My DD (20) is going to Europe summer of 2008 with two friends and plan to be gone about 5 weeks. Her older sister did the same type of trip in 2004 so we are all pretty familiar with making travel arrangements, trains, routing, etc.

My DD and friends are anxious to get their tickets now, I think partly because they have the money and don't want to spend it on other things. They will be flying from So. California to Dublin and are somewhat open to a return city (probably Germany, Switzlerland). Although it seemed a little early to me, I have found fares under $1000 flying into Dublin and coming home from either Frankfurt or Brussels. They have to wait until they all get out of school so will be leaving around June 10 and coming back around July 15. For the summer months, I am not sure this airfare will get any better. In fact if they want to go all the way back to Dublin, they can do round trip for $875.

We have been using kayak, cheaptickets and ITA. My question has to do with the flight to Dublin. If you put in RT LAX to Dublin, you will fly Aer Lingus all the way. But if you come back from another city, then the cheapest first leg has then going on 2 different airlines. US Airways (not my favorite) from Santa Ana to Chicago and then Aer Lingus to Dublin. This ticket is $900. However I have always been told that you shouldn't use two different carriers on one leg because if you miss your connecting flight you have no recourse. So just wanted to confirm that is true? Also if anyone knows a way to get Aer Lingus all the way to Dublin when you are coming home from a different city, let me know. I realize the $875 fare is probably based on RT but it seems like with a slightly higher fare you could combine that with another airlines coming home.

Sorry if this is confusing. Also, their dates are flexible. We have played around with the dates. Tues, Wed and Sundays (surprisinly) have been the best. It's hard to find a ticket site that lets you search for flexible dates with an open jaw ticket. ITA will let you do it one day either way but that's it.

Sorry - meant to say that the $900 ticket is coming home from Brussels. So they would be flying Santa Ana (cheaper than LAX) to Chicago on US Airways, Aer Lingus to Dublin. Then returning home from Brussels to LAX on American Airlines with a stop in Chicago.

From California, $900 to $1000 round-trip to Europe during the busy summer seasons seems like a very good price to me. I think you need to consider where they might want to go, but from many spots in Europe, it's a very cheap nonstop hop back to Dublin on Ryanair. If they don't yet know where they might want to go, it might still be worth booking the round-trip to Dublin and then getting a cheap airfare on Ryanair back to Dublin from some other city in Europe.

Given where you live (and if they absolutely have to fly from Santa Ana), then you almost have to fly two different airlines. Even if you were able to book Aer Lingus all the way to Orange County, it would be a codeshare flight, and that's just as bad as flying on two different airlines (and in some people's opinions worse).

Just book the simplest itinerary you can find for the cheapest price and worry in January about how they're going to get back to Dublin. Or check out where Ryanair flies to in some of the places they are likely to be.

I would also add that if you can book a flight itinerary that has at least a 3-hour window before they board their Dublin-bound Aer Lingus flight, then they could reclaim their bags and check them back onto Aer Lingus, minimizing the chance for straying baggage.

As long as you purchase it as a single ticket, it should be fine because those airlines necessarily have interline agreements to get you and your bags to the destination once you have started the trip.

Where problems arise is if you purchase separate tickets, then you would be considered a no-show on the second flight if the first is late.

Many people use multi-carrier tickets every day -- getting to the gateway city on a US carrier and taking a foreign flag carier onward. Not much different from changing planes with the same carrier.

I was a little confused about the issue, and maybe couldn't concentrate -- but I would not book a ticket on two different carriers for the same leg. YOu'll be in trouble if something happens and the first flight is delayed, as the second flight is completely separate. NOw maybe someone can write you a ticket where that isn't true, I've never had that experience.

I probably wouldn't worry too much if it were a very short shuttle flight, the first one, within the US, and there were lots of departures.

However, I did find out once, to my surprise, that there are some airlines where you simply cannot split the ticket between certain carriers, they just don't allow that kind of ticket to be written. I mean the entire RT ticket, like I think I wanted to book United going over and Air France coming back, and that can't be done. I had some other examples, also, but I forget what they were, but sometimes airlines won't let a RT ticket be written with them as only half of it (and still get the cheap RT fare, of course, rather than two separate one-way fares).

Doug-The only reason they would fly out of Orange County would be because they can get a cheaper flight from there than LAX-at least with the open jaw ticket. You are right-you would always have to connect from SNA but not necessarily switch airlines.

For example-they can also get a ticket for $961
SNA to Dublin on Delta connecting through Atlanta
Brussels to LAX on American connecting through Chicago.

So on this flight for $60 more they are on Delta for both flights going and American both flights coming home.

Wasn't sure if this would be a safer bet using Delta on both flights or doing the US Airways/Aer Lingus combination.

kayd-Thanks for your reply. I wasn't sure about the situation but your explanation makes sense. I was just worried if US Airways was late into Chicago that they'd have a problem getting onto another Aer Lingus flight.

Doug-They have pretty well set up their itinerary but I did mention to them that they could just do Ryan Air back to Dublin which is what my friend's son did last summer and it worked well. That way they could book a nonstop RT LAX to Dublin. Their plan now is to go to Ireland, do RyanAir to Spain, go through the south of France (they've all been to Paris before) into Italy, do Switzerland and then end up in southern Germany or could do Belgium. They will do a combo of train and cheap flights. Don't know if they will get to all of that but it's the plan. That's why they are flexible about the return city.

Christina-I know my post was a little confusing but you understood it correctly. And you mentioned just what I was worried about. If the US Airways Flight into Chicago was delayed, would they be guaranteed to get on an Aer Lingus Flight to Dublin. kayd says they have agreements but I wasn't so sure.

I have never had a problem using two different airlines for RT. Last time to Europe we did American over and Air France back on the same ticket.

But multiple carriers on one leg has me worried. So maybe I can convince them to do RT to Dublin or pay a little more and get the Delta/American tickets.

No one can guarantee you won't miss a connect. Even on the same airline (and even with the same flight number in some cases).

What kayd means is that the airlines involved will rebook you, either on next Aer Lingus flight or on somebody else. They won't just abandon you in Chicago, which can happen if you buy the tickets separately.

You're "protected" that you'll get to Dublin. But not that they'll hold the flight for you.

rkkwan-Thanks. That explains it. In the past, I had heard about situations where a passenger missed a connection and had to pay for a whole other connecting flight. This must have been because tickets were purchased separately.

A bit OT with regard to your initial question but from that trip of your other daughter you probably remember that bagage allowance is considerably lower on flights within Europe than to/from the US.
Especially LCC like Ryanair only allow 15kg, and charge a fortune for excess luggage.

Cowboy-You are absolutely right and I am worried about that for these girls because none of them are light packers. However this time they are going to be using a backpack so will have to keep it lighter. The other girls are a little bigger but my daughter is only 5'3" and weighs around 105 pounds. So she will have to keep it light to even get around.
I just looked it up and 15kg only equals 33 lbs. I can guarantee that my other daughter's backpack was heavier than that by the end of her trip. But she actually never flew Ryanair. She used Easy Jet, Brussels Airlines and Aer Lingus. It wasn't that she was avoiding RyanAir-just didn't work in her schedule and she was able to get pretty cheap one way flights on the airlines listed above.

Hi P,

Also look at 1800flyeurope.com.

We just bought tickets through them that were $125 pp less than kayak.

Also, don't just look at the website. Call them.

Ira-Thanks for the tip.