Virgin or BA flight?

hotcookie101

duchy wrote: »

I was wondering why you have restricted yourself to just BA and Virgin -Personally on that route I'd be looking at Delta and AA too.

Odds of an upgrade without any loyalty status on a carrier are somewhere close to nil on this route.

As a data point whilst no economy seat is super comfortable I personally find Virgin the worst of the lot as they seem less padded.

In terms of cabin crew I find Delta have the nicest flight attendants -food is pretty bleah on all of them. If free booze is important to you then choose BA or Virgin (personally I don't drink more than one or two when flying as I find I get dehydrated when flying so prefer water or juice which is free on all carriers but I realize it's important to some people so might be a deciding factor to you)

I sort of presumed Delta & AA were code shares with virgin & BA, so happy to fly with them but didnt look directly on their websites. I will do so.

hotcookie101

duchy wrote: »

I personally like AA. Unlike BA you can reserve your seat when you book (for free) rather than at 24 hours. For me that's more important -I'd rather know I had an aisle seat rather than a middle seat rather than a free beer
I flew AA this week with hand baggage only - my case was very slightly above AA's limits for carry on and no-one batted an eyelid- BA and Virgin both tend to be stricter.

The flight you are looking at will have both an AA and BA flight number (my flight last week was the same -it was £100 cheaper for me to book it under the BA than the AA flight number ) if you book it with the BA flight number you will still be able to pick up the booking on aa.com and book your seat as soon as you have a confirmed reservation.

If all prices were identical (which they never are -kayak.co.uk is a good site to check this) I'd go for AA or Delta -but more likely I'd take a Ryanair flight to Dublin and buy a ticket from there as there's considerable savings to be made with a ticket that starts in Dublin. (You can price DUB NYC on kayak too)

I did think of flying to Dublin, but the difference is only about £50 return (without the cost of a ryanair flight with checked luggage) so I decided against

Thanks though. (especially about the AA info re picking seats with reservation, I just looked at their site and I think it is about £15 cheaper than BA)
I'm flying soon, so I imagine better deals would have been available in advance

jpsartre

Note that BA offers £63 off longhaul flights today only. Promo code is celebrate.

hotcookie101

jpsartre wrote: »

Note that BA offers £63 off longhaul flights today only. Promo code is celebrate.

Thanks,
unfortunately I cannot book today as not 100% sure I can get the time off work (99.9% sure but won't find out for def until tomorrow)

Is there much difference between arriving in newark or JFK airports with ease to getting into manhattan. I will most likely be staying in midtown?
Thanks

And according to kayak, by booking through lastminute I can get virgin flights for £50 cheaper than BA, so that may be it settled!

blindman

hotcookie101 wrote: »

Thanks,
unfortunately I cannot book today as not 100% sure I can get the time off work (99.9% sure but won't find out for def until tomorrow)

Is there much difference between arriving in newark or JFK airports with ease to getting into manhattan. I will most likely be staying in midtown?
Thanks

And according to kayak, by booking through lastminute I can get virgin flights for £50 cheaper than BA, so that may be it settled!

Look at the New York Thread for specific answer re NYC

JFK for midtown is easier, though it's not impossible from Newark.

duchy

JFK is closer so cheaper but Newark is fine there's a good rail service as well as a bus service from Newark. Train goes into Penn , bus goes to the Port Authority so right by W 42nd Street. One will probably be closer to your hotel than the other so might be the decider.

jpsartre

hotcookie101 wrote: »

Thanks,
unfortunately I cannot book today as not 100% sure I can get the time off work (99.9% sure but won't find out for def until tomorrow)

You can cancel your tickets with BA free of charge for 24 hours. Lastminute is owned by Bravofly which has a long list of complaints. Your choice but I wouldn't use them to save £50.

richardw

AA are using narrow seat 3-4-3 aircraft and BA narrow seat B787 3-3-3 aircraft on some flights to EWR.

dawyldthing

Check in Travelsupermarket and skyscanner too as they seem to bring up some good offers. I've flew both and didn't notice much difference tbh but it was a few years ago for both

hotcookie101

jpsartre wrote: »

You can cancel your tickets with BA free of charge for 24 hours. Lastminute is owned by Bravofly which has a long list of complaints. Your choice but I wouldn't use them to save £50.

Can I cancel non-refundable tickets?
I'll do that then
Thanks