Englishmum

I've just read about an incredible way that British mainland residents can get a much cheaper airfare to the US by flying out of Dublin (or any other Euro city) to connect in London for the transatlantic leg. The only caveat is that they fly to say, Dublin or Paris first..but it's easy to spend a day or two in those places. You have to begin the journey from the first leg or the complete itinerary is deleted , but it would work well on the return leg as you could just not bother turning up for the final flight out of London. I'd heard about this before, but didn't know the fares were so much cheaper (even taking into account the Euro exchange rate)....this guy found out by going to the Irish ebookers site and booking the e-ticket from there. You just need to fly with say, Easyjet or Ryanair on a cheap one way flight to Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam etc. (Dublin is easier as the site is in English!). Might be worth taking a look at what this guy says:

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&....travel.uk.air

Englishmum

I did a quick check to see if the theory worked....and it does.

I did a route from LHR-EWR (London Heathrow to Newark, NJ) which is one of the more competitive routes so usually cheaper than a routing to a lesser served US city:

*******************

LHR-EWR on 10th Sept, returning 24th Sept.

IRISH EBOOKERS SITE:

Fly from DUB to LHR to EWR (and vice-versa)

Cost: Euros = 495.57 or GBP 332.83 including taxes

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

UK EBOOKERS SITE:

Fly from LHR to EWR (and vice-versa)

Cost: GBP 408.60 including taxes


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(One way flight from say, Birmingham (BHX) to Dublin with Ryanair on 10th September = 45 Euros = GBP 30.00)

########################

(I used http://www.xe.com for the conversion).

I guess for a couple or more of people flying and especially in peak season eg. Xmas and school Summer hols, the difference would be greater and even more cost effective, as well as to some other US destinations). It's certainly something worth mentioning to your friends and rellies back home.

Bob

That's handy to know

NC Penguin

If this saving is typical, some of my family and friends would probably not bother taking this route to travel to the US because of the additional time for such a trip. Also, if this involves changing planes in LHR in particular, there's a fair chance that you may miss the connection if there's a delay in the outward flight to LHR (since this airport is one of the busiest in Europe).

Pulaski

I agree with you Sarah, and also, in the case quoted by EM, you only save £75, and then you have to get to Dublin, and probably spend an extra night in a hotel, so the savings would at best be marginal.

scrubbedexpat099

And who wants to go through Newark, always managed to avoid it except once.

Fortunately I had hours to kill, a full load from Rome arrived at the same time so I could watch with equinamity the Latin concept of queuing.

Ok this is if you are travelling on, not so many connections and I know people who have to spend the night, just seemed more delays going through Newark.

justboy

I have to agree with you there. It sounds like a lot of hassle to save a couple of hundred pounds. I can't think of anything worse that having to connect in LHR, AMS or even CDG, then connect in EWR to get to a US city!

If your family doesn't mind taking an extra connection before the US, and then another in the US......get them to fly Icelandair. They always have good offers, sometimes even 2for1's. They fly from Heathrow and Glasgow to Keflavik, and from there they can get a connection to JFK, BWI, BOS, MSP or MCO.

A lot easier than connecting through the major European airports and i know for a fact that this is a cheap option!!

bodmin13

I flew from Nottingham to Dublin on BMI Baby for 14.99 GBP including tax.
My mum flew from London to Norfolk VA in 2002 for about 430 GBP, I could be wrong but that doesn't seem like a bad deal considering she had to fly to Atlanta and connect to Norfolk.

veryfunny

Can anyone here please help me out, my family want to come over (3) in number and I am looking for flights but I am getting the $3000 price tag. Also they want to come at the worse time late december before Xmas.


THX

Englishmum

Which airport are they flying from in the UK? Are they flexible on airports eg. will they only fly from London area airports or would they be willing to fly from say Birmingham, East Midlands, Manchester or shuttle flight to Scotland etc?

Which airport in the States will they be flying to? Any flexibility (eg. how far would you be willing to drive to collect them?).

Rough dates for outbound and return journeys?

Are they all aged over 12 (ie. on adult fares)?

Englishmum

Just spotted that you're in N.California (don't know if San Francisco, San Jose or even Portland, OR are convenient airports for you).

This is what I found....*if* they are willing to fly on Christmas Day, they can get amazingly cheap airfares.....flights will probably be almost empty too:

http://www.cheapflights.co.uk

(you can choose connections via UK regional airports, but I got a sample fare from London Heathrow):

LHR-San Francisco (SFO)

Flying out on Xmas Day = 245 pounds with United Airlines. Approx 269 with airlines such as British Airways and 264 pounds with Virgin Atlantic. Need to book in most cases by 27 or 28 Sept via the links on the cheapflights site.

My friend and her family often travel from the East Coast to the West Coast on Christmas Day. It saves them loads of money, the airports, flight and roads are quiet and the aircrews are often in a festive mood. I guess certain airlines would be putting on a better meal service than others....I would be more inclined to fly with a British airline at Christmas...at least they wouldn't charge for wine & beer unlike the US airlines these days and you're more likely to get a Christmas turkey meal option!!!

veryfunny

London to San francisco. 2 adults one kid. Dec 22- jan 6

bored-silly

Virgin have some great deals on at the moment.

TRPardoe

I haven't checked in a while, but it used to be the case that you could get very cheap flights through Icelandair using their web site.

All the flights went via Reykjavic but they dumped the unbooked seats at a very low price on their website.

The only drawback was the longer flight T/A.