Help with flight costs to LA

DarrenCarnall

Hi guys! I'm planning a trip for my wife's 50th Birthday in August to California to spend a couple weeks there, I've spent some time reading through these forums and have bookmarked some wonderful help pages with loads of information and links (something I'm sure I'll need, as although we did a 7,000 mile road trip from NYC to LA 8 years ago for our honeymoon... she booked everything, and this time it's a secret so I'm on my own lol)

I'm struggling with the flights though. Or more accurately, knowing what flights *should* cost. I tried going straight to Virgin but on their site it seems to be extortionately expensive (or at least from what I was expecting) - around £800 per person! I then tried some of the comparison sites that are suggested on this site and got lower prices, but the lowest that I found (£480 each I think) turned out to only be available for students! I've also seen some horror stories about people not buying direct from the airlines.

If any of you have the time, could you tell me how you'd do this? I want the two of us to travel from Manchester to LA on Monday 22nd August and come back from LA on or around Tuesday 6th September.

Because I don't know how much flights *should* cost, I've no idea when things are expensive or quite average. Everything seems expensive so far, but it would be nice to have a sort of base line to know what it might end up being. Also, what method you'd use (or have used) to book flights in the past.

(we're actually in Liverpool but I'm assuming the closest to go to LA is from Manchester)

Thank you so much with this, you're all amazing. :beer:

HHarry

We paid £800 each to fly Heathrow to LA 2 years ago, so I don't think your price is too bad. If I'd have booked a week or so earlier it was about £750.

If you're prepared for a bit of hassle, such as stopping somewhere on the way or starting in Dublin, you might be able to do better. Cost vs Convenience!

Alan_Bowen

I am sorry to say that £800 is a good price for West Coast flights on Virgin in peak season, and as you will have discovered there are no obvious direct flights to LAX from Manchester that you will discover on the comparison websites. I think Thomas Cook Airlines now operate twice a week direct from Manchester, but that isn't necessarily a recommendation. They do have a flight on August 22nd returning 2 weeks later for £569 each at this moment in time.

Otherwise you will have to change somewhere, Chicago is about the best from Manchester is that you have the longest transatlantic flight, where you get some sort of service followed by a shorter domestic flight where there is no service at all, unless you pay as you go along. Having said that changing anywhere in the US is not easy, you have to go through customs and immigration at the first point of arrival and then re check your bags and in the case of Chicago for example, change terminals as well.

To avoid that, the options are to fly via London and take a direct flight to LAX, BA operate the A380 on that route which is comfortable even in economy, fly Aer Lingus via Dublin which has the advantage that you go through US immigration procedures at Dublin and therefore have no formalities on arrival at LAX

It might be worth looking at an on line agent such as Netflights, they have connections on scheduled airlines from around £650 for your dates but be careful, some of the cheapest have very, very long connections on the return flights, so read the screen carefully. Ironically although they are relatively cheap for scheduled airlines, they are charging nearly £100 more for the Thomas Cook flights!

Mr_Wang

£800 to LA, damn, £800 for a return to the icy tips of Patagonia would be daylight robbery. Anyone that has paid that to LA from anywhere on earth in economy has been absolutely pummeled.

Typically it costs around £350 return with a bit of tinkering and flexibility here and there. First of all forget about Virgin, every single airline that fly's across the Atlantic is the same standard in economy and Virgin are just an overpriced BA to be honest.

Quick look at your dates got me:

22Aug London - LAX
6 Sept Vegas - London

£424 with American.

(car hire is usually free drop off in CA, AZ, NV etc)

If you can be bothered with a £9 one way to Dublin (from Liverpool or Manchester) your flight is suddenly £381 with American.

Or maybe you fancy a jolly to Oslo for about £20 one way and suddenly you get £296 return to LA with United, stopping off in London on the way back (where you would get off).

What I'm trying to say is, it depends how much you're willing to put the effort in to get the best price. But £800, that's extortion.

SW17

Mr_Wang wrote: »

£800 to LA, damn, £800 for a return to the icy tips of Patagonia would be daylight robbery. Anyone that has paid that to LA from anywhere on earth in economy has been absolutely pummeled.

Typically it costs around £350 return with a bit of tinkering and flexibility here and there. First of all forget about Virgin, every single airline that fly's across the Atlantic is the same standard in economy and Virgin are just an overpriced BA to be honest.

Quick look at your dates got me:

22Aug London - LAX
6 Sept Vegas - London

£424 with American.

(car hire is usually free drop off in CA, AZ, NV etc)

If you can be bothered with a £9 one way to Dublin (from Liverpool or Manchester) your flight is suddenly £381 with American.

