MrsY

Hi there!

We are a family of four looking to go back to UK at Xmas and got a quote of $4250 from SEA to Newcastle. Is this reasonable? Don't to miss out if this is a good deal.

tonrob

What airline? What dates? What class of travel? Connecting where? How old are your kids?

MrsY

BA, Dec 14 - Jan 2nd, economy, connecting at Heathrow and kids will be 3 and 6.

AmerLisa

Flying from Seattle you (obviously) know you can fly direct to London with BA. With little kids I think I'd take that flight hands down. When I put your flight details into Kayak I came back with $4,383.88. So you still found a better deal. Not sure what it will be like in months to come. You are buying pretty early, there still may be sales ahead, but who knows?

MrsY

I know, and with it being Xmas time its ever harder to know whether to wait or book now.

Jerseygirl

If you can be flexible with the dates I would wait until later in the year.

tonrob

BA do have sales once or twice a year - difficult to say ahead of time when they might be.

Are there any flights between Newcastle and anywhere in the US? Just wondering. BA is known for high fees in addition to base fare so didn't know whether there were viable alternatives with other airlines.

Are you all members of the BA Executive (frequent flyer) Club? If you do end up doing that BA itinerary then you should know that BA recently upped the miles earned on discount economy tickets. They are also one of the few airlines that allows you to pool miles in a "Household Account" which might be helpful for future use.

N1cky

I booked our xmas flights in July last year, they were cheaper in August and September, twice as much in October and three times more in November and December. Don't know why I feel the need to check once i've booked, I'm just sad I guess

MrsY

So hard to know what to do!!!


Do you mind me asking how much you paid? Was it much cheaper? I would be sad like that as well and would be really gutted if they were cheaper!

N1cky

I paid approx $2,600 for 2 adults 1 8 year old Los Angeles to London direct with Virgin, I think they went as low as $2,300 before peaking at $6,900

MrsY

Thanks. Might hold off for a bit as some airlines have not got their Dec/Jan flights out yet.

Yorkieabroad

We do the trip from Houston to Teesside (sorry, Durham Tees Valley International) as a family of 5 (kids 5/7/9) and its generally around about a grand a head. We go thru Amsterdam because the connections are generally better than London, even though it means we have to use KLM. Sometimes we go to Newcastle or Leeds, depending on availability of direct flights to AMS, but 1st choice is Teesside. It used to be a little over 500 for off-peak, and 1000 for peak. The last couple of years its been 1000ish whenever. Once we tried to book late, got screwed on connections and had to go through Minneapolis, so the last couple of times I've booked early and monitored the prices and its never got cheaper, and once ramped up quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. Booking now is pretty early, but travelling with kids I like to go for the easy option, so if you like the connections, like the price, I'd be tempted to go for it rather than try to get a few hundred bucks off and end up with an extra connection, added travel time, cranky kids......

All that being said, we're going back this Christmas and I haven't even thought about looking at flights yet!

MatK77

My wife and I just made the Chicago-NCL trip from 12/23-1/7. We paid $740/PP after all taxes. I was watching prices all through November and they didn't drop below $850 until the 10th December. I can't imagine that you want to leave it that late, but I'd keep an eye out for the next month or so, and if they drop down to about $1000 a head, I'd have no qualms about grabbing them. Like you've said, some airlines don't have their prices listed that far out.

I usually look through kayak.com and fly.com

Good luck!

MatK77

Unfortunately not. There was talk (and press releases) of flights starting last year to NYC, but I'm not sure what became of that plan.

AdobePinon

I would guess that somewhere between $750 to $900 each would be a reasonable non-sale price. BA might be more expensive - their fees and 'taxes' are through the roof. End of summer has usually been the best time to buy for me - you're looking way too early to get a deal.