US Interstate Flights booking, Need Advice/Help

[wywk]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and hope you can help me.

My partner and I are going on a 6 weeks holiday to the USA in end Sept/Oct and this is our planned itinerary:

Sydney to LA to Las Vegas to Chicago to New York to Washington DC to Florida to San Francisco to LA ..then back to Sydney.

We pretty much know where we want to stay in terms of hotels etc.. But our main concern are the interstate flights. We've already booked out Qantas Flight to LA no problems. We want to skip going through a travel agent and do all the bookings ourselves.

Does anyone have any tips on the best way to book the US Interstate flights and how far in advance should we do them? I had a look on various websites (Travelocity, Cheaptickets, Expedia) and they all show diff airlines and prices. I was wondering if I can easily book the flights through one of these websites or direct with the airlines website using my Australian Credit Card or do I have to reside in the US to do that?

Also it's off topic but would a budget of $500/day be enough for food/activites? We're intending to pre-pay all our hotels before we leave.

Any help with this issue would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Wendy

 

[dajop]

Does anyone have any tips on the best way to book the US Interstate flights and how far in advance should we do them? I had a look on various websites (Travelocity, Cheaptickets, Expedia) and they all show diff airlines and prices. I was wondering if I can easily book the flights through one of these websites or direct with the airlines website using my Australian Credit Card or do I have to reside in the US to do that?

It really depends on the airline you will be booking. I've booked US domestic flights on United Airlines online for very reasonable fares through their Australian website (you also get charged in AUD at good exchange rate). On American Airlines, it can be difficult using an Australian CC, but some members have reported using the UK website, and listing their country as UK, and had no problems paying using Australian CC.

I note you are a member of Qantas Frequent Flyer, not sure whether you have many points built up, but may be worth considering using them in the US, as they don't come with the huge fuel surcharges that apply when using them just about anywhere else.

If you're not including hotels in the $500/day you could have a very extravagant trip for that sort of money.

 

[wywk]

I will check out United Airlines and see what their prices are. So far the cheapest I have found are US Airways and Alaskan Airlines.
Anyone know if Southwest is reliable? I want to avoid going through online travel agents if possible, I'd rather book directly with the airline.

I didn't know we could use our QFF points to book overseas interstate flights as well, I'll look into that. We usually use them within Australia.

thanks for the suggestions!

 

[winetraveller]

Have a look at Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare & Discount Travel Deals - Kayak.com, it polls a range of websites (both airlines direct and expedia etc), and brings up many, many options.

You can enter multi city itineraries, and I often find that these can be cheaper than returns or single flights combined.

 

[NM]

I will check out United Airlines and see what their prices are. So far the cheapest I have found are US Airways and Alaskan Airlines.
Anyone know if Southwest is reliable? I want to avoid going through online travel agents if possible, I'd rather book directly with the airline.

I didn't know we could use our QFF points to book overseas interstate flights as well, I'll look into that. We usually use them within Australia.

thanks for the suggestions!

Note that by choosing do book it all yourself and not use an agent you are assuming all the risk yourself. So be very careful with what you book and know and understand the terms and conditions associated with the tickets you book. Engaging a good agent can be a worthwhile investment, but do expect to pay for their services (and rightly so since commissions are so small these days).

If the flights are all a series of one-ways, there is no reason to use the same airline for all of them. You can select the most appropriate for each flight, based on price, schedule, meals, comfort etc.

Southwest are reliable and in fact fly more people inside the USA than any other carrier. But they are a Low Cost Carrier so don't expect some of the services you may be familiar with from airlines like Qantas.

 

[file51]

Southwest are reliable and in fact fly more people inside the USA than any other carrier. But they are a Low Cost Carrier so don't expect some of the services you may be familiar with from airlines like Qantas.

...like seat allocation, it doesnt exist. You board in groups (group 1, 2, 3 etc) and sit where you please. Not that this is a bad thing, just a little different if you are accustomed to the major carriers.

Southwest are a great airline, I have always found the crew to be excellent, and they serve there market well.

Another good LCC is JetBlue, they have some fantastic deals going.

 

[wywk]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I managed to book a couple award flights via Qantas. For the rest I'll shop around and see what the best deals are.

