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Flying Transatlantic

Gents,

I'm considering taking a transatlantic trip next summer to London in July. I've been saving up in hopes of doing this for over a year, however the current ticket fares are still a good bit more than I anticipated. Having never booked international travel, I was curious if there are any pointers that you might have to offer on getting the lowest price. Should I wait longer? Are there certain websites/airlines that are preferred? Should I wait to see if the exchange rate gets better?

I'll be traveling over a weekend in July. There is a non-stop (Continental) from Cleveland to Gatwick which comes to about $1200 right now; the itinerary would be agreeable to me if it was a little less costly. I can get to Chicago easily and would be fine flying out of there. NYC is much more difficult for me, but I could make it work if the transatlantic leg was steeply discounted. Arriving at either Gatwick or Heathrow would be fine.

Thanks so much in advance for any tips you might be able to offer. I'd be absolutely gutted if I couldn't pull this off, but as it is I need to get the price down a bit.
 
You might consider flying to Paris or Brussels instead and taking the Eurostar to London - I know if I travel for work it's significantly cheaper (and avoids the nightmare that is Heathrow or Gatwick) than via London...
 
You might consider flying to Paris or Brussels instead and taking the Eurostar to London - I know if I travel for work it's significantly cheaper (and avoids the nightmare that is Heathrow or Gatwick) than via London...

Thanks for the idea. Something I hadn't considered. Right now it doesn't look to be less expensive, but with economic volatility and how airline fares seem to change minute-to-minute? Sheesh. I'm in over my head. I wish this wasn't an astronomical amount of money to me and I could just pull the trigger. :a36:
 
Can help you with the price, but I have made the trip many times and can give you some pointers. I take the overnight flight. I leave Indy on Sunday night and arrive in London Monday morning. Drop a sleeping pill and wake up in London makes the trip much shorter. Never had a problem in Heathrow. Premier Travel Inn is a good hotel chain. About 70 pounds ($140) a night. No frills and 10 TV channels, but a hot breakfast is free.
 
If and when I ever make it to London I'm not going to worry about lodging. My plan is to hide out in that GF Trumpers store until closing and then sleep in a pile of soft badger. Did you see the pics of that place? Boing!
 
Gents,

I'm considering taking a transatlantic trip next summer to London in July. I've been saving up in hopes of doing this for over a year, however the current ticket fares are still a good bit more than I anticipated. Having never booked international travel, I was curious if there are any pointers that you might have to offer on getting the lowest price. Should I wait longer? Are there certain websites/airlines that are preferred? Should I wait to see if the exchange rate gets better?

I'll be traveling over a weekend in July. There is a non-stop (Continental) from Cleveland to Gatwick which comes to about $1200 right now; the itinerary would be agreeable to me if it was a little less costly. I can get to Chicago easily and would be fine flying out of there. NYC is much more difficult for me, but I could make it work if the transatlantic leg was steeply discounted. Arriving at either Gatwick or Heathrow would be fine.

Thanks so much in advance for any tips you might be able to offer. I'd be absolutely gutted if I couldn't pull this off, but as it is I need to get the price down a bit.


Try Airfarewatchdog.
 
All the basic rules apply. Flying on the weekend will be the most pricey. We regularly fly back and forth between Japan and the US. It is almost always cheapest to take the Red Eye flight on a weekday. $1200 sounds great, it cost me $2600 to send my wife home from Japan for her last visit! Ouch!
 
Two quick suggestions -

1 - Check out www.kayak.com and play with the feature that allows you to search for nearby airports and adjust the dates.

2 - Does it have to be July? You can save a ton by flying and returning before Memorial Day.
 
Thanks for the idea. Something I hadn't considered. Right now it doesn't look to be less expensive, but with economic volatility and how airline fares seem to change minute-to-minute?:

I was actually thinking you could take in the shaving sites in Brussels/Antwerp or Paris as well :001_smile

And you avoid the twin toilets of LHR & LGW - they're embarrassing as the first sight of GB that many people see. Arriving at the new St Pancras International station is far more impressive IMO
 
As others have mentioned - timing is key - both in tems of the time of your flight and time of the year.

July and August are "high" season and everything is more expensive.

If you travel in May/June or after the first Monday in September, the prices go way down.

Also, staying over a weekend helps.

I flew to Paris this summer on business - flew coach and transited through Heathrow to save money - still cost my company $3k.
 
I've got to reccomend Brittish Airways, food was great, service was great, if you're polite as much free booze as you want! Even in coach!

They've got some "theater week/end" promotions now including nights in a hotel, I'm not sure if it works out to when you want to go but it could be a good deal.
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_us?countrycode=US

This summer I flew BA round trip to heathrow after taxes and all it came to $1100 (CDN) and included 1 night free in a 3-4 star hotel.
 
I am flying to London next week and then on to Frankfurt and back to the states, the total for the airfare was $2400 for full-fare coach but this was not a round-trip to/from London.

I am planning on doing some shopping in London, besides the Trumpers Store, what are the other must sees in London ?

I will be working in Brentford and High Wycombe, are there any good sites nearby to these places or should I head to downtown London ? I will be cabbing everywhere.

In Germany, I am planning on picking up some more Tabac and Speick products, a few more pucks of Tabac, maybe a shave stick and some cologne.
 
You can probably get a pretty cheap ticket on Virgin Atlantic to London.. There's an airline that is a three letter acronym that I can't remember that flies very economically to Frankfurt or Dusseldorf, if Germany's in your plans. I agree with the other poster, however, that you should avoid the London Airports as much as possible. They have very strict but useless rules regarding carry-on.. even if you are transiting through London.

