i need a cheap mode of Transatlantic travel
Feb 21, 2013, 12:18 pm
#1
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 2
i need a cheap mode of Transatlantic travel
Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. Basically i'm planning a long holiday to the states and i'm on a real tight budget, i was hoping some people here could help me out, i need to get from London, England to the United States as cheaply as possible, i will be traveling around via bike and staying in a tent so accommodation is not an issue, i won't be needing a return either. It doesn't matter how i get there as long as it's cheap. I plan on starting my adventure in Colorado but it's not too important, again saving money is the priority here. I won't be going until March/April 2014 as well so plenty of time to book.
I hope you can help me out, thanks in advance.
I hope you can help me out, thanks in advance.
Feb 21, 2013, 1:44 pm
#2
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Welcome to FT!
It would be good to hear what your interpretation of "cheap" is.
You have two options: fly or take a berth on a container ship.
If you're flying from London (LHR) to Colorado (probably DEN?) next year, it's too early to book and too early to know exactly what the fares will be, but I'd say you'd be doing well to find a ticket for GBP600-ish.
If you book a berth on a container ship, expect to pay GBP60-100 per day (5-6 day crossing (to US East coast anyway) and then more to fly onwards.
It would be good to hear what your interpretation of "cheap" is.
You have two options: fly or take a berth on a container ship.
If you're flying from London (LHR) to Colorado (probably DEN?) next year, it's too early to book and too early to know exactly what the fares will be, but I'd say you'd be doing well to find a ticket for GBP600-ish.
If you book a berth on a container ship, expect to pay GBP60-100 per day (5-6 day crossing (to US East coast anyway) and then more to fly onwards.
Feb 21, 2013, 4:25 pm
#3
Join Date: Oct 2011
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i need a cheap mode of Transatlantic travel
You have over a year to learn how to accumulate various miles and points to be used for a free airline ticket. I'd suggest looking at United Airlines first, as they have a lot of flights from LHR to the USA, and a lot of flights to Denver within the US.
A one way saver award is 30,000 miles will easily get you from LHR to DEN, and is the standard bonus for signing up for their credit card. If you can't qualify, there are still plenty of ways to accumulate those points in a year. Poke around FlyerTalk and related blogs for ideas.
A one way saver award is 30,000 miles will easily get you from LHR to DEN, and is the standard bonus for signing up for their credit card. If you can't qualify, there are still plenty of ways to accumulate those points in a year. Poke around FlyerTalk and related blogs for ideas.
Feb 21, 2013, 6:50 pm
#4
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Look into purchasing (or otherwise obtaining) 20,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles. It takes only 20,000 AA miles for a one-way Coach award from Europe to North America during March/April. And the AA award would permit you a free stopover at your North American gateway, which might be NYC, DFW, ORD, MIA, RDU, or even LAX.
I believe there is currently a bonus promotion for purchase of AAdvantage miles. Check aa.com for details.
Look into purchasing (or otherwise obtaining) 20,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles. It takes only 20,000 AA miles for a one-way Coach award from Europe to North America during March/April. And the AA award would permit you a free stopover at your North American gateway, which might be NYC, DFW, ORD, MIA, RDU, or even LAX.
I believe there is currently a bonus promotion for purchase of AAdvantage miles. Check aa.com for details.
Feb 22, 2013, 8:40 am
#8
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Doesn't London have the horrendous departure tax?
IIRC you will need to fly from mainland or Ireland to avoid it. Don't recall if all English cities have the levy or just London area.
And agree on possibility of being scrutinized by US Immigration @:-)
EmailKid
IIRC you will need to fly from mainland or Ireland to avoid it. Don't recall if all English cities have the levy or just London area.
And agree on possibility of being scrutinized by US Immigration @:-)
EmailKid
Feb 22, 2013, 1:08 pm
#9
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Yes, departures from the UK incur the UK APD (which is based on distance and cabin class); in addition, there is an airport PSC for departures. If the trip begins in another country but connects in the UK, the passenger avoids the APD, but is still assessed the (lower) PSC.
If the OP is on an award ticket, he might save some money by taking a train to Paris or Brussels, and flying out from there. If using AA miles, AA flies to several U.S. cities from CDG. AA's partner, TN, flies CDG-LAX; and AA's partner, 9W, flies BRU-EWR and BRU-YYZ. But booking award travel on TN or 9W requires a call to AA, and would incur a telephone-ticketing fee. (Award travel on AA metal can be booked at aa.com with no ticketing fee.)
Avoid redeeming AA miles for travel on BA, because of high surcharges.
Originally Posted by EmailKid
Doesn't London have the horrendous departure tax?
IIRC you will need to fly from mainland or Ireland to avoid it. Don't recall if all English cities have the levy or just London area.
And agree on possibility of being scrutinized by US Immigration @:-)
EmailKid
IIRC you will need to fly from mainland or Ireland to avoid it. Don't recall if all English cities have the levy or just London area.
And agree on possibility of being scrutinized by US Immigration @:-)
EmailKid
If the OP is on an award ticket, he might save some money by taking a train to Paris or Brussels, and flying out from there. If using AA miles, AA flies to several U.S. cities from CDG. AA's partner, TN, flies CDG-LAX; and AA's partner, 9W, flies BRU-EWR and BRU-YYZ. But booking award travel on TN or 9W requires a call to AA, and would incur a telephone-ticketing fee. (Award travel on AA metal can be booked at aa.com with no ticketing fee.)
Avoid redeeming AA miles for travel on BA, because of high surcharges.
Feb 23, 2013, 2:05 pm
#11
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Regarding a 1-way ticket to Europe and staying longer than 90 days without a visa in much of Europe...
