International flight virgins

Okay not quite virgins as we have done it once 12 years ago....

 

I’m reading everything I can but still unsure of what and when to book for June of 2019. Midweek to and from London.

 

DH is A list on Southwest and it’s pretty much all we fly on domestically. He 2x a month and me every other month. Live DFW area. Could fly out of Houston if significantly less. Have thought about flying Southwest to and from Atlanta free and using Delta to London but that takes extra time to ensure we and our bags make the flights.

 

Would prefer nonstop from DFW of course. Don’t want an airline who is going to weigh my carry on ( mine weighs a ton) so scared of some of these more budget airlines like Icelandic air. Considering premium economy over and main back. ( Thanks to reading these boards). I do plan on checking 3 to 4 bags and know I have to factor that in. ( I like my clothes and will be gone 3 weeks so not negotiable.)

 

All I find from DFW nonstop is AA. Am I right? Delta flies from Love with one stop in Atlanta which would be okay too. What’s a good price? When is best to book? Should I try AIR2SEA? When I try to look at flights AIR2SEA only give the next 3 months....Please help this confused almost virgin!

All I find from DFW nonstop is AA. Am I right?

BA too. 23 kg (50 lb) weight limit for your carry-on, plus a personal item. Is that enough? ;) (Seriously, you have to try hard to get a regulation-size carry-on to weigh 23 kg.)

June is still too far out to count on good prices, although of course trying to second guess the airlines' fare algorithms is foolish unless one has an advanced degree from Hogwarts. I would check prices from time to time, but probably wouldn't get too serious about booking until around the first of the year. Don't worry, nothing is going to sell out. Of course if you find a great fare in the meantime, go for it. (And "great" means great to you, not to me or anybody else.)

 

As far as premium economy goes, remember the westbound flights (coming home) are usually an hour or more longer than the eastbound ones, due to prevailing winds that slow the planes down (and speed them up eastbound.) DFW-London is a long flight so if it was me I'd look at flying in PE both ways.

 

It's also worth mentioning that - while you can't count on it - summer is often when business class fares over the Atlantic are at their cheapest, owing to a fall-off in actual business travel. It's not unknown that surprisingly cheap business fares start appearing around February. It might be hard to be patient, but I like to say that not all early birds get worms; some get cats.

...

Should I try AIR2SEA? When I try to look at flights AIR2SEA only give the next 3 months....Please help this confused almost virgin!

When searching, you should change the calendar year to 2019 before selecting the month of June.

I would try to get the trip on one ticket. I would not do Southwest to another gateway city a second ticket from there. If you try to do that you will discover your bags can't be checked through and your responsible (instead of the airline) for a missed connection. Better to get everything on one ticket.

 

Yes, non-stop sounds like the best bet.

 

Most overseas flights include one checked bag (but not all). Your choices are the US airlines, the European airlines or flying through Canada or Iceland.

 

The US airlines are slowly waking up to Premium Economy being a thing. So it is on some aircraft/flights. More on the way.

 

The Traditional European airlines pretty much all have premium economy of some sort and are generally what your would expect.

 

Norweigin is the one discount airlines (some love them others hate them.). Icelandic is also a discount airline of sorts.

 

Canada has Air Canada. They have a solid Premium Economy product. Coming back you clear US customs (at the Air Canada hub) with the bags automatically transferred behind the scenes. They have been focusing on growing their share of the US-Europe market over the past few years.

 

All of these airlines are in alliances and have partners on both sides of the water. You will see lots of codeshares within the alliances. American and British Airlines are in one alliance. United, Lufthansa and Air Canada are in another. Delta and KLM/Air France are in the third.

American and British Airways will both get you to London nonstop from Dallas. Don't mess with the hassle of getting to Atlanta on SWA. Unless you find a massive discount on ATL>LHR, it's almost never worth the hassle to do that. You can also book the BA flights via the AA website. Premium Economy on AA will get you 2 free checked bags. Bags 3 and 4 will cost you $200 each per each way on AA. BA's fees are about the same if not exactly the same. You're too far out to start price shopping. I would wait until at least the first of the new year before I started looking at prices or schedules.

3-4 checked bags? Good grief. I've emigrated with less.

 

You'll pay a fortune to cart all that around unless you have elite status or are flying business/first class. In fact the price difference between the cheap cabins and business it first will be pretty small once you factor in the costs.

 

Flying WN to catch a DL flight just increases the insanity another factor by requiring you to pay twice.

 

You might want to look at luggage forwarding services if you want to bring your house with you.

Looking at DFW and non-stops your only option is AA and BA and they code share so there is not a lot of price competition there. BA has a better premium economy product right now. If you go over to IAH you have a choice of BA or UA so their MIGHT be a bit more competition on prices but UA only has economy plus now and that is just an extra 3 inches of leg room and not much else. There is talk of a real premium economy coming to UA but it is not there yet.

 

Bags, 3-4 bags for the two of you? or 3-4 bags for you? That is a big price difference.

 

As others have said, the SWA to ATL thing is an invitation to disaster. If SWA is late you are really stuck. You would need to allow at least 4 hours on the connect. I did once going from LAS to SFO to Auckland using United and Air New Zealand. I had to book the LAS to SFO separately on UA because I needed those miles and dollars to make my Premier status for the next year. It all worked fine that day and I had 4+ hours to kill at SFO but I was a wreck for weeks before the trip and never really relaxed until we were airborne heading to the city by the bay.

