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Wifey and I are planning a long holiday to the states later in the year focusing on the West coast and areas inland. I've been looking at flights and getting some eye watering prices or ludicrously low prices of dubious availability. Can I ask the collective for ideas/advice. We have decided on a flexible return so it will be one way tickets each time. @akku and grizz I'm looking at you! Thanks in anticipation.
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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What dates are you looking at?
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Leave end of August/early September and come back when fed up/homesick/out of money (delete as applicable!).
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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akku is a more frequent flyer, I think and may even have a secretary or travel office to,do his searches. 2022 flights were £100.00 cheaper than 2019, my last visit. I went the same route,,same airlines as since 2016. I used some cheap airline flights search engine to search and it was certainly good. Bringing all sorts of options and permutations up. In 2019 after my trip I had some cardiac event that saw me on cholesterol and blood pressure meds…….. My travel insurance went from under £70.00 to over £375.00 so be aware there are loads of sharks out there. Also COVID, VACCINATING RECORDS are vital to progress. Ensure you have the NHS App installed and that it works, and records are up to date. Depending on where you want to enter the USA. Flights can be very cheap, think Florida etc. Imwill post my travel insurance experience for you to reference as well. I usually only do Trustpilot for great experiences, but in this case I was shocked and felt quite violated financially . No matter what excuses they use, they are ripping us off, knowing those who travel and want to travel are doing it with more urgency, and possibly less people are travelling, so they need to make the same increasing profits from a smaller pool of people. I am sure someone will come and explain to me that my whole post is bo11ox and delete it all. But this was my experience. Good luck, you,are doing a brilliant thing. Trust Pilot My feedback. And interestingly, their response, very quickly after I posted, it see,s they do not like hearing about experiences. PS. Definition of service………
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2023 15:05:36 GMT by grizz
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Thanks Grizz, a few bits to chew over in that lot. We are planning to fly to San Francisco and back from wherever we end up.
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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Depending on when exactly you fly, and also where you are flying to, the end of August is the last week of the normal UK school summer holiday. You will find that flight prices will likely differ considerably from the last week in August to the first week in September. If you put your flights back one week you might find yourself saving a decent wedge of money.
One other thing is that car hire does NOT include sat nav. Most hire cars may have this built in to the car, but it is disabled for the hire companies. They will want something $15 a DAY for a frankly ancient Sat nav that's most likely a bit sticky to the touch. So if you have a plug in Sat nav at home that includes US maps, take it - it will be a lifesaver. Some guides suggest downloading maps to your phone, but we found that they didn't work when we got there, which was a huge pain in the the rear end. What you can do instead is to go to Walmart and buy one. I paid $95 for a Garmin which worked perfectly. Note that they call them GPS out there. US road signs are also not quite what you expect, and if you don't know the area, they can be confusing. If you don't have a satnav or a competent navigator, and haven't planned your road trip meticulously you may find yourselves getting a bit lost.
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Pid363!
Posted a lot
Madness is all in the mind!
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It may be too late but BA allways have some bargains this time of year. Car hire at the minute is unreal prices, I’ve not long come back from Charlote and Phonix flights weren’t to bad but every thing else has shot up
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Stupid is as stupid does!
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Thanks guys, all getting slowly digested here. mrbounce, I know what you mean about the road signs, we went to the east coast a few years ago and they confused me somewhat. Although we've been to the States before it seemed fairly easy then. Since then it seems to have gone silly. I really appreciate the input.
