AmerLisa

This would be direct from Newark to Dusseldorf.....arrives the next morning at 6 bloody am and will have to find the next airline to fly over to the UK - I can see my husband wouldn't be happy.....

Elvira

Now I'm totally confused............. where do you actually want to go?

Have you used all the cheap flight sites for quotes for the whole trip?

AmerLisa

I'm the cheap flight website queen at the moment......arrrrgggghhhh! We want to end up in Edinburgh for about 5 days and we are going to end our trip (hopefully) in Paris (or France somewhere) leaving from Dusseldorf wouldn't be too hard.

lapin_windstar

Could you just fly into a cheap European hub and then take low-cost carrier flights to/from Scotland and Paris? Booking this far in advance might mean they're cheap.

Have you seen www.SkyScanner.net for low cost airlines mapping?

Elvira

Will you be spending any time in London / South East?

Well, this is what comes up with Expedia - I doubt that you could do it much cheaper, but I would try the other sites as well, eg Sidestep:

$1,217.20
6:45 pm Depart Seattle (SEA)
Arrive London (LHR) 11:45 am tip+1 day Tue 8-Apr
Duration: 9hr 0mn
British Airways British Airways 48
Nonstop flight

6:50 am Depart London (LHR)
Arrive Edinburgh (EDI) 8:25 am Thu 10-Apr
Duration: 1hr 35mn
British Airways British Airways 1432
Nonstop flight

6:45 am Depart Edinburgh (EDI)
Arrive Paris (CDG) 1:00 pm Tue 15-Apr
Duration: 5hr 15mn
British Airways British Airways 1433 / 308
Connect in London (LHR)

9:45 am Depart Paris (CDG)
Arrive Seattle (SEA) 4:40 pm Thu 17-Apr
Duration: 15hr 55mn
British Airways British Airways 305 / 49
Connect in London (LHR)

Elvira

Generally not worth it. Low-cost carriers often fly from 'unpopular' airports, and you waste time on transport to and from (eg LHR to Stanstead, or CDG to Le Bourget), plus you have to allow extra time for delays (if you miss a flight, you're snookered...), so you end up spending a lot on expensive airport food, or even hotels.

AdobePinon

This is VERY important. Neither airline will compensate you if you miss the second flight because the first is late...... unless they are on the same ticket.

penguinsix

My general advice would be to get the big leg over in a hump. Seattle to London is a 9 hour hike. Elvira has a pretty good schedule set up there.

Seattle to EWR is 5/6 hours, layover, and then EWR to Dusseldorf is 8 hours, layover, 2 to EDI. So say 16 in the air. 1 hour of taxiing BS, 4 hours of layovers, plus arriving at the airport 2 hours early and we're up to what...23 hours to get to Europe?

vs. the 9-12 hours direct to London and on to EDI or so....

When I fly to Asia I often have friends on the West Coast (or even in Hawaii) say "come and visit on your next trip". But due to the polar routes, going West, then over (or in your case East, then over) really doesn't do much but add time to the trip.

lapin_windstar

Depends totally on the circumstances, specific airports involved, and how much you value your time...

AmerLisa

Well as luck would have it.....I actually found a Southern California flight to London (although connecting in Denver) for a pretty good price. While it still means flying down to LA, that's ok because the flight down and back isn't bad. And then flying from London to Edinburgh isn't bad either - well the price anyway.

RoadWarriorFromLP

I am of the opinion that airport hopping to save a few bucks is false economy when you consider the time and cost involved, and the consequences if you miss the connection. Don't do it.

If your ultimate goal is to get from Seattle to Edinburgh, then I would either book a flight from Seattle to Edinburgh, or else book flights to London and spend some time in London (at least one night) before using a cheap flight (EasyJet, RyanAir) to get from London to Edinburgh. But I would do this more for the sake of visiting London than I would to save money.

Running from Long Island to Newark just so you can fly Southworst across country is not going to be fun. And I would expect a Southwest routing across the US to involved at least 1-2 stopovers, which only makes it that much worse.

AmerLisa

Whooooooo Hoooooooooooo I've booked flights.....from Southern California to London.....yippee and saved a lot of money. So I feel so much better now.

AdobePinon

You would also have to stick with domestic baggage limitations, which would hose you if you came back with an extra case of junk from home.

Ben

good job - you would have hated trying to get from ISP to EWR. Not a nice trip at all especially with a child in toe.

meauxna

Awesome!
Now go over to Alaska Air and look at signing up for their mileage credit card. They've had a deal on where you get an annual allotment of companion certificates @ $50+ tax for your SEA--LAX r/t and their rates and schedules are so good that you should be able to find something that suits.
If you are going via LAX, don't forget it can be a long job between domestic & int'l terminals. Alaska comes in right next to the International terminal.

Just wanted to add that I am of the *experience* that this is true!