Advice on booking flights to Idaho

Voyager2002

familyof.4 wrote: »

Hi Alan,

Think that was via paris. I've found a flight with BA. Man to Heathrow, Heathrow to seattle and seattle to boise. So 2 stops, seattle entry point to usa, 2hr 45 min wait in seattle. Do you think that's long enough?

Thanks

Louise

Would your flight from Seattle to Boise be the last of the day? If so, then a delay before then would mean an overnight stay in Seattle, so not a good idea.

Heathrow is not as bad as Paris for changing 'planes, but only a good idea if you remain in Terminal 5 throughout. Otherwise, see if you can travel with a transfer through Amsterdam.

Alan_Bowen

Avoid Paris like the plague, I see the first flight is internal in the UK. Since both flights operate out of terminal 5 at Heathrow, the minimum connecting time is only 60 minutes, although I strongly advise allowing longer, after using Leeds Bradford for my flights to Heathrow for the last 18 months, I went back to Manchester and booked three months flights in one go. None of my flights from Manchester have been on time so far, partially because they are always packed, whereas the Leeds flights were often half empty and took a lot longer to board but nothing has been more than an hour late.

If you allow nearer two hours you should have no problems, the Seattle flight leaves around 3pm, I would aim for the 1100 from Manchester which will give you time for lunch in Gordon Ramsey's Plane Food Restaurant.

Your arrival in Seattle is around 4.40pm,the next flight to Boise currently is shown at 6.10pm on Alaskan but there are two later flights if you miss that plane and if you can get a through ticket they should transfer you if you are delayed. It is a few years since I last flew to Seattle, I do remember it was one of the faster arrival points but it all depends on whether there are other international arrivals immediately before you. At present KLM from Amsterdam arrives 30 minutes ahead of you! If you buy the connecting flight separately and miss it, the airline has no obligation, although Alaskan is one of the better US airlines, to put you on another flight and with only 70 seats on the plane, there is always the possibility that later flights might be full. If you are travelling at the weekend, flights are likely to be far less full than a Friday evening for example. If your timetable shows 2hr 30 minutes, I would certainly take the risk

richardw

Arriving at 4.40pm is very late and your children won't want to be woken up.

I'd do MAN-Chicago non-stop, stay in Chicago one night and do Chicago-Boise the next morning.

familyof.4

Hi just wanted to update for the people who have given me advice.

Flights are booked, Heathrow to boise via seattle and we're not the last flight from seattle to boise. We're going to sleep over at an airport hotel rather than fly from Manchester to make sure we're not delayed getting into Heathrow.

Also thanks to cubegame who advised me to wait before booking for prices to drop. I managed to get them a lot cheaper than when I originally looked!

Thanks to everyone