New York City - how much was your flight?

[Wigeon]

Trying to cost up a possible trip to NYC next year. Unfortunately tied to school holidays as DH is a teacher. Would be grateful if anyone’s could share how much they’ve paid for a return flight, so I can see if the Skyscanner prices are comparable.

Looking at Easter holidays, on the basis that the weather won’t be hot and humid like summer, or freezing cold like winter! We’d like to go for a couple od weeks to justify spending all this money on the flights, so that rules out all other half term holiday times.

V grateful for any flight price info!

Completely unhelpful but still too good not to share.

I am a teacher so went in the Easter holidays (9 years ago now). I got a brilliant price with Expedia, £550 for flights and accomodation for 10 nights! The flight was with American Airlines AND we were upgraded to first class while waiting to board! Best holiday ever!

We went at Easter this year, 4 adults as kids are older teens. After lots of research the best option was a package with BA. Paid £800 each for return flights, transfers and 7 nights in a very nice hotel (4*)

@Wigeon we went in Feb half term this year with Austrian Airways (actually United, but booked through Austrian Airways. They must codeshare). We were around £430 each return from Heathrow to Newark.

I went with a friend, Feb 2018 half term, 3 nights via BA and paid £550 each including a pretty central, decent hotel.

Id fly into Boston - less busy and much friendlier that Noo Yoyk.

Just booked early June with primavera £358. Direct flight stansted to newark

I've just booked the last week of August, Sunday- Sunday flights on the bank holiday weekend. We fly in to Boston and out of New York, we have a suitcase each and chose our seats for £854 for 2 with Aer Lingus. We are flying from Manchester, have about 1-1.5 hour connection in Dublin, but apparently you can clear customs in Dublin to save doing it in USA, so very please with that! I also had a problem with the seat reservation which they sorted out in 48 hours over email.

I kept looking at Norwegian/ Primera but was put off by the additional cost of seats/cases/ meal. It's an extra £50 per person each way for those, which brings it up to normal prices.

Thanks for replies - that’s a really good point about checking airlines which charge you for seats, bags, meals etc etc.

If you book a package, can you have flights 14 days apart but only have the package hotel for the first 7 days? We’re thinking we might fly into NYC, stay a week, wend our way to Boston, staying at a couple of places on the way, then a couple of nights in or near Boston, then fly home from there.

Have a look at Kayak as it includes a price tracker with history so you can see what prices have been. It will also help you concoct any crazy indirect routes which may be cheaper if price is more important than time.

Yes you could book it all together, the BA website will let you do this for instance. Select your flights then add a hotel selecting only the dates you want. But based on experience it’s probably cheaper to book an open jaw flight so London-NY/Boston-London and then arrange the internal travel and hotels yourself.

Just a warning re Easter, that even though it’s quite late next year, you could still get snow in April!

It was a very long winter this year tbf (DD1 lives there so we keep an eye on it) so next year might well be better...but I was wondering if you’d consider doing May half term instead? I know you said you want a couple of weeks, but you could get 10-11 days that way, & it would be much more reliable weather (esp as you’re going up to Boston as well).

Anyway fwiw we flew from Manchester to JFK with Thomas Cook last time we went (in early May 2014, they’d only just started on that route) & it was about £450 each. We were very pleased with the service then, but both DDs have used them since & had problems, so I’m not sure I could recommend them now!

BA lets you book an open jaw flight and accommodation for only part of the trip. You get a good deal if you book the hotel with the flights. Another advantage is that because you are booking more than just a flight you only have to pay a deposit initially, you can then make further payments of any amount, as and when you like up until the final invoice date 6 weeks prior to flying.

Around £450 for February half term 2019. This is through BA holidays and includes 4 nights accommodation at the Hilton in Midtown. Flights are all at reasonable times.

Booking as a package worked out much cheaper than booking separately.

We often go, but as a stop off en route to Florida.

Last end of July, I think it was about £600 each.

DO NOT BOOK WITH PRIMERA!!! We are due to fly out on 29/05 with them. Had an email today to say our flight has been cancelled. Reading online there are loads of horror stories about flights guys being cancelled once people had boarded and then being stranded in their destination!!
If you apply for a refund they don't pay out. Feel sick. Don't know what to for best.

Chardonnay

Take them to the Small Claims Court.

£500 each with Delta Air during the Easter holidays.
We also booked this last minute - broke up Friday. Booked Saturday morning. Flew Sunday.

@Rkay2 I'm surprised you got ESTAs so quickly! Or did you already have them? That's a fab price last minute.

They are a Danish company so out of U.K. Law so I've been told.... but... we have had an email to say we will be fully refunded ( just got to wait 10-15 working days for the money ) and through talking to our credit card company we could claim under section 75 and they would pay out, so feel much happier.
Have managed to rebook flights for the same day but different airport... only £700 more... it's only money as I keep telling myself and worth it not to devastate the kids ds1 has asd and would not have coped with being told we couldn't go. At all...
He's talked about this trip daily for the last 9 months!!

@BubblesBuddy Singapore Airlines refused to let us choose our seats, even after numerous emails and phone calls where we stated we'd happily pay any fee for that, we just needed extra legroom or for me to be in an aisle (I am very long legged). When we got back and complained, they said we weren't able to book seats without paying a fee which they assumed we didn't want to pay

They also left vomit drying in the aisle next to me (not mine!!) for almost 3 hours and thought this was acceptable, threw food all over me whilst serving during turbulence (which was incidentally the excuse for not clearing up the vomit; so it seems that serving food is fine but having to cover up vomit was not allowed) without helping or even offering a cloth or something to clean myself and my bag up, refused to answer call bells of the lady sitting next to me, and when I complained that people were using my seat to stretch out and exercise against throughout the night which meant constantly trying to doze and then being woken up by someone's arse slamming into my face as they stretched out, was told that it was my fault as I had chosen to sit there and what did I expect.

Their service was shocking, their cabin staff rude and their complaints system ineffective. We would never fly with them again, or recommend them.

On the other hand, Norwegian Air were fabulous. Could not do enough to help us, and the seats were much bigger and more comfortable. Bells were answered within seconds and there were no issues.

That is why I said my Norwegian flights to NY were 100 times better.

We recently booked flights for August (I’m a teacher so tied to school holidays) and we paid £584.50 each with Norwegian, which includes bags and inflight meals for us both (we paid the extra fee for this). This still worked out cheaper than other direct options from Gatwick/Heathrow.

Singapore Airlines come out very highly in Wunderlust airline rankings. I guess some people have terrible flights with all sorts of airlines. Also good flights with all sorts of airlines.

@flatwhite32 esta comes back quite quickly and was before trump era.

We're going in the April holidays - we booked with Thomas Cook.
We paid £360 each

We bought flights in January for August this year.

Paid £380 return.

We are flying from a local airport to Amsterdam and then onto JFK with KLM.