# Europe June, 2008 airfares



## acesneights (Sep 22, 2007)

Is there any alternative to the $1000 plus airfares?

Stan


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## Jimster (Sep 23, 2007)

*alternative*

Well, if you think the airfares are high wait until you try converting your dollars to Euros since it takes now over $1.40 to get one Euro. As to the airfares, there are alternatives but you give us so little information as to making a reasonable response impossible.  Where are you going and when?  There are auctions, priceline, special fares and promotions and award tickets.  If you fill in some details, we will try to help you.


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## Carolinian (Sep 23, 2007)

Early June will generally have better fares than mid to late June, because airlines general change their season from shoulder to high season about June 10.  It varies slightly be airline.

Where you are going in Europe also matters.  The UK just doubled its air ticket taxes, which is a real pain.  It makes it worth flying out of the UK to another European destination when leaving, to incur only the lower short haul tax.  Use one of the really cheap LCC's to bridge the gap on leaving the UK.

There are also a number of trans-Atlantic LCC's which may help, particularly if you also use one of the European LCC's for onward travel if necessary.  There are links to sites for those LCC's on the Travel Links at www.timeshareforums.com , (click on "Website Navigation'', then ''Links Directory'').


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## acesneights (Sep 23, 2007)

CLT to GLA 6/7 to 6/21

Stan


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## Carolinian (Sep 24, 2007)

Watch the ''Milage Run'' boards at www.flyertalk.com. Sometimes incredible deals will be posted there.

Check the longhaul LCC's on the Airline sites board on the Links Directory at www.timeshareforums.com for good trans-Atlantic fares.  You may need a connecting flight on one of the cheap intra-Europe carriers (also on that directory) to your final destination.  One downside to using the LCC's across the pond is that you don't get air miles, and airmiles on a trip across the pond are worth $150-200.


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## x3 skier (Sep 24, 2007)

*Go anywhere and then to your destination*

Frequent Flyer miles are great. 

Seriously, I would look for a the cheapest fare to any European City and then take a LCC like bmiBaby or others to where you really want to go. That's how I do it when redeeming FF miles. Even if you don't originally intend to visit the city you fly into from the states, any European major city has tons of sights and is worth at least a day or three. 

I use http://www.farecompare.com to find the lowest fare and then book directly with the airline to get the trip miles and any bonus miles. Kayak and sidestep are good as well for finding fares. For European LCC's, try  http://www.whichbudget.com/en/

Just be mindful of the actual airport the LCC may use which may be out in the boonies and the strict baggage allowance.

Cheers


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## Laurie (Sep 24, 2007)

A couple of downsides to using LLC's without an overnite stopover, which I've done and would do again BUT:

Booking on 2 separate tickets, if your flight is delayed and you miss your LLC connection, you have hassle, anxiety, and extra expense. If this occurs on your departure, you'll already be exhausted after an overnite flight. If it occurs on your return, the expense will be even higher. 

Booking on 2 separate tickets, if you have opportunity to get bumped on your transatlantic flight - you'd probably have to pass.

I'll reemphasize the baggage allowance hassles. I assumed that because we travel so light compared to most people, it wouldn't be a problem for us - WRONG.


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## Carolinian (Sep 25, 2007)

I have done LCC connections with trans-Atlantic flights quite a few times, using Easyjet, Ryan Air, Germanwings, Wizz Air, and Sky Europe, all without a hitch.  I will be trying Aegean Air in a couple of months, but since I am now working in Europe, that one will not involve a trans-Atlantic connection.

As to baggage, I really love the policies of EasyJet, which has the most generous cabin baggage allowance of any European airline.  Essentially if one person can heft it into the overhead compartment and it fits the size requirements, you can carry it on.  As someone who hates to check baggage, that is a refreshing change from most European carriers who allow less than US carriers on carryons.


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## skim118 (Oct 9, 2007)

*>$1100 tickets*

We need 5 tickets SFO to London leaving after June 17 2008 and coming back July 31.  I have been tracking flights ever since the booking window opened and have not found anything cheaper.

When do the airfares typically go down ? Should I try any consolidators ?

I am prepared to take anything under $900 at this point  :annoyed:


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## DeniseM (Oct 9, 2007)

skim118 said:


> We need 5 tickets SFO to London leaving after June 17 2008 and coming back July 31.  I have been tracking flights ever since the booking window opened and have not found anything cheaper.
> 
> When do the airfares typically go down ? Should I try any consolidators ?
> 
> I am prepared to take anything under $900 at this point  :annoyed:



For our SFO - UK trip in Aug. and the tix I just bought for Dec., Nortwest Air had the best price and we were happy with the service, too.  I paid about $820 both time w/1 layover.  Also we flew into Gatwick not Heathrow.


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## skim118 (Oct 10, 2007)

DeniseM said:


> For our SFO - UK trip in Aug. and the tix I just bought for Dec., Nortwest Air had the best price and we were happy with the service, too.  I paid about $820 both time w/1 layover.  Also we flew into Gatwick not Heathrow.



Thanks for the Northwest Air & Gatwick suggestions;  Northwest wants $1206 pp and is not even a non-stop.  The best fare we have found is on Aer Lingus at $1120 and the best non-stop is Virgin Air/Continental at $1200.


