High cost of travel to USA

[Elroy Blue]

Plan was to meet up with family in the USA and have a couple of weeks in Destin, Florida. I can't believe the price of flights. Last year, we got 4 tickets to Atlanta for £1800. Can't find anything to Atlanta/Orlando/Sanford for less than £3500. It's in July, but so was last year.

We even tried a fly/drive holiday, with a meet in Orlando (despite not wanting to do Disney World again) and they're coming out at around £6000. Two years ago we managed villa/car/flights for £1900.

Is there a secret to finding cheaper flights.

[sawman]

about 3k flights for 4 and car to orlando in july via expedia

Edited by sawman on Friday 1st October 21:29

[Elroy Blue]

Expedia certainly seem the cheapest. £2500 for flights to Atlanta. Still expensive, but a grand cheaper than others I've found. Cheers

[Iain328]

Expect to pay £7-800+ per ticket to get to the West coast (non stop) now in July/August. And if you want "mileage" (airmiles/frequent flyer) tickets they are like hen's teeth during that time. Just booked a couple for next August this week. You can book airline tickets 330 days in advance - and you need to if you want those. By about April you'll be lucky to find a 4 seats on a plane together.

[sawman]

Just checked out some of my return trip costs between canada and UK over last 3 years (there have been many)all of them are about £700.

Maybe your cheap deal last year was a recession buster discount?

[Nickyboy]

Direct through USAir.com it came us as $3995 or around £2.5k for 4. Strangley if you try and do it through their UK site its almost twice as much. I always book through the US sites, so much cheaper.

[arfur daley]

you could swim there.

[sawman]

Nickyboy said:

Direct through USAir.com it came us as $3995 or around £2.5k for 4. Strangley if you try and do it through their UK site its almost twice as much. I always book through the US sites, so much cheaper.

Will they let you do that with a uk based creditcard/address

[Nickyboy]

sawman said:

Nickyboy said:

Direct through USAir.com it came us as $3995 or around £2.5k for 4. Strangley if you try and do it through their UK site its almost twice as much. I always book through the US sites, so much cheaper.

Will they let you do that with a uk based creditcard/address

I did it back in July, makes no difference. they don't send you anything, e-tickets etc, quite easy.

[s3fella]

I've found many US sites wont accept UK cards.


I agree the cot of travel to the USA has increased dramtically in the last 18 months. A legacy of the reduced business travel that we know used to subsidise all the tourist punters.

[sawman]

Nickyboy said:

sawman said:

Nickyboy said:

Direct through USAir.com it came us as $3995 or around £2.5k for 4. Strangley if you try and do it through their UK site its almost twice as much. I always book through the US sites, so much cheaper.

Will they let you do that with a uk based creditcard/address

I did it back in July, makes no difference. they don't send you anything, e-tickets etc, quite easy.

fair enough,

When i lived in canada, it used to annoy me that the canadian versions of many on line flight/holiday websites wouldnt let me book with my uk card - because of the billing address, even though they dont send anything to you.

I'll look up usair.com in future

[tinman0]

Elroy Blue said:

Plan was to meet up with family in the USA and have a couple of weeks in Destin, Florida.

For Destin, check US Airways for Fort Walton, Pensacola, and Mobile. You could easily fly to New Orleans (it's only 240miles as a guess from Destin).

edit: US Airways don't care about where the credit card is registered. We've used them for years, and they just want your money.

Edited by tinman0 on Saturday 2nd October 21:43

[Beardy10]

If you can be arsed it can be cheaper to fly from a European city connecting through London onto a US flight than it is to fly just from London. I had my stag in Miami a few years ago....one of my mates lived in Nice, his flight was £200 cheaper including the Nice/London leg than ours was. We did fly Premium Economy so not sure if that makes a difference. That was on BA.

As an aside I think for long haul flights we've seen the end of an the era of cheap flights.

[foilist]

I've flown BA long haul starting from a European aiport several times; in business class the savings do stack up, even including a cheap Eireflot flight to Paris, say. On the way back, hand baggage only and 'miss' your connection...

[Iain328]

s3fella said:

I've found many US sites wont accept UK cards.


I agree the cot of travel to the USA has increased dramtically in the last 18 months. A legacy of the reduced business travel that we know used to subsidise all the tourist punters.

United's US call centre's won't accept UK cards, but United.com will

They also do part cash/part mileage tickets which arn't offered on UnitedAirlines.co.uk

Edited by Iain328 on Sunday 3rd October 12:11

[cjs]

Also note that a UK/US return flight now has around £270 in taxes and airport charges.

[vdp1]

I love the USA but have not been recently due to the expensive fares, in the last few years I have gone to NY for about £220, Orlando for something similar and the best bargain, Las Vegas flydrive for £415 for 2 people. These were last minute mind but after getting these 'bargains' I wont be going back unless I can get a ticket for something in the region of £250, £300 absolute max.

[Deva Link]

vdp1 said:

...I wont be going back unless I can get a ticket for something in the region of £250, £300 absolute max.

As mentioned in the previous post, that's pretty unlikely now as the fees are in excess of £200 for transatlantic return flight.

[vdp1]

Looks like the USA is off the holiday list then, easy come easy go as they say.

Its obviously a lot cheaper if you fly through somewhere like AMS though as you only give our thieving government the short haul tax.

[Iain328]

vdp1 said:

Looks like the USA is off the holiday list then, easy come easy go as they say.

Its obviously a lot cheaper if you fly through somewhere like AMS though as you only give our thieving government the short haul tax.

That's the only thing keeping a lid on the taxes - the point at which it becaomes less expensive to fly to Amsterdam/Paris & fly long haul from there.

The only problem with doing it is its a long enough trip as it is(to the west coast of the US anyway) .

London to SF/LAX is near enough 11 hours flying. Add on 40-50 minutes to a European hub & then a 2 hour layover & its become a 14+ hour journey - probably 16 hours from the time you check in in the UK.

You'll probably still be able to get sub £400 (even sub £300) tickets to the States - but not during the school holidays & only if you are prepared to take multi stop routings.

Taxes & charges for the tickets I recently got for the west coast for next August were near enough £100 a ticket.