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How to travel internationally (USA - Ireland)

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Originally posted by: blakeatwork
Originally posted by: chrisms
Originally posted by: Turin39789
Originally posted by: chrisms
Shannon or Dublin?
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Dublin, might be able to do shannon if we need to, but we are planning on spending st patricks day in dublin
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Shannon is cheaper to fly to. If you plan on staying only in Dublin then it isn't worth the effort of having the take a train or bus over there. However because the cost of living in Dublin is so high, and the flight to Shannon is cheaper, you could probably tour the whole country and get to the capitol on the 17th and still spend the same as you would if you flew there directly and stayed for 9 days.

Don't rely on the 6 weeks. I got my passport after 6 weeks, a day before my flight left. Go get it as soon as possible.

As for airfare, Aer Lingus is usually the cheapest but I stumbled upon a good deal with an american carrier (forget which one, United, Continental, or American) and payed $350 one way from Seattle. So like others have said search multiple websites, but if you're going to sit around playing with dates and times to try to lower the fare you're better off spending your time at the Aer Lingus site.
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Actually, if you rent a flat outside of Dublin1 (I suggest Rathmines), then expect to pay about $300Euro for a 7 day rental. Add about 20-40E for groceries for the week.

Going to restaurants off Grafton will kill your budget, but if you stick to pubs outside the "core", then you'll expect to pay no more then 4-5E for a meal, not including alcohol.

If you're to be going to Dublin expecting a massive party, be prepared to be a bit disappointed. St Patrick's Day is certainly not the wild boozefest portrayed by NAmerican TV.. While Temple Bar is busy (but when ISN'T Temple Bar busy), it's more of a day of reflection and rememberance...
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Thanks, we're mostly going to see Ireland, will spend most of our time driving/biking around the country. Plan to spend a few days in or near Dublin though. We're going on these dates because they coincide with my spring break, and since I'm going to be there already I wouldn't mind doing something big for St. Patrick's Day, but it won't be a dealbreaker if nothing is going on.

To everyone:

Thanks for the advice, I'm still seeing shannon flights cost more than dublin ones though. I'm going to try calling a travel agency - any suggestions on picking one. Two of the people going are fairly experienced travelers, so right now the plan is to get the airfare and dates lined up so we can get our vacations lined up and then to plan out the itineray. I'm worried that the travel agencies are going to be better for package deals, whereas we are going to be doing more on our own and out of the way.

Now I just need to find an Irish ATOT'er to tell me where all the good bars and food joints are.
 
Shannon is costing more than Dublin? Wierd. Is your hub Atlanta or New York, because coming from Seattle I went through Newark. Maybe that is the difference.

Oh and the advice I gave was a bit skewed because what I did was land in Shannon and depart from Dublin, so I got to see most of the country easily. If you can arrange that it might work even better.
 
Originally posted by: chrisms
Shannon is costing more than Dublin? Wierd. Is your hub Atlanta or New York, because coming from Seattle I went through Newark. Maybe that is the difference.

Oh and the advice I gave was a bit skewed because what I did was land in Shannon and depart from Dublin, so I got to see most of the country easily. If you can arrange that it might work even better.
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I'd love to work it that way, its just a matter of getting it cheap.

My hub for most flights I pull is Chicago O'hare
 
Originally posted by: Turin39789
Originally posted by: chrisms
Shannon is costing more than Dublin? Wierd. Is your hub Atlanta or New York, because coming from Seattle I went through Newark. Maybe that is the difference.

Oh and the advice I gave was a bit skewed because what I did was land in Shannon and depart from Dublin, so I got to see most of the country easily. If you can arrange that it might work even better.
Click to expand...

I'd love to work it that way, its just a matter of getting it cheap.

My hub for most flights I pull is Chicago O'hare
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Don't knock it before you look. In my experience a one way fare is 50% of a round trip fare.. you really don't get a discount. It may even be better because you could end up finding two random cheap fares on different airlines.
 
Originally posted by: chrisms
Originally posted by: Turin39789
Originally posted by: chrisms
Shannon is costing more than Dublin? Wierd. Is your hub Atlanta or New York, because coming from Seattle I went through Newark. Maybe that is the difference.

