V-Flyer

So me and a friend would love to go to New York, and I was wondering what's the best time to go to get a good deal? Obviously school times are generally cheaper but is there any time where you could easily save the odd hundred quid?
I doubt we'd fly virgin as 1)it means getting to london and 2)they're slightly out of our price range although if it was cheaper I'd be quite happy to get to London! Not fussed as to which airport we fly into over there and dates are pretty wide open as to when we can go (providing work will give us them off!)

Thankyou in advance ^)

Lizz

Well done for now being able to look forward to a flight y)

For a start, the Sales have just been announced, so that might help.

Stay away from Thanksgiving Weekend at the end of November, as flights are always full then

buns

Others may think differently, but I think the cheapest time to fly is January after the kids are back and school, into February. There are nearly always good sales for this period.

The obvious downside to this time of year is that New York is very cold at this time of year, and you have the risk of weather delays.

The upside is that shops may still have their post Christmas sales on.

Nick

Nick is onto a good thing, as always ... Lizz if you did fly VS check out the current sale prices, or wait until the post-Christmas sale and look for May dates - IMO May and late-September are the best times to be in NY weatherwise, you can't beat New York before Christmas too - they do it just so much better than us and the festiveness is all around, sales post NY are good, but don't go in July or August, it's fainting hot and humid too with just as many weather delays due to storms.

As to avoid dates, avoid any other big US holiday like 4th July, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day etc. - the hotel prices shoot up and the city heaves with people.

On flights, well AA (do they still???) and CO fly from MAN, but really if you see a comparable price inc. shuttle to London, VS might be a better bet - at least you get a drink or two y) . You'll get opinions on whether JFK or EWR are better to fly too, all in there's not much between them.

Have fun planning!

I agree with Nick, that the cheapest time is Jan/Feb, when the cost of hotels are more reasonable (NYC hotels aren't cheap at any time of the year). It will be VERY cold, but wrap up warm and you should be fine. Also the New year sales will be on, so some bargains to be had.

The other cheaper time to go is in the summer, August more specifically. But you have the opposite problem to going in Jan, because it will be so very hot and humid, almost unbearable a lot of the time, and also the thunder and rain storms can cause delays, like the snow earlier in the year.

The best times to go are April/May and Sept/Oct, but the prices reflect that.

Neil

Hotels are not cheap in NYC so you need to look at the cost of the hotel and the flight together as the cheap flight might not correspond to the same time as a cheap hotel etc. That said there are some deals out there you just need to look ! and by being flexible that helps too.

Have a play on say expedia for flight / hotel combos then see if yo can find them cheaper individually too. It can take some time but thats part of the fun of planning a holliday.

I have been to NYC in November and February/March and have always been pretty lucky with the weather - avoiding blizards etc. I dont mind the cold as long as its not raining / snowing.

If you want some ideas of things to do let me know.

Oh and good for you for conquering your flying worries.

Would agree with all the above comments about the weather - it really is worth bearing in mind if you can't stand the cold or the heat!

For somewhere to stay, you can get better bargins if you steer clear of the tourist area which is midtown/Times Sq area. The company I work for are based in the Lower East side, so they often put me up in The East Houston Hotel or if that's not available the Holiday Inn on Lafayette in Soho.

That whole area (Lower East, Soho etc) is a fantastic part of Manhattan. It's got all the shops that the midtown area has, but has New Yorkers shopping there rather than tourists, so it has more of a 'genuine' vibe to it. The bars are really great all round there too.

It's then also really easy to get to the 'sights' of Central Park, empire state, Times Sq etc on the easy to use Subway.

Thanks for the quick replies! I'll go and have a play on expedia or something now, see what comes up, I'll check VS as well.
I wouldn't mind going in Jan/Feb time too much, I'm not a lover of cities in the heat and my birthday's in February so that'd be a nice present, especially as next year it's my 21st!

Lizz wrote:Thanks for the quick replies! I'll go and have a play on expedia or something now, see what comes up, I'll check VS as well.
I wouldn't mind going in Jan/Feb time too much, I'm not a lover of cities in the heat and my birthday's in February so that'd be a nice present, especially as next year it's my 21st!

Well make sure you take your ID every where you go, as many bars are 21 over to buy alcohol and they do check.

slinky09 wrote:Nick is onto a good thing, as always ... Lizz if you did fly VS check out the current sale prices, or wait until the post-Christmas sale and look for May dates - IMO May and late-September are the best times to be in NY weatherwise, you can't beat New York before Christmas too - they do it just so much better than us and the festiveness is all around, sales post NY are good, but don't go in July or August, it's fainting hot and humid too with just as many weather delays due to storms.

As to avoid dates, avoid any other big US holiday like 4th July, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day etc. - the hotel prices shoot up and the city heaves with people.

On flights, well AA (do they still???) and CO fly from MAN, but really if you see a comparable price inc. shuttle to London, VS might be a better bet - at least you get a drink or two y) . You'll get opinions on whether JFK or EWR are better to fly too, all in there's not much between them.

Have fun planning!

as far as i know AA do still fly MAN - JFK or at least it was on terminal 3's departure board when i was in Manchester 2 weeks ago.


Chris

Ah yes they do, completely forgot about AA. T3's like a separate world from the rest of the airport to me!

