Hi All-

I hope I am doing this right as this is my first time on Fodors. We are planning a trip to Europe in September and I have a question about flights. CAN we fly into Amsterdam and fly out of Belfast? If so how the heck do I do it?
We would be flying into AMS taking the train to Brussels onto Waterloo then flying to Venice. From Veice we will be flying to Shannon renting a car and driving up north..So I want to make sure we can fly into one city and fly out of another!!

Any help/comments would very appreciated!

-Kate

Yes, you can do as you suggest. It's called an open-jaw ticket. All airline and travel websites let you book such tickets under the 'multi-city' option.

let's say you're flying out of JFK.
Flight 1: JFK to AMS
Flight 2: Shannon - JFK

You can book the London-Venice flight on the same booking, or separately on your own.

Note however the best fares will only come if you use the same airlines - or at least ones that codeshare.

So for your example you might find the cheapest flights become US to Amsterdam, then Belfast to Amsterdam to US.

I would suspect a JFK to AMS & SNN to AMS would be by non-partner airlines and so you might end up being charged single fares for each leg

Flights within Europe are probably best booked separately using a low costs airline - see www.whichbudget.com & www.skyscanner.net - though DON'T dismiss using a traditional carrier as intra-Europe fares can be very competitive

Don't look for "open jaw" on websites It's "multi-city".

Neither Belfast nor Shannon have terribly good air connections.

Continental does fly from Newark to both Belfast and Amsterdam. But there are no other conventional scheduled transatlantic flights from Belfast (other transatlantic operators, like Zoom or flyglobespan, have limited European operations outside the Brirtish Isles, and don't interline).

There are no flights from Belfast to either Dublin or Shannon - the only two other cities in Ireland with scheduled transatlantic flights.

If Continental isn't convenient, you'll need to catch a connection from Belfast to a nearby intercontinental hub off the island of Ireland, or drive back to Dublin.

If you're going to catch a connecting flight from either of Belfast's airports to a major airport slightly east of Belfast, then Amsterdam is pretty well as handy as Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester. Quicker than driving to Dublin. And if you're not starting your journey in New York, transferring flights in Amsterdam probably makes for a slicker connection than doing so in Newark.

All of which is to say that open jaw might not make much sense for you, unless you're starting off from the New York area