European Flights

[bayou0509]

Im curious what advice the Rokslide folks have for finding reasonably priced European Flights. I have never had good luck booking flights through 3rd parties, so I prefer to book directly with the airline.

I am looking at prices of flights to either Italy or Paris for vacation later this year and the prices surprised me. My preferred airline is United, but not opposed to branching out.

Just at a glance, round trip economy plus flight with United is $2,500/person.

Any advice would be appreciated. I have never traveled outside of the United States

 

[Samson7x]

Airfare has increased quite a bit the last time I flew internationally. Reference Hopper for best days/rates. I book directly as well. Much easier to deal with any issues that may pop up. I never book third party.

 

[Speaks]

Are your dates flexible. Moving a day or two can double or cut in half prices.

Prices can change a lot as well. I was in India once trying to fly home 1 day early. Checked before work and it was a $5k upcharge to change (business class) checked again after work so 15 or so hours later and I got a $4k credit to make the same change.

 

[Trial153]

We have flights booked to London and Madrid this Spring for vacation.
I use Goggle flights, for me dates and itinerary are almost suppered costs however goggle flights have been great for comparison regardless.

 

[bayou0509]

I am somewhat flexible on the dates.

I have found that adjusting dates or day of the week for domestic flights can result in big savings. I tried adjusting the departing and returning days of the week for an international flight on the United app and it only saves like $100/person

 

[HunterGatherer]

We found it was cheapest to fly into Lisbon and then book a separate flight from there. Flight to Lisbon was only about $400 round trip and Lisbon to Paris was only $33, for enable. Direct flights to the major cities are spendy. Also consider trains within Europe as they are often very inexpensive.

 

[Nickman123]

We found it was cheapest to fly into Lisbon and then book a separate flight from there. Flight to Lisbon was only about $400 round trip and Lisbon to Paris was only $33, for enable. Direct flights to the major cities are spendy. Also consider trains within Europe as they are often very inexpensive.

My sons toured Europe a year or so ago and they did the same thing except they flew Turkish airlines into Istanbul then took another flight to Berlin. Added quite a bit of travel time but saved them a bundle

 

[bayou0509]

Thanks for all of the advice so far.

I will start looking into flights to some of the smaller, less popular cities with a connecting flight to major city.

 

[ss9961]

Norse Atlantic Airways. Biz Premium.

 

[bayou0509]

Norse Atlantic Airways. Biz Premium.

Those rates are definitely attractive. I assume you have good experiences with Norse?

 

[mTNhunter86]

I use credit card miles. Reward flights. For where you're trying to go, look into becoming (it's free) a "Flying Blue" member. That's Air France and KLM.

Best tip I have is to be flexible on your city. I live in a small market. So I get the best deals by using positioning flights. By that I mean I search for my international flight out of NYC/Boston/Chicago, etc. I usually can find some pretty decent milage rates out of NYC. Then I work back and get myself to NYC for that flight.

And if you haven't already figured it out, flying once you're in Europe is usually pretty cheap. So I usually don't worry too much about my end destination. For instance last year, we biked through Germany. But I flew us into London for two days before hand because flights to Frankfurt were expensive. Flight from London to Heathrow for a family of four? Less than 400 euros.

 

[justinspicher]

When flying internationally I don’t do roundtrip. Instead I purchase a one way ticket there and a one way ticket back. This is easier to manage for schedule changes and my cost was a bit lower. If you can swing it, I’d also suggest flying premium economy. It’s not business class, but way better than coach.

 

[ss9961]

Those rates are definitely attractive. I assume you have good experiences with Norse?

One way Rome to JFK.
Very comfortable. It is a low cost carrier so there isn’t unlimited free food and drinks on board.
Seating is smaller than first class but much better than economy.
I paid extra for our heavy suitcases.

 

[hdn0380]

Have you looked into flying with a European carrier, they generally a little bit cheaper

 

[jayhawk]

We found it was cheapest to fly into Lisbon and then book a separate flight from there. Flight to Lisbon was only about $400 round trip and Lisbon to Paris was only $33, for enable. Direct flights to the major cities are spendy. Also consider trains within Europe as they are often very inexpensive.

^^ This is great advice

 

[Serrano]

If you are going in summer prepare to pay a lot.
I just booked from Colorado to Spain in May. $400 each way.
Arrive in Malaga depart from Barcelona.