Thanks for replies. I’ll try to talk the DH into non stop from DFW and just pay more. When pricing right now it could save as much $500 pp to use S.W. and Delta from Atlanta but time will tell. And you are right....it would add a lot of stress. I vote nonstop from DFW. Even if we have to do coach it’s just less stressful.

 

And yes it’s 2 or 3 bags total for the 2 of us. Since we won’t take snorkel gear this time we might be able to eliminate a bag. We travel a lot, have good luggage and can handle it all by ourselves even if we take 2 bags a piece plus carry on.

 

I’ll be patient and wait until at least the first of the year. Again we are used to S.W. and with them book the day it opens for best flights and prices especially when in and out of Florida.

I’ll be patient and wait until at least the first of the year.

But as Gardyloo says, don't do nothing in the interim. Use it to research, learn, and sign up for marketing emails. If you happen to see a good price that you're happy to pay, you may be disappointed if you stick to a hard-and-fast self-imposed rule about not booking until after 1 January. You need to remain open-minded and be knowledgeable.

 

From what I can see, unless you're planning a pre-cruise or post-cruise stay in Europe, you're probably looking to fly to London on 13 June 2019 and back from London on 29 June 2019. You can already get prices for those dates. This allows you to evaluate some things.

 

For example, the BA fares that I'm seeing on ITA are not sale fares. But you may want to check those against fares on the BA website to see whether or not there are special fares offered there. That will not only give you some idea of what a non-sale benchmark price is, but also possibly show you whether it's worth separately checking airline websites.

 

In addition, if you search for flights from a number of different gateway points, you will see that there's a wide range of prices on offer for those dates. DFW is one of the more expensive - and you will have to decide for yourself whether the saving that you can from flying from a different gateway is worth the hassle of a separate ticket to get to that gateway from your home area. Looking only at BA fares on ITA, premium economy from DFW to LHR and economy from LHR to DFW is something like $2,000. But premium economy from BOS to LHR and economy from LHR to LAX is only about $985 on the same dates.

 

Similarly, what if you allow one connection within the US, but booked on the same ticket? And/or start from another nearby airport like AUS (from which there is a BA non-stop to London, although possibly not every day of the week)?

 

All of this is stuff that you can do to inform yourself better about the market you're going to be buying in.

June of 2019. Midweek to and from London.

 

Would prefer nonstop from DFW of course....Considering premium economy over and main back. ( Thanks to reading these boards). I do plan on checking 3 to 4 bags and know I have to factor that in. ( I like my clothes and will be gone 3 weeks so not negotiable.)

 

All I find from DFW nonstop is AA. Am I right?

 

You should be able to book flights now, depending on your return date; fares are usually available 330 days out. If your return isn't until the very end of June or even into July, you'll need to wait another week or two. Beyond that, book when see a fare you can live. with. There is no guaranteed time that is best to book.

 

As for premium economy, make sure you are are booking real premium economy. Not all airlines offer it, but some offer an economy plus or comfort plus type product that people often mistake for premium economy. The "plus" products are nothing more than regular economy with a few additional inches of legroom. Same exact economy seat width, same economy cabin service, etc.

 

And yes, DFW is a major hub for AA so you'll find more nonstop flights to Europe from DFW on AA than you will on DL or UA. But as you've already considered connecting in ATL via a free flight on Southwest (which I don't recommend doing) then I would certainly consider connecting flights on DL or UA as well. At least that way it's all on one ticket.

Bags 3 and 4 will cost you $200 each per each way on AA.

 

No they won't. That excessive charge would only be in a single person is checking a 3rd/4th bag. There are 2 people traveling, so ach of them could check 2 bags (4 total) so they will only pay the fee for each person's 2nd bag, which is usually a lot less than 3rd/4th bag charges.

Thank you!

 

I will do some research including bag charges to factor that in. Crazy that you can fly further from LAX for less. And I will watch Delta with only one stop from DAL (such a better airport). We have had nothing but bad experiences with UA so would be really hesitant to book them. Cancelled flights, lost bags, schedule changes that were awful. They are our last choice. DH recently went to China on Delta and had no complaints except long layovers ( trip was arranged for him so he didn’t purchase tickets. Just showed up.) And we can hopefully prevent the longer layovers then 2-3 hours.

Crazy that you can fly further from LAX for less.

There's a common misconception there: air fares have little to do with distance travelled.

 

If nothing else, you can see that from the fact that there are other US airports which you can use as gateways for your flights which could halve the cost of your long-haul air fare - although you'd then have to be prepared to assume the extra time, hassle and risks of buying separate tickets for the different parts of the trip.

Any opinions about Icelandic air?

1) Lack of proper business class cabin

2) Changing each way interrupts sleep patterns if you're planning on sleeping all the way across on the eastbound flight.

3) Changing at KEF is easy enough but adds an extra complication to the mix if there are issues

4) Not a member of an airline alliance for frequent flyer benefits/mileage accrual

5) The vast majority of their fleet is Boeing 757s. Some people don't like flying longhaul on narrowbody aircraft.

6) Icelandair

Any opinions about Icelandic air?

 

We've flown Iceland Air Premium Economy twice, westbound from Europe to the USA and have no complaints. We found the service and staff good, better than expected, and did not object to the change of planes in KEF. I understand that they are have discontinued their Premium Economy fare so the price for that same level of service would be higher now.