Best airline route to Scotland?
 

I'm just starting preliminary plans for a trip to Scotland next spring. Trying to figure out how to go from either Boston area or Albany to either Edinburgh or Glasgow. I know from past posts that the Boston to Glasgow flights with Globespan (or whatever that airlines is) is not recommended. So should I look into flying Boston to EDI or would Boston to London and then Ryanair or another cheap carrier be best? Any help to start my search and keep my costs down would be appreciated.

Just tossing out an idea. How cheaply can you get to Toronto? Two 'bargain' airlines fly to Scotland from there.

Air transat does Toronto to Edinburgh and flyzoom does Toronto to Glasgow.

When my sister and fly to Scotland in 1999 we flew Icelandair from Baltimore to Iceland to Glasgow. We had a problem at the Baltimore airport and left 4 hours late but the crew of the Icelandair plane was fabulous, started the movie, fed us and kept the drinks coming. We were late for our connecting flight by two hours but they held the plane for us and several other travellers. The people waiting on the plane for us were understanding and let us know that they didn't mind the wait at all. We were given time to settle in and relax before our flight finally took off. The Glasgow airport was easy to negotiate around and everyone was very friendly and helpful. This was a first trip to Europe for both us. I always recommend Icelandair because of the friendly service and spotlessly clean and comfortable planes. Hope this helps.
Martha

Consider flying to Scotland via Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Paris - each of those airports have onward flights to Scotland

Continental has a daily flight from Newark directly into Edinburgh around 7:45pm.

From Providence $532, from Manchester $573, and from Boston $630. These are for the March 2-March 16 time frame. Other dates may be better or worse.

MvK

Try using www.itasoftware.com. You could also take advantage of the month-long view for the cheapest prices.

Continental also flies Newark to Glasgow.

Hey goodlifevt,

I'm trying to figure out the same thing: getting to Scotland from New England. I've been muttering, "You can't get there from here," quite a few times, lol.

Suggestions I've rec'd so far have included Icelandair. Unfortunately, my dates of travel don't fit their timetable, but it seems a very good suggestion.

I've considered Continental, but I'd have to fly from NE to Newark before heading to my actual desired destination. And with the weather iffy enough in April (my travel time), I rather sweat out the threat of a spring storm in just Boston and not also worry about the weather south of here necessary for making the connecting flight.

I don't know what it is about Lufthansa, but each time I've tried their web site, to fly BOS to Frankfurt to EDI, it says it wants almost 3000.00 (yes, three thousand) to fly Economy. Maybe it's my travel days (spring vacation time). I haven't bought anything yet; I'll keep checking probably.

I've looked at American Airlines. They have mostly connections in Heathrow, not something I want to try.

I think Delta did a flight to Paris direct from Boston and then connection to Edinburgh. The connection times seemed short, just an hour?

I've given the most serious thoughts, so far, to taking Aer Lingus from Boston to Glasgow (the trips to Edinburgh have awkward timings, just don't work well). The current price (as I type) is just under $700.00.

The Aer Lingus pilots are doing a two-day strike this week (Tues-Wed). Very worrisome, indeed, but I notice they did it for weekdays and not weekends, giving me hope for them not doing this when I travel on a weekend in April.

I've seen negative thoughts to flying Aer Lingus, but I've seen negative thoughts for just about any airline when flying economy. Go prepared with thoughts of getting to the final destination, maybe that helps?

I'll be interested to see if there are other ideas posted to your thread. Cheers!

ttt

Last summer we flew on to Scotland from our holiday in Maine. We drove to Boston, then flew to Newark to connect with a Continental flight nonstop to Glasgow.

If a connection is necessary, I prefer to connect on the US side of the Atlantic rather than in a foreign airport when I'm tired. (And I avoid connecting in Paris at all costs!) I booked the tickets with several hours connecting time in Newark, just in case of delays.

When the day arrived there were severe storms predicted for the entire North East. We decided to leave Maine quite early in the morning, and as soon as the airline rules permitted, we re-booked the Boston-Newark flight to a much earlier flight. We made it to Newark and then onto our connecting flight BEFORE the storms hit. We knew lots of people flying the same day and they were stranded and rerouted like crazy. It took our friends two extra days to make it to Glasgow on USAirways, and their luggage came a week later...

