Seeking London Air Advice (May 20)

[KaphaBear]

I will be traveling from Iowa, which usually means connections thru O'Hare or Minneapolis, on May 19 or 20. Will be returning on May 29 or 30. Am seeking bidding advice and experiences using priceline for trips to Europe.

Thanks!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Priceline Airfare product does not offer the savings it once had. What are the best rates you can currently find thru traditional means? Use our Airfare Checker to begin a search for prices.

[LoneStar]

Can you drive the 5 hours to Chicago O'Hare? You might (but not necessarily) could save hundreds of dollars. For individual travel, the drive may be less "worthwhile" than if you were going as a group.

European airfares are very strange beasts these days. Off season, they're relatively cheap (at least before the nasty taxes!). In season, you practically need to mortgage your house to buy one. May is a shoulder season, so it could go either way based on demand. You need to watch prices like a hawk -- I'd check every morning. You should probably make a decision in the next few weeks -- after mid-april, it's unlikely the deals will get better.

[WillTravel]

I found a very cheap August airfare to Europe by watching the Mileage Run forum at Flyertalk.com. I've found some reasonable to very good ones on my own in the past, but sometimes some near-miraculous ones are reported at Flyertalk.

Failing that, I'd set up a search in ITASoftware.com like this:

Choose the Specific Dates tab.

From: CID or any airport within 300 miles (I'm just guessing you want CID, but with this broad search it won't matter).

To: LON or any airport within 300 miles (on the off-chance there's a really cheap airfare to a destination other than London)

Set the dates up to cover what you stated.

Not that you want to travel 300 miles either way, but if you see something exceptional you will at least know about it.

Then you can get an idea if any dates or combinations are particularly favorable.

If you have more flexibility, set up a Month-long search.

Enter the airports like this:

for the departure airport

CID; DBQ; DSM; ORD; MSP

for the arrival airport

LON; CDG; BRU; GLA; MAN

If you find something great on ITASoftware.com try to duplicate it on other sites. Orbitz, Mobissimo, Kayak, Travelocity, and Expedia are good places to start. It's not always possible, but I think this may have gotten better.

Sign up for all airfare alerts.

Consider a Priceline air/hotel package if it fits into your plans. Some, but not all, are reasonably good value.

Look at Site59.com .

[scharanyan]

Hello

I am looking at travelling from IA to London in August.I would be grateful if anyone could advice me on how to get cheaper fares. All the fares i find right now are in the range of 750$ and upwards from ORD to LHR.

My dates are very flexible.

Thanks

[WillTravel]

Use the one-month search option at ITASoftware.com .

Try Kayak.

Try Hotwire.

Use the FareWatchers at Travelocity and Orbitz.

You may not succeed, however, as those are peak dates.

Once you have thoroughly exhausted all other search options, you could try Priceline with a lowball bid and see what happens.