Help with flight costs to LA

DarrenCarnall

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

USA airports to price up:

San Diego
Los Angeles
Palm Springs
Phoenix
Las Vegas
San Francisco

My first trip to the region saw Phoenix save £hundreds in air fares. It was quite an intense driving loop though!

ooh thanks, I'll give those a look! :beer:

DarrenCarnall

jackieblack wrote: »

Sorry, LAS is the code for Las Vegas airport

IMO north to south is better because you are on the coast side of the road so your views are not blocked by oncoming traffic, also when you want to pull in to 'Vista Points' you don't have to cross oncoming traffic.

You can still do the loop you planned, just in the opposite direction.
eg if you fly in to LAX, you could do LA first, then through the NPs to San Fran, then down the coast back to LAX

Good point about being on the side of the shore and being able to pull into view points easier! I'd always thought it was better the other way because in theory the sunset should be slightly in front of you giving you something to look at the whole time instead of being behind you... but you make good points!

And interesting about doing the loop in reverse. That could work! I'll go through all the things we've got planned and see if it pans out, thanks for the idea!

NiftyDigits

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

USA airports to price up:

San Diego
Los Angeles
Palm Springs
Phoenix
Las Vegas
San Francisco

My first trip to the region saw Phoenix save £hundreds in air fares. It was quite an intense driving loop though!

You left out Santa Ana (SNA) and even Oakland(OAK). Perhaps others can add to the list.

OP should certainly take the extra time, in so they aren't constantly on the move and can enjoy the destinations. Staying in motels and motor inns adds to the fun and keeps travel costs down.

Murphy_The_Cat

NiftyDigits wrote: »

You left out Santa Ana (SNA) and even Oakland(OAK). Perhaps others can add to the list.

OP should certainly take the extra time, in so they aren't constantly on the move and can enjoy the destinations. Staying in motels and motor inns adds to the fun and keeps travel costs down.

San Jose. .

PeacefulWaters

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

San Jose. .

Brand new BA route from London. Forgot about that.

NiftyDigits

DarrenCarnall wrote: »

I was only thinking to fly back out of LA because we could do a big loop. A few days in LA, drive up the coast, day or two in SF, then drive back down but through the national parks away from the coast.

I suppose we could fly back out of somewhere else, it just depends how many days we'd have and where everything lined up time wise.

As for a bit of extra work to save money, I don't think she'd mind. Especially if it means we have extra money to do all the things I know she'd love while we're there. In fact it's probably easier to fly on through to Oslo and get a flight back in to our home city of Liverpool, than to try and get back from London. Bizarrely.

Some of the Dublin ones I was checking out seem frustrating, 'cause I'd have to fly to Dublin, then fly back IN to London, then wait 10 hours for some, and THEN fly out. That might feel too frustrating lol.

But the Thomas Cook ones of £570 each are still tempting, as even though they're not as cheap as the Oslo types, they're direct from Manchester, which we could simply drive to or get a lift/taxi.

Considering extending the dates from the 22nd to the 9 or 10th or something. Extra time to do a few extra things.

God, this is so difficult lol. Also unsure as to how much cheaper these things get as they get closer to the 56 days that are mentioned on this site as the perfect time to book. Like if the Thomas Cook ones would be better (as they're limited time I think) or if it could be cheaper by waiting until closer.

*pulls hair out* lol

Take note that it will take you around two and a half hours to travel between Torp and Gardermoen and likely you will find it difficult to find a suitable connecting flight.
From London, easy as pie, but from Liverpool...

Murphy_The_Cat

DarrenCarnall wrote: »

ooh thanks, I'll give those a look! :beer:

depending on your level of anorakyness, start using google flights ** as a flight research tool - making sure that you favourite your flights so that you can return to them again and again. You'll soon be able to see the differences to/from different airports and what the pricing trends are over time.

As you've already found, its a constant price challenge of convienince vs cost vs time
i.e you could potentially save some money by taking an indirect route, involving several flight changes and lose a couple of day of your holiday or adjust your holiday length to fit in with a cheaper charter airline etc etc

Don't dismiss the idea of flying 'open jaw' where you arrive in one airport and leave from another. This avoids doubleing back on yourself or having to tour in a loop.

** other flight search engines include skyscanner, kayak & momondo.

DarrenCarnall

Thanks everyone, you've opened my eyes quite a bit to all this.

DarrenCarnall

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

depending on your level of anorakyness, start using googlr flights ** as a flight research tool - making sure that you favourite your flights so that you can return to them again and again. You'll soon be able to see the differences to/from different airports and what the pricing trends are over time.

As you've already found, its a constant price challenge of convienince vs cost vs time
i.e you could potentially save some money by taking an indirect route, involving several flight changes and lose a couple of day of your holiday or adjust your holiday length to fit in with a cheaper charter airline etc etc

Don't dismiss the idea of flying 'open jaw' where you arrive in one airport and leave from another. This avoids doubleing back on yourself or having to tour in a loop.

** other flight search engines include skyscanner, kayak & momondo.

Anorakyness... I like that :rotfl:

PeacefulWaters

If you fancy a bit of business class, Dublin can be a good starting point.

Last year BA and others discounted heavily at the end of April / beginning of May. They usually repeat but it isn't guaranteed.

£900 return in a far better seat (plus faster check in, security, lounge, food service and all round feeling comfortable) appealed to me, even with the Ryanair flight to Ireland tagged on.