USA internal flights

[PAXboy]

Hi folks, perhaps you can say if you think the following price reasonable.

I have to get from New Jersey to Houston, to Chicago and back to JFK in March. All travel is leisure and in Y. Flexible on dates to some degree and times of a day a lot. Change of planes to reduce costs not a problem.

I have found this combo from AA, I start from EWR as I am staying in NJ at that time, I have to get back to JFK for my return to LHR. Outbound is LHR~JFK and then surface to my friend in NJ.

EWR to HOU via Dallas
IAH to ORD direct
ORD to JFK via Cleveland

Total cost GBP315 $472

This seems reasonable and advantages of doing it all with one carrier.

Other options would appear to be a mixture of carriers and rely upon NW!

This is not urgent but any suggestions welcome. I need to book fairly soon to get good prices.

Thanks from sunny South Africa, where it was 28 C today, on the Indian Ocean coast, in the middle of the Garden Route.
:cool:

[PaperTiger]

On Continental (random dates - may not work for you):

Price Details

1 Adult 326.51 USD
Taxes 58.49 USD
Total Trip Cost 385.00 USD
Flight Departing Arriving Equip Stops Duration OnePass*

CO211 New York/ Newark Liberty, NJ (EWR)
8:50 AM Houston/ George Bush, TX (IAH)
11:58 AM Boeing 737-800 0 Tue., Mar. 11, 2003
4hr 08mn 1,415

Class: (Q) Meal: Snack

CO1046 Houston/ George Bush, TX (IAH)
6:00 PM Chicago/ O'Hare, IL (ORD)
8:39 PM Boeing 737-900 0 Sat., Mar. 15, 2003
2hr 39mn 935

Class: (Q) Meal: Snack

CO2792 Chicago/ O'Hare, IL (ORD)
9:45 AM Cleveland, OH (CLE)
12:00 PM Embraer RJ145 0 Sun., Mar. 23, 2003
1hr 15mn 500

Class: (T) Meal: None
Continental flight 2792 operated by ExpressJet Airlines, Inc. dba Continental Express.

CO2034 Cleveland, OH (CLE)
3:15 PM New York/ JFK, NY (JFK)
4:54 PM Embraer RJ135 0 Sun., Mar. 23, 2003
1hr 39mn 500

Class: (T) Meal: None
Continental flight 2034 operated by ExpressJet Airlines, Inc. dba Continental Express.

[knobbygb]

Using the same dates as PaperTiger on AA you get a very similar fare:

11 Mar
AA1035, EWR-DFW, 11:48-14:43
AA1421, DFW-IAH, 15:23-16:32

15 Mar
AA1972, IAH-ORD, 12:06-14:38

23 Mar
AA4383, ORD-CLE, 11:52-14:04
AA4840, CLE-JFK, 15:00-16:45

Total cost £257, approx $385

Also, there's one on Delta for approx $15 less, but that's departing from LaGuardia or Kennedy only.

[edited...]

...or you can get the CO trip from Expedia for £236 = $354 (ish). This allows flights out of Midway on the final leg, too, which might be easier and is $3 cheaper (tax?).

[rsoman]

Paxboy
Continental offers a relatively less publicised fare called VUSA (Visit USA ) fares. These are restricted fares which are purchased in the country of commencement of transatlantic travel (outside the US but can be on airlines other than continental also).
Main drawback is that tickets have to be purchsased in UK and your transatlantic ticket details will be endorsed in the VUSA ticket.These are based on coupons (one coupon per sector).
Also the reservation for your first sector has to be made at time of ticketing.
Might be worth checking out.

http://www.continental.com/uk/specials.asp?SID=D56B2BF81DBE4592AE16511B5406A547

Gving a call to the local CO office might be worthwhile as you might come up with a cheaper fare.

Cheers

[newswatcher]

PAXBoy,

Have you done a search which "includes" your trans-atlantic legs? If you search on Expedia, you can get a fare of £426 quoted, all using AA.

Hope that helps!

[PAXboy]

Many Thanks To All

The CO looks good and I will try Delta. I already have my transatlantic, so that option is out. I am on an AirMiles trip, with reduced Miles from an offer last September. The internals really need to start at EWR and finish at JFK. Thanks again folks, I'll let you know.

[seacue]

Everything else being roughly equal, American has "more room throughout coach" - two or three inches greater pitch between all rows of coach seats. Also, American serves "food" on many flights to and from DFW and ORD. This may be a "Bistro bag", which would be a sandwich, fruit, etc., but better than nothing IMO.