Roundtrip airfares US to UK are cheaper than roundtrips UK to US Best answer on the web

Posted in: darrelrussell.com edit
07 Jan 2009
  • The airfare for a round trip from the US to England is much cheaper
    than the fare for the same 2 flights taken in the opposite direction.

    For example, on Virgin Atlantic the fare is $762 if the round trip
    leaves from London, but only $474 if the round trip leaves from Newark
    (LON-EWR, 3 weeks advance purchase, midweek flight, returning middle
    of the following week). So taking the same 2 flights from London
    costs 60% more than it does from the U.S.!

    My question is - how can someone who wants to take a round trip from
    London get the better price?

    I expect that if someone needed to take 2 round trips, they could book
    one round trip from London and one from the U.S. -- make the 1st and
    4th flight a round trip from London and the 2nd and 3rd a round trip
    from the U.S. That gives one of the trips at the lower fare. (It
    might be best to do this on 2 different airlines, sure.)

    How can one do better than this? Thanks!


  • As someone who has flown regularly on round trips from England to the US over the last five years, I would heartily recommend booking such tickets through a third party discounter rather than the airline.
    I use Dial-a-Flight frequently and have also used other companies, all of whom are notably cheaper than the airlines themselves even for the same flights.


  • How about booking a round-trip **with open tickets** from US . that will give you 2 coupons, open ended (no specific date) - 1st for EWR-LON flight and 2nd for LON-EWR flight. Then you board a flight at LON showing/using the 2nd coupon, and later use the 1st coupon for EWR-LON. If you book yourself an E-ticket, chances are that this will definitely work. But then I am not sure about it. Let me know if it works.