Brilliantsulk

I'm planning a family trip to Europe this summer that I'd like to book ASAP. Heading from San Francisco to NYC, then to Amsterdam and back to SF from Paris.

I've never booked a multi-city trip before and need advice as to which site might be best - Kayak because I can go ahead and book directly with each airline or a site such as One Travel, Expedia, etc...

Any advice much appreciated!

MmePerdu

I suggest you try booking directly on an airline site. It seems when people have difficulties with flights booked on 3rd party sites, such as the ones you mention, the airline tells them to take it up with the 3rd part site and that site says the airline should help. When you book directly, there is no doubt who should help.

janisj

Once in a long while, using Orbitz or similar will get you good itineraries (mostly when city pairs aren't well served by the same airlines).

But otherwise I almost always book my open jaws directly with the airlines.

kybourbon

Are you planning to stop in NYC for a few days? Your itinerary isn't quite clear.

Brilliantsulk

We'll be in the NYC area for two weeks then to Amsterdam.

sparkchaser

kayak or skyscanner

If you are Star Alliance, United is a good option as it lets you specify booking classes which is nice.

Southam

An agency is very useful when your itinerary combines airlines that don't sell each other's tickets. I recently bought a European route using Air Canada and British Airways through Cheapoair.com They belong to different alliances. The Cheapo website is easy to use and the airlines easily checked my suitcase all the way through, which might be more awkward if the tickets had been purchased individually. However, avoid Cheapo's offer to assign seats; it didn't work for me.

clevelandbrown

My impression is that airlines usually limit stopovers to a few days; look into that.

You may do better with a one-way flight from home to New York. The next flight would be what was once called an open jaw flight, but is more commonly listed as a multiple destination flight. Both are the same; you fly from New York to Amsterdam, but you return from wherever you end up to home.

Between your arrival in Amsterdam and wherever you end up you tour however you want. I won't fly on European discount airlines. Their fares are low, but their surcharges are brutal. Extra costs for having too much luggage, etc. Airports that are often far from where you want to go. All this can add up to high costs and wasted time. So once you have an itinerary, look into trains, rental cars, even busses, and enjoy what you see.

Brilliantsulk

Thanks for the replies.

I've never considered Cheapoair just because of the name, but will give it a look. Kayak seems to have great prices but found that the cost goes up once I'm on the airline website. Looks like I have my work cut out for me!

Seamus

The United website lets you book this. For your destinations use NYC (NY all airports, includes LGA, EWR and JFK), AMS and PAR (Paris all includes CDG and ORY)

I also like to use http://matrix.itasoftware.com to research itineraries, then book with the airline.

Geordie

Personally I never use multi city on third party websites or airlines as the fares bordon on the outrageous. I use travel agents and the savings are enormous.

Southam

To be fair to Cheapo, I not only received a reply to my small complaint about seat assignment, they also processed a small refund. Big astonishment!