New England to Edinburgh
 

Researching an April 2008 trip to Edinburgh has me muttering the, "You can't get there from here" phrase that we use when trying to drive east/west in New England! (If you've not been here, the roads mostly go north/south, so we do a lot of zig-zagging.)

I can do either PWM (Portland, ME) or BOS. I've considered MHT (Manchester, NH), but it's not quite as convenient for my location.

Kayak.com shows a couple $800 tickets on Continental, flying from PWM via Newark. One is fare S and the other fare Q, so I'm learning that I need to learn about fare codes, too!

I wouldn't mind flying to Glasgow and train or bus to Edinburgh, but direct from Boston to London and then train seems more traveling than I want to do, though should I consider it? I hear good things about Virgin.

Instruction on those fare codes and tips from anyone who's done this trip in the past appreciated most gratefully!

Hi again,

I should add that I know about the luggage problems in Heathrow and plan to go light! Whatever the route.

Also, I experienced the one bag Security rule on a school trip to Europe that came home through London (taking too much on that trip is another reason that I want to go light, this time!).

Thanks!

Delta flies nonstop from Atlanta to Edinburgh although I have heard that it will be switching to JFK to Edinburgh next year?

A few points:

- The one-bag rule applies to all UK airports. Unless you're flying out from some other country, it will affect you eventually, at least on your flight home.

- If you want to fly direct to London, look at a connecting flight to EDI. The plane to train transfer is more trouble than what it's worth.

- There's nothing special about Virgin if you're flying coach. But if you're considering premium economy and/or business, then they're worth considering.

- If you take the Continental route, make sure you leave lots of time between flights at EWR. EWR has been a mess this spring and summer. Q and S are both deep discount economy fares - you don't need to know the subtle difference between them.

If you're flying in economy class I would not switch planes in the US but instead would take Aer Lingus from Boston to Dublin and connect to EDI from there.

Aer Lingus operates as a low cost carrier in Europe (and pretty much everywhere now) and flights in April from DUB to EDI are priced around €20-30 most of the time.

I agree. Aer Lingus via DUB is a good option from BOS.

Re: Aer Lingus .. the web site allows BOS to GLA, but not BOS to EDI. Would calling Aer Lingus to book the flight make it possible, do you think?

Many thanks for the notes, explanations, and tips! I do appreciate your time replying.

I think I answered my own question about the BOS to EDI. Running two browser windows, I see the flight times don't work.

So, to fly to DUB, then I book something like Ryan Air? Yes, need to check next if it does DUB - EDI on the days I need :-) How much time to leave between arriving and departure times, do you think?

Many thanks!

I suggest about 3 hours. You need to go through immigration, claim bags, and then checked-in at Ryanair 40 minutes before departure. Since your flight may be late departing BOS, give yourself more time is better.

If you aren't checked in at 40 minutes before flight time on Ryanair, you'll need to buy a new ticket to EDI. They will not re-accommodate you at all.

If you are considering Continental, also look at the flights to Glasgow. It is a bit of a hassle to get from Glasgow to Edinburgh (not much, really), but it could be worth it if the times and prices are better (they were for me last year).

Also with Continental, I think they fly 757s to Glasgow (for sure) and Edinburgh. This doesn't bother me, particularly for a cheap enough flight, but some are bothered.

For some reason Aer Lingus doesn't show their 6:30 PM Boston flight (not the 7 PM flight that stops at Shannon) connecting to their first (of 2) EDI flights of the day, although the connection window is almost 4 hours, plenty of time. If you buy two separate tickets it should be easy to configure.

Coming back, their first (of 2) flights from EDI doesn't get into DUB in time to connect to the BOS flight, but the morning flight from Glasgow does, so that could be arranged easily, or come the evening before and spend the night in Dublin (not hard to take) before the BOS flight.

Thus the overall itinerary would be BOS-DUB//GLA-BOS on an openjaw ticket, plus a separate DUB-EDI ticket bought cheap.

Since you'd have to go through customs and all that at DUB anyway (Eire and UK are in a common customs zone) the passage through DUB inbound wouldn't be all that different anyway.

ANYTHING that avoids Heathrow is to be sought IMO.

Many, many thanks for the information shared on this thread!

Studying the Aer Lingus site, an openjaw BOS-DUB//GLA-BOS with a ticket for the DUB-EDU is (as I search and type tonight) $837, almost exactly what I saw for flying Continental.

Continental would be a regional jet and a 757. All the Aer Lingus flights are an Airbus 320 or 330.

I also discovered the timetable for Aer Lingus: Saturdays (my anticipated travel days, Murphy strikes, here) have fewer trips, e.g.: only the 7pm out of BOS and no 6:30pm.

I may rethink the coming back day, but the going over day doesn't have as much flexibility. I work in a school and worry about the poor message sent to the kids when staff take off early for vacations. Yes, we can save travel money, but I'm so annoyed when my co-workers do it, I probably shouldn't do it myself, lol!

One last question: there's a 2 hour window for the above configuration .. arrive DUB 7:25 .. leave for EDI at 9:20.

Doable with only the one carry-on?

Best to all!

I think that's doable. For the same price, I'll take Aer Lingus (even though I'm CO's biggest fan here), unless PWM is significantly more convenient than BOS for you.

Icelandair flies from BOS to Glasgow via Iceland (short layover to change planes).

We did that in March/April and it was good - the fare was reasonable, plus it was a LOT better than via LHR. Also departing Glasgow for the return is a lot less hassle than from LHR.

Keflavik airport is a very nice airport.

Icelandir also flies from JFK.

www.icelandair.com

BlueSea, thanks mentioning Icelandair. I think I would really like to try a stopover night on the way back; that sounds very interesting. My first choice of dates, unfortunately, are listed as "Sold Out."

But I will keep this option in mind as I consider exactly which days to go. Thanks!

We used the "stopover" option on Icelandair twice - in 2004 and again this year and they were great. We're planning on doing it again next year for my BIG 0 birthday!

I'd check flights via Amsterdam or Paris as well, both have a number of onward flights to Edinburgh and - yes even CDG - are probably more convenient to transfer at for flights to the north of the UK

We have made this trip many times.

Don't worry about flying into EDI. The bus connections from GLA are easy.

We like Icelandair because the flight is divided into two short links, BOS to Keflavik, Keflavik to GLA, though we have tried just about every other route.

I have a horror of flying backward (Portland to Newark, then flying back over Portland on the way to Europe), and Continental is flying 757's, a plane that leaves a lot to be desired, on this route, IIRC. Icelandair does too, but it is a much shorter leg.

The downside of Icelandair is that their "good" fares often do not show until a relatively short time before the flight -- maybe three months -- and a lot of people on here want to lock in long before that.