Travelling to San Francisco from Dublin to save money on tax- allowed?

3only

I am planning to visit San Francisco in April with a group of students. I am currently in England. If I take a separate flight to Dublin (on a different ticket), and then take a flight from Dublin to SF, then it will be cheaper by over £100 because of lower taxes in Dublin.

My question is: is this allowed, or will I be fined or not allowed? I have a British passport.

callum9999

Yes it's allowed.

PeacefulWaters

3only wrote: »

I am planning to visit San Francisco in April with a group of students. I am currently in England. If I take a separate flight to Dublin (on a different ticket), and then take a flight from Dublin to SF, then it will be cheaper by over £100 because of lower taxes in Dublin.

My question is: is this allowed, or will I be fined or not allowed? I have a British passport.

It's allowed. You do have to weigh up the risk of your flight to Ireland being delayed causing you to miss the onward flight and lose the fare along with the time involved in extra airport hopping.

I'm doing similar this summer although rather than save money on an economy seat it's to achieve a business class seat, access to airport lounge, higher airline status and an unexpectedly large pot of air miles at a price I can afford.

bagand96

As the previous poster said it's allowed. Do weigh up weather it's worth it though. If the saving is around £100 it might not be. Any flight to Dublin with luggage (assume you'll be taking hold luggage to the USA) will be £50+. As peacefulwaters said you need to make sure your flight into Dublin leaves plenty of time for the connection. If the Dublin-USA flight leaves in the morning the only sensible option is to be in Dublin the night before so a hotel will further eat into your saving.

Crispy_Ambulance

We've saved several hundred pounds doing the same thing. Even with the flights to Dublin and bags, the flights to the USA (via Heathrow) were significantly cheaper. We would have stayed overnight at the airport anyway, so that was already factored in as a cost and we got a Premier Inn at Dublin airport for £30. Plus we get an extra destination!

steve1500

We flew Manchester - Dublin - Orlando last summer. We were using Avios, so the savings were considerable.

However it was a very very long day. As the flight from Manchester was at 8 a.m. and the flight from Dublin 2 pm

InsideInsurance

You have two choices, do it on separate tickets but the risk is yours if the first flight is delayed/ cancelled and not the airlines liability. Alternatively if you have a 24 hour layover on a continuous ticket then the lower tax for Dublin will apply for the second leg

Both are legal and each comes with its own pros/cons

Paddy2eyes

Another advantage of travelling from Dublin is that you will pre-clear US immigration in Dublin (assuming that you will be flying direct to USA) saving some time when you arrive in San Francisco.

PeacefulWaters

Paddy2eyes wrote: »

Another advantage of travelling from Dublin is that you will pre-clear US immigration in Dublin (assuming that you will be flying direct to USA) saving some time when you arrive in San Francisco.

Is this an advantage?

Or does it just shift the process and time required from one place to the other?

SW17

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Is this an advantage?

Or does it just shift the process and Tim required from one place to the other?

Possibly true, and the queues for pre-clearance in DUB can get quite long. However, if you would not have had a direct flight from your home airport anyway, it's an efficient use of connecting time and psychologically feels better knowing you don't have that queue of uncertain length on arrival and can get going immediately to your final destination.

callum9999

I completely agree with that. I've been stopped at the US border for over 2 hours before (thankfully at the destination) - if I didn't pre-clear in Dublin then I wouldn't have chosen an itinerary with a US connection as I'd run the risk of arriving a day late when it's crucial I'm on time.