flpab

We fly open jaw a lot. Into one city and home from another. When you book, look for multi-city next to one way or round trip. I take into account hours and stops. I know it is an 8 hour flight to Dublin. If it says hours and it is 15 with stops that is seven wasted hours of my trip. I don't like aer lingus but have an 8:20 pm flight to Dublin with them and arrive at 9:30 am in Dublin. Perfect time for me. Non-stop and the return is perfect. A 2 pm flight arriving at a decent hour back in Orlando. No rushing on that last day. I don't have to be out of my apartment till 11am so even better.

We get inexpensive hops to other places but do look at your times well before booking. We spent a little more on a Lufthansa flight this time simply because we are spending the night before in Belfast and I wanted a flight after 10 am. Still get into Frankfurt early in the day to grab rental car and head off. Our friends got a very cheap flight to Prague from Dublin. I have heard great things about WestJet. I would fly them but as I said make sure the times are good. I always just go down the list and look for the shortest flight and if it is more than it is worth it.

cassandra_asl

Price wise we have found the following

Minneapolis to Chicago ($50 July 30th Morning) (Sun Country)
Chicago to Dublin ($660 July 30th Evening) (British Airways)
Amsterdam to MSP ($410 August 16th) (icelandair)

tom_mn

The Icelandair fare is excellent, less than $500!

tom_mn

Sun Country may be risky, what if the flight is canceled? When is the next flight that day? I would pay a little more for Delta or American or United to O'Hare since they can get you there on a later flight if need be. Avoid Midway Airport and Southwest Airlines, of course; there is a single L train that connects the airports but it is a long ride.

cassandra_asl

MSP to ORD 11:33AM


ORD to DUB 6:10PM

Its close to a 7 hour layover, between our flight, if our flight is delayed there are always more (every other hour a flight leaves for Chicago)

Gardyloo

<i>Chicago to Dublin ($660 July 30th Evening) (British Airways)</i>

No it's not, it's American Airlines. BA is selling you a seat on an AA plane (codeshare - look on the reservation and you'll see "operated by American Airlines" somewhere.) Knowing this will be important when you get to O'Hare, as you'll have to transfer your luggage between terminals, and you don't want to pick the wrong terminal.

tom_mn

That ORD flight is on Spirit, their next flight will not leave till 6:30 after the Dublin flight has already left. Spirit (to O'Hare) and Sun Country and Southwest (both only fly to Midway) will not put you on another carrier if the flights are canceled or delayed, only American, Delta, and United will do that.

tom_mn

I see WestJet is now code sharing with Delta, but that's 3 segments to Dublin (Toronto and Halifax) so MegaBus is a better option than than.

As you are finding out, MSP to Ireland is not a popular routing.

I'd pay the $50 more to fly Delta or American to O'Hare. You may have more luck playing with Icelandair to London and checking out easyJet or Ryanair from there.

flpab

agree with Tom, time is money to me. Seven hour layover?

janisj

Do you have to do the cities in that precise order? Unless you must be in Dublin on a specific date -- there is no magic in dong a linear west to east itinerary. Once you are IN Europe the budget airlines can get you from any of your cities to any other.

If budget is your biggest concern and you don't have to do Dublin first -- check out fares to/from ALL of the cities you want to visit and find the best open jaw pairing. Then plan the internal flights/trains separately.

tom_mn

Kayak is offering on one ticket Delta and WestJet to Dublin one way on the 30th for $637 which is a good price if you don't mind 2 narrow jets and 3 stops. I am sure that they are quite safe to fly. Better than trying to fly on two separate tickets via Chicago.

WestJet – Flight 6605 (economy)
Operated by Delta Connection
10:00a Thu, Jul 30 MSP Minneapolis, MN
1:05p Thu, Jul 30 YYZ Toronto, ON, Canada
Canadair Regional Jet 900 (Regional Jet) | 2h 05m | 3 seats remain

Change planes YYZ Toronto, ON, Canada
WestJet – Flight 16 (economy)
5:10p Thu, Jul 30 YYZ Toronto, ON, Canada
9:40p Thu, Jul 30 YYT St. John's, NL, Canada
Boeing 737-700 (winglets) (Narrow-body Jet) | 3h 00m | 2 seats remain

Same plane YYT St. John's, NL, Canada
WestJet – Flight 16 (economy)
11:10p Thu, Jul 30 YYT St. John's, NL, Canada
7:04a Fri, Jul 31 DUB Dublin, Ireland

nytraveler

OK - for your dates in high season the cost is now up to about $1300. Naturally higher if you want fewer stops - but not being located near a major international airport that will always be a problem.

tom_mn

MSP is certainly not a major international airport but there are 5 nonstops per day to Europe on Delta and Air France. These flights rarely go below $1750 RT.

Icelandair and Condor offer lots of good MSP to Europe options in the $900-$1100 price range with connections in Iceland or Frankfurt.