The nice thing about London is that they are a hub for many of the discount airlines, like Ryanair and Easyjet. There are five Airports in London.. Heathrow and Gatwick are the big ones, but you can fly to Stansted, Luton, or London City for much less. Each airport has a dedicated transit line, either bus, train, or light-rail, to get you connected to the Tube network.

When I was living in Italy, I often used www.euroflights.info to find discount airline routes. You can get tickets for about $15 sometimes to Continental Europe. It often cost me more to transit from the London Airport to London than it did to fly from Rome to London.

You'll also find that booking one way fares in Europe on the major carriers will force you to buy a Business Class ticket. Before actually moving to Europe, I used to fly to Paris de Gaulle and fly round-trips within Europe (Ex: ATL --> CDG --> MAD --> CDG --> FCO --> CDG) to save money..
-\Visdom
 
You can probably get a pretty cheap ticket on Virgin Atlantic to London.. There's an airline that is a three letter acronym that I can't remember that flies very economically to Frankfurt or Dusseldorf, if Germany's in your plans. I agree with the other poster, however, that you should avoid the London Airports as much as possible. They have very strict but useless rules regarding carry-on.. even if you are transiting through London.

Thanks so much for your help!! I've looked at Virgin Atlantic, as I've heard some wonderful things about their customer service and in-flight experience. I'd love to take their Chicago to London flight, but its about $100 more than the nonstop from my home city (Cleveland) to Gatwick. The convenience and lower risk of an unexpected change in itinerary due to layovers/delays will probably end up being too attractive to me to turn down, even though that flight operates a narrow-body (seriously, who flies 757s transatlantic? I sooo look forward to enjoying the comfort and amenities of a glorified sardine-tin for 6-7 hours) and comes with the exemplary service and flexibility we've come to expect from a standard US-based carrier.

The acronym you're looking for is BMI. I've looked at them too, but again, the price vs. inconvenience doesn't add up in my favor.

I'm just looking to get over to London for a few days -- unfortunately a proper tour of Europe probably just isn't in the cards yet. I'm used to hostel-like accommodations, so I'm not so worried about that aspect of traveling.

Thanks again, everyone, for your advice and help. I love the fact that I can come here and post an off-topic thread whenever I feel in over my head, and you gents who're far more experienced than I will so kindly offer their knowledge. :smile:
 
You are going about this all the wrong way. Send some PMs to our London members and find out what products can be purchased over there for significantly cheaper than they can be found here, especially given shipping costs. Put up a post offering to purchase those items and bring them back - require pre-payment. That way you can finance your trip and have a great excuse to go raid those wonderful British shaving establishments.
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
I've got to reccomend Brittish Airways, food was great, service was great, if you're polite as much free booze as you want! Even in coach!

I have used BA twice and the food is good and the free wine, beer and liquor certainly help on a trans-Atlantic. But, I found their general service left a bit to be desired. My bags were lost both times, I had ticketing issues, plane repair issues, etc. and was met with rudeness and almost every turn. I nearly was refused boarding onto a connecting flight in Kenya because of a mistake that was made in London and had the same problem on the return home. Not highly recomened here.
 
You are going about this all the wrong way. Send some PMs to our London members and find out what products can be purchased over there for significantly cheaper than they can be found here, especially given shipping costs. Put up a post offering to purchase those items and bring them back - require pre-payment. That way you can finance your trip and have a great excuse to go raid those wonderful British shaving establishments.
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I'll save you the effort - virtually everything apart from MWF is more expensive here... I doubt it's available in store as MWF at the same price as mail order here or get the equivalent Kent in John Lewis - they also currently carry Gillette "Swedes".

The only other things I can think of, off-hand, are euro Palmolive cream in a tube... Wilkinson Sword soap in the blue container.

In addition to the obvious trip around Jermyn Street - A trip to a decent branch of Boots (I can't tell you which of their 800 branches in London is decent, perhaps some chirpy cockneys can chip in on that) should carry their wetshaving range. Also Superdrug usually has a bit in pretty much all of their stores, although neither carry much.
 
Pat, how many days are you planning on staying? You mentioned "a few days," but I'm hoping you weren't being literal.

When I was studying in Munich, the last week of my stay my wife flew over for one week and she described it as being put through a meat grinder in the blink of an eye with a vague memory of Schloß Neuschwanstein (pictured below from said trip. :biggrin:) The jet lag killed her. If I may, I'd suggest no less than a two week stay, preferably three or more.

So as to not be part of the problem by not being part of the solution, to avoid such drastic time differences and jet lag, maybe a destination like Montreal would be better suited to a casual weekend international getaway?

Either, I'm a travel nut and wish you the best in your travels!
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
I'll save you the effort - virtually everything apart from MWF is more expensive here... I doubt it's available in store as MWF at the same price as mail order here or get the equivalent Kent in John Lewis - they also currently carry Gillette "Swedes".

He'd probably be better off smuggling some Trumper's back into England for our British members. :001_rolle



I'll warn you about connecting flights. I almost (skin of my teath) had a European vacation ruined by a missed connection in Seattle last summer. We still had a day shaved off our vacation, but made it. Every time you get off one plane and get on another is a major SNAFU target, for you and your luggage. The only way I'd do connecting flights is with about 6 hours in between (or more.)
 
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