I'm hoping I can get some input from you all on airlines for a summer trip this year.
DH, DS and I are going on a trip with his mom and step dad to Ireland & Scotland. The three of us will be flying from Los Angeles to Edinburgh, and meeting the in-laws there. DS will be 18 months when we do this trip, so I'm struggling with how to negotiate the flight, and which airline to go on.
We can fly American Airlines, connecting through JFK, for around $4300 round trip (that's getting DS his own seat, because no way in heck are we holding him for all that).
Alternatively, we can fly Virgin Atlantic, connecting through Heathrow, for around $5800 round trip (again, getting DS his own seat).
We'll be flying end of July/early August, which means prime thunderstorm season for the east coast of the US. In addition, every time I've flown American, I regret it, and I've never had anything but good experiences on Virgin Atlantic. I just need help convincing myself that it's worth the $1500 extra.
So, what do you think? Am I crazy to pay the extra and fly Virgin Atlantic, plus not having to fly through JFK? Is Heathrow really that bad for connecting flights?
$1500 is a lot of money, but my husband and I refuse to have US connections for European trips after missing the first day of three different trips to Europe because of screwed up connections. And you're right to be concerned about afternoon thunderstorms in the summer (that was the cause of one of messed up trips). Those are extra annoying because the international flights tend to get out while they hold domestic flights.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. Mark Twain
FWIW when you fly Virgin or BA they have little cots that you can use for the baby to sleep in during flight so you only have to hold during take off/landing/turbulence.... that said once my kids turned 6 mos they got their own seats.
I prefer BA and Virgin over AA. Even if it is a code share I try to make sure we are on a BA plane.
I strongly dislike both AA and JFK, but for $1500 I would definitely put up with both.
How long would the connection in JFK be? And would both inbound and outbound be on AA? If both flights on AA, it probably wouldn't be an especially difficult connection (as opposed to switching to BA, which requires a grand rail tour of all the terminals plus an extra visit to the TSA). Also, if there were storms causing delays, you probably still wouldn't miss the connection, because both inbound and outbound would be running late. At most you'd arrive a few hours late at your destination.
Post by alleinesein on Feb 25, 2015 22:13:50 GMT -5
Is BA not an option?
If you can get a non-stop from JFK to Edinburgh it can save you a bit of a headache of having to connect at LHR. Virgin flies into T3 at LHR and it is limited on space in the terminal. Everyone is crowded into one central area to wait for their connections. T5 is the same way but its larger and isn't as dreary. I know that both times I have flown Virgin out of LHR I have had to go through additional security at the gate which was a total PITA! Not sure if they are still doing that for their flights.
$1500 is a lot of money. Thats spending money for your trip. Unless the Virgin flight is a higher class of service you might as well save some $$
To be honest, both options sound pretty awful - JFK and Heathrow are terrible airports to connect in (unless you're flying British Airways) I would check British Airways website directly just to see how they'd do it.
I did the same trip in reverse with a baby on my lap so I definitely know how hard that is!
Personally, I have a preference for 1 loooong flight instead of 2 longish flights so assuming you're direct to Heathrow, I'd probably do that, get it all over with and then just have a little flight up to Edinburgh. There are tons of flights to Edi from Hrw so you wouldn't get stuck in London. The flight from Cali-New York is practically the same amount of time as from NY to Edi but the Cali-New York flight will be on a regular regional plane so you'll have way less space (usually) than on the transatlantic planes.
I would be tempted though to take the cheaper flight and look at either Economy Plus or paying the extra to book the bulkhead - it is much easier (IMO) with a toddler to have any little bit of space you can find!
I just checked and BA definitely flies the route, how much more are they? They really were a pleasure to fly with a baby (we flew them to Beijing from Edinburgh and it was great)
One more add. You have to play with the system, but it is well worth the extra $100-200 we usually pay to fly premium economy on the overnight flight. I don't care coming home but going over it is nicer to have more room. Last time we got lucky. The whole family got upgraded to business and the flat beds ;-)
Thanks all! I'm going to see if we can play around with the American website, and maybe get Premium Economy. I'll also look into the BA website, but they seemed cost prohibitive when I was looking earlier.
The American flights would be just the one layover in JFK, and then straight to Edinburgh, while the Virgin flights would be just the layover in Heathrow.
I'd thought about doing the bassinet for DS, but he's not great on sleeping on planes as it is (too much going on, usually), so I'm not entirely sure that he'd sleep, or be happy in the bassinet. Plus he's a big kid - already 30" and 23 lbs, so in six months, who knows if he'd fit in them.
Thanks all! I'm going to see if we can play around with the American website, and maybe get Premium Economy. I'll also look into the BA website, but they seemed cost prohibitive when I was looking earlier.
The American flights would be just the one layover in JFK, and then straight to Edinburgh, while the Virgin flights would be just the layover in Heathrow.
I'd thought about doing the bassinet for DS, but he's not great on sleeping on planes as it is (too much going on, usually), so I'm not entirely sure that he'd sleep, or be happy in the bassinet. Plus he's a big kid - already 30" and 23 lbs, so in six months, who knows if he'd fit in them.
When you search on AA for flights make you you are looking at all of the oneworld partners. AA and BA codeshare a ton of flights and you might be able to book a BA flight as an AA codeshare. It can sometimes be cheaper than booking directly with BA.
Thanks all! I'm going to see if we can play around with the American website, and maybe get Premium Economy. I'll also look into the BA website, but they seemed cost prohibitive when I was looking earlier.
The American flights would be just the one layover in JFK, and then straight to Edinburgh, while the Virgin flights would be just the layover in Heathrow.
I'd thought about doing the bassinet for DS, but he's not great on sleeping on planes as it is (too much going on, usually), so I'm not entirely sure that he'd sleep, or be happy in the bassinet. Plus he's a big kid - already 30" and 23 lbs, so in six months, who knows if he'd fit in them.
When you search on AA for flights make you you are looking at all of the oneworld partners. AA and BA codeshare a ton of flights and you might be able to book a BA flight as an AA codeshare. It can sometimes be cheaper than booking directly with BA.
I ended up searching, and the BA flights would have been $7000...so way out of price range comparison. There's also no premium economy available on American for the dates that we're looking at, so we'd have to fly regular economy. I'm going to talk with my in laws this weekend - if we expand our dates a day either way, we can get the Virgin flights for about $5000, which I'm comfortable with.
For a $700 difference, I would do Virgin Atlantic. You get a massively long flight out of the way with a short flight then from London to Edinburgh. I did a connection in London for a flight to Edinburgh this summer at Heathrow and it took me about an hour from when we landed until I was at my next gate (this was in mid-June). It's definitely a process, but not one that turned me off so much that I wouldn't do it again.
When you search on AA for flights make you you are looking at all of the oneworld partners. AA and BA codeshare a ton of flights and you might be able to book a BA flight as an AA codeshare. It can sometimes be cheaper than booking directly with BA.
I ended up searching, and the BA flights would have been $7000...so way out of price range comparison. There's also no premium economy available on American for the dates that we're looking at, so we'd have to fly regular economy. I'm going to talk with my in laws this weekend - if we expand our dates a day either way, we can get the Virgin flights for about $5000, which I'm comfortable with.
American doesn't have Premium economy on its planes...
You have time if you aren't going until this summer
We thought about going to hawaii a couple weeks ago. I priced tickets $1200. I bought tickets this morning for $800/ea and we are really close to our departure date