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Best Option For Me?! Help Needed!
Mon, 02/26/2007 - 16:40
K3NN3TH
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Hi, I live in McAllen, Texas (Mexico border) about 6 hours south of Houston, and am looking to get a cheap flight to Europe.

Okay, I will be going to Europe this summer, preferably leaving the first week of June and staying until mid to late July.
So far, I have seen that open-jaw flights are rediculously expensive, and multi-city flihgt are also very expensive, so I think I will be looking for just the flat out BEST price out there and make due with that, by using my train pass and take an over-night train from wherever I end up to my starting point.

Our basic Europe plan for logistics is to start out in London and then head over to Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Munich, Venice, Greece, Rome, Florence, Nice, Barcelona, then end in Madrid. This was our initial desire, and we therefore wanted a multi-city flight, but then decided it wasn’t worth the money because we could just use our train pass to get back to where we needed to be. Therefore, I would be open to flying into either London, Madrid, or Paris, which ever is cheaper, although I do think that Madrid or Paris would be easier logistics wise for our itinerary.

So my overall question is: What city would be best? And when, where, and how am I to find a very cheap flight? I am a student and I have hearrd students get good discounts, but I don’t know if it is cheapest.

If the flight is much cheaper from Houston than McAllen, I could always take a bus to Houston and then fly out.

I also have a cousin in Manhattan, and she offered me her flat as a place to stay for as long as I wanted. Would it be possible to get like a 3 day layover on my flight so I could check out NY? Or would it be realistic to buy to separate flights, one to NY and then another from NY to Europe, or would this be more expensive? Any input is appreciated.

Again I really am looking for the cheapest possible flight, but if it is only like $100 more for a layover or something I would like to spend a few days in NY, but no at the expenisve of a cheap flight. How much will I be looking at then? Thank you in advance.

Cheers!

Kenneth

Mon, 02/26/2007 - 17:17
#1
Don
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You’ve got several questions. I’ll attempt to answer, in no particular order.

1. There are inexpensive options to Madrid from New York on Air Comet.

2. Check student sites www.statravel.com www.travelcuts.com and www.studentuniverse…. Be sure to check fares from both your hometown airport, as well as from Hobby (HOU) and Intercontinental (IAH). Sometimes the price from smaller airports is competitive.

3. Try some consolidators, such as www.flights.com www.economytravel.co… and www.justfares.com These might be cheaper than other options, but usually have expensive change fees if you need to change a return date, and are completely nonrefundable.

4. Generally, cheapest transatlantic fares I’m seeing for summer from US and A are to Ireland, Germany, and in the case of New York, to Madrid.

5. Try the month-long search at www.itasoftware.com — enter as a guest, choose “month-long” at the top, enter your cities as McAllen;IAH;HOU just like that with semicolon and no spaces; your “to” cities use PAR;BRU;AMS;BERRG;MUC;VCE;ATH;ROM;FLR;NCE;BCN;MAD — you might find the cheapest option will automatically turn up as an open-jaw, arriving one city, and returning from another.

6. For a stopover in New York, you’ll have to get a student ticket that specifically allows this (not all do), or book seperately (TX to NY on ticket 1; NY-Europe on ticket 2).

I’m loading you up with homework! But I hope you find something good with this. Please let us know if you do.

Mon, 02/26/2007 - 17:34
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K3NN3TH
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Don thanks a million as always! I will really look into it.

Right now I think my options are as follows:

1. Find a RT to Paris or Madrid staright up from TX to Europe

2. TX to NY then NY Europe separately

Also, If I can find a good deal, maybe work in a multi-city of London/Dublin and Madrid. I will keep a lookout for an open-jaw ticket too.

Would you happen to know the average price difference between a RT ticket and multi-city? And secondly, how much would you say it is going to cost me for option 2, buying two separate tickets? Thanks again, I really appreciate the help Don!

Tue, 02/27/2007 - 02:31
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Don
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When I checked ITA last night, I saw a NYC-MAD, DUB-NYC for under $600. I saw a similar fare with return from Stockholm to New York. Multi-city tickets are not always more expensive. ITA seems to sniff them out well, by putting in all of your potential visit cities—like I mentioned earlier.

Also use ITA and the student agencies for the McAllen to New York fares, but I’d guess $350 roundtrip to NYC; maybe $200 from HOU or IAH to NYC roundtrip.

When you’ve tracked down specific dates and cities, run it through www.bookingbuddy.com just to see if you can do better.

Final step: try to book the best price you find direct from the airline. Sometimes, other sources have exclusive deals that the airline can’t book, but at least check the airline direct when finalizing your tickets.