Question regarding plane tickets

Hello,

I plan to move to the UK in January 2003. My boyfriend, David and I are planning to come over together. He is flying to the states to bring me back to the UK.

The question we have, in order to be placed together on the same plane, should Dave purchase 2 return tickets in the UK? Or do we have to purchse oneway tickets in the US? Has anyone had their fiance(e) or spouse accompany them back to the UK, and if so, how did you guys go about it?  

Many thanks,
Carol

Hi Graceful!  

I came over alone, but having some experience doing flight arrangments for work (I send folks all over the world on business), you can purchase them separately and then make a request with the airline to place you together.  

If that doesn't work, you have two options -

1 - when you check in together, explain the situation and ask them to seat you together.  They can often jiggle people around to accomodate

2- get on the plane and just ask other passengers to switch with you.

Either way, I expect you'll be able to get results!

Hi Carol!

My husband and I had to deal with this exact situation.  My husband came to the US for us to get married and then we returned to the UK together.  We spent some time online in chat looking at plane ticket prices.  It was going to cost me twice as much to fly one way than it would be to just get a return ticket and then there was no guarantee we would be on the same flight or seated together.  So my husband purchased two return tickets going from the UK to the US and back.  Even though the ticket to the US for me was wasted since I was already there, it was ultimately cheaper, and it gave us the peace of mind that we would be on the same flight and seated together, and I got to claim the frequent flyer miles for the entire trip to boot, so it wasn't all bad.  

I would recommend really looking into the prices and such, and see what would be best for your situation.  This is what worked best for us.

I had a similar experience about a year ago.  
My sisterinlaw was going fly to Mexico to meet up with us and a son of hers was going to fly to the US.  

So my sisterinlaw needed a round trip from US to Mexico,

we already had our roundtrip tickets for different dates,

my sisterinlaws son need a oneway ticket to the US

and we all wanted to fly together.

My sisterinlaw booked her ticket and her sons at an agency to request seats together.  Her ticket was a roundtrip ticket from the US to Mexico and her sons a roundtrip ticket from Mexico to the US (cheaper than oneway).

Absolutely no problem getting all of our seats together, but at the last minute she decided to fly back two days later than us.

My advice:  
book both tickets at an agency and request you sit together.

LOL~Gina

If you have to purchase a round trip ticket for both (may be cheaper), I don't know which way will be best (UK to US or US to UK) due to immigration.

hi carol,

we did this one year, and since virgin air and continental air code-share some flights, hubby bought a r/t ticket on virgin (which he liked back then because of the individual screens) which was cheap and i bought a o/w ticket through an agency on continental for cheap as well.  like wishstar suggested, i then called the airline direct to request seats together.  have had no problems, we just checked in the then 2-hrs prior to reconfirm.

good luck!

Thanks Everyone!


p.s.
I am usually an optimistic person, but I had no clue that getting married and moving to another country would be so stressful! I am sure you guys can relate!
 

Graceful - just had to tell you how much I love and believe in your quotation at the bottom.  I preach it to anyone who will listen - as well as some who won't!!

Thanks Peedal! I am glad there is someone out there who feels the same way as I do!

Just so you know, this statement...would you believe was made from Yanni? When I was watching him on a PBS station, "Live at the Acropolis" and heard him make that quote...I got a little bit chocked up about it...because it does reflect what I believe: we are just one race and that's the human race.

I was unable to fit the entire statement, because I had to cut down the lines to fit as part of my member profile.

But here is the entire excerpt:

'These lines, in the maps, really do not exist. They are made up completely. These lines perpetuated this illusion that somehow we are all different from each other. Now you would think the world be a much better place if someday we stop pretending that these lines exist and concentrate on our similarities rather than our differences...everything great that has happen to humanity since the beginning, has begun as a single thought in someone's mind. If any one of us is capable of such a great thought, then all of us has the capability because we are all the same'-Yanni

Elle,

Tom and I will be doing as you did and sounds good about the tickets...  I wanted Tom to get them in the UK...  I think you are right that return tickets would be cheaper ...  but? was it a problem for the fact that you were not there on the trip over? did the airlines or customs question this fact?  security is so much tighter now...  I am curious...  

we were planning on Tom getting both tickets...but a return for him and one way for me from his agency in the UK.  but I prefer to go the cheaper route for this

Elle,

Tom and I will be doing as you did and sounds good about the tickets...  I wanted Tom to get them in the UK...  I think you are right that return tickets would be cheaper ...  but? was it a problem for the fact that you were not there on the trip over? did the airlines or customs question this fact?  security is so much tighter now...  I am curious...  

we were planning on Tom getting both tickets...but a return for him and one way for me from his agency in the UK.  but I prefer to go the cheaper route for this

Hi Carol!  I already emailed you a response, but will go ahead and respond here as well.

Hubby had no problem getting my ticket and was never asked about me not being with him when he went.  He didn't bother to tell them I was supposed to be there, so they just figured I was a "no show" probably, which is fine, I guess.  

We came back in January so security measures were tight then and we had zero problems.  The only thing that potentially caused problems was the name on the ticket.  I told my husband to put the ticket in the name I thought I would be using (I thought I would be hyphenating my last name).  Turns out I didn't hyphenate but that's what the ticket was in.  Well, this caused a bit of a problem because my passport was still in my old name.  I had to make sure to take my marriage license with me as I had not been able to amend my passport.  So unless you intend to have that done right away, make sure to put your plane ticket in your old name!

Until recently, my husband and I followed this scheme:  I buy a return ticket from the US to the UK from a US agent and my husband buys one from the UK to the US from a British agent.  We are always one ticket adrift from each other, but when checking in, we check in together, as a married couple, and have always been seated together despite that my tickets are in my maiden name as I've not changed my passport.  

This requires advance planning of course, so we know when to set the return dates.  Also, we always checked the price of a one way, just to be sure we were getting the cheaper deal.

After doing this for 2 years, we ditched one of the return legs, just didn't use it, because it didn't suit our travel plans.  Now we buy both our tickets at the same time, for the same outward and return journeys.  In our case, we consider that we only lost about $200 dollars, half the full ticket price.