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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ChasR
RR Helper
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Trip to USAChasR
@chasr
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Some great advice here. I'll add my 2 pence to this. -Holidays : as said, you are going during peak holiday times, and just as the world is waking up from lockdowns. Along with fuel prices, overheads, and what we've all forgotten, exchange rates (i.e the UK against other currencies is a joke at the moment), it's not looking great. If you can be more flexible with your times, I'd advise you to be. Regarding exchange rates, you only have to see the prices Rock Auto charge now to see the effect of exchange rates on our prices (TLDR ; they are not as cheap as they used to be to get parts into the UK). -Despite what folks say, speaking with traders who deal with the US and Europe, there is more red tape travel wise/checks wise, as we are now a 'third country' to them, whether we see it or not, which again, means higher prices. Call it rip offs or whatever, but that's a choice we made. -If you have 'Feel at Home' Internet packages on your phone, I'd use it. -Vaccination passes and statuses are worth checking out, for the requirements. With the NHS App, and printed copies, this will make life easier -The ESTA Visa Waiver programme is worth doing early, and can smoothen things out. In Europe, it's been what I've used for years, albeit I do have the TomTom app as well. In the USA, it also came in handy. However, one more thing was a lifesaver. Take note if you are hiring an RV. If you are going into major cities, Parkways and areas with low bridges will bamboozle most SatNavs, including Google Maps. Having a trucker Nav can help, but it can be out of date, especially if you have no means of downloading new maps. We got a free trial with the Sygic Trucker maps, which allowed us to put in our RV vehicle height. While folks will say, just avoid the routes with low bridges, this is easier said than done, especially when once on a Parkway, you can't really slow down quickly from 60MPH, when seeing a low bridge. Even if we paid for it, it would have been worth it. On the first day of RV'ing, we used Google Maps/TomTom (but a car one), and we were stuffed for getting out of New York. We basically ended up going almost Downtown, and then going North onto an autoroute, and then South/around New York, to basically avoid any bridges. Was it stressful? You bet! It's time I shared some old US pics for some inspiration.
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you mentioned one way flights i would do this - did nz before covid and it was cheaper just to keep going rather than return - ewr - lax - fiji - auckland - brisbane - dubai - uk did southern states and it was cheaper to texas then internal flight to new orleans car hire at the mo is nuts so shop around (quoted 2k for 10 days in nz or 450 euros for 6 days in europe in the last month or so for end of feb this year - ill be going our car ) if you can wait till september i would cos if airlines/airports are anything like this year itll be a nightmare and if the passport control thing happens again itll be worse
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2001 HONDA CT110 (NOT RCV)
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We are in a similar stage Paul, going for 3 weeks in Sept, to land in and leave from LA. We went BA as we have huuuuge amounts of avios (mrs won 60,000 in NHS lottery) so can fly club class for std price We are currently looking at car hire - I'm being picky & holding out for a Dodge charger minimum, not driving a eurobox in the USA!!! but car hire is a bit eye watering.
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Might bump into you! We will be heading towards LA but end up at El Mirage for the last (I think) SCTA meet of the year. It's something I have wanted to do since I was a teenager. Not bothered about the car, it's just a means of getting about.
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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akku is a more frequent flyer, I think and may even have a secretary or travel office to,do his searches. LOL - no I do not. I book all my own flights and will fight anyone who tries to impose company central booking or any of that stuff on me. I have suffered at the hands of that process in the past... You remind me, I have some flights to book.... lol
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Travel is weird right now. I used to fly to Cape Town once every couple of months for less than a grand. Now BA and Virgin are looking £2500 for that same flight.
Tip - always make sure you are there over a weekend, there is some weird consumer protection rule that says long haul visits less than 1 week / not including a weekend / are business flights and are charged heavier than if you are going on holiday. go figure the logic.
Booking 2 one way tickets is sometimes cheaper than one return. No idea why that is. airlines make no sense.
Don't get drunk before getting on the flight. Why do British people do that? Ugh.
Try all the options like booking direct with the airline, Trip Advisor, Booking.com, Expedia, SkyScanner, etc, its amazing how often there is one promo cheap flight left on one which isn't on the others...
