Flight from US to London help

[NHdisneylover]

Thanks everyone for the help. I was looking at the Aer Lingus flights to Dublin, espeically at first when I was trying to fit in Dublin too but decided against it since the logistics of managing both Dublin and then the other places I wanted to go (current plan is Oxford-with a trip up to Warwick castle and maybe stratford-upon-avon, Cardiff, Bath, and London.

If I do a connection how much time do I need? I saw one with 1.5 hours in Dublin. Now I know domestic that is plenty of time (I manage 50 min in BWI just fine) but given that this would be three different countries I'm guessing that is way to tight?

I ted to trust the airline on what is a reasonable connection but also do a bit of googling on the specific airport before booking. Through Frankfurt 90 minutes would be plenty. I would want 2 hours in London--their immigration lines always seem to take forever when I am there.

DD had 50 minutes in Reykjavic last month, which seemed like it would be tight, but we looked it up and read many reviews saying the airport was so small and efficient that those tight connections went fine. She said it was 30 minutes from TOUCHDOWN to when she was waiting at her next gate, having gone though immigration and everything--she was impressed.

Edited to add that DD mentioned she had read this thread and suggested I post that she was really very impressed with Icelandic Airlines and would happily fly them again--she says she did not feel nickled and dimed the way many airlines these days feel and it was easy to pack her own meal (the one thing that might seem "low cost" ) and kind of nice to have better food that way.

I will also add that we have only flown Aer Lingus once, 7 years ago, and they were fine, but the seats were pretty cramped. I would fly them again for a substantial savings but not for a minimal price difference.

 

[surfgirl]

Some mis-information on this thread. While I am no "expert", I fly to Europe about annually with a family of 5 people, so we are serious bargain airfare hunters.

1) multi-city flights/open jaw - It used to be that roundtrip to and from the same location was always cheaper. That has changed. Individual one ways can be found that are half of a round trip and sometimes even cheaper if you do some digging. One variable that hasn't been mentioned is how taxes affect airfare. For example, it may be cheaper to fly home from Paris than London because the tax structure is very high for flights departing from London.

Last year, we went to 3 locations for break. We originally looked at doing a stopover (for free) in Iceland. We discovered that it was actually cheaper to go direct from US => Europecity1; europecity1 => Iceland; Iceland => US. Each flight was direct and they were 3 different airlines. We went in the middle of summer for less than $1200 for all flights.

2) discount airlines - This includes Norwegian, WOWair, etc. They are the "easyjet" of the international routes. Can be very good, but have a really good sense of what you get and what you pay for. For example, you pay for : a carry-on that is heavier than 20 lbs; a checked bag; for a seat assignment; for meals; sometimes even to use a credit card; to talk to an agent; etc. Some of them don't have inflight entertainment. However, they can be very inexpensive. Wowair was offering $99 flights to Iceland from Boston and BWI. (if you can meet their strict carryon requirements and don't need a seat assignment). Before you purchase a discount airline, I would go to flyertalk and read some of the forums. Can be a super inexpensive way to get there - as long as you know what you are doing and are prepared.

3) connection time - This can be a huge variable. If you have booked a ticket all on one itinerary, your connection time can be less. Also, the airport has a big impact on what they can be. For example, if you book a flight to London on Norwegian and an onward flight to Paris on Air France, if your first flight is late and you miss it, you are out of luck. If it is all booked together on one itinerary, if the first flight is delayed, the airline will move you to a later flight. Also, pay attention to whether or not you are the first flight. We had a tight connection (barely legal, but they booked it) in Heathrow a few years ago. I didn't stress too much, because it was all british air and if we missed our flight back to the states, there was one leaving 90 minutes later I knew we would get bumped to. In general, I try to avoid connecting because it adds variability to a situation. We've even spent an extra day or two in London to make connections work (and got a bonus day!)

Not sure I helped, but wanted to correct some mis-conceptions.

 

[mnrose]

If you haven't discovered the wonder of "google flight", I encourage you to give it a go. You can play with LOTS of variables easily....how many days you will stay, day you depart, which city you depart from, etc. They give you a LOT of routing options, far more than I've seen elsewhere....mixing and matching flights from different airlines depending on price/time/etc. I love to play with it. The difference in price between one route and another can be enormous (double or more) for the relatively same route etc.

 

[kamik86]

I tried playing with going into Dublin for the much cheaper flights then to London (because as I said before would have loved a one day stop over in Dublin anyway). However what stopped me from doing that was the airlines going from Dublin to London had much smaller baggage allowances (even the same airline like if I did Aer Lingus) which wouldn't work for our longer trip.

 

[NotUrsula]

The gotcha for London airports is the landing fees and taxes; normally they are higher than the fare itself. Flying into Dublin or Shannon will mitigate that greatly, as the Irish fees are MUCH lower. Even if you have to pay a fee for an extra bag or two, it should still be much cheaper. (For grins, I just priced an itinerary in early October: into Gatwick the taxes are $643, and into Dublin the taxes are $100 -- per person. $543 is an awful lot to pay for an extra 20 lbs of baggage!)

Also, if you want an interesting experience, you could always take the high-speed ferry from Dublin to Holyhead and train in from there. Takes a full day, but the scenery in Wales is impressive. Then once you get out of Wales, you can catch up on your sleep through the dull part, LOL.

Also, I suggest investing in some easy to wash lightweight travel clothing, and definitely leave your all-cotton jeans at home. It's very easy to do a bit of laundry in a sink if the alternative is paying really high baggage overage fees.

 

[kamik86]

The gotcha for London airports is the landing fees and taxes; normally they are higher than the fare itself. Flying into Dublin or Shannon will mitigate that greatly, as the Irish fees are MUCH lower. Even if you have to pay a fee for an extra bag or two, it should still be much cheaper. (For grins, I just priced an itinerary in early October: into Gatwick the taxes are $643, and into Dublin the taxes are $100 -- per person. $543 is an awful lot to pay for an extra 20 lbs of baggage!)

Also, if you want an interesting experience, you could always take the high-speed ferry from Dublin to Holyhead and train in from there. Takes a full day, but the scenery in Wales is impressive. Then once you get out of Wales, you can catch up on your sleep through the dull part, LOL.

Also, I suggest investing in some easy to wash lightweight travel clothing, and definitely leave your all-cotton jeans at home. It's very easy to do a bit of laundry in a sink if the alternative is paying really high baggage overage fees.

We normally even for a week vacation do laundry mid vacation and we will have a car for the first half so even if the hotel doesn't have any won't be too hard to find a laundromat I imagine. I imagine we will have a checked bag each, one rolling carryon and two backpacks.

 

[surfgirl]

That is a lot of luggage for a relatively short trip. We like to travel light - read some of the travel light stuff and learn to live by it. It becomes amazing how liberating it is when you aren't schlepping around a ton of stuff. Lately, my heaviest components are electronic charging devices! Generally, for myself and 3 kids, we take 2 rollies (carryon size) and everyone has a backpack. Since "entertainment" is less books and more e-books, we are able to use at least one backpack (if not 2) for other stuff - clothes, coats, etc. good luck!