What’s the cheapest available that you’ve found so far, and where have you checked (so we do not repeat efforts)?

Hey Don thanks for the reply. Just got off work.
continental airlines  1250.00 a head (6250.00) TT&L leaving july 15 return july 29th. stop over in newark both ways.
Checked priceline,orbitz,cheapflights,bookingbuddy,and all the other links and  consoldatiers on this web sight.[]

Yep, 1250-ish is about the best I see too for your exact itinerary. Consider using same strategies for flights from NYC or CHI to get the cheapest possible, and add a flight from DAL or DFW to NYC or CHI. If you do this, understand the risk of connecting on 2 tickets—ie, if Airline A is late, Airline B doesn’t have to accomodate you and can even cancel the rest of your itinerary. Smartfares (found with B’buddy) turned up $1167 but with 2 connections each way.

This is a typical fare for the middle of peak season, Dallas to Glasgow and return. It could go higher, it could drop, I have no way of telling you exactly what fares will do. If it was me, I’d probably sign up for sale alerts with Farecompare and hope to save $100 per ticket if I’m diligent and ready to book as soon as notified (if, if a sale happens) and be fully prepared that a sale might not happen, and it could go up as much or more.

I’ve wondered that before, about booking two separate round-trip tickets, and making sure your layover is long enough to allow for some flight delays.  Obviously NYC—LON fares are much much lower than DFW, and DFW—NYC fares might be pretty reasonable.  Could cut that price by 50% even.  I understand there are risks in there, but if you gave yourself a 4-5 hour layover, what are the odds you could end up missing your next flight?  Does that happen often?  I’m thinking summertime too…weather from Texas to NY is usually pretty fair.

The problem is that even if the weather between Texas and New York was always fine in the summer, which it isn’t, planes can suffer delays or cancellations because of bad weather elsewhere. You might not expect what happens in Chicago or Atlanta to affect your plane, but it easily could, because of how interconnected the flight network is.
 
So I’d say most of the time, 4-5 hours would be sufficient, but occasionally it would not.
 
For this problem, I’d buy good travel insurance that covers delays and cancellations, rather than be faced with the prospect of paying up for seven full-price walkup tickets to Europe. (Actually, even with good insurance, you’d probably still have to buy those tickets, and fight for reimbursement.) Because the stakes are so high, I’d probably also allow longer.

Wow thanks folks for the advice. As I had to get 2 famlys to first agree on a time, and it represents everones total va-ca from work I guess I will just book thru Cont. 1246.00 as the price diffrence is the same and I can request seating that would allow us to be more or less together, but most important we all get there in a resonable time with few hassels hopefully.

Check fares to EDI too. NCL isn’t too far away (2 hours train?). Even MAN or BHX if the fare is cheap enough. I just hate for anyone to have to pay $1200+ for airfare… yes, I know that’s just what it costs sometimes, but I’m just trying to think of anything else to help you get a more reasonable airfare. Could you do LON or DUB, then to GLA with Ryanair or Megabus?

Yeah that was kind of my thinking with the 4-5 hour delay; you never know if your plane is en-route from Anchorage and catching flack in the jetstream.  As it happens, I think I may have found perfect airfare for myself this summer…but for future trips, you think maybe 9-10 hour layover would be safe?  Might even be enough time to leave the airport and catch a monorail to the city (some cities, at least), or spend some serious book-reading time in the bookstore! 
 
I’m DYING to visit the Maldives…which is usually serviced via Air India or Emirates Airlines.  I guess the assumption is, in the UAE, if you’re rich enough to fly, you’re rich enough to fly for $4000+ a ticket haha.  These multi-ticket itineraries can shave off thousands (I’ve played around with it a bunch) on a trip into Male, so it’s something I’m considering for a future trip.