LHR-SFO - what's a good price?

Hey y'all!
This summer I'll be lucky enough to be working at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I'm just looking into flights and was wondering what sort of price is average for a return on this route, leaving June 10th and coming back on 20/21 August.

At the moment I'm looking at going out Y and returning PE (I'm a groomsman in a friends wedding on 22nd so hope to get at least a little sleep) and getting quotes around £915. Is this a good price or do you recommend holding out? A look on flightstatus shows it's pretty open (I think...).

Any suggestions/recommendations are greatly appreciated.

[Nottingham Nick]

Welcome to V-Flyer. Congratulations on what sounds like a super job.

What is a good price for a flight is the $10,000, and one of most often asked questions.

The simple answer (though probably not the one you are looking for) is that a good price is one you are happy with. I have to say that £915 is very much on the high side. n(

It is quite apparent that prices this year are as high as they have ever been, and that bargains are few and far between. If you are not tied to dates, then you could wait for the sales.

The problem with that is that summer sales are rarely as good as the off-peak ones. If you can't get a good price to the west coast, you could consider going into New York or Boston, then getting Virgin America, JetBlue or one of the other US budget carriers.

Best of luck, and keep us informed of your search.

Nick

I agree with Nick, SFO especially has gotten very expensive this year.

Worth keeping an eye on AirNZ to LAX as well.. they have their new PE seats (which look awesome) and it's ~1 hour to SFO with plenty of budget carriers.

Depending how good of a deal you can find into LAX, it's a good drive up to Monterey as well. But yes, SFO is super busy these days, and most flights going out for summer zero out in the lower fare buckets with all airlines. VS is probably about 200 quid more expensive than most others right now, it's up to you to decide whether that is worth it. Also, you can save as much as 100 quid if you fly middle of the week, though that can be a pain if you are coming over for work. Shame VS won't do an easy codeshare flight into MRY, that is also quite fun.

Thanks everyone for your feedback, think I might wait it out a bit longer (and pray the price doesn't skyrocket in the next few weeks!!).

I can't be as flexible with dates as I'd like, The departure date could move a few days earlier but my accommodation is already sorted from the 10th (Could bum around San Francisco for a few days though) but from what I've seen moving to an earlier flight isn't affecting the price that much.

As for the return, I finish work on the 19th and need to be back in blighty ASAP, apparently the stag do is being held on that sunday, so I shall undoubtedly be exhausted and jetlagged (especially seeing as it usually takes a week to get over NYC-London time difference!).

Thanks for the alternative routes/options, I shall look into them.

[Bazz]

All indicators are that there will be considerable upward pressure on air fares this year, you may be lucky and pick up a good 'sale' fare later but if you are tied to dates you may be better of booking early.