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## radmoo (Oct 10, 2007)

check out www.vayam.com


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## Jimster (Oct 10, 2007)

*tickets*

One question you have to ask yourself is how much (if anything) ff miles worth to you.  Often Icelandic Air has cheaper filghts but what you get in reduced cost you lose in ff miles.  I also do not buy a ticket before I go to milemaven.com because that always lists the on going ff mile promotions.  Often it is just a matter of registering BEFORE you buy the tickets to get those extra miles.  Mile Maven will tell you that.  There are also many consolidators that will offer lower prices.  Other possibliities are to fly into other markets and then go on to London- ie. fly to Shannon or Manchester.  Manchester is a good bet especially if you are going to be buying a rail pass anyway.


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## skim118 (Oct 10, 2007)

Jimster said:


> Other possibliities are to fly into other markets and then go on to London- ie. fly to Shannon or Manchester.  Manchester is a good bet especially if you are going to be buying a rail pass anyway.



I did check Manchester, but the prices are not any lower for us in the West Coast.  Unfortunately my dates are fairly fixed +/- 1 day maybe;  we are coordinating 3 different family reunions in England, Bavaria & India.

We have 5 FF tickets to India on British Airways from Heathrow(hopefully the new terminal 5) and we bought Lufthansa tickets LHR to Frankfurt for $142 each($14 fare + "taxes, fees").  We did not want to deal with Ryanair since it is flying into the boonies with no train connections.

All we need is 5 tickets to England from SFO under $900 and we will be set;  Thankfully we will be staying with relatives & should be mostly insulated from the currency "sticker" shock that we expect to hit us next year.


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## Carolinian (Oct 11, 2007)

One major thing that makes London tickets expensive these days is the big new eco-tax imposed by Gordon Brown some months ago on all flights departing from any UK airport, with an announced purpose of discouraging air travel in order to ''save the environment''.  That's one reason, I try to route all of my European travel without going thorugh the UK.  Sad really, as I used to love those London stopovers for a day or two enroute.  If I am flying to the UK, I try to use an open jaw from somewhere else for the return, so that I only have to pay the lower short haul tax rather than the hefty longhaul tax.

Have you priced the trans-Atlantic LCC's (see the TimeshareForums links directory for sites) like Zoom, Condor, LTU, and Eurofly?


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## northwoodsgal (Oct 12, 2007)

I was in the same position last year, checking ticket prices from Milwaukee or Chicago to Amsterdam so our son's girlfriend could join us.  I checked prices every now and then thinking at some point there would be a good deal, but it never happended.  We were originally looking at $900-$1000/ticket and before we left (June 20) it was more like $1,200-$1,300.  In the end, she decided not to go with us.  Fortunately for the rest of us, we were able to get 5 FF tickets together for the trip.


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## Blues (Oct 12, 2007)

Carolinian said:


> One major thing that makes London tickets expensive these days is the big new eco-tax imposed by Gordon Brown some months ago on all flights departing from any UK airport



Yeah, that's a real pain.  And, as I think you've pointed out in other threads, it's not going to keep people from flying trans-atlantic; it will just encourage them to fly (burn the carbon) to other points of entry rather than London.

I had booked our trip to Spain & Portugal 18 months ago, using FF miles, with a return through London.  I had already paid the existing taxes on this trip 18 months ago.  It felt like a slap in the face to be charged an additional £20/person (£40 total) at Heathrow for our flight home.

You say above that it's for all UK airports.  Does this include Ireland and Scotland as well then?   We'd like to visit both in the coming years, and had idly hoped that if we avoided London, we could avoid the tax.  Apparently this is wrong?


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## skim118 (Oct 12, 2007)

Carolinian said:


> Have you priced the trans-Atlantic LCC's (see the TimeshareForums links directory for sites) like Zoom, Condor, LTU, and Eurofly?



Thanks for the info about these LCC's.  Most of them do not fly to the West Coast;  LTU does, but their prices are in the $1300 range and on top of they fly to Dusseldorf of all places.

Zoom has tickets at $630(incl taxes) JFK to London on the dates we want(June 19-July 31 2008), but then I would have buy a separate cross-country ticket.

At this point I have decided to wait it out until January-Feb 08;  I am assuming less Americans will travel to Europe next year given the currency issues and hopefully the airlines will be forced offer some better deals.


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## scotlass (Oct 12, 2007)

Blues said:


> You say above that it's for all UK airports.  Does this include Ireland and Scotland as well then?   We'd like to visit both in the coming years, and had idly hoped that if we avoided London, we could avoid the tax.  Apparently this is wrong?



The tax is from any UK airport, which includes Scotland but not Ireland.  Best bet is to fly to Ireland and take a LCC to the UK.  That route has the least amount of tax surcharge to pay.  That doesn't mean that when you go in the future it will be the same as today.  Anything can happen.


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## skim118 (Dec 21, 2007)

skim118 said:


> We need 5 tickets SFO to London leaving after June 17 2008 and coming back July 31.  I have been tracking flights ever since the booking window opened and have not found anything cheaper.
> 
> When do the airfares typically go down ? Should I try any consolidators ?
> 
> I am prepared to take anything under $900 at this point  :annoyed:



We gave up waiting for prices to go down since we had to coordinate FF tickets to Asia from UK and just bought 5 tickets SFO-LHR on BMI codeshare(non-stop United 777) for $977.  Also we had a Amex 4% cash-back promo just for December and this brought the price down to $938 each.

These "lower" fares are only available on Travelocity and kayak.com was unable to find them.


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