Usa Flights

[Greedyfly]

Hello all.

We have flown to the US before with Delta and the experience whilst reasonable in cost was very poor. We had some flights in between with Virgin who were much better.

We are looking to fly to the US again at the beginning of September 2015 and will avoid Delta this time around. Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced airline that provides good service and leg room. When we flew last year we paid around £1100 for the two us return to New York. This time round we want to go to a Washington DC.

I realise flights are not available that far in advance yet but I haven't looking at this September for cost ideas.

Who do you like to fly with? Were the good price wise? I think we would be tempted to pay a little more if needed to get a better trip.

Thanks GF

[albaqwerty]

I have no personal experience of flying to the US, but Berniecuddles was there last year (going to Florida) I know he pays extra for leg room, if I 'see' him on here, I'll ask him to have a look at this post.

[jno]

BA and Virgin both fly to Washington and both have premium economy sections with extra legroom, but they cost quite a lot more than regular economy (though quite a lot less than club class).

If you want regular class seats, you can check legroom etc on this site

http://www.seatguru.com/

[Greedyfly]

Thanks alberqwerty, much appreciated.

[Greedyfly]

Thanks Jno. Any experience with the service? I was appalled at the state if the seats and service when flying delta. On the way home we didn't even get fed because they ran out of food!

[jno]

BA and Virgin are usually fine. I've found US airlines a bit scruffier, maybe because their business is more likely to be domestic flights. (Never heard fo anyone running out of food though - that's bad, they know how many passengers they've got.)

As well as Dulles airport outside Washington you might also be able to fly to Baltimore - it's almost as close to the capital. Not sure who flies there at the moment.

[Greedyfly]

Cheers Jno

[mushroom25]

in addition to BA and Virgin, United fly LHR-IAD. whilst you can also book this route with Delta and Lufthansa, these are codeshares flown by one of the three listed above. at this time, only BA fly direct from BWI to LHR, but any number of airlines fly this route if you don't mind a transfer.

[albaqwerty]

don't know if this site would be of any info?

http://www.dialaflight.com/flights/usa/districtofcolumbia/washington/?referrer=google&awsearchcpc=g&gclid=CLniiKOLpL4CFagEwwodwZcAKw

[tearinghair]

Had a bad experience with BA returning from LA last month - no drinks (water or juice) offered during the flight apart from with the first meal, and no tea or coffee with breakfast. There was some problem with the catering vehicle on the ground I think, but it wasn't nice. That was Premium Economy. And they put the luggage on the wrong carousel at Heathrow so we all wasted three-quarters of an hour before they realised.

[jno]

you can usually, but not always, get cheap(ish) flights from people like Travelbag and Trailfinders, so it's always worth checking their websites or calling them.

Doing a quick check on Travelbag I see the cheapest flights to Washington this week are with United and Lufthansa. I wasn't that mad on United last time I flew with them but Lufthansa are pretty good. £605. Washington is usually a bit pricier than NY to get to because there's not so much competition.

[black_cat51]

i went to miami with united as was not all that impressed - surly cabin staff, all a bit beyond their prime; tatty aircraft. However, we got there safely and on time, so i suppose it depends what's important

[Greedyfly]

Thanks guys. I appreciate that for a good cost the service won't be outstanding and that all companies have bad days. But it's good to get a feel of what's available

[Prudie]

I think it’s often pot luck and much of a muchness even with the ‘top’ airlines. Having flown BA for the first time in many years to the Caribbean last Christmas I was very disappointed with the service. The inflight entertainment broke for at least an hour both legs, the cabin lights wouldn’t dim on the overnight home journey, the staff only came round once with a drinks trolley on an 8+ hour flight, after that it was call button service only and quite frankly they looked as if they’d be quite at home stacking shelves in Aldi. Is the glamour bit important? Almost certainly not but when you are paying that much to get from A to B then it’s nice icing.

[Greedyfly]

Our flights made all the difference to our holiday, I'm just glad the worst one was the return flight otherwise it would have set us up for a bad start

[jno]

return flights are often horrible since so many of them are night flights. I'm going to the States next week and I've booked premium economy for the flight back (on BA), in hopes that I'll sleep a bit better that way.

[berniecuddles]

hi greedfly been to USA 3 times being 6ft 8" needed seats with extra room cannot say no more than virgin premium economy costs a bit more but well worth it.
used British airways last year paid extra for world travellers seats what a waste of money got about 2"extra of room only and on-board service was rubbish hope that helps!

[Greedyfly]

Thanks everyone for your help, much appreciated