due to leave within the next few days.
Try making dummy searches on various airlines for the route to fly within the next few days and see what happens to the fares if you want to get a gut-feel. This isn't foolproof though as conditions may differ now versus the window of dates you're actually likely to fly in.
I see now that your husband's employer is paying, so presumably as long as you stay within the rules then the fare is insignificant. In that case you might consider whether there is any advantage at all to booking now. There are plenty of flights between London and New York each day so it's massively unlikely that you'd run into any kind of problem regarding availability.
Jul 30th 2015, 11:21 am
#21
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 128
Re: Book flights before Visa appointment??
If you are considering booking now because you can change with a fee plus fare difference if needed, then consider the downside that this will lock you into one airline. By the looks of your prior posts you're going to be flying London-New York, right?
If you book with, say, BA - who's to say that if you need to make a change then Virgin or AA aren't the ones with the cheapest fares still available on the new day you wish to travel? The change fee can pale into insignificance compared to the amount of the fare difference when you're talking about the last few seats on a flight due to leave within the next few days.
Try making dummy searches on various airlines for the route to fly within the next few days and see what happens to the fares if you want to get a gut-feel. This isn't foolproof though as conditions may differ now versus the window of dates you're actually likely to fly in.
I see now that your husband's employer is paying, so presumably as long as you stay within the rules then the fare is insignificant. In that case you might consider whether there is any advantage at all to booking now. There are plenty of flights between London and New York each day so it's massively unlikely that you'd run into any kind of problem regarding availability.
If you book with, say, BA - who's to say that if you need to make a change then Virgin or AA aren't the ones with the cheapest fares still available on the new day you wish to travel? The change fee can pale into insignificance compared to the amount of the fare difference when you're talking about the last few seats on a flight due to leave within the next few days.
Try making dummy searches on various airlines for the route to fly within the next few days and see what happens to the fares if you want to get a gut-feel. This isn't foolproof though as conditions may differ now versus the window of dates you're actually likely to fly in.
I see now that your husband's employer is paying, so presumably as long as you stay within the rules then the fare is insignificant. In that case you might consider whether there is any advantage at all to booking now. There are plenty of flights between London and New York each day so it's massively unlikely that you'd run into any kind of problem regarding availability.
I think we just need to check whether there's a ceiling on prices as far as his boss is concerned.
Thanks 😀
