rjrebeccajane

Hello everyone!

I'm a first time flyer, hoping to travel from Glasgow in Scotland to Philadelphia at the end of May next year and I'm in need of some advice from more experienced travellers.

I've been on the quest for tickets as it said online to book more than 100 days in advance of when you plan to go, yet I'm not seeing very much movement on the fares and have been closely watching them since October.

Is the price likely to fluctuate in the new year with a sale or have I missed my chance at a more affordable fare?

(I'm really sorry if this is the wrong place to post!)

TWA884

Take a look at the following threads:

ExpatSomchai

Welcome to FT

Are you looking at flying direct or would you contemplate an ex EU?
Do you have any miles?
Are you flexible with dates?

This is the typical information required as if you want to go from A to B on X date and return Y date you are quite limited.

:D!

A "first time flyer" is unlikely to know what an "ex EU" is or have any miles.

Jaimito Cartero

Many people have airline credit cards, and may be saving the miles these generate for their first flight.

TWA884

The OP specifically asked whether prices are likely to go down. He or she did not ask about award redemptions.

Please let's not bicker about first time flyers and whether they have been accumulating airline points by using credit cards.

If you have something constructive to contribute to this thread please do.

Thank you,

TWA884
Moderator

Romelle

I used http://matrix.itasoftware.com

and the best deal I found was £653.06 on Icelandair - May 30- June 10. Very decent schedule with layovers in Reykjavik of about 1 1/2 hours each way.

There was a slightly cheaper option departing June 1, but in addition to not being your "... end of May" it had a really ugly schedule.

British and American were the next contenders, with flights in the low to mid £700 range.

It tends to not be a good idea to make your purchase on weekends, but other than that, it would probably be a good idea to just go ahead now.

If you use the web site above, you can search on up to 30 days, while exploring stays of various lengths. I used 10-11 days for the above.

You can't actually purchase tickets from the site, but you can do your research and then go to the particular airline site, or various OTAs (On-line Travel Agents) like Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak, etc.

I looked at departures from Manchester and London, but didn't find anything better there.

Then I took a look at cities reasonably near Philadelphia. Interestingly enough, there are United non-stop flights Glasgow to Newark, NJ (EWR) under £400. Various ways to get from Newark to Philadelphia - a 2 1/2 hour train ride for about $50 could be a good choice. It is just under 100 miles.

Madone59

Welcome to Flyertalk rjrebeccajane ^

Got to know www.Google.com/Flights it is very easy to use and show you lots of price options.

Romelle

Yes, I agree with this also. In fact, when using ITA Matrix, it gives you an option to switch to Google.

lhrsfo

Search for Google Flights and plug in where you want to fly from and to, then enter your dates. It gives you prices for the entire month. You can be clever and search for alternate airports. For example, in the ,from field you could put GLA, EDI, MAN and it will give you prices from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester.

As to when to buy, conventional wisdom is when you know your dates won't change. But that's breaking down nowadays and prices seem unpredictable. Personally, if I find a price and flight I am happy with, I buy it and avoid looking at prices again.

Jeannietx

If my flying dates are important I usually book pretty far in advance. End of May is usually pretty busy with college graduations, etc. If it was me I would go ahead and book.

Another thing to decide is are you ok with coach, or want premium coach which gives you a little more space and somewhat better location.

TravelingNomads

Have you checked into a flight that goes to JFK or DCA or IAD? I ask because we are heading your way next week and found those prices to be much cheaper. I bought the tickets on Delta about 6 months ago and paid $275/RT. To get to Washington cost us an additional $30 via Frontier. You can also check Spirit and Southwest for cheap deals to get into Philly. You may also find it cheaper to take a Ryanair flight to Dublin or London and then fly to the USA. Lastly, maybe try searching via the .com sites. We noticed that prices sometimes change depending on the country website that is initially selected.