Airfare to Ireland

[Bobo912]

I'm looking for some feedback on airfare for the Ireland ABD, especially anybody with experience flying from the southeast US. Airline booking just opened up for our dates next summer. I wouldn't normally book this early, but the ABD rep told me to expect airfare around $1600, but the fares today are $1200. That doesn't seem too bad to me. Our dates are end of June/early July.

 

[richflour]

I have seen them as low as $900 for next summer from atlanta. On delta

 

[ArwenMarie]

That seems good to me.
Flying to Ireland is never cheap IME

 

[paddles]

Seems too high. We live in TX and round-trip during peak summer season would be $1200-$1400 depending on if was R/T or from 2 different airports

 

[Bobo912]

I have seen them as low as $900 for next summer from atlanta. On delta

I have a Delta Amex, so I usually check them first. The fares in June are around $900 from Nashville too. But they go up once you get into July. The flights from Atlanta are actually more than the flights originating in Nashville with a layover in Atlanta. That's strange since it's the same flights from/to Atlanta/Dublin and Shannon/Atlanta with the extra legs to Nashville. The way airlines price their flights mystifies me. I'm actually flying to Glasgow first, but was looking at the Dublin flights to compare with the estimate ABD gave me.

 

[acndis]

I have a Delta Amex, so I usually check them first. The fares in June are around $900 from Nashville too. But they go up once you get into July. The flights from Atlanta are actually more than the flights originating in Nashville with a layover in Atlanta. That's strange since it's the same flights from/to Atlanta/Dublin and Shannon/Atlanta with the extra legs to Nashville. The way airlines price their flights mystifies me. I'm actually flying to Glasgow first, but was looking at the Dublin flights to compare with the estimate ABD gave me.

We went to Ireland last summer from Austin and our $1200 sounds reasonable to me. The Shannon departure ups the fares a bit. We took Air Canada/ United. I monitored after we bought and the flights never got less expensive.

 

[richflour]

Yea . I. Acutualy looked today and they were $1034.
We were going to south africa next year but the fares are north of $2000.
So we are switching to italy.
Crazy

 

[packofjedis]

See if Aer Lingus flies from your airport. They have cheap flights. We're taking them Chicago to Edinburgh by way of Dublin and only paid $1000pp for Sept. I've seen them advertising $599 to Dublin. We booked in February.

 

[Bobo912]

See if Aer Lingus flies from your airport. They have cheap flights. We're taking them Chicago to Edinburgh by way of Dublin and only paid $1000pp for Sept. I've seen them advertising $599 to Dublin. We booked in February.

I tried that too. I can only fly roundtrip from Nashville to Dublin, which doesn't help since that's not where I need to fly to. The price was $1254, so no savings either. The only option I had on Aer Lingus for my dates and destinations was to fly from Boston for $967. But then I have to get to Boston which would be $300-$400, so it doesn't save me anything and it adds a lot of inconvenience. I can probably get to Chicago more cheaply, but there was no flight from Shannon to Chicago on the day we need to come home.

 

[pihanettie]

See if Aer Lingus flies from your airport. They have cheap flights. We're taking them Chicago to Edinburgh by way of Dublin and only paid $1000pp for Sept. I've seen them advertising $599 to Dublin. We booked in February.

I was looking at Aer Lingus but I read somewhere in the ABD material that was sent to my house that the flights need to be booked on U.S. airlines. Does anyone know if that is true?

 

[Bobo912]

I was looking at Aer Lingus but I read somewhere in the ABD material that was sent to my house that the flights need to be booked on U.S. airlines. Does anyone know if that is true?

I think for ABD to make your reservations the flight must originate in the US. I don't think it has to be a US airline, but I could be wrong about that. But you can book your own flight with any airline you want. You don't have to book your flight through ABD. I'm going to fly from Edinburgh to Dublin on Aer Lingus. It's only $67.

 

[pihanettie]

Just looked at my reservation confirmation paperwork (going to Italy next summer) and on the back under ABD travel services terms and conditions, subheader "Airline/Transfer Service" first line and in bold it states "We accept only domestic US flight and transfer reservations." So just in case I would call them and see if they accept Aer Lingus, just so you know you will get their tranfers included.

 

[sayhello]

Just looked at my reservation confirmation paperwork (going to Italy next summer) and on the back under ABD travel services terms and conditions, subheader "Airline/Transfer Service" first line and in bold it states "We accept only domestic US flight and transfer reservations." So just in case I would call them and see if they accept Aer Lingus, just so you know you will get their tranfers included.

I believe they are referring to actually ticketing your flight, that it needs to originate in the US. Like maybe they won't book flights for folks from the UK to Greece, for example. They absolutely will book tickets from the US to Europe (I've had them do it for me multiple times)

And transfers are always included in the ABD (with certain conditions about pre-post days) (at least they are for travelers from the US!) I don't know if they are included for people traveling from outside the US. Hopefully someone from outside the US will chime in here.

Sayhello

 

[Bobo912]

We've definitely had people post that they flew on Aer Lingus, LAN, South Africa Airways and Air Canada and they were still picked up at the airport. And those are just the ones I recall.

 

[carolinadj]

ABD booked us on JetBlue/AerLingus. We found the flight we wanted, told Dreams Unlimited, they found it cheaper, then told ABD to book it.

 

[Tozzie]

Just looked at my reservation confirmation paperwork (going to Italy next summer) and on the back under ABD travel services terms and conditions, subheader "Airline/Transfer Service" first line and in bold it states "We accept only domestic US flight and transfer reservations." So just in case I would call them and see if they accept Aer Lingus, just so you know you will get their tranfers included.

I am flying Virgin Atlantic to Scotlamd in a few weeks and abd booked it for mw