Continental Airlines Help

sideswipe

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice regarding Continental Airlines and Air Canada.

First off Continental:

I'm looking to book an open jaw ticket from Manchester to Washington DC on Sat. 19/09/09 and return from New York to Manchester on Sun 04/10/09. I've been looking at various different websites e.g. Kayak, Opodo, Continental, etc and a couple of weeks ago the price for the ticket I was after was £349. I checked the price again last Saturday and it had gone up to £378 (which was not a big problem). However, come Monday evening when I sat down to get the flight booked the price had sky rocketed to over £700.

Basically, I have 3 months to my planned leaving date and I was wondering if anyone on here could advise whether or not the price is likely to come down at some point.

Similar thing with Air Canada, I had seen prices for a multi-stop flight from Washington National direct to Toronto, and then on to Newark airport in New York five days later for only £150, however now the prices have gone up £70 to £220.

The is the first time I've booked flights, accomodation, etc all myself, in the past I've gone through a travel agent, so I'm not really familiar with any of the airlines traits to reduced fares etc. (if they have any).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

mrposhman

Have you checked www.kayak.co.uk?

They have flights on there from £311 with Northwest airlines to JFK or £318 with AA to La Guardia. Do you need to go with Continental or Air Canada or can you go with anyone?

These are indirect flights by the way. The cheapest direct flight is with Air France and is £458.

sideswipe

mrposhman wrote: »

Have you checked www.kayak.co.uk?

They have flights on there from £311 with Northwest airlines to JFK or £318 with AA to La Guardia. Do you need to go with Continental or Air Canada or can you go with anyone?

These are indirect flights by the way. The cheapest direct flight is with Air France and is £458.

Continental and Air Canda/United Airlines offer the most direct routes, so really I would like to go with them. Continental have been cheaper than the Delta/Air France partnership flights from Manchester, I just can't understand the hike in price by continental.

I'm trying to find out if this something that happens regularly and the likelihood of prices dropping again in the near future.

If I can't get any joy with Continental then I'll have no choice than to look at a longer indirect flight, as my budget is only £400 for the Man-Wash/Tor-Man legs of my journey

mrposhman

Sorry I missed the first bit about going to Washington first.

To be honest booking with a stopover doesn't actually affect your flight time much.

I've just rechecked kayak on those dates and Continental only have flights on the outbound flight that go via Newark, though you would fly back direct from Newark. Going via Newark to Washington only adds another 2 hours on to your journey and Newarks a fairly easy airport to go through, though when I went the queues were very long but you shouldn't take more than 45mins - 1 hour to get through.

The cheapest according to kayak is via Chicago and costs £341.

I doubt anyone will know if the prices will come down but as the price has gone up so viciously I would suspect that availability at the prices you saw are long gone and availability is fairly limited on the flights you wanted.

Its up to you really as to what you do.

mrposhman

Searching on opodo on these dates doesn't show any direct flights for both legs of the journey

junkanoo

Buying airline tickets is similar to gambling. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose! Airline prices can change by the minute. Many different factors are involved, from how many people are booking to what time the flight is at. I am constantly on the lookout for fares to various parts of the world, and have seen them go up and down constantly. Generally speaking though fares tend to go up as the departure dates nears (for commercial airlines anyway). No one will be able to tell you when the best time to book is. If you are not flexible with dates and times you are better off booking sooner rather than later. Also try clearing your cookies, sometimes you can get different prices if you keep checking a site. Goodluck!

old_motters

I don't see any direct direct flights MAN-WAS. A non-stop itinerary is not the same as direct itinerary if that is what you're being offered on CO.

Expedia is showing an indirect flight via Amsterdam for the dates you want at £275.84 or £276 on Opodo. MAN-AMS-IAD 19SEP and EWR-AMS-MAN 04OCT with KLM/Delta. Amsterdam is a pleasant airport to make a connection and is preferable to most US gateways. There are other options such as shortening the travel time or going via Chicago and landing at Washingtion National and departing La Guardia with American for a few pounds more.

I think that's a pretty good price.

Moonchild

There are no non-stop flights from Manchester - Washington, you have to change somewhere, either New York or London typically.

The Continental flights would have you change in Newark with good connections, and frequent flights should you be delayed, so are a good option.

Both Saturday flights to Newark are almost full, this is why the prices have skyrocketed. Will they come down? Unlikely.

Best bet is to go a day later, or a day earlier when availability is good on Continental's later flight from Manchester (CO 101 departing 11:30) which connects through to Washington onto CO 1209 with a 3 hour wait in Newark.

old_motters

Moonchild wrote: »

There are no non-stop flights from Manchester - Washington, you have to change somewhere, either New York or London typically.

Non-stop is not the same as direct. I have been quoted non-stop itineraries to Salt Lake City with Virgin... with the non-stop element including a 'stop' and change of planes in Las Vegas.

sideswipe

Moonchild wrote: »

There are no non-stop flights from Manchester - Washington, you have to change somewhere, either New York or London typically.

The Continental flights would have you change in Newark with good connections, and frequent flights should you be delayed, so are a good option.

Both Saturday flights to Newark are almost full, this is why the prices have skyrocketed. Will they come down? Unlikely.

Best bet is to go a day later, or a day earlier when availability is good on Continental's later flight from Manchester (CO 101 departing 11:30) which connects through to Washington onto CO 1209 with a 3 hour wait in Newark.

My original plan was to go on the Sunday on the 11:30 flight, but I thought that with the jet lag etc, I'd be better flying on the Saturday and having an extra night over there. Unfortunately I can't do the extra night if I fly Sunday as I can't get an extra day off work.

Basically, what I've been looking for is a flight from Manchester to Washington with a duration of around 11-12 hours, I realise there are no direct flights so a stop over will be necessary. Then for the reutrn flight I wanted to fly back direct from New York to Manchester.

The best options I've come up with at the moment are :

1. The Sunday Continental flight from Manchester at 11:30 and stick to the original 14 nights in the states. £355 on Expedia.

2. The 6:30 Air France flight from Manchester to Charles De Gaule, 1.5 hour stopover, Air France direct to Washington Dulles. Returning direct from JFK with Delta - £375 on Opodo.

I just need to decide which to go for.

Moonchild

old_motters wrote: »

Non-stop is not the same as direct. I have been quoted non-stop itineraries to Salt Lake City with Virgin... with the non-stop element including a 'stop' and change of planes in Las Vegas.

Thanks, I know, and whoever quoted you 'non-stop' to Salt Lake City has their knickers in a real twist.

Non-stop is non-stop. No change of planes, no re-fuelling stops.
Direct is direct, but with possible stops. Direct never involves changing planes.

An example.

BA London - Bangkok - direct and non-stop
BA London - Sydney - direct as same plane all the way, but as they have a re-fuelling stop in Bangkok, it's not non-stop.
Virgin - London - Salt Lake City, involving a change of plane, and a change of airline - neither direct or non-stop.