cheapest route to cali - fly direct or change ?

richardw

There are other airports in the LA area such as ONT, LGB if you're considering going indirect it might be worth doing a wider search than just LAX.

claire16c

borischelski wrote: »

However someone was telling me its far cheaper to fly with a US airline from London to another US city and take an internal flight from there to LA. He thought he had heard flying American to Conneticcut was a good route.

Or you could just fly American from Heathrow to LA?

When Ive looked for flights with American to the west coast its often no cheaper to change planes half way through. It can depend on the day you fly, availability, when youre booking etc etc.

You will just need to do some searches.

Caz3121

I would recommend Air New Zealand if you can get a good price. Have flown with them and United and they were chalk and cheese

Obviously_the_best

I'd book a transfer through opodo or cheapoair if it was cheaper, but direct otherwise. If you get a transfer with the same airline you can often check your luggage through to your final destination at Heathrow. It's really not too much hassle, and if it saves money, and you don't mind your jouney taking a bit longer, why not.

PS: if you use https://www.skyscanner.co.uk it will show you directs and transfers, and the price differences automatically. I wouldn't be too picky about the airline, they're all fairly similar.

nickcc

Just come back from Orlando, tried all the alternatives, Virgin, Thompson, AA etc and the cheapest worked out as BA from Gatwick, 23kg baggage, in flight meals and no hassle. Thompson from Bham started at £5600 ( 7 of us) then when you added on all the extras they worked out about £500 more expensive than BA.

macman

If you go via a domestic US flight then you'll have to clear your luggage through customs there and check it in again.

inmypocketnottheirs

macman wrote: »

If you go via a domestic US flight then you'll have to clear your luggage through customs there and check it in again.

Absolutely. You clear immigration at the first airport in the US That you land in.

Doshwaster

macman wrote: »

If you go via a domestic US flight then you'll have to clear your luggage through customs there and check it in again.

The other problem with changing on the east coast is that the service standards on a domestic flight it much worse than on an international flight. Many internal flights have no entertainment, no meals and certainly no bar service.

Given the choice a stopover flight would have to be £200-300 cheaper to make it worth the hassle over flying direct.

nickcc

Doshwaster wrote: »

The other problem with changing on the east coast is that the service standards on a domestic flight it much worse than on an international flight. Many internal flights have no entertainment, no meals and certainly no bar service.

Given the choice a stopover flight would have to be £200-300 cheaper to make it worth the hassle over flying direct.

We flew from LA to Hawaii and foolishly thought that meals would be included on a 5 hour flight, we wondered why other passengers had brought their own meals on board, then we realised that this was an internal flight.:o

lazyjack

Doshwaster wrote: »

The other problem with changing on the east coast is that the service standards on a domestic flight it much worse than on an international flight. Many internal flights have no entertainment, no meals and certainly no bar service.

That is a very good point - I remember all too well the flight from Philadelphia to San Diego. Took over 6 hours in the end, first it had to take a longer route to avoid some bad weather, then just as we were about to land it was aborted as there was another plane still on the runway. The only bonus was free wifi onboard which kept me occupied for a while. Wouldn't fancy doing that again unless the saving was pretty substantial.