Mumsnet Talk

We live in LA and last here groups of friends flew he for under £500 each - all came between end September and end November though so not in school holidays.

They all flew Air New Zealand, who are a brilliant airline as well as cheap

Where and when?

I used ITA matrix software to figure out the flights for our trip going the other way this summer. We didn't do nonstop or BA/Virgin because of the increased costs for both and we paid quite a bit more than you are going to because it was summer.

Are you doing the cheap flights things like staying over a saturday night, looking up fares on tuesday or wednesday and having flexible dept/arr dates? Flights can go up or down a chunk if you can do these things.

Surcharges, surcharges, surcharges. Three of us (DD is one) got a return to Boston for under £1000 in total on BA, but the breakdown showed the airfare was £99 for me, £99 was DH, and £10 was DD each way, so £420ish was the cost of flights. The other £600 was all surcharges. If the fares were more the cost would obviously go up and I suspect the surcharges are more to the west coast. Plus you're talking more people, and in my experience, the bigger the group for some reason the costs go up per person instead of down. So no, the price doesn't seem unreasonable at all. Have you thought (since you hate flying) of maybe flying to the east coast and taking the train to the west? See the country, etc?

We just went to San Francisco for £3100 for 4 of us in August. Sometimes it can vary a bit depending on which day of the week you fly. Some airlines lay out their website in such a way as it's easy to see which days are cheaper.

However, 2 years ago, we wrote off flying to Barbados as flights would have been around £3600 either BA or Virgin, but then BA had strike threats, lots of people picked Virgin instead, so BA brought their prices down hugely, so we jumped.

But yes, overall, air travel has vastly increased in costs in the last 5 years or so. I used to nip over to the US each year on a girls' long weekend, off-peak, for just over £250. Not any more!

been watching for ages... The BA sale has just finished sadly but this might return in Dec.... Best time to fly is to depart before June 24 or after Aug 20 apparently...
the flights and dates are £901 each for us but we need them to go to £750 or else it's too expensive...

I have just booked for 6 of us to New York next june/july.(2adults 4 kids). Booked through ebookers and got it for 2100 euro round trip!! Needless to say i booked it straight away when i saw it. We will be flying with Delta. Cant wait now!!

I have California family & was looking at long-term budgetting recently, we would pay similar for flights if we went in summer: 2 adults, 2 DC age 12+, 2 little ones but not infants.

Go between Sept & June, is all I can say. Prices might come down in future, too, I've seen it happen before.

Mmm I have been checking out flights too - to west coast. There are four of us - prices came in at about £800/£900 each. So yes - it does seem expensive.

However if you think about the distance and time in the air - it works out well compared to a short hop to Europe for £200?

Time of year does make a big difference too. We have to travel inthe main school holidays - so of course the Xmas and Easter times the prices are bumped up.

That's about right I am sorry to say, Increased fuel and rising APD (Air passenger duty) costs amongst others has caused fares to rise like this.

I'd book later. Flights have worked out cheaper that way for me.
Am flying back to the UK in the next few weeks from Oz, and it's about shy of 3k GBP for me, dd (nearly 3), and baby on my lap. That won't be for another 6wks or so, but they're getting cheaper closer to the time.

Check out skyscanner for the dates you want to go on. I think that the fuel surcharges have really pushed flight costs up though, much more expensive now than when we went a couple of years ago.

Yes, flights have really gone up in recent years. Gone are the days when you'd get them for 500 each. We recently got quotes which were coming out (including taxes) at about 1k each. Have paid over 4.5k for 6 of us to go to Florida in August.

As Maisie has said, it really depends on your dates. If you are going peak times then you are unlikely to get any good deals. In my experience, dates such as easter and christmas book 11 months before and the prices go up nearer the time of departure if there is still availability.

Flights do seem to have gone up quite signigicantly over the last couple of years. When are you thinking of travelling because, as you will be aware, prices differ quite a bit from month to month.

Allowing for 1 stop will probably reduce your costs but you say that that's not an option. If you do re-consider a flight with 1 stop then look at United or Delta.

We went to the USA a couple of years ago and paid about £1800 for flights for the four of us. There are five of us now (dd3 is 6 months old) and I've been looking at flights for next year and they're about £3,200 for the five of us (baby goes free, small surcharge)
We want nonstop to an airport on the Westcoast. Have checked cost of Virgin and BA. I don't like flying, so will only do nonstop flight (especially with a baby)
So, 3.2k flights, plus about $1000 for hotels and then we have to factor in car hire and spends. Will cost us about 5-6k, wont it? Any way to get there more cheaply?