Or maybe you fancy a jolly to Oslo for about £20 one way and suddenly you get £296 return to LA with United, stopping off in London on the way back (where you would get off).

What I'm trying to say is, it depends how much you're willing to put the effort in to get the best price. But £800, that's extortion.

To help the OP, where are you seeing those fares on AA, especially those from London? I can't see them for those dates or similar on ITA Matrix, Skyscanner or AA.com, but perhaps your search skills are superior to mine.

Can get close to the prices you quote from OSL and DUB, but not on the airlines you mention.

Agree that it is possible to get substantially lower fares with a bit of creative routing, but also important to appraise the uninitiated on the other aspects of this - additional time/connections, managing risks around separate tickets on positioning flights, the fact that not all airlines will short-check to London (and how to get round that) etc. Great deals out there, but the trade-offs are not for everyone.

Caz3121

we did a great trip last July (was the same price in August)
flew to DUB in a separate ticket (not a big deal)
travelled DUB-LCY then LCY-JFK on BA1 (32 seats all business class) then JFK-LAX on AA in business and came back LAX-LHR on BAs 380 in business class (great to sleep in flat bed on way back)
cost for our dates to do LON-LAX-LON in economy were £1,200 each (which I was not going to pay!) cost for actual flights flown all in business was £1,100 each
keep an eye out for the BA ex-DUB sale if interested in business class, there may well be one this month

leylandsunaddict

As has been said, Thomas Cook have got flights on your dates. They're having a flash sale on LAX flights. It finishes at 12pm tomorrow.

theonlywayisup

Have you thought about flying business/upper by utilising an Ex-EU location such as Dublin? She's 50 and if you can stretch to it, it may be the icing on the cake, plus you would get lounge access. Not sure of your budget.

Edit - see Caz has already suggested this.

Kernow666

HHarry wrote: »

Cost vs Convenience!

exactly

Kernow666

Mr_Wang wrote: »

£800 to LA, damn, £800 for a return to the icy tips of Patagonia would be daylight robbery. Anyone that has paid that to LA from anywhere on earth in economy has been absolutely pummeled.

Typically it costs around £350 return with a bit of tinkering and flexibility here and there. First of all forget about Virgin, every single airline that fly's across the Atlantic is the same standard in economy and Virgin are just an overpriced BA to be honest.

Quick look at your dates got me:

22Aug London - LAX
6 Sept Vegas - London

£424 with American.

(car hire is usually free drop off in CA, AZ, NV etc)

If you can be bothered with a £9 one way to Dublin (from Liverpool or Manchester) your flight is suddenly £381 with American.

Or maybe you fancy a jolly to Oslo for about £20 one way and suddenly you get £296 return to LA with United, stopping off in London on the way back (where you would get off).

What I'm trying to say is, it depends how much you're willing to put the effort in to get the best price. But £800, that's extortion.

very misleading , like you can get these £9 & £20 flights all the time and its extra to take a suitcase and the flight wont align with the connecting flight to the USA factor in costs to travel to said airports to get these cheap flights and possible overnight accommodation its hardly worth the time and effort to save a few quid , the only real savings is flying business class but not everyone can afford or want that

Mr_Wang

Kernow666 wrote: »

very misleading , like you can get these £9 & £20 flights all the time and its extra to take a suitcase and the flight wont align with the connecting flight to the USA factor in costs to travel to said airports to get these cheap flights and possible overnight accommodation its hardly worth the time and effort to save a few quid , the only real savings is flying business class but not everyone can afford or want that

Not misleading at all.

22nd August
Ryanair
Liverpool - Oslo £19

Hotel in Oslo - £42

23rd August - 7th Sept
Flights are with United
Oslo - LAX
LAX - LHR (routed to Oslo, but get off in LHR) -350Eur (£281)

Total = £342 thats a saving of £458.

Are you trying to tell me that a bag on Ryanair and a 90 minute flight is too much hassle to save £458? If your answer is yes then I ask why you are on a moneysaving site at all.

Fact is this. You happily get shafted and justify it against the price of a bag. Going via Olso takes 1 day of your time - Would you do a days work for £458? Of course you would. The OP asked how cheaply he/she could get to LA and I have answered their question. You have just muddied the waters with confused opinion.



Before I get asked (again) to prove something here goes... (Check the Ryanair yourself, I am sure you can manage that.)

*edit* I realised that the OP is going with his wife, therefore that's an overall saving of £958. But then, let's not forget about that bag on Ryanair