I checked the VS website yesterday as well, got some rather good deals on at the moment, suprised me how cheap it was. Like a few of you said though it's the hotel that bumps the price up quite alot. I shall keep looking though!
One of the main reasons I want to go is to take pictures so I can show them off as my own and not a generic picture from a shop. And shoppig of course, I am female after all So I'm sure I'll find something even if it is abit expensive!

I did NYC last October (22nd-26th if my memory serves me right, was the weekend before the NYC Marathon). We arrived to unseasonally hot weather - it was over 20 degrees C at 9pm. Did get some [quite heavy] rain as well during our stay - so heavy that a huge baseball game got postponed by 24hrs & our feet got soaked walking back to the hotel from dinner (2 blocks) as an umbrella is only partly effective.

NYC is a great place - if you can get the trip to come in at an agreeable price, then go. You will doubtless enjoy it.

James

Best time to fly to NYC?

Anytime!

Seriously, I prefer late September or October, the weather is still mostly excellent without the repressive humidity.
If you are looking for a quiet flight, I've often flown on the night of Thanksgiving ( 4th Thursday in November), out of LHR and only had 2 or 3 other companions in UC.

Whenever you go have a great time enjoying the best city in the world.

[Misquote]..completely forget about AA

...that's just what I'd do!

Hi Lizz

Lots of good advice from fellow posters here. Sept/Oct or Mar/April (avoiding Easter) are great. Feb can be lovely or can be deep with snow!

re: AA - I flew then to NYC when they ran a service from STN. I could not believe how antiquated the plane was, with drop down TV monitors like something out of the 80s. They also charged $5 for a glass of grotty wine. Maybe things have improved, but I'd go VS any day!

Have a great time whenever you go.

Cheers

Martin

TheHarlandStGlobetrotter wrote:......If you are looking for a quiet flight, I've often flown on the night of Thanksgiving ( 4th Thursday in November), out of LHR and only had 2 or 3 other companions in UC....

Great tip! The other big advantage of flying out on this date is that jet lag dictates you are up at stupid o'clock for Black Friday, when all the malls open very, very early for their Black Friday sales. ^)

We flew into EWR a few years back, stayed at a Marriott at Elizabeth, next to the airport and were into the huge Jersey Gardens OutletMall, which is over the road from the hotel at 6am. )

Nick

We flew into EWR a few years back, stayed at a Marriott at Elizabeth, next to the airport and were into the huge Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall, which is over the road from the hotel at 6am.

Nick,

my wife and I have done the very same, although we stayed in the Hampton Inn by the airport (Hilton Honors points!) - we also went to that Mall (Jersey Gardens) for the sales - crazy prices and highly entertaining seeing everyone go bonkers - we joined into an extent and had to buy another suitcase at the Samsonite shop!

The exchange rate helped a bit too.

Happy memories!

Hmm, AA don't sound too good. To be honest I'm not a fan of any american airline just due to the fact I watch far too much air crash investigation! I'm sure they are fine though, I see them take-off and land everyday but still

Also, as quiet as upper class would be, I'd be sat peering through the curtains as it would take about half a years wages to even think about flying upper

Thanks again though for all the advice, my friends coming back from her 5 week trip to El Salvador and Texas in about a week so I shall definitely be letting her know all the inside info as it were when we have a catch up.

I'd recommend the VS003 on the outbound for avoiding immigration queues, as it seems to arrive before the majority of the other long hauls into JFK.

New York is a great place, been there twice and still only scratched the surface. 1st time was late Sept 2002 and we had days were it was very warm and 100% humidity. 2nd time was December and it was cold and damp but still had a great time. Hoping to go April 2011 to see more of it.

Parents went in Feb 2008 and a cheap deal and it was very cold. on their last night, it started to snow by the morning, several inches had fallen. All flights were cancelled. They managed to get on a flight 2 days later.

Martin wrote:

[Misquote]..completely forget about AA

...that's just what I'd do!


re: AA - I flew then to NYC when they ran a service from STN. I could not believe how antiquated the plane was, with drop down TV monitors like something out of the 80s. They also charged $5 for a glass of grotty wine. Maybe things have improved, but I'd go VS any day!

yeah I flew that route many times too on AA, their service and planes are a good few notches below the major European carriers. I once checked in fine at JFK for the STN flight, and when I went to the gate 30 mins before, they'd decided to cancel the flight, as there were not enough PAX. We had to go back out of the airport, to landside, check in again at an overworked desk, to get us on a flight 4 hours later to Heathrow, like it was the same thing - sort of: its a 'London Airport' - so what are you complaining about?

I live in NYC. Great place. However, its heading to 100 degrees today (=38), and its still just early July. I have the AC on 24/7 at home for these 2 months. If you like the heat and humidity (some do) then, sure come July/August. Otherwise as everyone here says Sept/Oct is good, and Spring. Winters are cold and 3 full months long, though the blues skies do cheer us up.

You know how we Brits are: show us a bright blue sky with blazing sunshine, and we think we've won the lottery. Even when its way below freezing, you get cheered by that here.

I did NYC in June once.

Never again ! The heat etc was just horrible so much so it started to runin the holiday.

I much prefer visiting in the cold months but thats just me !