Flights from US to Ireland

Lexi1818 · Member

Flights from US to Ireland

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

A LOT depends on where you are flying FROM. Likewise, airplane configuration preference also plays a part -- a 3 / 3 or 2 / 4 / 2 seat arrangement. MOST flights from Philadelphia, Newark, JFK and Boston use a 757 ( 3 / 3 ). Direct flights from other cities are often on Airbus or 767 or 777's offering the 2/4/2 or larger.

My wife is a nervous flier and when we fly from Florida, most often we connect in Atlanta, specifically so that we can fly in a two seat row with only a single stop. Because of that (and a preference for on or near wing seating) we usually purchase our tickets about three month's out. If you aren't as picky about your seat layout and location, you could probably wait longer.

Many Search sites (Expedia, Kayak, etc.) offer some sort of route monitor service -- that keeps you advised of price changes and fluctuations. If you have a preferred (or default) airline, you should register on their websites, as well to receive emails for sales, discount offers, etc . . .

Also, some airlines have partnership arrangements -- like Aer Lingus and Jet Blue -- so that even though you are flying on two separate airlines, it is all on a single ticket. That means that delays on one leg of the trip are the responsibility of the airlines, rather than yours. Plus, baggage transfer, etc, between planes should be automatic -- saving you the trouble.

Lexi1818 · Member

Thank you!! We live near Nashville so we were thinking of connecting in a larger city like New York. I will look into the route monitoring service . Thanks so much for your help Bob!

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

From Nashville, there are one-stop flights via Chicago (ORD) on Aer Lingus -- currently showing a price of $957 each for May 6 - 13. The current, 'Fall Sale' price for the same flights Nov 5-13 price out at $888. Via Boston, similar flights are as low as $705. As you can see, there's a pretty BROAD spectrum.

I got the above quotes from Kayak https://www.kayak.com/flights

As I said, most flights out of New York, Newark and Boston are on a 757. That means 3 and 3 seating . . . The Chicago flight is likely a wide-body (2-4-2) Airbus.

Another site for Fare Monitoring is: http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/fare-alerts

Regardless of sites used for fare searches, I nearly always book with the airlines directly as that generally offers better service, dispute resolution and, often, cheapest prices, too.

Lexi1818 · Member

Thanks so much for all the wonderful information Bob!! You have helped me out so much!

Michele Erdvig · Host

Glad to hear Bob's expert advice is helping with your trip. Let us know if you have any other questions.

murphy · Guru

Another great tool that is available for smart phones and tablets users (and possibly on a PC) is the ITA app called OnTheFly, softwear by Google. It is a free app and you can put in exact dates OR you can put in a time range of 30 days period and the number of days you want to travel. Then the search engine finds dozens of flights from the lowest price on up, and on which day they occur.

The lowest price isn't always the best one for departure time or arrival time or may have a short or lengthy connection time. Often by scrolling down thru the subsequent options, you will find a flight that is a little higher price, but still in your budget with a better schedule, well worth a few more $'s. When you find your best flight, write down the flight numbers, then book directly with the airline.

The price has always come up on the airline websight exactly the same as quoted on ITA. It is my first choice for a go-to option for flight planning and I check both one-way and round trip options. Most major airlines are included.

Sometimes you can find a considerably better price and/or departure/arrival/connection times using 2 one-way tickets from different airlines rather than a round trip ticket from the same airline-if you have a set schedule for dates. This has worked for me on two occasions for domestic flights, but not so much for transatlantic flights. For open-jaw (multi city-into SNN out of DUB for example) I still use Kayak.com. However it is still useful to use ITA first for "one-way" searches to find the lowest price day on both ends (if you are flexible on dates) then go into Kayak to book the open jaw on those dates.

I have also found that searching for a Tues-Wed-Thurs out and back (mid-week) often yields the best fares. With ITA you are able to select "day before/day after" options and also an alternate city option so you can be checking both DUB and SNN in the same search! Of course DUB is almost always the lowest cost option so you will need to scroll down a ways before the SNN options start popping up.

I highly recommend this app as it saves a lot of time in this whole process. And you don't have to worry about clearing "cookies" like on some of the other booking engines or airline web sights.

Good luck!

Dan

-- Edited by murphy on Wednesday 27th of July 2016 02:40:17 PM

Lexi1818 · Member

Thank you Dan! Great tips!