How to Efficiently Plan Internary Advice On My First Planned International Flight to the UK?

Posted by Mangon09@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 8 comments

I have only flown internationally once in my entire life and that was when I was younger. This is my first time planning an international flight on my own and can use a lot of guidance from you guys on what I should do

The current plan is to go from LAX to London roundtrip between \~7/18 - 7/26. This was a last minute trip but after using Kayak, I was able to find that from LAX to London roundtrip, (with 1 stop each way) for either Delta Airlines or Virgin Atlantic, I can pay $551 for the Delta Main Basic / Economy Light. I don't mind the stops as I am on a budget but wanted to know if this price is decent for LAX -> LHR roundtrip or if there are better deals.

If anyone knows of any other sites i should check besides Kayak for comparing prices let me know.

I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, and a lot of points from my other Chase cards as well. Can I use the points to book a flight on either Delta Airlines or Virgin Atlantic? How do I know if either of these airlines works with Chase rewards.
Lastly, I will be staying with a friend a few days while I am in London but then booking a hotel a few days in London. Is booking a hotel through my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card the best bet for saving money? I'm just worried that the hotels that I book through the chase portal are inflated and I could save money by just paying with my credit card for cheaper hotels.

Thank you.

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PanflightsGuy@reddit

You should use a flexible flight search engine. With those you just enter the country or continent you're going, the city or country you depart from and a vague date range for when to go.

Mangon09@reddit (OP)

can you give me some examples of flexible flight search engines? I know skyscanner and kayak, and then google flights. are those pretty much the best?

domsp79@reddit

For comparing prices, Google Flights I find pretty useful. The rest, no idea.

cgknight1@reddit

You would be better off asking at r/travelhacks

where Americans who understand the products you are asking about hang out.

oliverprose@reddit

Chase has only opened recently in the UK, so I don't think you'll find much useful information about their products here yet. The main thing you probably need to check if you plan to use your card over here is whether it's backed by Visa or Mastercard so it's more widely accepted, and whether it's either chip and pin or contactless payment capable as a lot of our payment mechanisms are based around those two interfaces (e.g., tube travel around London with a contactless card is easier).

I think the only point we can help with is the third one, and the main advice I'd give on that is to have a look through the hotels on your cards comparison to find something you like and then hit google in a private browsing window to find either a UK-based comparison or ideally the local website for the same hotel and see how inflated the prices might be and whether the certainty of having it pre-booked outweighs that cost.

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