Deal or no deal? 6 fares to London in September

I visited with some friends from London last night and of course I wanted to go back after reminiscing about past visits. But is there a deal to be found? Flights right now between Los Angeles and London are around $1,300 round trip including tax. But late-summer and fall months are known for cheaper prices. In this travel climate, can we find a deal to London? Here are my search results — let me know if you’ve found a cheaper way.

When: Sept. 1-9, 2008
Where: Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR)

Frequent-flier miles | My husband has a bunch of miles on Delta, so I checked in with them and found a coach SkySaver seat available for 50,000 miles + $161 in taxes and fees. It included a layover in Paris going out but was nonstop on the return.

Virgin Atlantic I was surprised to see Virgin Atlantic’s deal was only $864 including tax but the dates were Sept. 4-10 or Sept. 4-15.

Airfare Watchdog | AFWD told us that Air Canada was having a sale for departures after Sept. 15. I tested Sept. 15-23 and found a flight on the Air Canada website for $919 including tax with a stop in Toronto on the way over and Vancouver on the way back.

Orbitz | Orbitz had flights on BMI for $1,026 round trip including tax with one stopover. The cheapest nonstop flight was $1,072. Using their flexible-dates search I was able to see that it was actually cheaper to fly nonstop on Sept. 2-11 for $1,019.

Air France Sale | Air France is currently having a sale on late-summer/fall flights to Europe. When I looked up my ideal dates, the price was $1,372 including tax. The flights were nonstop both ways. Their flexible dates results showed that it was only $1,081 including tax if I traveled Sept. 3-10.

British Airways | British Airways was also $1,081 nonstop but you were allowed to travel on the ideal dates.

Please share any cheap deals you’ve found from the West Coast to London in our Comments. Are there any super-cheap plane-train-automobile combos out there? Consolidator flights?

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal blogger

[Photo: Patch of Blue at Tower Bridge, By Al, Your Scene / Los Angeles Times]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 2:30 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Deals, Great Britain, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.