BrimhamRocks

My family and I are stationed in England. We've lived overseas off and on for about ten years. We have always driven to the places we wanted to see, because the destinations were always in relatively close proximity (and we just like long driving trips). Therefore, I have no experience finding airline tickets online.

My parents, who have no experience traveling overseas (apart from my step dad's service in Germany and Vietnam many moons ago) are coming to visit us in England this summer. I would like to help them find the cheapest tickets they can. Since I have no experience with online ticket searches, I would appreciate any advice you good people can provide.

Thanks in advance!

Cobos

Since noone else has jumped on this I'll add my 2 cents

First we need to know where your parents are flying from, and approximately when they will be travelling. Then it's possible to make some suggestions.
As some general comments flying into London instead of any of the other UK cities is usually a lot cheaper. And in my experience checking out the airlines webpages gives you the best price, though I usually try out expedia, orbitz and travelocity jsut to get a feel for the price in the market at my prefered dates.

Cobos

WillTravel

It sounds like they have flexibility. In my experience, Travelocity is best for flexible searches for trips that can occur within a given time period. Other sites may be better for specific dates. Once cheaper possibilities have been isolated, check the airline web sites. There's no way of knowing for sure you've gotten the cheapest fare, because there's always another one out there.

BrimhamRocks

Sorry, I should have included more info.

They want to fly on July 22 and stay for 2 weeks. They'll be flying out of either the smaller regional airport of Alexandria, Louisiana (that's the closest to where they live, just a few miles from their house) or the larger airport of Baton Rouge (the next closest).

They'll arrive in Manchester, England (the closest major airport to where we live - we live in northern England).

mclaurie

I usually start by looking on travelocity.com. Once I see which airlines fly the route I want & what the relative prices are, I then go to the individual airlines' websites which are always a bit less (because travelocity charges a fee) & sometimes a lot less. If their dates are somewhat flexible, there's an option on travelocity that allows you to search a period of time. If not, put in the specific dates. Are you aware they're picking one fo the most expensive times to travel??

Okay, I did a quick search for you looking at BTR (Baton Rouge) to MAN (Manchester) for the period July-August. The first 10 or so prices listed(around $650/ticket-$950) were on Pakistan International Airlines. I don't know <i>why</i> because I never got to see the route (my computer is running very slow). Maybe this airline has service to MAN from a southern city. I then tried BTR to LON (any London airport) &amp; the cheapest prices started around $850 &amp; they were on Northwest Airlines. Delta and American also had listings. These are steep prices. If there are inexpensive flights from Alexandria LA to say Atlanta or some other city that might have non-stop service to the UK,you might consider that.

Also keep in mind, BrimhamRocks, that what <b>you</b> may find on a web search from England will not necessarily be what's best/available from the U.S. I live in the US &amp; have tried to get tickets for family in the UK. Sometimes you can't even price a ticket starting in the UK from a computer in the US. Sooooo, if I were in your shoes, I'd call both BA &amp; Virgin on the phone &amp; get their best advice and let them quote you options (ie to London and to Manchester). Isn't there a discount airline (maybe BMI)that does London/Manchester or maybe even the train. I'd also have your parents call Northwest, American &amp; Delta. I don't think, in this instance there'll be a huge savings on the web vs on the phone.

I guess the other option would be for your parents to speak to a travel agent. They might pay a fee, but in this case, it might be worthwhile. Good luck!

PS If you're in the military, isn't there a travel agent on base? Am I being naive?

kaudrey

Hi Brimham,

Here are some suggestions:

In addition to the big 3 (orbitz, travelocity, and expedia), you can go to www.sidestep.com and download a free program that searches a lot of sites comparing fares. Also, you can try www.cheaptickets.com.

If they are really flexible, you can try www.hotwire.com or www.priceline.com, where you can bid on flights. You can get cheap this way, but you are bidding blind (don't know the times or the airlines in advance), so you have to have some major flexibility to do this.

Hope this helps a little.

Karen

Flyboy

With those conditions, traveling during that period of time and starting from now, the &quot;cheapest airline tickets&quot; are still likely to be rather expensive -- possibly exceeding $900 per person. They could probably carve several hundred dollars off the price and simplify their itinerary by flying out of Houston and that is something that I would strongly consider. This obviously has to weighed against convenience, parking, comfort factor, etc. New Orleans would also be worth a look.

rex

The cheapest fare(s) for Louisiana to England will be sold next January-to-March, for summer 2005, just as the cheapest fare(s) for summer 2004 were sold in January-March of this year.