Not knowing exactly where you indend to go, you might consider buying a cheap onward ticket on Easyjet or Ryanair that will indicate you intend to leave Europe in 90 days, for example on Easyjet you can get a ticket from Madrid to Marrakesh for 50 Euros so if you don't end up using it you can throw it away and it's not a big loss.
(I think you can stay in UK up to 6 months but you still probably need to show an onward ticket.)
Not knowing exactly where you indend to go, you might consider buying a cheap onward ticket on Easyjet or Ryanair that will indicate you intend to leave Europe in 90 days, for example on Easyjet you can get a ticket from Madrid to Marrakesh for 50 Euros so if you don't end up using it you can throw it away and it's not a big loss.
(I think you can stay in UK up to 6 months but you still probably need to show an onward ticket.)
Feb 23, 2013, 4:20 pm
#12
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The OP indicates that he is starting from London, and is looking for a cheap one-way to the United States.
Originally Posted by Bohemiana
Regarding a 1-way ticket to Europe and staying longer than 90 days without a visa in much of Europe...
Not knowing exactly where you indend to go, you might consider buying a cheap onward ticket on Easyjet or Ryanair that will indicate you intend to leave Europe in 90 days, for example on Easyjet you can get a ticket from Madrid to Marrakesh for 50 Euros so if you don't end up using it you can throw it away and it's not a big loss.
(I think you can stay in UK up to 6 months but you still probably need to show an onward ticket.)
Not knowing exactly where you indend to go, you might consider buying a cheap onward ticket on Easyjet or Ryanair that will indicate you intend to leave Europe in 90 days, for example on Easyjet you can get a ticket from Madrid to Marrakesh for 50 Euros so if you don't end up using it you can throw it away and it's not a big loss.
(I think you can stay in UK up to 6 months but you still probably need to show an onward ticket.)
Feb 24, 2013, 11:21 pm
#13
Join Date: May 2007
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Programs: UA, AA, AGR
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Lots of dubious suggestions in this thread.
There is basically no chance going by sea will be cheaper than flying. Typical costs as a passenger on a freighter are €100 a day plus significant port taxes, and freighters are slow, typically taking 10 days or more to make the crossing. A cruise on the Queen Mary 2 or similar comes out to around the same cost.
In theory it is possible to get a job on a ship, but unless you have particular relevant skills you'd likely do better getting a job on land to save up for the flight.
Frequent flyer miles are often a good way to achieve this sort of thing. However, most of the commenters here are US-based and alluding to the huge mileage signup bonuses offered by credit card issuers in the US. They should note that for people based outside the US (i.e. without US addresses and SSNs) the credit card game is far less lucrative. However, IF you have a US address and SSN (and reasonable credit and the discipline to pay bills in full immediately) this is definitely the best option. UA, AA and BA all have 50k signup bonus offers that would more than cover the flight.
If you were going to try to do it with miles, the cheapest transatlantic option is to use 12500 British Airways Avios (plus about $93 of taxes/surcharges) to fly from Dublin to Boston on Aer Lingus. As far as I know the best signup bonus available to UK-based cardholders is currently only 9000 avios (see http://uk.creditcards.com/credit-car...sh-airways.php for details), but with that plus normal spending 12500 may be attainable over the next year. Persuading somebody who can earn miles more easily to book you a ticket from their account might be another option. (Note that miles usually cannot be transferred between accounts without onerous fees.)
Failing that, you're left just doing your best to find a cheap flight. It's rather early now to be looking for Spring 2014 flights, but if Norwegian is still flying to New York then they might be a good option. Otherwise I've generally found the cheapest transatlantic oneways are London-New York and Dublin-New York. It's rarely possible to do much better than what kayak/hipmunk finds for those routes.
There is basically no chance going by sea will be cheaper than flying. Typical costs as a passenger on a freighter are €100 a day plus significant port taxes, and freighters are slow, typically taking 10 days or more to make the crossing. A cruise on the Queen Mary 2 or similar comes out to around the same cost.
In theory it is possible to get a job on a ship, but unless you have particular relevant skills you'd likely do better getting a job on land to save up for the flight.
Frequent flyer miles are often a good way to achieve this sort of thing. However, most of the commenters here are US-based and alluding to the huge mileage signup bonuses offered by credit card issuers in the US. They should note that for people based outside the US (i.e. without US addresses and SSNs) the credit card game is far less lucrative. However, IF you have a US address and SSN (and reasonable credit and the discipline to pay bills in full immediately) this is definitely the best option. UA, AA and BA all have 50k signup bonus offers that would more than cover the flight.
If you were going to try to do it with miles, the cheapest transatlantic option is to use 12500 British Airways Avios (plus about $93 of taxes/surcharges) to fly from Dublin to Boston on Aer Lingus. As far as I know the best signup bonus available to UK-based cardholders is currently only 9000 avios (see http://uk.creditcards.com/credit-car...sh-airways.php for details), but with that plus normal spending 12500 may be attainable over the next year. Persuading somebody who can earn miles more easily to book you a ticket from their account might be another option. (Note that miles usually cannot be transferred between accounts without onerous fees.)
Failing that, you're left just doing your best to find a cheap flight. It's rather early now to be looking for Spring 2014 flights, but if Norwegian is still flying to New York then they might be a good option. Otherwise I've generally found the cheapest transatlantic oneways are London-New York and Dublin-New York. It's rarely possible to do much better than what kayak/hipmunk finds for those routes.
Last edited by lexande; Feb 24, 2013 at 11:34 pm
Feb 25, 2013, 3:17 am
#15
Join Date: May 2007
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Not from DUB. I booked a DUB-BOS award for 12500 Avios and $93 yesterday. (I didn't discuss how the OP might get to DUB, but Ryanair and National Express bus are both cheap options, and Rail+Sail tickets aren't much more.)