Carolinian (and others) - Have Travel (UK and Spain) Questions for You

[jlwquilter]

This is probably the wrong way to do this but it's all I could think of.

Carolinian - I tried to send you a PM with a bunch of travel questions but your storage is full so it won't accept mine. So I will post my questions here and hope you see this thread
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Hello. I kept coming across you in the hours and hours I spent last night reading on how to get to Spain for a trip. I am "last minute" planning for April 2008. You have alot of knowledge and experience that I would so appreciate tapping into!

My pressing need is to see if I can get flight tickets at a price that makes sense for us. As there are 3 of us (my dad will pay for his own but I will do the purchasing), costs and savings add up fast.

I am watching an auction on SkyAuction. I have not used them before - in fact I have the registration screen up right now and see that I can enter a promo code...where can I get a promo code? Do I even really need one?

The auction itself ends Monday night at 9pm. There is a current bid (a few dollars) so I have competition already. The auction is for a non-stop (VERY attractive given our travel group) flight on Virgin to London. While the body of the lisitng doesn't say what airports it's for, the info that identifies the listing in my tray says LHR LGW and I know what that means - and I'll try for Gatwick if I win. Miami/Orlando are listed departure cities and those are our cities. Travel dates the offer is good for include April 2008 - it's the only current auction that does. Is this type of offering probably going to be offered again so I don't have to get into a bidding war? Or is this rare and I need to bid the most I can to snag a "once in a lifetime" offering? Based on the cost calculation below, I can bid several hundred dollars and still have a big savings. I would of course like to spend as little as possible!

All in price per ticket for me would be $440 + winning bid + the $20 s/h fee. I am not clear on if the handling fee is per auction won or per ticket purchased...? Additionally, I can not see if the Gordo Tax you talk about is included in the price or if I would have to cough that up at the airport in the UK when we leave to come home...? In any case, this price is SUBSTANTIALLY below what any of the on line sites I checked are showing right now.

As Malaga is the final destination, I have checked out Easyjet to get there from London. While prices only show as far as March 2008, if I take that as a good indicator, I will pay about $191 pp for that RT ticket. Is this in the standard range or do they run specials and I should watch/check back often?

Just for info, I know you advocate avoiding the UK as a leave site due to the Gordo tax but in this case, simplicity of travel is more important to me than saving the tax cost. I would like to stick with the UK. In addition, we will stay probably 2 days in London before heading home.

I know this is alot of me to ask you to help with, but I would SO appriciate it! I would have posted all of this but as the auction ends tomorrow, I feel pressure to try to get answers as soon as I can.

Thank you very much!
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Now that I've posted this here, if anyone else - Keith?? - has words of wisdom, I am all ears! Please help me

[KforKitty]

For information - a Virgin flight will definitely be into London Gatwick from Orlando.

Kitty

[jlwquilter]

Originally Posted by KforKitty

For information - a Virgin flight will definitely be into London Gatwick from Orlando. Kitty

Thanks Kitty - that one hurdle down My inital knee jerk was that we'd fly out of Miami but I think Orlando may be closer now that we moved an hour north from Boca Raton.

Now to to hope that someone will post aobut the airfares I am looking at on Skyauction! Bid is up to just over $100 and there's been 4 bidders so far (not counting me as I haven't bid yet).

[jlwquilter]

I saw that someone had once asked about the ability to place a snipe bid on a Skyauction auction. I do not think anyone replied or at least, I don't remember reading an answer.

Does anyone know if you can?

[MULTIZ321]

JLW -

One you can use is http://www.auctionstealer.com/home.cfm


Richard

[Pat H]

You won't see sales for April until sometime in 2008. I'm a little confused as to how much the total cost is for the ticket. In Feb 2006 I flew to LHR for $350 on US. This year it cost me $550 on UA. Those tickets were bought directly from the airlines.

[jlwquilter]

Originally Posted by Pat H

You won't see sales for April until sometime in 2008. I'm a little confused as to how much the total cost is for the ticket. In Feb 2006 I flew to LHR for $350 on US. This year it cost me $550 on UA. Those tickets were bought directly from the airlines.

I checked Priceline and Kayak to get an idea of what a ticket would generally cost. I also checked Virgin directly. Priceline showed a decent flight schedule for the days I need for $777 (American to NYC and Delta to LGW). Virgin was much more - over $1K per ticket. Maybe fares drop closer to the departure date? I am very hestitant to reserve the TS or the airfare at different times because if I do one and the other doesn't come thru, I am in a very big pickle.

The Skyauction auction I was watching went for too much $$ for me. Another identical auction just was listed so I guess I'll start watching that one! I might get lucky on one that no one else bids on (fat chance, but I can dream). Although just tonight my DH is starting to moan about the cost of vacationing abroad due to the weak dollar. So now I am also researching Mexico too!