I like thw idea of being able to choose our seats but if there's a major diff in price I don't think I will bother.

I know it is a risk I am taking trying to organising everything myself but I've had bad experiences with travel agents before where they overpromise on a lot of things and I assume they probably have certain deals with certain airlines and hotels.

I've been doing a lot of research on diff hotel reviews etc.. and we still got 6 months to go, so I'm in no hurry.

Thanks again

 

[Travel Guru]

I know it is a risk I am taking trying to organising everything myself but I've had bad experiences with travel agents before where they overpromise on a lot of things and I assume they probably have certain deals with certain airlines and hotels.

I had a bad experience with a dentist once...doesn't mean im going to pull my own teeth out even though i could!! :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

TG

 

[dajop]

It sounds like you are doing a lot of research, so should be fine booking yourself, as long as you read the fine print.

Probably the biggest thing to watch in the US is rental cars - they often come with little or no insurance (no Loss Damage Waiver), so it is worthwhile checking exactly what is being booked, and what insurance it comes with. Sometimes on some rental companies if you select Australia as your place of residence it includes a Loss Damage Waiver, but on other occasions it does not.

Airfare conditions aren't really that much different to here, in that the less you pay the less flexible your ticket is, and don't expect help from LCC's for weather delays etc. (... oh and don't expect any food, unless travelling in "First" class on long flights at meal times, or when travelling on a LCC who will sell you food).

 

[littl_flier]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I managed to book a couple award flights via Qantas. For the rest I'll shop around and see what the best deals are.

I like thw idea of being able to choose our seats but if there's a major diff in price I don't think I will bother.

Hi wywk. Welcome to AFF.

I'm not sure if the QF website pre-allocated your seats for the AA flights but if you're not happy (SWMBO was pre-allocated 7C and me 2A ) but if you log onto www.checkmytrip.com and enter your QF booking reference, at the top of the page above your flights you'll get an AA confirmation number. If you go to Airline Tickets and Airline Reservations from American Airlines | AA.com and enter your booking reference under Manage Your Bookings, you can automatically select your seats there. Note, these don't get updated in the QF booking though but they are held within the main AA reservation so that's what AA should (theoretically) allocate you with.

As for USD$500 per day, that should be heaps without accomodation. The US is suprisingly cheap with the exchange rate at the moment and you'll have some good shopping with that budget.

 

[wywk]

Hi littl_flier

thanks for the tip, I didn't know you could use the QF booking number and use it on the AA website. I'll check it out! I was going to call Qantas to request our seat preferences. The only issue is that I made a multi-city booking, so we only got 1 booking ref for 2 different flights, hope that won't be a problem.

Our $500/day budget is just to be on the safe side, this would be for mainly meals, activities and ground transport. We're thinking of bringing only about $3k in US cash and Travellers cheques and we'll use our credit cards as much as we can. We don't want to be short if anything else comes up. We're thinking of checking out a baseball game while in LA as well but I still need to find out how to go about booking some tickets!

I'm so glad I found this forum, so many great ideas and tips I found so far. You guys are great.

 

[wywk]

I just checked the website you mentioned: www.checkmytrip.com
and used our Qantas Booking Ref number..what can I say..WOW..I love it, so many details... I found my AA booking number. Thanks heaps!

 

[littl_flier]

thanks for the tip, I didn't know you could use the QF booking number and use it on the AA website. I'll check it out! I was going to call Qantas to request our seat preferences. The only issue is that I made a multi-city booking, so we only got 1 booking ref for 2 different flights, hope that won't be a problem.

Now you've found the booking number, it'll be really easy. AA will let you select different seats on their flights using that PNR number using Manage Your Bookings. You will see the sequence of flights and just click "select seats" for each sector.

 

[wywk]

I just did! Yay! Best seats we got are 15A/15B
and other flight I got 17A/17B. These are award flights so I didn't expect them to have many seats left available. Most other good seats were already booked out and that's for a flight in September! amazing. Anyways, so glad I got this sorted.

 

[trooper]

If you are planning to see the Dodgers "at home" their seat pricing - for decent seats - goes up from about $20-25 per person to $$$$

I saw the Orioles play the Rangers at Oriole Stadium in Baltimore... well worth it!..

