Flying to America next year

scorza

scorza

scorza

Caporegime
Joined
22 Jun 2004
Posts
26,684
Location
Deep England
I'm pretty sure I'll be going on holiday to the USA this time next year, so just looking for a bit of advice about the best time to get the flight tickets. If I get them now, a year in advance are they likely to go up or down in price closer to the time?

I'd much rather fly from Gatwick as it's so close to where I live but this only leaves me with Delta Airways who fly to my destination, so I'll book direct with them rather than through a travel agent.
 
scorza said:
If I get them now, a year in advance are they likely to go up or down in price closer to the time?
Click to expand...

How long is a piece of string?
No one will really know what the price will be in a years time.
If you see what you perceive to be a bargain and can afford to have the money tied up for a year, buy them now.
 
I'd use Skyscanner to find the best deals and if the best price is through LateRooms or lastminute then sign up for quidco as there's 1 or 2% cashback on those websites for flights.

With long haul flights you will find the tickets gradually creep up towards departure, possibly dropping just before. You may find some travel agents ticket prices will drop significantly quite close to the trip based on what they haven't sold, but, you might be gambling on what dates/times will be available.
 
Virgin fly to loads of American destinations from Gatwick. Where in America are you flying to??
 
where are you going? I've been keeping an eye on tickets to the mid west for a couple of months and after the school holiday end ticket prices seem to vary very little with time, all being around £400 return (whether I booked a flight for tomorrow or a month or twos time).
 
For transatlantic flights to LA i always fly from Heathrow with Virgin, best to book 3 to 4 months in advance, winter time is the cheapest, but i have done the last min thing too but be prepared to pay, flying business last time was about £1,800, but economy can be about £350, flights are better priced mid week.
 
Should have said where I'm flying to - Portland, Oregon. Virgin would be fine if I was going to Vegas or Orlando but as I'm not I'd have to arrange my own onward flight, which always seems to work out quite expensive when I look.

Heathrow is the other option but it's expensive to get to - £90 cab ride, or a hotel near there I guess.
 
scorza said:
Should have said where I'm flying to - Portland, Oregon. Virgin would be fine if I was going to Vegas or Orlando but as I'm not I'd have to arrange my own onward flight, which always seems to work out quite expensive when I look.

Heathrow is the other option but it's expensive to get to - £90 cab ride, or a hotel near there I guess.
Click to expand...

Why not get the train? Obviously it depends how many of you there are but one or two should be cheaper than that.
 
BombayMix said:
For rock bottom flights you might get cheaper tickets going via Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Dubai. Or on a less obivious carrier.
Click to expand...

No point going via Dubai for several reason, going via Amsterdam can work well tho - I've flown to the states via Amsterdam with KLM (who are my prefer airline for quality no frills travel) by monitoring the prices over serveral months managed to get some great deals - sometimes you can get great deals at the last minute but theres no guarantee - 4-6 months ahead seems to work out best.
 
Amp34 said:
Why not get the train? Obviously it depends how many of you there are but one or two should be cheaper than that.
Click to expand...

Takes 2.5 hours to get to Heathrow by train for me, plus getting through London Underground with a big heavy suitcase, plus risk of a delay meaning I miss my flight. Nah - if I have to go to Heathrow I'd prefer to spend the extra :)
 
Just got back from Portland.

We flew continental from LHR>IAH>PDX, we're FF with CO so pretty much travel exclusively with them. Tickets were £650.00. I'd avoid flying through EWR, I hate the place.

To get the cheapest deal I would fly in the week if at all possible, you might be fortunate on the TA leg to get a whole row as a lot of the flights are never full.

Portland is a great city, loved every minute of it. Few really cool Micro Breweries and visit Voodoo Doughnuts if into them. The Rose Garden and the Japanese garden are also worth a visit, jump on the pink bus and do the tour.

We took a ride out to Cannon beach where the Goonies was filmed, about 2 hrs by car west of Portland, that was pretty cool as well.

If you have the time I'd recommend going up to the San Juan islands in Washington State.
 
scorza said:
Should have said where I'm flying to - Portland, Oregon. Virgin would be fine if I was going to Vegas or Orlando but as I'm not I'd have to arrange my own onward flight, which always seems to work out quite expensive when I look.

Heathrow is the other option but it's expensive to get to - £90 cab ride, or a hotel near there I guess.
Click to expand...

Get a one way car hire. I did that when going to Thailand, cost £45.
 
I certainly dont agree with the book a year ahead crowd. Off to the States later this week and paid £399 return, which is pretty good - booked that in July. Last year I paid £460 direct to LAX and booked that 5 months in advance.

Do some research to find out what the reasonable minimum cost for your flights are, wait until they dip to near that, then buy.

This year prices were bonkers right up until June when the airlines presumably realised they'd sold no tickets and went on a succesion of continual fare-sales. Had I booked when I first decided to go I'd have paid over £600 for the same flights.

And don't base your choice of carrier on the utterly trivial issue of getting to the airport - Heathrow is almost certainly better and who cares about 2 hours to the airport? Your flight will be 9 hours!
 
Last edited:
Advance ticket prices I've seen are pretty terrible to be honest.

I would say the best window for booking is about 3 months in advance, thats often when they start throwing out deals trying to entice people to buy etc etc.

Have a good scour of the internet for prices, booking directly is not always the cheapest option.

What age range are you in? There are companies like STA Travel who do some awesome deals and prices for under 26.

I managed to book my Xmas and New Years flights from Manchester for £450 going to the east coast which was a steal in this economic environment.
 
Should have said where I'm flying to - Portland, Oregon
Click to expand...

Good choice and nice to hear someone whose visiting America and NOT going to NY NY NY NY or Miami Miami Miami Miami lol.

IMO the Pacific Coast is brilliant and WA is a gorgeous state with specatacular scenery. Evergreen forests right along the coast etc. Id live there in a heartbeat.
 
KatanaDV20 said:
Good choice and nice to hear someone whose visiting America and NOT going to NY NY NY NY or Miami Miami Miami Miami lol.

IMO the Pacific Coast is brilliant and WA is a gorgeous state with specatacular scenery. Evergreen forests right along the coast etc. Id live there in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Been to NYC once and would be fine never going back!

I've also been to pretty much everywhere else apart from Miami, more people need to get out to Chicago, Seattle and then the smaller places tucked away in Idaho and Montana and Colorado. So many fantastic places to visit.
 
...more people need to get out to Chicago, Seattle and then the smaller places tucked away in Idaho and Montana and Colorado. So many fantastic places to visit.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I lived in Denver, Colorado for many years and its a fantastic place. In fact I preferred it to California even (used to live in San Fran Bay Area).

I keep trying to tell my mates this... but they just keep jetting off to Florida year after year. A couple I know even go there EVERY year to the SAME spot in FL...they have been to the hotel owners house even. Ok its a personal choice where to go...its their life after all but I cant help feeling...such a pity. America is such a vast country with SO much more to see outside the heavily-touristy areas.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom