Going to the US next next year.......

boabbyshaft

Hi all,

Both myself and me ladee are going to the states next June to take in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York and the trip will hopefully be for 3 weeks. Now this is our dream holiday as we have not been away for about 5/6 years and feel a bit out of touch with how to get the best deals. So i have a few questions which im hoping some great person(s) can answer.
1) is it best to book now or nearer the time?
2) is it better to do a DIY holiday in terms of booking flights and hotels seperatley or not?
3) does anyone have any good advice for going there?!!!

Most quotes i get just now come in around £2000 just for flights for the both of us although its only around now that i can actually view these as you generally cant book more than 335 days or so in advance.

Please help all you good good people?

thanks

Scott

arnie&caseysma!

Hi there, I have just had a look on https://www.dialiflight.com to price flights for you for next june. I just searched for a period of 3 weeks from 3rd to 24th june and they came up with Heathrow to LA for £265per person plus £172 in tax per person. Try searching on the website and then give them a call to see what they can some up with for you.
Personally, the last time I headed out the to the states I used them, and also when 42 of us went to Canada and they were excellent.
I searched the web for Days Inn, Choice Hotels etc and any other accommodation I could find at great prices and you can pay as little as 50$ per room so def try and do a DIY trip!

See what you can find yourself and then price it with a travel agent and see how much they overprice!!! makes you feel all the better when you spend that little bit more on holiday!

Benny24

You could try booking flights when they have their sales. Virgin has a winter sale right at the begining of january. We booked our flights with them in Jan for April and saved a lot.

josey1964

Lokk at http://www.tripadvisor.com/ for hotel ratings and some prices.

I was in the states last year for 6 weeks and we booked all our internal flights independently (most direct of airlines web site).

We used phileas fogg travel as we wanted an open jaw flight (where you land at one airport and depart another- we landed Chicago left from Washington).

If you find a good deal after checking hotel prices, dont be afraid to email hotel and ask if the will beat the price or throw in something free - it works. I once stayed at the Intercontinental NY and the gave us a free Sedan to the airport.

Josey

Ajax18

Being half American I travel to the States a lot. I usually search for flights on Expedia to see which Airlines offer the cheapest deals. Then I go to the airlines webpage directly and they usually give me a cheaper quote than Expedia.

From experience I can say that flights go down a lot the longer you wait. I have been watching flight prices ti Chicago in August. When I originally checked in March I was quoted 750 pounds per person return from London. The prices are now down to 400 per person. You do get good last minute deals. But you have to check constantly to make sure you don't miss out on the low point, as prices start going up again at some point.

You should probably try and book the internal flights in the US with internal airline companies, maybe even budget airlines. They can offer some amazing deals. Alternatively, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas you could try the Greyhound bus. It is a long bus journey, but you will get to see some amazing scenery on the way.

All in all I think DIY is probably your cheapest option... And don't be afraid to search around. You will find a good deal eventually!

Good luck!

Murphy_The_Cat

Ajax18 wrote:

Being half American I travel to the States a lot. I usually search for flights on Expedia to see which Airlines offer the cheapest deals. Then I go to the airlines webpage directly and they usually give me a cheaper quote than Expedia.

From experience I can say that flights go down a lot the longer you wait. I have been watching flight prices ti Chicago in August. When I originally checked in March I was quoted 750 pounds per person return from London. The prices are now down to 400 per person. You do get good last minute deals. But you have to check constantly to make sure you don't miss out on the low point, as prices start going up again at some point.

You should probably try and book the internal flights in the US with internal airline companies, maybe even budget airlines. They can offer some amazing deals. Alternatively, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas you could try the Greyhound bus. It is a long bus journey, but you will get to see some amazing scenery on the way.

All in all I think DIY is probably your cheapest option... And don't be afraid to search around. You will find a good deal eventually!

Good luck!

I'm going to contradict Ajax18's advice and then back it up as well !!

Biiking early can save you a fortune on flights, sadly though, you could aslo miss out on a seat sale and it cost you a fortune extra.
I usually fly AA because it suits my itinerary, my pocket and their website is VERY user friendly (not because the cabin crew are pretty, because they aren't !)

It may be a good idea to go to https://www.aa.com or https://www.americanairlines.co.uk and register for their aadvantage programme (which is free) - it doesn't really offer an awful lot more than waht Joe Public gets, but what id DOES do is notify you of £seat sales", offer prices and "bargains to these destinations" type offers which tend to be limited time offres and which you may have otherwise missed.

on aa.com you can book your internal flights as well. Even more importantly you can book a multi cit6y flight to your personal itinerary with them - this can work out man of hundreds of ponds cheaper than using a conventioanal method (i.e., you book LGW - LAS - LAX - NEW YORK - LGW will be a lot cheaper than LGW - NEW YORK return and then getting tickets from NEW YORK to LAS, LAS to LAX, LAX to NEW YORK)

MTC

BTW, I put insome random dates for next March for your trip and I got this below - that's £524 + £66 tax = £590.00 An awful lot less than your £1000 each fare.

boabbyshaft

wow guys thank you very much for all your advice! Ajax i never even thought about using a bus company from LA to LAS VEGAS. Such a simple idea that i never even thought of but would save a few hundred dollare. Thank you so much everone!
:T :T :T :T

Scott

IvanOpinion

Try the SouthWestern Airlines web site to see what deals they have between LA and LV ... they often do 'free' (pay taxes only) or BOGOF type deals.

Ivan

Murphy_The_Cat

boabbyshaft wrote:

wow guys thank you very much for all your advice! Ajax i never even thought about using a bus company from LA to LAS VEGAS. Such a simple idea that i never even thought of but would save a few hundred dollare. Thank you so much everone!
:T :T :T :T

Scott

Hi boabbyshaft

good hunting & let us know how you get on.

MTC

doodle_bug

I've always found prices to be cheapest first week or so in January. I recently went to vegas and it cost £450 with BMI direct, most of the year the ticket cost £650 and it went to it's lowest price £411 the day before the flight, that would be taking a big risk though.

Don't forget about the trains, I think you can get a 14 or 21 day go anywhere ticket quite cheap but the travel times are loooong.

I know someone who did much the same trip you are planning and it was cheaper by using a good old fashioned local travel agent.

in_my_wellies

We booked a return flight with a 'stop over' and the cheapest way was with our local travel agent. This has happened three times.

For example we flew manchester - chicago - manchester with a stop over at dallas. Thus, manchester to dallas then stayed two weeks then flew to chicago and stayed another two weeks then flew home to manchester.

This worked out cheaper than a return flight with separate internal flights