Hi,

We're planning to fly to London around April 15, 2007 from San Antonio, TX. I've found tickets for about $760USD roundtrip... is this a reasonable price? I looked at nearby airports (LGW, LHR) but I haven't been able to find anything cheaper... Does anyone know if there's a better time to buy the tickets? Or is this a good price? Any links or ideas will be appreciated!

Thanks

Hi g,

What airport are you flying into, if you aren't flying into LGW or LHR?

Don't bother looking at the trans-Atlantic flights into Stansted since those originate either at JFK or Washington Dulles and involve one-class (business) service which even booked ahead isn't exactly cheap.

In my experience there could very well be a sale which might fit your dates (I'm going to be looking for flights in August for next July) but are you willing to take that chance?

Have you checked prices using both aggregators suchg as www.itasoftware.com and consolidators such as www.onetravel.com as well as www.mobissimo.com?

I presume your quote is per person. I was checking this week for flights for a planned trip to London next March (from IAH to either LGW or LHR) and got quotes in the $450 range (without taxes etc) on BA's web site.

Just yesterday I purchased tickets for April 2007. Not cheap but then anything going east from SFO is not.
SFO-Venice, Rome-SFO 799. + taxs and airport fee $1008 refundable.
So appx $504 each way. Of course with my luck it will go down,I found many seats were already taken and there was not much seat choice.
I could have gotten cheaper if I wanted 2-3 stops, and longer layovers this is one stop change flight.
Thank god in 2008 we are heading for south seas and New Zeland much cheaper airwise from SFO.
Your price if it includes tax's sound reasonable to me. Thats one thing some cheapo providers do is not add the tax in the fare and when you go to get it
they slap on tax +

Hi grigos,

I live in San Antonio, too, and am looking for tickets to Italy this fall--flights are averaging $850+ on Delta.

In August 2002 I paid $896 RT between SA and LGW; in 2003 I used miles. If I could find $760 tickets for our trip I would snap them up! If you don't mind me asking where did you find that fare?

Frankly I don't think that sounds too bad but you don't say if it includes the taxes etc. I've been looking for SFO-CDG for November and so far including taxes it's a little over 900.00. I also saw some cheaper fares with layovers and two stops etc. but the savings isn't enough to even make me think about it a little bit...I want direct, period so I may have to pay for that. Sometimes you will see some cheap fares posted, but the window to purchase is usually pretty small and you have to just jump on them right away. Also, I think we are not going to see any drop in fuel prices and that will certainly have an effect on future fares, so all in all, I don't think that fare is bad at all.

I'm sorry, but price comparisons between months aren't necessarily very valid IMO. Prices depend on demand and the amount of competition in a market and let's face it, San Antonio isn't New York (for example) where a LOT of airlines can fly you to London.

As I said earlier, unless you are willing to wait for a sale, if thise price seems good to you for those particular dates I would go for it and worry about other things.

Thanks for your postings... let me try to answer some of the questions...

The fare I found is around $760USD per person from SAT to LGW including all taxes and fees, roundtrip(LHR is more expensive)... I found it directly at continental.com... it comes up as $650 but goes up to approx $760 with taxes...

Dukey, I assume the "sale" you're talking about usually happens in august... did I get that right? Actually, that's the reason why I posted here... I wanted to know if someone has waited for one of those sales and if they have... when do they happen approximately... I know it's more risky but it might be payoff... I'll check out those links since I've only looked at expedia and airlines websites.

I'll keep you posted on my findings.

If you're coming from San Antonio, drive to Houston and fly direct to London on British Airways - there's hardly a cheaper or easier way to go.

Of course everyone is different, however, in order to save $$$ a friend of mine did that for a trip to Italy and he said never again--he and his wife were absolutely exhausted upon return and the last thing they wanted to do was drive three hours+ to get home.

Thanks for the advice rawsnacks... however, I agree with AnnMarie and I won't feel like driving back to SA... and the price different isn't big enough to go through all of that pain... at least not in this case anyway.

Well, I'm still looking and I keep getting the same prices... mmm I still have hope for some sort of "sale" but maybe I'll just go ahead and get them.

I'll post something if I can find a good price... AnnMarie, have you checked with any local Travel Agents?? Any suggestions?

Seems high to me. I fly from the west coast - usually SFO or SMF, sometimes LAX and I wouldn't pay that much. But it is also quite early to be booking from next April. There are often sales - one doesn't know for sure when a sale will hit but in the Fall most airlines offer terrific deals for the Winter/Spring. I went in March (which is significantly cheaper) but when we started looking we found April flights out of SFO for about $600-$675 inc taxes/fees and SMF for about $75/$90 more.

Don't know about San Antonio - is it a particularly expensive market?

grigos, I have not checked with a travel agent--if you do I would be curious to know what they come up with. Yesterday, I found a fare on cheaptickets.com that was $20 less than Delta but on Travelocity & Expedia $50 more. :-?

janisj, I don't know that San Antonio is an expensive market so much as that although the airport is international there are no direct flights overseas so we have to get to a major hub first which obviously adds time & money. And the overseas market demand can't possibly be what it is in places like NYC, etc. I suppose it all comes down to destination.

There aren't any direct flights out of SMF either. I'd guess Sacramento is pretty similar to San Antonio re connections, etc.

I am sometimes surprised at how much folks have to pay from other cities.

I'd take it. I'm always flying starting at non-gateway cities & for San Antonio, that sounds pretty good to me.

Well, I talked to a travel agent and I will have a quote by next monday. She has a few good options so far and she seems to know what's she's doing... I'll keep you posted.

grigos,

Thanks for the follow up--as I mentioned before, I am very curious to know what they come up with! Also, Ira made mention of the following fare site, www.kayak.com.