Cheapest I saw was $280 but it had 2 stops.

To Paris is often the cheapest flight.

I've seen they raised the price on premium economy A LOT.
Try getting an economy flight and adding extra legroom later on United.

 

[nomadicbohunk]

We travel a ton and I just posted about something else travel related which is funny. I'm probably going to reiterate what others said, but here is what we do for Europe and some general tips:

Some airports are super expensive to fly into or out of. Like you can one way rental a car on each end and save the money.

They hose you on checked bags. One of our credit cards is an airline card for free checked baggage.

Messing with days can save a lot. Last night I found out the superbloom is probably a go in death valley this year. I bought tickets. In the week we had open they ranged from $400 to $2500 for two. That's with the same airline we had vouchers for.

For Europe:

It's always expensive in the summer. Go to google flights. Don't put a destination in. Then do a search. If you can play with dates it gets even better. You don't even need to do a date. Half our trips are "Where can we fly stupid cheap in the next 4 months" You don't need to be in Italy. You need to be in Europe. Once you're there travel is generally cheap. You can get stupid cheap tickets doing this. On a whim last year we went to London/Bristol/Bath for a week and a half. I randomly looked and I found tickets direct to Heathrow for $395 each all in. I told a friend about it and they took a 3 day weekend to London. Look up how much train tickets are too. You see some cool stuff.

You mentioned Italy. It's been a while but the last time I went there I found a ticket to Edinburgh for about $700. Then I took a train down to England and got a flight out of Durham to Rome for like $150. Durham happened to have stupid cheap flights at that time. I do better with this manual looking than relying entirely on search websites. Flights from where I flew out of to rome were about 2x as much as I spent doing my research, adding an overnight in Durham (cool castle, neat cathedral), and being on a train a couple hours.

When we fly to Europe we never take a checked bag. Never ever. If we want to bring must check stuff back we get a cheap suitcase there. We're to the point where all we take is the largest sized backpack that goes under the seat.

Oh yeah. If you're not up for an adventure, don't fly in Europe on some of the super budget airlines. You can google who they are. I've got some hilarious stories. My favorite is a flight some tiny airport in eastern europe that was seat everyone at once. They opened the doors to the tarmac and everyone took off running 100 yards to the plane holding their stuff. It was great. They have their own charm.

 

[bayou0509]

We travel a ton and I just posted about something else travel related which is funny. I'm probably going to reiterate what others said, but here is what we do for Europe and some general tips:

Some airports are super expensive to fly into or out of. Like you can one way rental a car on each end and save the money.

They hose you on checked bags. One of our credit cards is an airline card for free checked baggage.

Messing with days can save a lot. Last night I found out the superbloom is probably a go in death valley this year. I bought tickets. In the week we had open they ranged from $400 to $2500 for two. That's with the same airline we had vouchers for.

For Europe:

It's always expensive in the summer. Go to google flights. Don't put a destination in. Then do a search. If you can play with dates it gets even better. You don't even need to do a date. Half our trips are "Where can we fly stupid cheap in the next 4 months" You don't need to be in Italy. You need to be in Europe. Once you're there travel is generally cheap. You can get stupid cheap tickets doing this. On a whim last year we went to London/Bristol/Bath for a week and a half. I randomly looked and I found tickets direct to Heathrow for $395 each all in. I told a friend about it and they took a 3 day weekend to London. Look up how much train tickets are too. You see some cool stuff.

You mentioned Italy. It's been a while but the last time I went there I found a ticket to Edinburgh for about $700. Then I took a train down to England and got a flight out of Durham to Rome for like $150. Durham happened to have stupid cheap flights at that time. I do better with this manual looking than relying entirely on search websites. Flights from where I flew out of to rome were about 2x as much as I spent doing my research, adding an overnight in Durham (cool castle, neat cathedral), and being on a train a couple hours.

When we fly to Europe we never take a checked bag. Never ever. If we want to bring must check stuff back we get a cheap suitcase there. We're to the point where all we take is the largest sized backpack that goes under the seat.

Oh yeah. If you're not up for an adventure, don't fly in Europe on some of the super budget airlines. You can google who they are. I've got some hilarious stories. My favorite is a flight some tiny airport in eastern europe that was seat everyone at once. They opened the doors to the tarmac and everyone took off running 100 yards to the plane holding their stuff. It was great. They have their own charm.

Lots of great info. Thanks for taking the time to share this.