jerseysusan

I am flying to Athens from Newark NJ in June. In checking flights I noticed they are much more expensive than those to other European cities on the same dates. Is there a reason for this?

yorkshire

Hard to say, but Europeans have the luxury of low-cost carriers to get them there. If you have the option for a stopover in another city, that might help the budget.
If you are up for a long layover in Istanbul, Turkish Airlines usually has great fares and is a fine airline.
I think something around 1500 would be an excellent deal for June (based on my searches from the mid-Atlantic in May the past several years). I usually find the schedule worse than the fares.

traveller1959

The flight to Athens is longer than to other European cities.

Bedar

Athens is farther away than, say, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, etc.

WWK

When in June? There's a huge shipping conference in Athens the first week of June.

HappyTrvlr

We have changed planes in various European cities, sometimes staying overnight as we start in western US. My Greek friends usually change planes in another European city when flying to the US as it is much cheaper. Same for Turkey.Also be aware that it is a 7 hour time difference from eastern US. You are traveling a lot farther thus paying more.

jerseysusan

Yes I realized the distance issue but I didn't think that would account for such a huge fare difference

traveller1959

I just checked flights from Newark for a dummy date in April. I found flights to Athens from €1,000 to 1,200 and to Rome from 800 to 1,000, so about 20% less. The difference of €200 should be the distance factor.

greg

The price is mostly determined by the market. If a carrier dominates departures from that airport, for example, UA for EWR, the monopoly carrier can dictate the price.

You can easily find out with few key strokes over internet that the distances between EWR and European cities have little to do with the pricing.

For example, June 18-25, for cheapest fare on UNITED
EWR-FCO-EWR, 4293 miles/way; Flight= $442, Taxes+fees=$636.16
EWR-ATH-EWR, 4956 miles/way; Flight=$1036, Taxes+fees=$625.06
EWR-IST-EWR, 5029 miles/way; Flight= $499, Taxes+fees=$444.76

traveller1959

That's really interesting, Greg. I, searching from Europe, found a price difference of 20%. You, based in U.S., found over 100%.

It is well known that booking machines have algorithms which adjust prices to the place of the IP adress.

Obviously, the airlines suppose that they can charge from U.S. citizens high prices for Athens. Maybe because Greece is such a cheap country, so a greater share of the budget can be spent for airfare?

We recently had a post here that remarked that a flight booked from Ireland did cost a fraction of the same flight booked from the U.S.

jerseysusan: Play a bit with airports, destinations, countries of origin etc. Maybe use a European, even a Greece travel agency, to find a cheaper flight.

Heimdall

Not only is the distance greater, but there is less competition for flights from the US to Athens than, say, to London or Amsterdam.

The low cost carrier Norwegian Air is offering some amazing deals on flights from the US to London Gatwick, and there are budget airlines based at Gatwick with cheap flights to Greece.
https://www.norwegian.com/uk/booking...atwick-NewYork

WWK

Again, when in June? Posedonia, a huge Greek shipping conference that meets every two years is happening first week in June 2016.

mes2525

I usually fly to London or Madrid and connect to British Air/Iberia or Aegean Airways. I sometimes have FF miles to London so that saves some money.

If I feel like Spain, Iberia has two flights from Madrid to Athens every day. Flying to Greece is not cheap!

Christina

I don't think it has anything to do with the location of your computer, that difference is due to dates (June vs. April).

It's a lot farther, why wouldn't it be more expensive? It's a lot more fuel and labor costs (3 hours longer).

jerseysusan

WWK, I am flying to Athens on the 10th.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will do some research this weekend

WWK

jerseysusan,

We've sometimes gotten better pricing flying into and out of Rome, then taking AEGEAN, ALITALIA, or EASYJET to and from Athens.

Good luck!

WWK

BTW, the flight from Rome is usually a little less than 2 hours.