March 22, 2005

• My target dates are to depart May 15 and return Nov 15. Flying out of Seattle. Round trip. I have tried Orbitz.com, Cheapfares.com, Expedia.com, and Getaways.com (through Quixtar.com). I'm getting around $650 for the round trip. Can anyone do me better? Thanks guys!
• You must try Kayak. Rocks, baby, rocks.
• I've had good luck with Travelocity, but I've never flown overseas, though :(
• It at least used to be the case that the best fares didn't show up till about 3 weeks before your departure date. Haven't flown internationally for 5 years, but I do know that my last trip to Spain was much cheaper when I didn't book too early.
• MeFi thread on cheap travel farefinders. Mobissimo is showing a little under $600 for your preferred flights (on American Airlines, through Opodo.com), seems to include all taxes and fees, but you will have to check to be sure. That's the lowest I saw after scouring a few sites (Travelocity, CheapFlights, etc.).
• Oh, and, if you have to fly to the east coast of the US, you might find it better to book the US round trip separately from the US to London round trip. Also, check departures from various east coast cities. Baltimore was cheaper than New York points. Not sure what the far-off-ness of your return will do. An adventurer is you.
• The limiting factor is the May 15 departure date - travel gets expensive after May 1. You could get by a little cheaper if could move up your departure to the end of April, but I don't even know if that'll help much. I like Smarter Living for travel deals. One way to save money is to handle the roundtrip as two trips. Find a cheap fare to get you to London in May and toss the return, then repeat in November to come home. The November flight will be significantly cheaper than the one in May. However, I have to admit I've never tried that trick when going overseas and don't know if it would land you in any trouble. Lastly, consider another airport in Europe. Paris tends to be a little cheaper to fly into than London, at least from what I've seen. You have plenty of options for getting yourself to London from there.
• If you accept some transfer flights, some bucks can be saved. America ->Frankfurt->London is usually way cheaper than direct to Heathrow.
• If you are a student, try Statravel.com. My flight from NYC to London last summer was $100 cheaper there than any of the cheap flight sites. Also, check the prices on May 14, and May 16 - I flew on June 15 last year, which was the same price as June 14, but some $50-100 cheaper than June 16. That said, I just checked the prices Toronto-London for next July (when I have to fly next), and they are damn painful. I think I will just wait, and see what cheap comes up much closer to the leaving time. You can get stuff that way if you are flexible - we flew NYC-Toronto for the same price as a busticket (and about $50 less than off-season flights) in the week before Christmas, buying the ticket less than a week before we wanted to leave. Of course, it's much safer doing that when you know you can always take the bus.
• you might try Qixo too, which claims to be "the largest airfare search engine." sometimes i have luck there. but sometimes if you find a great fare via travelocity, etc., you might go directly to the airline's site and find additional savings. oh and what the heck you doing in london for that long? /curious george/
• We're going to have a six-month long meetup.
• SWEET! Thanks guys. Haven't gotten a chance to use any of this yet, but I will. I just graduated from college (BFA in Theatre Arts), and i am still considered a "student" until summer. So I am going to London with BUNAC , a work-abroad program. No real reason than I need to GET OUT OF AMERIKKKA. Any London monkeys, I would love to meet up. I'll be mostly alone there, so friends are good! I'll keep you all posted.
• For flights from the US I love using skyauction - I once got a one way flight on from San Francisco to London on virgin for $120!