Flying to the US from the UK

[ssk2]

I've been doing some research about flights to San Francisco from London, leaving in August this year and returning at the end of May next year. Thought I'd share my findings and see if anyone else has any advice - before I go ahead and book.

 

Planning to take two bags and a bicycle by plane. I'm not planning on coming home over Christmas. Most airlines won't let you book a return flight until 11 months before the date - but I don't want to wait until June to book since it's highly likely that the outbound flight will become more expensive by more than the cost of changing the inbound flight.

 

The best option seems to be Virgin Atlantic - at £1,011.45 for a direct flight, and if you call and book - one free change (if you tell them to add a code to your booking for 'out of system range'), They charge £32 for the first additional bag and £72 for each additional bag beyond that. You get one piece of 'sporting equipment' for free, e.g. a bicycle.

 

Other direct options cost a similar amount but charge considerably more for additional baggage and carrying a bike. It's also not clear whether they will offer the same 'out of system range' free change that Virgin do.

 

Does anyone else have any tips?

[wreckofthehope]

Air NZ used to let you take a huge amount of baggage weight and two bags included, not sure if this is still the case, so they might be worth looking at for the initial journey over. Other than that, my only tip is that we shipped a few boxes of stuff over for a very reasonable price, and it might be easier to ship your bike than travel with it? The company we shipped with was called Excess Baggage ( website is excess-baggage.com).

 

I've been doing some research about flights to San Francisco from London, leaving in August this year and returning at the end of May next year. Thought I'd share my findings and see if anyone else has any advice - before I go ahead and book.

 

Planning to take two bags and a bicycle by plane. I'm not planning on coming home over Christmas. Most airlines won't let you book a return flight until 11 months before the date - but I don't want to wait until June to book since it's highly likely that the outbound flight will become more expensive by more than the cost of changing the inbound flight.

 

The best option seems to be Virgin Atlantic - at £1,011.45 for a direct flight, and if you call and book - one free change (if you tell them to add a code to your booking for 'out of system range'), They charge £32 for the first additional bag and £72 for each additional bag beyond that. You get one piece of 'sporting equipment' for free, e.g. a bicycle.

 

Other direct options cost a similar amount but charge considerably more for additional baggage and carrying a bike. It's also not clear whether they will offer the same 'out of system range' free change that Virgin do.

 

Does anyone else have any tips?

[ssk2]

Cheers wreckofthehope, will check them out!