Plan everything in advance, the closer to flight time the more expensive the ticket. I don't think I have flown on a flight that wasn't packed since lockdown ended. (except one flight with Etheopian Airlines which was quiet)
I used my own phone with google maps when I was in the US. It worked beautifully. Check with your operator, I used to get free calls and data in the US with Three but they have changed it now. Its a daily access charge and then free data. Its still cheaper than using regular roaming by a LONG way. In countries I don't have daily access coverage I buy a cheap SIM at the airport and charge it with 10gig of data and use that. You can buy little hotspot devices but what works just as well is an old mobile phone. Seems everyone has one in a drawer. Ideally a 4G or 5G handset - or pop the SIM in your own phone but then you won't have incoming calls or texts (althought Whatsapp etc will still work as before)
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Last Edit: Jan 3, 2023 21:16:11 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Thanks akku, all good stuff to look at. Appreciate it.
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Last Edit: Jan 3, 2023 22:08:26 GMT by crockpot
Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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Regarding mobile phones….
And when you may come back, I set up my UK mobile on O2 with a huge data package and free calls everywhere (or something like that) for under £30.00/month iirc So for the price of a single cheap lunch for two you get a months roaming.
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Was that just a 30 day 'bolt on' Grizz?
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75swb
Beta Tester
Posts: 1,045
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Trip to USA75swb
@75swb
Club Retro Rides Member 181
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I've got a dual sim phone (not that i knew i did, samsung a52s) which allowed me to use a local sim for the internet connection, but my own sim for whatsapp etc. Also, clear the cookies on your computer and use incognito to search. Sounds daft but I blind tested it on two identical setups (albeit pre-covid) and there was a not insignificant price difference after a couple of days searching on the machine which allowed cookies/tracking, and a lot of "hurry only 5 seats left" nonsense...
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heading to the west coast, a lot of folk do what you're planning with visiting perhaps 3-4 states, so luckily car hire doesn't cost extra to pick up in and drop off in Cali./Arizona/Nevada. likewise with flights, fly into vegas and out of SF or San Diego, theres lots of good deals to be had on these kinda trips. as mentioned make sure you get a deal on internet before you go, (o2 users get normal usage in usa) for using your phone for satnav and booking stuff on the road. and again, go outwith school hols if you aren't taking kids for better flight prices. theres millions of stuff to do out there and lots of it is car related. San Francisco in general, Alcatraz/golden gate/wine regions/shopping in general. highway 1 (not really a fan tbh, gets a bit boring after a few miles) but all the little quaint towns are great, carmel, pebble beach, monteray, santa cruz etc. Hearst Castle is magic, any national parks are worth a visit gotta hit Yosemite or Sequoia NPs if you can. L.A. for Peterson auto museum, Beverly hills/hollywood, beach stuff, food etc. San Diego for beaches, Zoo, Scenery, Coronado, surf stuff, navy museum etc. Head inland and visit Palm Springs, Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain, Elvis honeymoon house and do a tour of moviestars homes or art deco housing. Head to Vegas and wow at the hotels in general (you don't need to have any interest in gambling for vegas, theres tons to do) visit mob museum or neon sign museum, grand canyon trip, go up the stratosphere, world class dining and shopping, you can visit Counts Customs, Pawn stars shop, or American Restoration. The Shelby museum is amazing, its just south of the strip and its FREE! oh yeah, most big cities have cars and coffee events too. i've been a bunch of times to the west coast and ive probably forgot half the stuff ive done, but it never disappoints. *obligatory retro car pics to make up for wall of type
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@ CRX_IN_SCOTLAND
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Was that just a 30 day 'bolt on' Grizz? In effect, and I have yet to go remove it and revert to my regular massive data etc pay as you go for around £15.00 a month. I just wanted to be certain, regardless of the data I needed, I was not paying the crazy prices charged the moment you go over your allowance. Most places and people I meet when I travel and stop has WiFi to hook up to. Wallmart, McDonals etc all have free wifi, and it is a single code, so once connected, it auto connects and things like Whatsapp come through automatically.
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