Fodorite018

We are headed to Edinburgh (from Seattle) in early/mid November. I have been watching the fares for about two months already and they go up and down a bit, as I figured. My question is, what would I expect a decent fare to be for our trip? Right now the tickets are at about $720, but I am not sure if they will drop that much or if I should buy soon just to get the flights I prefer. We have been to Edinburgh before, but our travel agent (yes, I know...evil word on Fodors, lol!) took care of our arrangements. I want to do this trip myself, so I am hoping some of you can help out. Thanks!

lexi_0906

Hi MMS! When I went to Scotland last year (late October)it was around $200 cheaper to fly into Glasgow. My trip was kinda last minute so I bought my ticket about 5 weeks before I went and it was $799...Edinburgh flights were around $1,031.

Gardyloo

I think this year that waiting is a gamble I'd take (and in fact we're taking the same gamble but in the late winter rather than early winter.)

Factors that I'd consider are (1) the prospect of currency reallignment (£/€ v. the US$ ); (2) a possible real case of the blues for some of the airlines once peak summer/autumn traffic starts subsiding but it's too early to reposition for the Caribbean/winter peaks while they still have a lot of aircraft allocated to the North Atlantic; and (3) especially for those of us in the NW, the likely addition by year end of a second daily BA flight from SEA to LHR (maybe switching from one 747 to two 777s) due to high demand for business class seats year round ex-SEA (corporate travel by the usual suspects.)

Any or all of those factors could - that's <i>could</i> - lead to some downward pressure on ticket prices for the late autumn. Me, I'd keep tabs on it, I'd sign up for fare-watching services including on ba.com, and most importantly (for us, YMMV) I'd be watching for a fare sale in World Traveler Plus (premium economy) between SEA or YVR and London. For November as it is the premium is under 20% for WT+ as opposed to sardine seating, well worth it IMO.

The LHR-EDI legs are cheap if bought at the same time; or you can ride BMI for around &pound;25 each way once you get to Heathrow.

Fodorite018

Thanks! Our last trip we flew BA to Heathrow then BMI. I have already signed up for the fare watches, so that has been keeping me busy. I am one of those people though that likes to have the arrangements done far in advance, so the waiting is a killer for me, lol!

Regardless, I am getting very antsy for this trip, and I still have months to wait.

hopingtotravel

If you are transfering through Heathrow, you should leave yourself at least a couple of hours to make the transfer. The bus ride from one terminal to the other is at least a half hour--that's after you find the bus. Security issues probably make everything longer. Plus, you want your luggage to make it too. Edinburgh is beautiful; enjoy.

Fodorite018

Yes, I've done the transfer before since we have taken this same trip a couple years ago. Thanks