Could their &quot;summer&quot; trip occur before/around Memorial Day? If so, then there are still discounted &quot;package&quot; deals (flight, car and phone) on 1800flyeurope.com - - other sources may have similar or better deals.

So, the cheapest fare(s) available NOW, have to be put in context. Remember that the taxes will $120-140, regardless of the ticket prices; excluding those, the cheapest winter/spring fares are likely to be about $350-450; the cheapest SUMMER fares will be about double that, and that still will be only half the &quot;normal&quot; summer fares (i.e., purchased in June, for travel in June).

Do some comparison shopping on Orbit, Expedia or Travelocity; strictly guessing - - for travel June 15-September 1 - - if you can find under $900, then jump on it, as it might disappear within an hour after you find it.

Best wishes,

Rex

mclaurie

As 4 people with NO experience in international flying, I STRONGLY urge you to avoid going the route of bidding on Priceline or Hotwire. Experienced travellers have gotten burned with flights at crazy times, not realizing that taxes get added on etc. etc. I think Flyboy's idea of checking Houston or any other city is a good one.

rex

The assumption that smaller airports are always more expensive is overworked. Checking right now, BTR is $25 more than AEX. MSY and IAH indeed <b>are</b> cheaper by a little over $100 (and Houston offers non-stop service at the lowest fare).

But they can connect to that same non-stop IAH-LGW by taking the 56 minute flight, AEX-IAH -- surely beats the expense and time of driving.

All this is from searching mid-week dates in July right this minute. Your dates may differ, and an hour from now, all the prices could change. I think you should scour for 7 days, and then make a purchase before April 30.

clevelandbrown

Airline prices vary wildly, even from hour to hour, based on factors such as competition, available space, and fuel costs. Some general rules I use are to pick a price you like, then pounce on it if and when that price shows up.

In general, I think the best prices are offered about two months before the date of travel; before that they are higher, and after that they start to go up again, subject to the occasional sale.

Summer fares are usually the highest, but if you can only go then you have to live with that.

Weekend flights carry a small premium; you can usually save $25 or $50 by flying Monday through Thursday.

I avoid the bidding sites, since it seems you never know what you're getting until after you are committed to pay.

A good strategy would be to visit Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and similar sites daily (visit them all, they don't all cover the same airlines). Some offer a service where you can specify your destination(s) and they will email you when the price changes (I know Travelocity offers this). When you see good prices on one of these sites, immediately go to the airline site and see if they are offering the same deal, without the commission. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. One advantage of buying from the airline, rather than one of the sites recommended above, is that the airline will have an obligation to insure you can make your connections; the sites above have a reputation of sometimes giving you a routing on separate airlines with insufficient connection time, and if your first flight is delayed, you could miss the connecting flight, and be stuck far from home.

If you don't have the time or resources to put into the search, let a travel agent do it for you. They often provide good service at very reasonable prices.

clevelandbrown

A second thought. In ancient times when I was in the service, we could often catch military hops, and I think this privilege extended to our dependents. You might check that out, although I understand that the number of military flights has been greatly reduced.

StCirq

You might want to have them contact a consolidator. I usually hunt around on the internet for the best prices I can find, then call my consolidator, who almost always gets me a slightly or much better deal. I use Fare Deals, 1-800-347-7006, and I like to deal with Lewis Clark there, at extension 109.

ira

Hi BR,

I have often found good rates at http://airtravelcenter.com/onetrav.htm

Here is a site that will allow you to search the big discounters quickly

http://www.bookingbuddy.com/?source=...=BBSearch_Home

Betsy

LOL, Ira. Was just ready to scroll down to post about bookingbuddy.com when I saw you beat me to it. The site is a neat resource. You only have to type in your itinerary/dates once and it searches Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and many individual airlines. A very convenient shortcut.

StCirq

I don't know what's wrong with my brain today - that should have been Lewis Katz, not Clark.

mclaurie

And here I was thinking Mr. Clark made such a clever career choice.

SuzieC

Qixo is an interesting trip finder service as well.

mclaurie

This thread has a URL for a CNN article about airfare prices staying high for the summer

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34493850

BrimhamRocks

Thanks everyone for your helpful replies. I'll let my folks see this thread and then they, and I, will both search the net and see who comes up with a better fare.

And yes, they are pretty much locked into those dates because 1) my step dad has been recovering from heart surgery and couldn't go before now, 2) my step dad has tons of work commitments starting in late August, 3) they want to be here when my hubby graduates on July 27th from the British university he's been attending the last few years, and 4) they want to be here for our little boy's birthday on July 31st.

Keep the great suggestions coming, thanks again!