San Francisco - £641 return

Alun

Hi all,
Just a quick update - the cheapest I have seen the flights for my particular trip is still £640 and the highest £662... and that's after a 2 month wait.

Is it still worth waiting or should I just bite the bullet and pay now?

Cheers

Alun

retepetsir

I'd bite the bullet...

blindman

Alun wrote: »

Hi all,
Just a quick update - the cheapest I have seen the flights for my particular trip is still £640 and the highest £662... and that's after a 2 month wait.

Is it still worth waiting or should I just bite the bullet and pay now?

Cheers

Alun

Depends how vital your trip is IMHO.

If it were me I'd wait until late august to see if any "sales" come up.
This "may" save you £100.

However the advantage of booking now is that you can then get on with other plans for the trip. This may be worth the possible over spend now.

Whatever you do, once booked do NOT look again :cool:

slcookie

Do you want to go direct? I have flown out there numerous times both direct and via places - Chicago was about the best place to stop with AA - there are so many flights going through that there wasn't long to wait between them and the connecting flight wasn't too long either.. Normally takes £100 - £150 off the flight?

AMILLIONDOLLARS

It's the APD (Airline Passenger Duty) that is keeping prices high, not much room for movement on prices because of this.

AMD

Alun

Hi all,
Another update - found a BA flight for £560 - £100 cheaper than Virgin and a direct flight too.

Can I ask about leaving on Thanksgiving day - I see that the BART and MUNI are running a Sunday Service [fine] but will there be huge delays at the airport [lack of staff] or will it be quiet anyway?

Thanks in advance.

cubegame

I'm finding US flights high this year and I'm looking for September flights. There has been a little downward price movement lately so it might get better. I will hold out until late July as that is usually when prices move southwards.

That said, I do think £560 is a good price for BA direct to SFO. I'd have their hands off for that.

WelshSun

£560 is quite good for a direct flight. I can't imagine prices will go much cheaper due to high oil prices and the UKs massive APD taxes. Holding out from February was the right thing to do, but it gets riskier from 4 to 5 months before the flight.
There are however cheaper options:

Flying Gatwick to San Francisco on the 5th and returning on the 20th can be found for £523 on US Airways. This flight goes via Charlotte on the way out and via Philadelphia on the way back.

For £535 you can fly Delta from Heathrow to San Fran. This flight goes via Minneapolis both ways.

If you don't want to transfer at a US airport, then KLM through Amsterdam will fly you from Heathrow to San Fran for £537. Amsterdam is a very nice and easy airport to transfer through, so its something I would recommend, even for a small saving.

callum9999

WelshSun wrote: »

£560 is quite good for a direct flight. I can't imagine prices will go much cheaper due to high oil prices and the UKs massive APD taxes. Holding out from February was the right thing to do, but it gets riskier from 4 to 5 months before the flight.
There are however cheaper options:

Flying Gatwick to San Francisco on the 5th and returning on the 20th can be found for £523 on US Airways. This flight goes via Charlotte on the way out and via Philadelphia on the way back.

For £535 you can fly Delta from Heathrow to San Fran. This flight goes via Minneapolis both ways.

If you don't want to transfer at a US airport, then KLM through Amsterdam will fly you from Heathrow to San Fran for £537. Amsterdam is a very nice and easy airport to transfer through, so its something I would recommend, even for a small saving.

That's £513 if you're willing to fly from Gatwick and return to Heathrow.

I know the OP said 2 weeks in San Francisco wouldn't be too much for them because "it's their first time in the US" (though as the US isn't incredibly different to the UK, the "experience" of being in the US isn't exactly something that could make a city more interesting in my personal opinion!) but one of the great things about flying to the US is the myriad of flight connections they have. If you are going on a connecting flight anyway, why not stop there for 2 or 3 days? It's not as if you'll ever be able to see all of the states separately - and fitting in with the flight above, I personally found Philadelphia to be a great place (as I'm sure Charlotte may be as well?). Though I guess November will be a bit chilly! (Where San Francisco will be on average between 10 and 18 degrees, Philadelphia is between 4 and 13 degrees!).