Can you fly to the States from Leeds? That would be useful.
Leeds/Bradford - DUB - BOS/NYC/Hartford (and probably more) via Aer Lingus. Very cheap and immigration happens in Dublin so you fly into domestic terminals in the USA. It's great.
I bet the same thing can be done from East Midlands too.
Ooh, interesting. I've been shuttling up and down to Gatwick. On the one hand, there's a direct flight to Oakland and I don't have to deal with the underground. On the other hand, there are half a dozen airports that would be more convenient than Gatwick.
It's also cheap! But then you need your hop too, so not sure how that would turn out.
Fascinating. It turns out Aer Lingus has scheduled connections from San Francisco to Birmingham and Manchester through Dublin. I think flying direct with Norwegian still wins for me, for now.