Inter-European Fares

Actually, the cruise is via California (UC) Alumni Assoc, using Thomas Gohagan Co. The ship holds about 220 people, and is small enough to get into some of the smaller ports. It hits all the major Baltic ports except Helsinki. We will burn major frequent flier miles to get two free business class seats for the trip. I would like to have the return flight from St Petersburg stop off at Paris for a few days in late June, but will have to see what is available from the Oneworld Alliance.

Another bothersome trend is that about 5 couples (out of about 50) on our cruise had their airlines lose their luggage. The offending airlines were Northwest, Aer Lingus, and Delta. Given that it was snowing in Budapest for most of our 3 days there, those poor people were not dressed for the weather as their warm clothes were in the lost luggage. Of the 5 pieces of lost luggage for one couple on Aer Lingus, one bag was delivered in Budapest, one in Vienna, one in Passau, one in Cologne, and one declared lost - go figure that one out.

So far I haven't had problems with layovers; mainly limited scheduling options and high fares. In fact earlier this year when I booked the return from Prishtina, Kosovo on Austrian Air, we saved $500 per ticket to lay over in Vienna for a night! We packed an overnight bag and because it was considered a layover, the rest of our luggage was kept at the airport. It was a great deal even including the cost of the hotel and dinner!

We live in a city with very limited air service, so we're used to having to drive to get lower fares. Good luck with your cruise options (is it a Celebrity cruise, by any chance)?

Ellen, I sympathize with your problems to lesser-traveled destinations. Layovers are probably killers, too. I was just looking at a cruise on the Baltic that starts in Bergen, Norway. What an awful place to get to, and the prices are double that of the return from St Petersburg.

marc,

Thanks for the info; I've bookmarked the site. The major problem I'm having is that I'm trying to fly between two cities in Eastern Europe that don't have a lot of airline service; Prishtina, Kosovo and Dubrovnik, Croatia. And possibly Dubrovnik to Paris which is a little easier. It was interesting last year when I was planning my trip to the Balkans to see how few choices there are for travel in the Balkans. There's hardly any train service and flights are limited. We ended up driving everywhere which was quite an adventure, but I may not have the time to do that this year. It made me appreciate how easy it is to travel through Western Europe!

For intra-European flights, another "scanner" for low-cost fares is Kelkoo: http://voyages.kelkoo.fr/b/a/c_172201_billet_davion.html

Be advised, though, that all of their bookings are through travel agencies. So you may want to use Kelkoo to see which airlines seem to be offering cheap flights, then check the airlines' own sites to see if you can match the fares.

Two LCCs I've been happy with are Swiss (the successor, I guess, to Swissair) and a new one Vueling. Both use CDG in Paris, which is a convenience.

Good luck.

Marc

Joe: Thank you for your input. You might consider stuffing in a VERY light duffle bag in your suitcase in the event you need to re-pack.

..or buy something when you're traveling that you don't need to transport on one of these no-frills carriers!

We leave in 3 weeks for a river cruise on the Danube/Rhine that includes an "open jaw" because of the river cruise. I priced it on several airlines, which includes their "partners", and got some similar results on cost. Trying to set the trips up separately was more expensive than going with one airline plus their partners. Also look at the layover/redeye details - United had a cheap price for one trip option until I noted that they gave us only 2.5 hrs to travel between Heathrow and Gatwick on a flight that left O'Hare !!! Finally settled on American.

Other thing to watch is carry-on restrictions, such as the one-bag in London. This means for women, the purse counts as one bag, so my wife will carry her small workout duffel bag and put her purse and other things in this duffel bag. We have been pretty busy checking the restrictions on various airlines. Also note the varying requirements for maximum free luggage weight.

You're asking me?? Please report on how you do!

Thanks to all of you - lots of food for thought.

I'll start working on it and report back; what did we ever do without the internet?

Ellen: I've frequently found that throwing away a "leg" of a trip can be less expensive than buying a one way ticket.

And who says you have to wait until you arrive in Europe. ALSO - please remember that if you're 60, many airlines have prices for seniors. The discount can be up to 50%. That isn't hey!

Take out that slide rule and your calendar.

K

It is my understanding that the low cost air lines make up for the low fares with high baggage charges. A long trip to Europe could involve heavy baggage. I would check when booking about this item.

Are you looking only at major airlines, or have you also checked low-cost carriers? With the LCCs there's usually a price advantage to booking sooner rather than later. People don't seem that thrilled with Ryanair, from what I've heard, but EasyJet and others appear to be fine. Just be sure to verify which airport they use, as some of them are smaller airports located a bit off the beaten path, and also note the luggage limitations.

SkyScanner can give you an idea of the choices of airlines and destinations available. The LCCs sometimes have promotions (flight for 1 euro + taxes, for example) available on their websites.

Sometimes the major airlines have decent promotional fares as well, though they're usually for round-trip travel.

I always have the same concern that you expressed about waiting to purchase tickets when I am there, but so far they have been cheaper and never sold out. You might also try using the airlines non-USA website and see if the costs are less and get an E-Ticket. Except in Spain, where a local address is required, this has worked as well.

I'm starting to plan a trip to several cities in Europe next spring (including Paris, hopefully). I'm finding that one-way fares within Europe are very high. Would it be less expensive to purchase those tickets when I get over there? I hate to wait for fear they'd be sold out, but if it saves a lot of money it may be worth it.

Please advise!