round trip blr - sfo

Hi

I shall be travelling from Bangalore to San Francisco in october.
I would stay there for 3 weeks.

I wanted to visit Seattle, New York and Atlanta during the last
5 days of my vist.

What would be the best (cheapest) way for me to book my ticktets

The default plan looks to be fly cathay/singapore from blr to sfo.
and then do the local trips, return back to sfo from Atlanta/NY/
seattle.

I want to change the default plan so that i could reduce the money i
spend.


1)I donot have any particular order of visiting the above cities.
What would be the best order for me to chose from sfo, so that
i could optimize on the fares.


2)Can i take an international flight out of NewYork/Atlanta/Seattle
without
visiting SfO again. Does that cost more?


thanks
Raju

I shall be travelling from Bangalore to San Francisco in october.
I would stay there for 3 weeks.

I wanted to visit Seattle, New York and Atlanta during the last
5 days of my visit.

Um, do you understand how far apart those cities are? SEA-ATL is 3500
km, SFO-NYC is over 4100 km. You'll mostly be seeing the insides of
airplanes and airports.

The default plan looks to be fly cathay/singapore from blr to sfo.
and then do the local trips, return back to sfo from Atlanta/NY/
seattle.

See below.

2)Can i take an international flight out of NewYork/Atlanta/Seattle
without visiting SfO again. Does that cost more?

Of course. Continental has a nonstop from Newark (one of the New York
airports) to Delhi, Air India has one-stops via Europe, most European
and mid-east airlines offer connections via their hubs. If you want
to go back the way you came, SQ has a daily nonstop from New York to
Singapore, but you rarely find cheap fares on that route.

First plan: Foreign visitors can buy Visit USA (VUSA) passes for
domestic travel, which are considerably cheaper than the regular
fares. You must buy them before you leave, in conjunction with your
international ticket, probably through a travel agent. A Google
search for VUSA will turn up useful links.

Second plan: Discount airlines are also sometimes considerably cheaper
than regular fares. They all offer online booking so you can research
the prices yourself. Airtran offers flights to and from ATL, JetBlue
has service to and from NYC, the new Virgin America plans to fly NYC-SFO,
and Southwest flies to SFO, SEA, and ISP and PHL (near New York).

Third plan: get a round the world ticket, from India to San Francisco,
to Seattle, Atlanta, and New York, and then onward eastbound back to
India. Particularly if your international segments are in business
class (highly recommended for such long flights) this can be the
cheapest option.

look at a round-the-world fare from one of the alliances. You've got the
requisite number of stops and, say, using Star Alliance, could fly
SFO-ATL-NYC- on either United or US Airways (depending on segment).
oneWorld or SkyTeam probably have similar fares available.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi

I shall be travelling from Bangalore to San Francisco in october.
I would stay there for 3 weeks.

I wanted to visit Seattle, New York and Atlanta during the last
5 days of my vist.

What would be the best (cheapest) way for me to book my ticktets

The default plan looks to be fly cathay/singapore from blr to sfo.
and then do the local trips, return back to sfo from Atlanta/NY/
seattle.

I want to change the default plan so that i could reduce the money i
spend.


1)I donot have any particular order of visiting the above cities.
What would be the best order for me to chose from sfo, so that
i could optimize on the fares.


2)Can i take an international flight out of NewYork/Atlanta/Seattle
without
visiting SfO again. Does that cost more?


thanks
Raju

wrote:

Hi

I shall be travelling from Bangalore to San Francisco in october.
I would stay there for 3 weeks.

I wanted to visit Seattle, New York and Atlanta during the last
5 days of my vist.

Why?
Why not visit Europe, where you can bus through 15 countries in 5 days?

On Sep 16, 4:26 am, mrtravel wrote:
wrote:
Hi

I shall be travelling from Bangalore to San Francisco in october.
I would stay there for 3 weeks.

I wanted to visit Seattle, New York and Atlanta during the last
5 days of my vist.

Why?
Why not visit Europe, where you can bus through 15 countries in 5 days?

Thanks to John L, Jeff Hacker for the ideas. I shall trythe VUSA
tickets.

Why will i go to Europe?
I have friends in the 3 cities that i mentioned above. I shall be more
than happy to meet them, spend a few hours, give gifts, and have food
together.

I donot want to ask them for fare/ticket ideas, as they would be very
eager to spend the money from their pocket, which i donot like.

Thanks again to the group members for the ideas.