Oh and the advice I gave was a bit skewed because what I did was land in Shannon and depart from Dublin, so I got to see most of the country easily. If you can arrange that it might work even better.
Click to expand...

I'd love to work it that way, its just a matter of getting it cheap.

My hub for most flights I pull is Chicago O'hare
Click to expand...

Don't knock it before you look. In my experience a one way fare is 50% of a round trip fare.. you really don't get a discount. It may even be better because you could end up finding two random cheap fares on different airlines.
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I've been looking. But when I do one ways from or to dublin or shannon they are coming up in the $350 - $400 range each way. Aer Lingus has a nice $150 special going on from chicago, but of course it ends at the end of february.
 
After reading over your original post again I thought you may be looking for a deal that isn't there. $450 for a round trip ticket to Ireland? Seems cheap.

Assuming a one way ticket is half the price of a round trip, that is $225 each way.

I got $350 to Shannon from Seattle. Let's say the flight to Newark was $125 of that, meaning the flight over the Atlantic was $225. So maybe $450 is a good target after all.

After doing a search on Travelocity the cheapest I got from SDF to Dublin was $690, with your time frame. You are right, that does seem overpriced. However, I did a search in February with a Friday departure and a Sunday return, and got $504 round trip.

The problem here is that you are flying on high demand days (Friday and Sunday) while also going to Ireland during their major holiday. That seems to be the reason you are getting such high fares.

To fix this I had you leave on the 8th and get back on the 19th. A couple more days off of work but your fare went down to $495 on Travelocity. Maybe St. Patrick's isn't even an issue, it is just the Friday and Sunday thing.

And finding airfares is kind of a hobby of mine so thats why I looked into this for you 🙂
 
Originally posted by: chrisms
After reading over your original post again I thought you may be looking for a deal that isn't there. $450 for a round trip ticket to Ireland? Seems cheap.

Assuming a one way ticket is half the price of a round trip, that is $225 each way.

I got $350 to Shannon from Seattle. Let's say the flight to Newark was $125 of that, meaning the flight over the Atlantic was $225. So maybe $450 is a good target after all.

After doing a search on Travelocity the cheapest I got from SDF to Dublin was $690, with your time frame. You are right, that does seem overpriced. However, I did a search in February with a Friday departure and a Sunday return, and got $504 round trip.

The problem here is that you are flying on high demand days (Friday and Sunday) while also going to Ireland during their major holiday. That seems to be the reason you are getting such high fares.

To fix this I had you leave on the 8th and get back on the 19th. A couple more days off of work but your fare went down to $495 on Travelocity. Maybe St. Patrick's isn't even an issue, it is just the Friday and Sunday thing.

And finding airfares is kind of a hobby of mine so thats why I looked into this for you 🙂
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I can fudge with the travel dates some but there still seem to be a lot of layovers involved. Also we can take off the monday afterwards,but still need to be home in time for classes at 7 pm or the friday before hand. Or try leaving saturday morning instead of friday night.

I found some perfect fares and flights last night but then realized that I was looking in February as well. I kicked myself and then found near perfect fares in march, but when I tried to book them they disappeared on me.
 
I flew into Shannon from Philadelphia via Aer Lingus two years ago at the exact same time for a round trip cost of $450, so you should be able to find something around $500. Also, if you want to do something big for St. Patrick's day, I'd suggest staying in the United States. People are way crazier here about St. Patrick's day and they barely celebrate it in Ireland.
 
I know it sounds weird if you're goin to Ireland, but check out Lufthansa. They've had some really good deals going into London from a lot of different places in the US like Dallas, Detroit, and Atlanta. I also wouldn't overlook their sale that ends tomorrow.
 
I'd love to make it over there too - just don't know when I'll be able to find the time. I like lonely planet too - good source of info. Also what i do to avoid fees is to find the cheap flights with the search sites and then go back to the airline's website like lufthansa and buy the flight on their to save a few bucks. Any luck yet?
 
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