Airfare - Toronto -> Athens Aug 05 - $1600 reasonable?
 

I've been looking for airfares for our trip to Greece this year. We will be leaving Aug 25 from Toronto and returning Sept 12.
The prices I've found so far are $1600 and $2400. Even the charter flights (Airtransat) are posting $1500 for August flights. Is this for real? Am I just to early for the good prices or will we really need to pay this much? I thought we'd be able to get something for the $1000 range (this is what I payed to Italy in 2002). When is the time to buy tickets to Greece?

Why don't you ask your travel agent?

Unless you're able to catch a special fare sale between now and August I suspect that what you've already found is the norm. Fuel price increases have allowed airlines to raise their rates, and with August being Peak Travel Season you're probably not going to find anything cheaper unless you get lucky. Don't give up, keep looking around, diligently google all the discount airfare websites and the airlines' websites every few days and perhaps something less expensive will materialize. Also, I don't know if it's a realistic option for you, but could you possibly go to Buffalo or Detroit for your flight? It might be cheaper.

Good Luck.

You're too early. Just hang on, and you should be able to find a better fare.

These are just some random suggestions:

How fixed are your dates? Are you willing to fly to London, stay there for a bit, and then take a low-cost carrier flight to Athens? I know Alba Tours in Toronto has charter flights to Italy. You could fly to Italy and then take a flight or ferry to Greece.

For example, from selloffairfares.com you can get a charter flight for $703 CAD total from Toronto to London Gatwick, for August 26 - September 13. You could stay overnight near Gatwick, and take a roundtrip flight the next morning to Athens on EasyJet, for 119 pounds, returning Sept. 11. Total cost of this method including an extra hotel stay near Gatwick will be in the range of $1100 CAD - which may or may not be worth it to you.

Thank you for your responses. I have found a Delta flight through JFK for $1200 though I don't think it includes all the taxes.

I'll check with a travel agent to see if perhaps they can find something better.

I'm just starting to really worry because these prices are so much higher than what we had budgeted. We're doing this on a very tight budget. Oh well we'll make it work, because travelling is just worth it!

that's expensive, but also the prices i found when i checked for you. probably a lack of competition issue.

you can fly from from NYC to ATH for about $750, and canjet has a fare from toronto to NYC for $137 in August/Sept, which would get you into your expected price range. If you can't figure out how to put the two tickets together, a travel agent could help you.

Matrexx, ITASoftware.com suggests JetBlue from BUF to JFK, and then Delta for JFK-ATH. ITASoftware says the total would be $854 USD total, which may not be a "findable" fare, but you could try.

Has anyone tried the kind of itinerary WillTravel suggested above, that is, flying to London and then taking EasyJet to Athens? I'm curious about doing something like this, because it often seems like it would be cheaper than getting a ticket from the US to Athens, but I'm not sure how difficult the transfer in London would be.

A similar itinerary would be going to Brussels or a nearby airport, and then taking Virgin Express.

I've done that sort of thing several times, but not to Greece.

It's not difficult, but I always allow an overnight or two in London each way.

With the flights both in and out of Gatwick, as in this case, it would be quite easy.

Even with an airport transfer, it's not hard.

I don't see many low prices to Greece; I suspect that the more toured countries, like Italy, have lower prices because of higher volume and competition.

As to taking one of the low cost European airlines to your final destination, that has a superficial attraction as it looks like you save money. Perhaps you do, but you have to deal with changed airports (arriving in London at one airport, but departing London from another), and many of the budget airlines use secondary airports, so you have to be prepared for a little extra land travel after landing. Also, you have to leave a lot of time to make your connection, which often means staying overnight in your transit city, with the costs that involves. The final problem that I know of is the draconian baggage limits on the budget airlines. Simply put, they don't allow as much baggage as the legacy airlines, and their fees for overweight baggage are often very high.

I wondered in reading this thread if everyone is using the same dollar? If the $1600 is Canadian dollars, thats not as shockingly high as it first appears.