Raju

Second plan: Discount airlines are also sometimes considerably cheaper
than regular fares. They all offer online booking so you can research
the prices yourself. Airtran offers flights to and from ATL, JetBlue
has service to and from NYC, the new Virgin America plans to fly NYC-SFO,
and Southwest flies to SFO, SEA, and ISP and PHL (near New York).


Don't think Southwest flies to/from SFO yet. Most people take Alaska or
United on the SFO-SEA route.

wrote:
Hi

I shall be travelling from Bangalore to San Francisco in october.
I would stay there for 3 weeks.

I wanted to visit Seattle, New York and Atlanta during the last
5 days of my vist.

What would be the best (cheapest) way for me to book my ticktets

Check http://airtran.com/. For a collection of one way fares it is
probably more economical to use Southwest (http://www.southwest.com/) or
Airtran than other airlines. Unfortunately Southwest doesn't go to
Atlanta (though some people drive to Birmingham, Alabama to use
Southwest, a 2 hour drive). Also note that Southwest flights must be
booked through Southwest, they don't show up on the automated
reservation systems that show all the other airlines.

Of course you realize that to go to those three cities in five days
means that you'll see virtually nothing of any of the cities, nearly all
the time will be spent in transit. Too bad, as NYC is really a good
place. Atlanta and Seattle are less interesting, and not really places
you'd go as a tourist.

Of course you can go back from New York to Bangalore instead of back to
SFO first, but it may end up costing more to do two one-ways than one
round-trip even including the cost of the trip back to SFO.

You need to book now to get the best fares for these routes as prices go
up as the travel dates get closer. But also realize that the cheap
tickets are not refundable, and changes will cost almost as much as a
new ticket.

Also note, there are three airports in the San Francisco area, and
prices often vary wildly between the airports. It's not what you'd think
either, SFO is often cheaper than SJC. OAK often has good deals on
Southwest. In New York there is Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK (and Islip
out on Long Island for Southwest). Seattle and Atlanta have only one
airport for commercial flights.

I'd think that a travel agent in India could get you the best deal on
SFO to BLR. You might do BLR to NYC r/t instead, and then go to SFO,
then Seattle, then ATL, then NYC. Seems more logical to fly to NYC than
SFO if doing a round trip.

Second plan: Discount airlines are also sometimes considerably cheaper
than regular fares. They all offer online booking so you can research
the prices yourself. Airtran offers flights to and from ATL, JetBlue
has service to and from NYC, the new Virgin America plans to fly NYC-SFO,
and Southwest flies to SFO, SEA, and ISP and PHL (near New York).

Don't think Southwest flies to/from SFO yet. Most people take Alaska or
United on the SFO-SEA route.

True, although WN has plenty of service OAK-SEA, and OAK is quite easy
to get to via BART and the connecting bus.

Blake S wrote:

Second plan: Discount airlines are also sometimes considerably cheaper
than regular fares. They all offer online booking so you can research
the prices yourself. Airtran offers flights to and from ATL, JetBlue
has service to and from NYC, the new Virgin America plans to fly NYC-SFO,
and Southwest flies to SFO, SEA, and ISP and PHL (near New York).



Don't think Southwest flies to/from SFO yet. Most people take Alaska or
United on the SFO-SEA route.



I thought they started flying out of SFO on Aug 27 or so

"SMS" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Hi

I shall be travelling from Bangalore to San Francisco in october.
I would stay there for 3 weeks.

I wanted to visit Seattle, New York and Atlanta during the last
5 days of my vist.

What would be the best (cheapest) way for me to book my ticktets

Check http://airtran.com/. For a collection of one way fares it is
probably more economical to use Southwest (http://www.southwest.com/) or
Airtran than other airlines. Unfortunately Southwest doesn't go to Atlanta
(though some people drive to Birmingham, Alabama to use Southwest, a 2
hour drive). Also note that Southwest flights must be booked through
Southwest, they don't show up on the automated reservation systems that
show all the other airlines.

Of course you realize that to go to those three cities in five days means
that you'll see virtually nothing of any of the cities, nearly all the
time will be spent in transit. Too bad, as NYC is really a good place.
Atlanta and Seattle are less interesting, and not really places you'd go
as a tourist.

Seattle isn't a place you'd go as a tourist??? Is it not one of the most
beautiful places in the U.S.???

I'm guessing the number of tourists that come here each year are in the
millions.

If you really can't find anything to do in Seattle, then surely you can find
something in Vancouver, San Juan Islands, Victoria, Portland, Oregon Coast,
North Cascades etc. etc. etc.