Finding flights to/from Europe on two airlines
 

I am trying to find a decent price on an open jaw ticket using two airlines, either American and Continental or Lufthansa and Continental to go ORD-BCN & LIS-ORD.

I've checked the individual airline sites as well as Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Cheap Tickets without success. They never come up with Continetal for a return option. I want to be able to pick my own flights and not pay more than $715.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

I have two suggestions.

First, indicate some dates. I can easily find AA/CO routings that cost $1200 in October, but don't have a clue if you're flying in October, March, or tomorrow afternoon.

Second, go to wwww.itasoftware.com, select the "multi-segment" option, and type in the following - (from) ORD::AA+ (to)BCN
...then on the return segment, type (from) LIS::CO+ (to) ORD Note two colons ::

This will return all AA flights eastbound, only CO flights westbound. Note the AA flights will probably all be on Iberia "codeshare" flights; AA doesn't fly to BCN on their own metal.

Repeat the process substituting "LH+" for AA+, which will return multiple Lufthansa flights eastbound.

You can't book through ITA but you can use one of the online engines to specify your flights, if you copy the routing codes from the flight lists. Or you can call the originating airline and book through them, but you'll pay their phone charge. You are basically asking them to go outside their alliance relationships (AA - Oneworld, LH - Star, CO - Skyteam) so don't expect bottom-dollar fares.

You didn't ask, but I'd ride one airline or the other on both transatlantic legs, and use an LCC for the intra-Europe flights.

I'm slightly confused why you want to fly with two different airlines. Is there any particular reason for this?

Obviously the price will depend on your dates but I just plugged in some November dates into Expedia for your itinerary and plenty of options came up under $715. Mainly Delta and British Airways options but there were some Lufthansa options too.

We're leaving Nov 2, returning Nov 19.

Lufthansa and American have the best ORD-BCN schedules.

Friends we'll be with are flying home on Continental, and it would be nice to be on the same flight. From ORD to BCN, we'd have to take three flights to fly Continental, and don't want to do that.

I've looked at flights on itasaoftware, but didn't know how to "force" Expedia, etc to price specific flights.

What is LCC?

Thanks for the help.

LCC = Low-cost carrier (I think) like one of the European budget or no-frills airlines.

LCC = low cost carrier, eg easyJet, Germanwings, Ryanair, etc. Look for routes on www.whichbudget.com.

Try the "select flights separately" command on Expedia. I've tried your dates and can force the itin you want, but it prices out at over $1500; looks like the LIS-EWR nonstop on CO is the pinch point.

Mixing carriers is most likely not the best way to save money.

The cruise line can get us the Lufthansa/Continental flights for $762; well, that's the amount they would refund us if we didn't take their "included" air, plus a $50pp deviation fee because we're going to Barcelona two days before the cruise, and staying in lisbon two days after, plus a $50 pp charge because these flights are more expensive than the ones they'd give us if we were only going in/out the days of the cruise.

I can find American flights for $705-$715, and wanted to see how I could do with their flights on my own. We'll need to decide if travelling home with our friends is worth approximately $115.