We fly to Greece every summer. We usually leave the States( Boston ) between June 29- July 4. We return between Aug 17-24. These are the fares for the last few years, believe me that I check them closely and constantly.
2002- coach Swiss-Air 750.00 each
2003_ coach BA Air 925.00 each
2004- coach Alitalia 1220.00 each
This year I have been looking constantly since the first of the year.
Coach fares have been running between 1100-1200 for our dates.
I booked the tickets with BA, upgraded to world traveller + for 1350 each. I just didn't think a sale was going to appear.
If any fare appears in the 1100-1400 range you should book it.
You may find a better fare flying out of NY, but then again you have to get there, change carriers, which in my opinion is not worth the small amount of money you save.
Good luck

$1600 CAD is $1325 USD.

In this particular case, there's no need to switch airports if this method is chosen. But because the Canadian connection as described relies on a charter, which is often late or very late, it would be silly to time a too-close connection.

You may have to split your flights up to save the money from TO to get something in the $1500 or less range. If you check prices direct from Toronto to Athens through Britsh Airways for example, connecting in London, the price per person will come up in the $2,600 range per person. If you then separately try booking tickets (in some cases for the exact same flights) TO to London return and then London to Athens return separately, the price will be approximately half. This is what we did and we saved exactly half the price from Toronto to Athens.

We have read a number of articles in various travel magazines and newspapers since we booked our flights advising the same thing - that the cheapest method of travelling from Canada to Greece is to first book flights from Toronto to England or Ireland and then arrange a separate connecting flight to Athens (with enough of a comfort margin between flights for delays). One suggestion in Travel + Leisure or Conde Nast was to go through Ireland where the hub is not as busy as Heathrow. (I tried that on Travelocity and it works.) My suggestion - first check out available flights from Toronto to Heathrow or Ireland on a site like Travelocity from all airlines. Then find out the same airline's flights from that hub to Athens. (You don't have to fly the same airline from Ireland/England to Athens but we felt more comfortable trying to arrange the two flights with the same airline) Once you've got the itinerary, if you don't feel comfortable booking on the net, call your travel agent and give the flights and times BUT tell them to check the price booking the tickets separately.

Of course there is one other alternative - I hear that there are some real hot deals on some Jetsgo flights this week!!! (snicker snicker)

Good luck

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I looked into buying two seperate tickets (eg TOR > London & London > Athens). This does indeed come out cheaper - found it for $1400 CAD (tax incl). Also found charter TOR > Paris for $850 CAD and the Paris to Athens for $150 (Easyjet) for a total of $1250.

At this point I think I"ll talk to a travel agent to see what they can do to help. I'll also be patient and see what happens in the next month or so.

Thanks again!

GO TO www.onetravel.com...I found a R/T using a combo of Air Canada and Delta from Toronto on your specified dates for approx $1200 CAN each. Check it out.

ttt

The problem with OneTravel for Canadians is that they require the purchaser to be a US resident with a US billing address on one's credit card. The site tells you to go to Tiss.com if you live outside the US.

I've been flying to Greece every year as well for the past several years and you just got to look in advance based on my experience.

I live in Michigan and end up driving about 3 1/2 hrs to Chicago in order to save about $500 a ticket every year because its the only way to get a reasonable price. Seeing as how you're flying out of Toronto you should have no problem since it should have an ample amount of flights.

In the past I've bought a ticket to Heathrow and then a separate ticket to athens (which is a little hassle to get bags but I saved several hundred dollars in doing so..

This year I'm also going to Greece for too months - leaving September 2 and I got a flight with a connection in Heathrow for only $875 out of O'hare. This is because I bought my ticket in advance.

If I were you I would try to get the cheapest price you can find - and book it pretty soon. If you wait too long you may end up getting stuck with a flight for a couple thousand easily.

Goodluck searching..

If i come across anything I'll post it..

I would like to fly out from Chicago in the beginning of September. There are some 'Expedia Bargain Fare' where the flight information is only released after the purchase. The fares are much cheaper than regular ones. Did anyone use it?
MichiganSt_grl, based on you experience on fying from Chicago, do you think that $836 is a reasonable price for September? I thought, it was very expensive, but I never flew to Greece.
Than you!