Flight questions

Marie · Guru

Flight questions

Michele Erdvig · Host

Marie,

If May 30 is the date you must return home then departing on May 11 will give you a few extra days in Ireland. As long as there are seats available on the plane I don't think it matters which days you fly on.

Where are you flying from and what airline are you looking at?

Michele

Marie · Guru

Thanks, Michele. We are flying ut of Washington, DC. I looked at driving to Philly to see if we could save money, but it doesn't seem to be worth the hassle. We can also fly out of Baltimore.

Aer LIngus is consistently the cheapest fare I am finding. $600.00 RT/PP. Do the prices usually drop in December? I am beginning to wonder if I should grab them at this price.

I am patiently (well, ok, not so patiently) awaiting the arrival of a packet from Tourism Ireland.

Anxious to get down to the nuts and bolts of this trip planning!

I am so grateful to have found this forum.

Thanks again,

Marie

kathy · Veteran Member

Hello all!

i have been off the forum for awhile and figure this will be my best re-entry!

since i am flying 3-6 times a year r/t from shannon to the states (sometimes buffalo, sometimes california), i have relied on one website with regularity to get my bearings.

www.sidestep.com

they search all the major airlines and discounters. it really is a great starting place.

i try to always buy directly from the airlines website vs orbitz or the others.

there really isn't much price difference on your days of travel in the off-season but there IS a significant difference between what day of the week you purchase the ticket. from my experience, tuesday or wednesday is the best day to buy an e-ticket. if those days don't work - sometimes first thing saturday morning will reveal some bargins, but that is less consistent.

also, if you have been checking repeatedly from the same computer, once you think you are ready, clear all the cookies and temp files from your internet settings. it sometimes makes a difference in the prices that are offered to you.

i would defintely check US Airways out of Philidelphia. it would be a non-stop for you to Shannon, that alone is worth an extra 100 bucks to me.

cheers!

Michele Erdvig · Host

Marie,

Kathy has given you some very good tips. $600 round trip sounds pretty good. You might want to contact your airline and ask them if the price comes down whether you can get the lower price at no additional fee. Sometimes that is allowed but in the new reality of airfares, who knows?

Michele

Marie · Guru

Thanks, Michele and Kathy:

I will take all your advice. Looking forward to the day I press that "puchase" button for the tickets.

More later....

kapmap · Member

You might also want to try www.kayak.com as they are another really good search engine.

Green Dragon · Guru

Also check out www.itasoftware.com - it's not a booking engine, but a flight search engine, and gives you lots of options (log on as a guest)...

$600 is a pretty good fare, if it includes taxes. You MIGHT get a better deal, but you have to figure out if your peace of mind is worth the gamble.

I flew last June, and got tickets in February. Travelocity ran a one-day sale on Virgin tickets, and I got from MIA to London for $488 including taxes - then another $80 to SNN (returning from DUB). So it came out to about what you are getting -- I was thrilled to get that deal.

Good luck!!!