Thanks to the people who reponded to my first post about direct (or non-stop) flights from London to western US destinations.

Talked with several airlines today and got horrific prices considering what I just read on another post Perhaps it's too early to have "real" fares for next July, but everything seemed to be about $1,400. London to Denver, to Seattle, to Vancouver and even on the east coast to St John's, Newfoundland.

We're trying to set up a hiking vacation for friends from Scotland, and we're trying to decide between the west coast and Newfoundland. Even London to Newark was $983.

Are these summer prices and everyone else is quoting fall or winter? I checked with British Air, Air Canada and Continental.

Try these sites if you are willing to fly to Vancouver:

www.canadianaffair.com
www.flyzoom.com
www.airtransat.com

I should have said Vancouver or several other Canadian cities.

Too early. The airlines haven't released the really cheap fares into their reservation system or to the consolidators yet. Wait until late fall.

Way, WAY too early. Wait for sales this winter.

I usually start looking in Dec/Jan for June/July fares, and don't get serious until maybe Feb/March unless a big sale breaks.

Yes, way too early. Nobody publishes schedules, never mind fares, that far out.

Also, BA knows it has the non-hub cities in the west tied up, so my strong advice is to look at non-Pacific NW/Mountain states points of entry, then look for cheap transcon or connecting flights to wherever you want to end up. Chicago, Washington DC, Dallas (for AA), Boston, Minneapolis - all have reasonable connecting service west.

Sign up with one of the fare watcher programs at Yahoo or Travelocity or something similar. Subscribe to a couple of the majors' email-alert systems, so you'll learn about deals as soon as they come out. But mainly, patience...

ttt