Flight Comparison Help

[TW]Fox;21011058 said:
Yea but just look at them!!! 14 hour travel time?! The similar priced flights from Heathrow are direct with a greater choice of airlines.

What are your travel dates? Are you really planning on going in 2 weeks time? Probably a bit soon for the best deals. How long do you want to stay?

Have to admit, I didn't look at journey times and just presumed they'd be similar :o

No, not going for ages, just looking to get a guesstimate of prices, so I can see who is able to go, people can save etc etc and am looking at around April next year. I know this makes the exercise largely futile, but I need to have some idea of cost, and the best I can do is look at this years prices to estimate next years.

Or should I just pluck a number out of the air and say £500-£600 for flights and be done with it :p Then just look at where to go.

The difficulty I'm having is the internal transfer bit :( Catch 22, waste of time looking at destinations without knowing flight costs and it's difficult to look at flight costs without destinations :p
 
Anyway back to the OP - using those dates youve put into Skyscanner, Virgin will fly you direct from LHR to New York and then back home from Washington DC to LHR for £390 return which is a pretty good fare.

You can then make your own way from New York to Washington - which is part of the fun. Though be aware of several things - firstly New York is one of the most expensive places to get a hotel room in the entire country. Big money. How long you stay might be limited by your budget! Secondly, a week in either city is probably too long.

If you know how long you want to go for, and what your budget is, I might be able to suggest an itinery or something. I've done 3 trips to the USA now - the last two in the last two years. It's one of my favourite places to visit and I'm always researching the next trip :)

I generally work to a budget of £1500ish per person for 2 weeks, based on two of us going and including flights, car hire, accomodation and food. I'm not a particularly high end diner though so there is rather more dominos pizza in that budget than Michelin star restuarant, but its a useful guide as to the sort of costs involved with a decent enough trip to the States.

Generally I tend to book flights about 3 months before I go, car hire a month or so before I go and most of the hotels once I'm already there. Usually the first 5-6 days I book up within the last month before going.
 
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Use Expedia.co.uk and click on multiple destinations.

Fly out of Manchester or London. Flying from Newcastle will be significantly more expensive than taking the train to somewhere else.
 
[TW]Fox;21011113 said:
Thats because Air France dont fly direct from the UK to India - you have to go via the hub in France. There is no direct Air France flight. Ditto Lufthansa and Germany. The fact you went through Germany wasn't a co-incidence.

Lol, I know that, but I was comparing the prices to those with BA and virgin and other airlines flying direct!!

Anyway, sorry OP, I've derailed your thread!
 
One thing I found is that sometimes it can be cheaper to go to another country and then take a flight from there.

Before you start criticising my post fox, hear me out!

When booking to go to India, air France and Lufthansa were cheaper when I went through Germany or France, even though the route wasn't as direct so should, theoretically be more expensive than going direct. You could also go further than your destination and go back? Taking India as an example, it could be cheaper to fly to china, then take another plane to India.

That's common on every route. I flew to boston in 2010 and went via Canada as it was cheaper... That's the point of my first post, that is a stopover that most people talk about. They bought a (cheaper normally) indirect flight and had to stay at an airport for a few hours or overnight.
 
That's common on every route. I flew to boston in 2010 and went via Canada as it was cheaper... That's the point of my first post, that is a stopover that most people talk about. They bought a (cheaper normally) indirect flight and had to stay at an airport for a few hours or overnight.

That is ok if you manage to get a fairly short transfer time :)

Also, OP, have you tried travel supermarket?
 
The Virgin NY in DC out sounds interesting, as then all it would take is a car rental, gives a few days to go wherever on the way and DC was a considered alternative destination, being close to NY, which is where everyone wanted to go, but it seems a waste to go all that way for a few days, and any longer is too much - hence the thread.

Thanks for the ideas all, and I know with the dates this is a little pie in the sky, but thought it good to get a guage.

One question - can anyone link to the open jaw flights on Virgin, as i'm struggling to find any info on them. The standard fare quote states both in and out of NY.

Is La Guardia the most straightforward to land at? Newark seems a way out and JFK only a little closer.
 
Just click 'More Options' when you chose the destination to do Open Jaw.

Dont worry about which airport you land at. JFK is the busiest but they are all pretty big and all easily linked to Manhattan. Dont think Virgin fly to La Guardia - just JFK or Newark.
 
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