Make sure you get there early enough for all the pre-game activities.... lotsa fun usually.... the Orioles had a great little thing going getting young kids down onto the firld to "play" against their mascot....(and he was a damn cheat which had everyone laughing!)

I played baseball here from age 11-18 so perhaps the enjoyment factor was higher for me? I am sure that those around you (and the seating is tight so you get to "know your neighbours") would be more than happy to explain it all if you aren't familiar with it....:mrgreen:

 

[serfty]

Note that paid travel on most AA flights can earn on Qantas FF.

This is for the booking classes: AFPDIJBHKYGLMNSV (Avoid O & Q)

Should you wish to investigate this, the booking class is the first letter of the fare code. If you use the AA web site to book/price flights, before you enter passenger details, you can click "Fare Rules and On-Time Flight Information". A pop up should appear showing the fare code for each flight.

e.g.

• OA14QDN is O class and will not earn on QFF; however it is a really deep discount fare and may still be worth booking. (You can credit it to AAdvantage).
• WA7DNR is W class and will earn a minimum of 500 QFF points.

FWI, If you use the "Price & Schedule" Option you can check the booking class before selection by clicking on "[+] Flight Details".

 

[wywk]

The Angels are playing on the last day that I'll be in Anaheim, so we're thinking of going to that game. Otherwise we'll check on others. We've never been to a baseball game before and thought that would be a great experience.

As for the AA flights, I'll try book on AA if the price is reasonable so I can get the points, thanks for advising me about the booking classes to look out for. I might have to do it via the UK website as the US one doesn't accept aussie credit cards.

 

[serfty]

... I might have to do it via the UK website as the US one doesn't accept aussie credit cards.

Don't "use the UK web site" as such. You put your country of residence as UK, then just submit the Oz CC and away you go.

I have never used the UK method, always calling IndiAA (which can be tedious). There's plenty of information on booking AA on this thread here:

• http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/american-airlines-advantage/best-way-book-8702.html

 

[Baysider]

Hi wywk.

There is a great little US domestic airline called JetBlue. We had a couple of flights with them in December: clean, modern little jetliners (mostly 2 seats each side), cheerful aircrew, complimentary food and drinks, and very cheap internet fares. They would be my first pick every time in future.

If you can't book direct via their site (needs a US credit card) you can usually pick up their flights at Best Flights .

Happy travels !!

 

[dundas]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I managed to book a couple award flights via Qantas. For the rest I'll shop around and see what the best deals are.

I like thw idea of being able to choose our seats but if there's a major diff in price I don't think I will bother.

I know it is a risk I am taking trying to organising everything myself but I've had bad experiences with travel agents before where they overpromise on a lot of things and I assume they probably have certain deals with certain airlines and hotels.

I've been doing a lot of research on diff hotel reviews etc.. and we still got 6 months to go, so I'm in no hurry.

Thanks again

I have travelled quite extensively using South West. It's true that there are no seat allocations, but you can check in online the day before and get priority boarding. I normally end up getting a better seat on South West in the US than I do on Qantas domestic flights (I am QC Silver) so don't necessarily see lack of seat allocation as an issue. I generally choose a seat when I get on around row 3 or 4 but I've also gone for emergency row seats as well. As long as you're in boarding group A you get a good choice.

South West may be a LCC but the planes are far newer and the service friendlier than on legacy airlines (and both these are important considerations for me - the legacy airlines have bought very little new equipment since 9/11). South West do provide a snack and a drink as part of the service (again, amazingly, more generous than the legacy airlines) and I notice people taking on all sizes of hand luggage (much better than checking it in the hold, believe me).

I've also been able to change flights quite readily (no cancellation charges the last time I did this) - including re-routing flights and using the proceeds freed up to book new ones (all on an Oz credit cards and with great service from the call centre). One thing to watch out for: I book each sector separately, because the last time I looked if you changed one sector on your booking you have to cancel and re-book all remaining sectors as well. This could be expensive.

I suggest you subscribe to their email newsletter and keep an eye on their specials. They tend not to offer bargains immediately before the flight. Best deals are a number of weeks or months out. You could also join their ff scheme - you only need 8 flights (from memory) for a return flight anywhere on the SWA network (and you get credits for hotel stays and rental cars as well).