multi city flights this summer

Flightfinder

I am looking to go to the USA to stay with family members. We are planning to go in the summer and spend time in San Francisco, Chicago and NewYork. I have looked at several of the agents, most only seem to do single or return fares. Even Skyscanner which I am sure used to do multicity now only seems to offer basic return fares. I am not sure if I am doing anything wrong and so would be grateful for any advice.

Murphy_The_Cat

Try ITA software or google flight search which is the same dog, with a different haircut.(I find the ITA to be more user friendly).

As a distant 3rd, try kayak

happy hunting

duchy

Last time I looked at multicity was when a friend was telling me her flights were looking very expensive when she calculated it as a multi sector journey.

I recalculated it as an open jaw LON DFW & LAS LON and then added a couple of domestic flights for her stops in between on a seperate booking - and the cost halved.

Backbiter

Expedia and Travelocity do multicity flights as well.

callum9999

duchy wrote: »

Last time I looked at multicity was when a friend was telling me her flights were looking very expensive when she calculated it as a multi sector journey.

I recalculated it as an open jaw LON DFW & LAS LON and then added a couple of domestic flights for her stops in between on a seperate booking - and the cost halved.

Open jaws are always multi-city bookings, so unless you changed their route/times I have no idea how you were getting different prices.

blindman

Flightfinder wrote: »

I am looking to go to the USA to stay with family members. We are planning to go in the summer and spend time in San Francisco, Chicago and NewYork. I have looked at several of the agents, most only seem to do single or return fares. Even Skyscanner which I am sure used to do multicity now only seems to offer basic return fares. I am not sure if I am doing anything wrong and so would be grateful for any advice.

Go direct to the airlines.
I'm sure you can do:-
LHR-Chicago (stopover few days)-San Fran
Return New York-LHR
on one ticket with American Airlines.

You would then need to source a domestic one way from San Fran to NYC.

Murphy_The_Cat

If you were doing a 3 legged, multi city flight. far the seperate, US Internal flight, how does it work regarding your luggage allowance ?
If you're flying to/from the US you get hand luggage & lappy, plus hold bag included - wouldI get the same allowance for an internal US flights from (say) SFO -NYC as it would be on the same booking ?

So MAN -SFO, SFO-NYC, NYC -MAN.

Having a mooch around, some of the low cost US carriers are now being very inventive for their extras and are charging for hold baggage AND carry on baggage (plus assorted extras)

If the baggage is included for your US internal flight, you'll be laughing.

callum9999

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

If you were doing a 3 legged, multi city flight. far the seperate, US Internal flight, how does it work regarding your luggage allowance ?
If you're flying to/from the US you get hand luggage & lappy, plus hold bag included - wouldI get the same allowance for an internal US flights from (say) SFO -NYC as it would be on the same booking ?

So MAN -SFO, SFO-NYC, NYC -MAN.

Having a mooch around, some of the low cost US carriers are now being very inventive for their extras and are charging for hold baggage AND carry on baggage (plus assorted extras)

If the baggage is included for your US internal flight, you'll be laughing.

Yes you'll get the same baggage allowance as you get on the Transatlantic sector.

You won't be able to combine those flights with the ultra low cost carriers you mention (I'm only aware of Sprint that charges for cabin baggage?) so no need to worry about that!

SW17

blindman wrote: »

Go direct to the airlines.
I'm sure you can do:-
LHR-Chicago (stopover few days)-San Fran
Return New York-LHR
on one ticket with American Airlines.

You would then need to source a domestic one way from San Fran to NYC.

You could do all of it on either BA or AA via codeshares, but it's worth checking out the options via ITA / Expedia / Ebookers multi-city engines first to see which airline combo is best, before going direct to the airline.

Can also be worth checking offline agents such as Trailfinders, Flight Centre, Dialaflight etc for complex itineraries (as they can sometimes find far combos that don't surface well online), but I think this one could probably be done direct.

Murphy_The_Cat

callum9999 wrote: »

Yes you'll get the same baggage allowance as you get on the Transatlantic sector.

You won't be able to combine those flights with the ultra low cost carriers you mention (I'm only aware of Sprint that charges for cabin baggage?) so no need to worry about that!

cheers Callum

I found this link that details the many and varied, imaginitive 'extras' that can get levied on US flights.

Maybe worth considering when doing a compariosn between a standalone ticket and a bougnt as part of a multi stop itinerary ticket

Flightfinder

Thanks everyone for the information and links that you sent.

The issue is that we have to be in SanFrancisco first as the children who live there go back to school in early August, then to Chicago and finally to NewYork. The information on baggage chares is especially useful. However, I thought that when the flights are booked on a single ticket, then the international flight rules apply. Is this not so?

I did also find an article, cannot recall where, that suggested that the best time to book is between 7 months and 7 weeks of departure. Not sure how true this is!

Anyway, am trying to look into the sites you have given.