Road Tripping in the USA!

Fr0dders said:
Cheers. will see what the prices look like for August come April / May time. Are we going to get these reductions with BA / Virgin though ?
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You should do, but given you are not going until 2017 you can model exactly what happens to price approaching August 2016. Check every so often and log the results on a spreadsheet or something, this will inform you for next year when it's time to work out when to book and how much to pay.

What'll be happening now is they are not at all worried about loads this far out and are therefore happy to mop up the OMGZ MUST BOOK EARLY crowd who'll pay whatever. When we get closer, you'll start to see price movement.
 
We're part of the OMGZ MUST BOOK EARLY crowd thankyou :p We (and by that I mean the royal we, IE my wife) has to plan with meticulous detail - years in advanced We were choosing where we were going to eat 6 months before we went florida last year ! and that was only because 6 months was the soonest you could book. In her defence however, certain places in disney get fully booked within days of the reservations becoming available 6 months in advance. But she loved it really !
 
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Anyone who's visiting Vegas, should check out Red Rock Canyon.
Amazing views.
It's literally 30min from Vegas.. Also check out a small western town called Bonnie Springs. Has a fantastic western town from 1843. Great little restaurant. It's a town that looks as if its straight from a western movie. So much better than the crap you get in Vegas !
 
When are you in canada Fox ?

We have 5 weeks booked out there 2 weeks Canada may be cruise or ferry up to Alaska and a 3 week roadtrip down to Yosemite back up via yellowstone jasper and back to vancouver . Flights were £499 in the summer holidays the cheapest we have seen them for a number of years.
Flew last year with Norwegian to LAX could not fault it especially for £400 each. brand new plane with big windows as well
 
Juneish, not booked it yet. We did a bit of BC and Alberta on a Pacific Northwest trip in 2013 and loved it, so this time spending the entire time there to see more of it.
 
I echo what Fox has said above with booking flights early, you may as well just throw away money. Unfortunately teaching that to people isnt always easy (my family included)

If youre really interested go take a look at the BA best price finder. They even advertise the fact that flights 10 months + away are more expensive then the same flight in 3 months.
 
It's frustrating though as flights anchor the whole trip. Until you have confirmed flights you can't book anything else really, so having the play the silly airline game of waiting and waiting for overpriced flights to fall in price is frustrating. For months last year I watched the flights I wanted advertised at £1k - seriously, who pays £1k for economy returns to North America outside of school holidays? Nobody. I knew they'd eventually drop and they did but it's a shame we can't cut all the crap and just buy them at a decent price in the first place..
 
[TW]Fox;29019587 said:
We just stayed either side of Yosemite rather than in the park itself. Worked out well and was loads cheaper. Mammoth Lakes is possibly a tad far in one day from Vegas unless you don't mind getting there quite late. We went for Bishop.
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We did Vegas to Mammoth Lakes in 1 day (via Death Valley). I think we left Vegas at about 8:30am and arrived at Mammoth Lakes at about 7pm. We stopped a fair bit and made sure we saw everything in DV. I would have liked a second night in Mammoth Lakes but we spent the first half of the next day exploring and it was amazing.
 
Just driven from Vegas to space port, onto LA and now in Newport on the beach a nice warm 17c but not so much sun. :)

Got a Chevy Tahoe which I quite like. :D
 
Fox, I know this question has probably been asked a million times in this thread, but how far in advance/when is the best time to buy flights? Me and a friend are planning to replicate your road trip (albeit with slight variations along the way), in Oct/Nov this year.

We genuinely have no idea if we should purchase now, in 2 months or even 4-8 weeks before the trip.
 
Between 6 and 2 months IMHO.

Work out what the right price is for the flights you want, and then book once you see them hit that level.

Depending on which of my trips you are replicating Oct/Nov might be problematic with the weather.

My last trip would likely be impassable in November for example.

If you are going to LA I'd want to pay £450ish for flights in October/November.
 
[TW]Fox;29039062 said:
Between 6 and 2 months IMHO.

Work out what the right price is for the flights you want, and then book once you see them hit that level.

Depending on which of my trips you are replicating Oct/Nov might be problematic with the weather.

My last trip would likely be impassable in November for example.

If you are going to LA I'd want to pay £450ish for flights in October/November.
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Your original trip. Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco and then back to Los Angeles. With everything else in between.

Any airlines to avoid like the plague?
 
Robi said:
Your original trip. Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco and then back to Los Angeles. With everything else in between.

Any airlines to avoid like the plague?
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Delta is the only one I'd avoid on that route - everyone else flies brand new (or at least decent) stuff and Delta have a daily rotation on a 20 year old 767 :rolleyes:

Tioga Pass will be closed when you go which means you can't go from Mammoth Lakes to Yosemite.
 
[TW]Fox;29039480 said:
Delta is the only one I'd avoid on that route - everyone else flies brand new (or at least decent) stuff and Delta have a daily rotation on a 20 year old 767 :rolleyes:

Tioga Pass will be closed when you go which means you can't go from Mammoth Lakes to Yosemite.
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Thanks. When did you go? Judging by your post date it was surely at the back end of the year?
 
[TW]Fox;29039661 said:
I go every September.
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something I'll have to remember. I may not see prices go down to £400 as we have to travel during school holidays. Still, i'll keep an eye out and see what happens this year.

Does anybody have any recommendations for San Francisco Hotels ? may end up having to blow the budget here as $100 per night gets you naff all in San Fran. You can live like a king in Vegas for that money during the week. (P.S. i'm aware of the reason why this is the case, just pointing out the difference is amusing)
 
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Had the same thing with SF really, loads of really crap Best Western type places for a million quid just because they were central.

Stayed in a Marriot about 15 miles down the road for half the price. Took 15 minutes from hotel parking lot to parking space next to Lombard street..
 
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