London: 8 tips for finding summer airfares

Will summer flights to London go on sale?

A friend of mine just asked me to help him find a reasonable fare to London in July. That’s peak season, and I’d expect roundtrip fares between LAX-LHR to be around $1,000. Sure enough, when I looked up the cost of flying his family of three (2 adults, 1 child) on July 14-29, the price tag was $2,712 including taxes on British Airways. That’s kind of a shock to the system considering the recent economic strife that has budget travelers staring at airfare sales to Australia for $700 and Russia for less than $500. What’s a British expat trying to get home to do?

Here are some resources & tips for booking summer travel to Europe:

1. Flexible? Kayak’s flexible date calendar lets you eyeball the cheapest date within the month. Orbitz has a 30-day flexible-stay search calendar too, and on FareCompare you can not only save your search, but you have the option to sign up and have them send you an e-mail when the price drops.

2. Consider flying via Ireland instead. Sometimes it’s cheaper to fly into Dublin or Shannon instead of London Heathrow. This is especially handy for those packing light since you can hop a low-cost carrier to London or other European destinations through Ryanair, but it might not be worth the hassle for a family of three including a toddler. Or is it? I checked the dates for my friend and found a Ryanair flight for $27 one-way Dublin (DUB) to London Stansted (STN).

3. Keep your eye on other airlines. Booking through Air Canada lowered the price to London in some instances last year. Sign up for e-mail notifications for airlines such as Air Canada or Aer Lingus and you’ll find out when their sales are. You just might find out about a deal you wouldn’t have heard about.

4. Sign up for the right advice. AirfareWatchdog just posted 7 Timely Tips for Buying Summer Airfare to Europe. They’re not the only ones staying on top of deals. Budget Travel, Smarter Travel, and FareCompare Deals do also, among others.

5. Ask. I just twittered @britishairways asking them if they had any summer sales coming up. They got right back to me saying they didn’t have any current sales to promote but added that they might “in the months to come.” Another Twitter follower replied with a travel tip:
>> @luxcruisebible: Or travel by 6/30 on AA, US to LHR, and get 25k bonus miles in economy or 50k bonus miles in 1st class. Good deal toward status.<<

6. Track the fares. Most of the airfare search engines track fares for you, so just look for that feature when you’re searching airfares. With Yapta, you can e-mail them a flight you’ve already purchased and they’ll let you know if that fare drops and if you are eligible for a refund.

7. DIY combo pack. Since domestic flights are so cheap right now, and flights between the East Coast and London usually have the best sale prices from the States, use miles or grab a cheap flight from Los Angeles to New York now and then pounce on an East Coast to London sale a little later when they come out. It might be more hassle if you’re trying to get there in a hurry, but it might also break up the travel just a little, allowing you to visit another city and break up a longer flight.

8. Wait. We don’t know what’s around the bend. I found my friend a fare of $785 round-trip including taxes, but you never know if a sale is coming our way.

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Photo: Andy Rain / EPA]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 5:57 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Airline travel, Deals, Great Britain, News, Tips & Advice, Summer. 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.