This spring when I flew with my daughter to London, I connected in JFK, and I left something like a 6 hour layover.

We flew Boston to EDI two weeks ago and benefitted greatly from the advice of Fodorites. I need to research the kind and smart Fodorite who gave me the best suggestion as it was correct and terrific.

We flew on AA from BOS to Manchester, England and then on to EDI on flybe. The price was cheaper than AA through Heathrow and we, too, wanted to avoid Heathrow connections if possible. But the smart Fodorite (flanneruk?) told us that since my husband was Platinum, AA would allow us to sit in the formerly first class section of the BOS to MAN plane. No longer first class service but the larger seats, etc. It was a great help. AA transferred our bags to flybe and it was a breeze. The flybe flight was delayed but we were so tired, it didn't matter. We just used the time to nap.

Hope that's helpful. I did see Continental planes at EDI and figured that would have been another option (through EWR) except that we prefer NOT to connect in the states during the wintertime (snow/ice delays) and summertime (thunderstorm delays).

The BOS-MAN flight is available for some test days in '07, but a couple of trial searches for '08 don't allow it (have to connect in either JFK or Chicago first). Ah, shoot.

It would be lovely if the schedule changes. I guess I'll keep watching the various airlines' web sites for options for how I can get to Scotland for my particular travel days. Cheers.

You definitely should consider looking at connecting through Dublin, which is what I did (on Aer Lingus). They have pretty cheap flights to Ireland. That allowed me to stay in Dublin a few days before the short flight to Edinburgh. I then flew back out from London, traveling by land between Edinburgh and London and visiting the Lake COuntry and some other things. It was a very nice trip.

I flew from NYC, not Boston, but I imagine there are possibilities through Ireland. Of course, for a lot of W Europe destinations, there are all the usual options going to each airlines hub and then the shorter flight. You won't get a nonstop to Scotland, anyway, so you just choose where you want to transfer -- Paris (Air France), Amsterdam (KLM), London (VA or BA), Frankfurt (United) or Shannon/DUblin (Aer LIngus) or Iceland (Icelandair, but they only go to Glasgow).

I think we need a key piece of missing information. Where are you flying from?

I think the OP said he was leaving from the Boston area OR Albany. I am trying to get to Edinburgh from the San Francisco area, so I'm bookmarking, and also open to any specific suggestions. We want to go to Paris as well, and the only solid date is that we need to be in Edinburgh at the end of April.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. As I said this is preliminary for a spring/early summer trip. But now I have a good indication of where to start.

Good luck Scotlib and Likeswords on your quest to find a good route.
Let us know what you've booked.

Thanks for the luck, Goodlifevt, :-)

From all I've seen and read so far, going with Aer Lingus seems to be what I'll do.

Their flight schedules don't seem to allow a BOS-EDI, at the moment, but I keep checking. One possibility is to call reservations on the phone and ask why a couple of flight numbers that seem to jive aren't offered as an option, though it would mean a 14 hour layover in Dublin (time to do a tour of the city and a pub meal, I would think).

What I see in the online system is that the price for a round trip BOS-GLA is just under $694, at the moment.

The price seems reasonable. (I'd love the opinion of anyone more experienced, of course.)

I haven't hit the purchase button; it's still 8 months out from my travel days, seem early to commit, but I expect to be doing it soon. Cheers.

I vote for Icelandair. It is pretty hard to get lost in KEF. I recommend staying on the same airline when switching planes anywhere.

I would avoid Ryan Air because if the flight to Europe is late, you are out of luck.

Yes, Icelandair is the other airline that I keep checking, Wally34949.

Unfortunately, the school calendar locks me into certain dates for this trip, and with Icelandair -- searching their web site as of this week -- I'd have an 11 hour layover in KEF on the way to GLA and have to come home 2 days earlier than I wanted, on Friday instead of Sunday.

Or I could use the last two days for a layover in Iceland ... hmmm, it's certainly a thought to consider.

Cheers.