stickydick

Hey now,

I am an ex-pat, been here for a while and am pretty well established; one thing though, I always have trouble finding decent prices for flights when trying to visit home. I am in Dallas, TX. Does anyone have any good tips?

Rich

Chrissywissy100

I dont know of any clever ways, other than just checking and comparing expedia.com, orbitz.com, travelocity, and maybe your preferredairlines websites to see if they have any deals on at the moment.

BA.com and virgin-atlantic.com have some good prices at the moment for certain times of the year. For sfo to lhr return at end of july midweek on BA, the prices have just dropped by $500 to £950.

midweek flights are always cheaper than fri/sat/sun, and if you can avoid school holidays that will help you too (ie dont go end june to beginning sept if can be avoided)

direct flights are often more expensive than one where you have to transfer once or twice at different airports, but then its hassle vs cost.

Bob

Welcome to BE

Have a search of the forums though as there's been a lot of threads on this before...

waxwabbit

I like to use Kayak.com to compare

Bob

used to be, not often these days though because of the airport taxes being so high these days.

Poppy girl

Hiya StickyDick lol love the name

Anyway the only way really to do it is as others have said go to the main sites like Expedia, Orbitz etc but I then find out the carrier and go directaly to thier web-site, 9 times outta 10 you will get it cheaper by doing it that way, also find out who they are code sharing with, when I booked my most recent flight I noticed that Continental had a flight to LHR and it was $550 but Virgin who was the code share had the price at $920 and yes both economy.

I am now flying United and code share is Lufthansa only $1 differance in price.

Chrissywissy100

Yeah you are right. depends where you are flying from / to though.

topcat1972

Hi

I tend to use www.amadeus.net for flights etc as it gives comparisons on major airlines, gives the best price and availability whether its through the airlines itself i.e. KLM, BA or it may take you to a site like expedia.

Poppy girl

Its another version of Kayak just the same format and information and I checked my flight it more expensive on here, but you never know.

mumof2monsters

hi

i too think it al depends on where you are flying too and from. We have been very LUCKY with our one way flight this time. We have decided to take amtrak from Iowa into chicago and fly from there. We are flying Aer lingus this time from chicago to Birmingham UK, and it cost us just under $900 for 2 adults and 2 kids total.

We just swap flights in Dublin which is no big deal. We were originally booked with BMI but they cancelled the flight and tried making us use the airline that had taken over the route, but they wanted us to pay another $2500, with the $1500 we had already paid. :curse:Luckily VISA pulled the money back from them as their was no resolution that was fair to us.

goodluck on looking

veryfunny

Virgin Atlantic, I have always flown them, so far so good.

penguinsix

Right now there are bargains to be had just about everywhere. It should continue for another 45 days or so until the 'Summer Peak' fares go into effect. If you are looking to get back in the next six months, this is really one of the best times to do so.

I'd also recommend looking at creative ways to fly, i.e. if you are at a lower-serviced airport like Denver or San Francisco or Atlanta, somewhere were there is only 1 or 2 flights to London a day, consider a connection through JFK or Boston or Miami--airports that have multiple carriers and multiple flights per day. Competition often results in lower prices at these bigger airports.

Norri

Good advice, and you just have to keep plugging away at all the sites until you find what you want, it's not a ten minute job especially if you can be flexible on dates, a day or two can make a big difference sometimes.
When you find something you like book it, then stop checking fares

slidingbyee

I'd say this is great advice. Get creative. I have found that the Orbitz etc sites are not the best $$. My favourites (18 years back and forth) cheaptickets, kayak, and farecrawler sometimes. I like Kayak because they also include airline sites themselves. Although I would still check major airlines sites: Virgin, BA, New Zealand (if they fly your way) Air Lingus as their own deals are often better than any of the above.

Also, this advice may seem like 'dancing around the tree 3 times' before you check, but I advise clearing the 'temporary cache' on your computer each time you visit a site. My belief is website cookies track quotes, and in my experience the first quote you get will not usually be beat if they know you are trawling the web. I have definitely had different $$ quotes using this tactic.

Now where are those aliens!