Cheap flight to New York? Good phonecards?

[Janh]

Following on from janinlondon's revelation about speed ferries , can the Mumsnet Information Service help with incredibly cheap recommendations for flights to New York?

DD1 is going to work in a summer camp, last year went with CCUSA and they arranged the flights but this year is going it alone (she has a US passport so doesn't need visas etc) - she has to be in NY by the morning of June 21st, so a day or so earlier would be OK but no later, and needs to come back on or after Sept 1st (because the cost of flights plummets after Aug 31st?)

She also needs to get a phonecard for ringing home as cheaply as poss when she's not at camp.

TIA!

I just flew on BA a few weeks ago for £250 return. Went in to Newark, but I think it was even cheaper to fly in to JFK.

Bettybloo, Chatham really is lovely! It must be getting very springlike there....

KateandtheGirls, I grew up in Westfield, of all places!

I did look at Virgin, august - they cost about the same and that's from Heathrow, she'd have to get down there first. Haven't tried BA direct though, I will, thanks for that (you too, maomao) - she can be slightly flexible on dates so I'll see if that makes any difference. But summer is dearer anyway and longstay is dearer still, apparently.

Bettybloo, she will be in upstate NY, near Albany. Thanks for help! And Kate, I'm sorry too about your DH - must be so hard on your own.

Janh, my aunt is a travel agent in the states and seems to get pretty good deals on flights. Email me through mumsnet and I'll send you her email. Also, if you look online you can find calling cards for sale. What you want to check for is one that has a good rate for the country that you are calling (ie uk).

maomao, no way!!!

Where? (Which side of the tracks?!)

My husband grew up there. Lived on the corner of Euclid and Kimball, near Mindowaskin Park. We used to live downtown, right next to the Rialto, and then we lived on the Westfield/Scotch Plains border near Scotch Hills Country Club.

Small world, eh?

Did you go to Westfield High, and if so, what year did you graduate?

Janh,

Would you mind posting what you find in the end? I'm looking for flights to Boston in August, and coming up with nothing affordable.

Sofia, welcome back, dearie---hope you had a wonderful trip!

K&tG, I'll email you separately, so as not to hijack Janh's thread!

Janh,
apparently "nation's choice" "global direct" and "usa talk" are all quite good according to an aussie friend of mine out here (much better value than the one I've been using - glad I looked into it!) and you can get them at phonecardsavers or callingcardplus.com. There are loads of others that you can buy easilly in the shops -Verizon, AT&T etc but they're not good value for international calls.

Have you tried expedia.com for the ticket?

Sorry I haven't been as much help as I'd hoped - I'm still pretty new out here and finding stuff out myself.

Maomao - what a coincidence! Chatham is looking glorious atm though the magnolias have just finished. Are you in the Uk now? Are there many stateside MNers? I've been lurking and reading for a couple of days now, becoming addicted (house falling apart around me) but haven't spotted many.

Bettybloo, stateside are sunchowder and - expatkat? Or is she somewhere else? And californiagirl...then over here are maomao, SofiaAmes and zebra (currently moodyzebra I think). There is also JJ who is in Switzerland.

There are probably more but that's all I can think of just now. They are all American though - AFAIK you and Kate are the only Brits over there (???)

Re the phonecards, following Sofia's advice I googled earler and the best I found was US2global, is that what you mean by global direct? Only 4.9c a minute to the UK anyway (6.0 cents just to Canada!) I'll look for the others you mentioned as well.

I think I have tried expedia but I'll look again (I start going crosseyed after a while trying to remember - some different sites use the same search engines which confuses me more).

maomao, will pass on anything remotely useful

Janh,
there are several on callingcardplus.com at less than 3c per minute to the UK - but check carefully as some hit you with a connection charge.
Thanks for the expat info

Blimey! The best one on callingcardplus was MICasa at 0.59c per minute!!!!! And no connection charge? How can they do that?

Oh - it's slightly more complicated than that - looking further at charges there is actually a 30c connection fee (less than $1 so doesn't show up on front page?) and from detailed information:

Card Information:
· Connection fee may apply (different per country).
· When using a toll free # from a payphone, a $0.79 per call surcharge applies.
· Call time is deducted in one/three min. rounding.
· A weekly maintenance charge of $0.79 aplpies 24 hrs after the first call.
· Other taxes/charges may apply which may have impact on the total number of min on a card.
· Advertised Minutes are based on using the card in one call.
· International cellular rates may be higher.
· Card expires 3 months after first use.

Still seems pretty reasonable though, even at 30c connection, and 79c per call from a payphone, if you speak for 20 mins that comes out at c $1.10 for a 20 min call. (Though if the person you want isn't there you have to pay $1.09 for nothing. I see what you mean about checking the details - will investigate further!)

Thanks, Bettybloo!