Flight prices to US - any advice on WHEN to book for cheaper tickets?

[mrsbabookaloo]

We are travelling to Oregon in summer hols - flight prices are horrendous - over £3000 for the 4 of us, and that's with a 20 hour stopover!!

Are there NO cheap flights? Or will there be offers/sales if I wait? Does anybody know whether prices are likely to go up or come down?

I have got flight alerts coming into my inbox for several west coast airports: LA, SF, Las Vegas, Portland - we will travel to wherever's cheap and then drive.

Last time we went we paid £2400 and I thought that was a lot; now realise this was a good deal.

I suppose because it is just so so far.

Would it be cheaper to fly into NY, then look at prices for internal flights?

For the summer, that sounds pretty good tbh. There are a couple of ways that sometimes you can get cheaper flights, and thats by booking a car or hotel with the flights through the airline (don't ask me why, but I've got it cheaper even when I didn't want a car, so booked the package and never picked the car up).

Sounds about right for the West Coast for the 4 of you I am sorry to say (the various taxes and charges certainly add up). I would also not consider a 20 hour stopover under any circumstances.

Internal flights within the US are not as cheap as they once were; also many carriers charge for each additional bag that is placed in the aircraft hold.

At least Portland is in Oregon itself so I would try flying into there via another (major) US airport like Seattle, LA or SF. Driving distances in the US, particularly between two states, can be vast too so do that research carefully as well beforehand.

Thanks for your replies!

Attila, I realise I didn't say in my original post: we have family there, so we know the distances etc; they're in South Oregon, so Portland is not that near, but neither is SF! If we flew into LAX we'd get an internal flight to Medford, a small airport near them.

CMOT I think I need to look into that package option and see what we can do.

Thanks

Have you used the traditional search engines like Kayak and Skyscanner? Have you played around with your dates so you go out on say a Tuesday and return on a Wed and avoid the weekend? Have you done a fares across the month search? I wouldn't necessarily always rule out a 20 hour stop over if it saved me a packet x 4 and much of that time could be spent in your bed asleep at an airport hotel costing $125 per night. Have you looked at going over Amsterdam etc?

Bummer if you've done all that and you are still sitting at >£3k. To be honest as others have said £750 in school hols to west coast isn't ridiculous but if you're paying more than you bargained at least you want perfect flight times.

PM me your dates, departure airport, chosen destination and ages of kids and I'll have a look if you want. I might not have 'cookies'. For this coming summer I have better US flight prices than I got in 2011 and 2013 and I've been checking them every summer for five years! Don't know if I just got lucky.

hey fortysix! sorry only just seen this. Yes to all you've said. The cheapest flights are via istanbul or rekjavik, 20 hour stopover and it's still well over £750. 795 cheapest. I did think of asking someone else to search it, because of cookies. I don't know how to do PM (useless), but kids are 5 and 8, we want to fly into SF, portland or sacramento, from any London airport, leaving say 28 july and coming back 14 Aug, dates are somewhat flexible. Thanks so much for offering to look!

We can go cheaper and direct to LAX with norwegian, which is feasible because we have family there too, but we'd have to get an internal flight to oregon. This is our fall back plan. I was just hoping someone would say that prices would come down if we wait and book in April or May- you don't think so?

To use PM click on the message poster icon of the poster you wish to write to.

Flight prices tend to increase the later it gets to departure day.
There are no UK direct flights to either Portland or Sacramento; to get there you're going to have to go via a west coast hub like LAX or SF.

What are the likes of BA and VA charging on their services to SF, would look at their actual websites.

Internal flights within the US are not as cheap as they once were and many carriers actively charge for any additional bags that go into the aircraft hold.

Norwegian are cheap for a reason; they are a budget airline carrier with little service to match.

I would also look into flying direct into SF and from there a flight into Medford.

To use PM click on the message poster icon of the poster you wish to write to.

Flight prices tend to increase the later it gets to departure day.
There are no UK direct flights to either Portland or Sacramento; to get there you're going to have to go via a west coast hub like LAX or SF.

What are the likes of BA and VA charging on their services to SF, would look at their actual websites.

Internal flights within the US are not as cheap as they once were and many carriers actively charge for any additional bags that go into the aircraft hold.

Norwegian are cheap for a reason; they are a budget airline carrier with little service to match.

I would also look into flying direct into SF and from there a flight into Medford.

Thanks attila for the info on flights and on how to PM! I have looked at British airways and Virgin and it's well over £4000. The cheapest direct flight is with delta ~ 3800. I just thought that maybe we were too early and there might be deals 3 months or so before departure, but nobody seems to think so.
I know norwegian is a budget airline but even if we pay extra for baggage meals and seats its still cheaper than everything else and it's direct. How bad can it be? Not as bad as paying more for a 20 hour stopover surely?
If we fly into SF we will probably drive to oregon rather than flying; we've done it before, with much smaller children! Anyway, I'm rambling now. Thanks for all your thoughts.

Have you looked at American Airlines?.

Would suggest you fly direct if at all possible; no-one should ever have to consider ever doing a 20 hour stopover and particularly with children in tow also.

Again however, cheap is not always cheerful. With Norwegian I would cost it all up first before committing yourself. I would think that by the time all the costs of baggage, meals and various taxes are added to the initial fare, it will not be that much less than other carriers.

Anyway that all said I do hope that you have a fab time in the US this summer.

At my work so am a bit stuck to help right now. I agree with Attila that cheap with two under 9s in tow isn't always cheerful. I also see that your dates give you very little comfort as they are peak school holiday time and a lot of these transatlantic seats are already booked.

My first 'think laterally' trawl gave me Dublin to Medway for £783 and Birmingham to Medway for £904 so those are pretty rubbish and don't bring you any further forward.

If you have time explore going London to Canada then down... Look at the Canadian hubs and see if any link to Portland and which airline has best deals. Look again at where icelandair departs from out of the UK.

We're flying to SFO and back out of SBA a fortnight later but connect over Philadelphia so explore Philadelphia. Also look on US sites and get a dollar fare from these places as you have relatives who can purchase fares using a USA credit card.

Will try to look tonight. I do think that you are looking at >£800 anyway. I booked my flights in September and now they are an eye watering £400 per person more expensive although paying an extra £1600 would get me fab flying times!

Have PM'd you.

Got you to Montreal on direct seven hour flight for less than £600 incl taxes on your dates out of gatwick. You just need to figure out the next bit... Ha!

For America we always get a cheapie flight from our regional airport to Dublin £80 return and then flight on from there summer holiday prices around £700 to Portland

We'll be flying home from LA in September and using Norwegian for the first time - I've had friends who've used it in the last year and said it was more than fine (new planes, nice staff etc) and even with baggage and seat options and meals it still came out 65% the price of the next cheapest direct option.

We moved here 3yrd ago and flight prices have rocketed in that time