Cheap/glitch California flights thread July/August 2019

[liz-paul]

Would people recommend checking individual airlines or using a site like skyscanner? Or both? I'm looking for next July (ideally direct from Dublin to LA, but will consider indirect for a lower price) and the prices are

[BONZO]

Apart from subscribing to individual airline websites, twitter etc. you can subscribe to some blogs that will give you the latest news and break down the deals into manageable chunks.

Unless specified, you don't have to join a club, reward programme or anything else, direct links are usually provided.

Despite the names, not exclusively for Club / First / Upper Class deals.

My two main go to sites are: -

turningleftforless

godsavethepoints


There are others like jacksflightclub - but you do have to join up.


You can also keep up to date with them on FB and Twitter if you are waiting for a breaking deal.

[liz-paul]

Booked our flights this evening. £1461 for 2 adults, 1 young adult and 1 child. This was virgin Atlantic direct Heathrow to LA, economy classic (includes checked bags and advance seat selection). This includes a discount of £216 from using my airmiles towards it. 30th June for 15 nights. There were various flights for around this price (including some lower) for travel from late June/early July for durations of 14-18 days ISH. I thought this was a cracking deal but no doubt someone will tell me otherwise lol

[DisneyBerry]

Following with interest. Like others we’ve had some great deals to Florida in August over the past couple of years but are ready to go back to Cali now. Our dates are mid to late August though and aren’t really out yet. I think it will be October before we see the better deals which is when I have traditionally booked FL in the past.

[zokaluse]

I just priced for next August with BA 1 child 3 adults came in at £4,100! Our to be 18yr old hasn’t decided if he’s coming or not yet but we’d like him to if he’s going to stay off his phone & be pleasant🙄 so I’m pricing it as if he is coming & he’ll have to make his mind up very soon so I can price it properly. I’ll be keeping my eye on this thread. X

[fatblokeflorida]

Prices still seem very high for next July/August. Hopefully see some better deals shortly

[zokaluse]

Originally Posted by fatblokeflorida

Prices still seem very high for next July/August. Hopefully see some better deals shortly

See more...

Certainly hope so or we won’t be going 😢

[moosha]

Originally Posted by zokaluse

Certainly hope so or we won’t be going 😢

See more...

I know what you mean . I played around with dates on the BA website yesterday for ages and it’s still soooo expensive .

I think the middle of the summer holidays had better prices than the beginning and end, and it seems no matter what dates I put in, Los Angeles is quite a bit cheaper than San Francisco so I’m expecting we’ll do a round trip in and out of LAX.

I nearly pressed the button on a BA flydrive yesterday at £3800 ish for four of us for 22 nights because it didn’t seem so bad compared to what we’ve paid for Florida before (shorter flight, shorter car hire) but hearing people here talk about getting flights for between £300 - £600 each and maybe waiting until October made me hold off.

The thing is, I’m able to move the trip forward or backwards by a week or two for the best prices but that obviously means starting to book hotels and stuff is tricky without firm dates. I have my heart set on a particular hotel in Yosemite and I really want to book that in case it sells out but can’t really do that with no flights.

Difficult to know what to do, I really want to wait for better prices but I tend to panic about not getting what we want until it’s booked.

Edit: if anyone saw this post originally, I was questioning why the quoted price of £3800 jumped to a confirmed price of £5100 when I practised booking. I have solved the mystery - my BA website was set to United States . All sorted now!

[Jabbag]

I play around with dates regularly on the BA site and I've never seen a price increase like you mention. I've just tried a date 27 July-14 Aug for 5 LHR-LAX direct, AA on way out, BA on return and it comes to just over £3880. I won't book until AA release all their dates but I still check in case a bargain comes up.

[zokaluse]

Originally Posted by moosha

I know what you mean . I played around with dates on the BA website yesterday for ages and it’s still soooo expensive .

I think the middle of the summer holidays had better prices than the beginning and end, and it seems no matter what dates I put in, Los Angeles is quite a bit cheaper than San Francisco so I’m expecting we’ll do a round trip in and out of LAX.

I nearly pressed the button on a BA flydrive yesterday at £3800 ish for four of us for 22 nights because it didn’t seem so bad compared to what we’ve paid for Florida before (shorter flight, shorter car hire) but hearing people here talk about getting flights for between £300 - £600 each and maybe waiting until October made me hold off.

The thing is, I’m able to move the trip forward or backwards by a week or two for the best prices but that obviously means starting to book hotels and stuff is tricky without firm dates. I have my heart set on a particular hotel in Yosemite and I really want to book that in case it sells out but can’t really do that with no flights.

Difficult to know what to do, I really want to wait for better prices but I tend to panic about not getting what we want until it’s booked.

Edit: if anyone saw this post originally, I was questioning why the quoted price of £3800 jumped to a confirmed price of £5100 when I practised booking. I have solved the mystery - my BA website was set to United States . All sorted now!

See more...

We can do a week or 2 earlier or a few days later too.
Like you want to book Yosemite before everything goes & we only want the valley lodge as want to stay rustic not luxury to feel the vibe more but won’t risk the cabins or camping.
I’ve just cut 6 days from our plans as they were nearly 4K so cutting out Monterey, Carmel & Santa Barbara to do when we come back to do Alcatraz etc.
Looking at Airbnb for Hollywood days & also Magic Mountain night pre Yosemite travel day.
Then I’m hoping I can get Hollywood, Anaheim, Santa Clarita, Yosemite, beach accommodation & all relevant park tickets, whale watching etc prices sorted so I know what is left of the budget for flights. Our food, spends etc are a separate budget, but I’m still not sure I can do all the above for 6k!