We are planning a trip for summer '06 to Scandinavia for 2 adults and 2 children. I've been looking primarily at flights to Copenhagen (we live in Atlanta) but I'm wondering if I might find better deals to Stockholm, Oslo or Helsinki (or somewhere else). We can start our trip anywhere, and don't mind one connecting city. I know airlines change their prices constantly but does anyone know which cities usually have the best deals? Which Scandinavian airport is the biggest or has the most flights (hence, the likelihood of the best prices)? I know I can spend the rest of the day researching flights on the internet but I thought some experienced fodorites might have some information that would help me focus my search for airfares. Thank you!

Try these websites:

www.finnair.com

www.flysas.com

Whenever I research flights to Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen I look here first. These 2 airlines have service to all those cities daily from JFK and/or EWR. I'm not sure about Atlanta but you can check.
If you don't find a fare you like try flexing days. I think the best fares usually depart the US M-T. As you said they are always changing. I know these airlines also have family fares but I don't know what that is all about. Sounds like it may benefit you though.
I do know that the summer months it is hard to find a cheap fare to Scandanavia on any airline. Usually the cheap fares are for the off season. Sept - March.
Good luck and hope this helps.
Annika

Thank you Annika!

Continental flies to Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. But all with narrowbodied 757-200 from Newark. Probably the least comfortable of all plane types. Still, the price may be right.

Copenhagen is the largest airport in Scandinavia.

Have had luck with Continental out of Newark and Iceland Air from BWI. Usually Copenhagen is cheapest since it is biggest, but Arlanda (Stockholm) sometimes has good deals. Agree with rkkwan that the Continental plane, and their overall service leaves something to be desired, but if the price is right....

padams-- How many days you have?

we flew SAS Newark-Copenhagen and recommend it. SAS has a good offer in which an overseas ticket gets you an inter-Scandinavia ticket (anywhere they fly into in Scandinavia, show up at the airport) for about $70/pp. We took advantage of this to fly Helsinki-Stockholm. Stockholm Airport is a very nice airport.

The trick about your trip is to route such that you do not do a lot of backtracking. I recommend you fly to the farthest destination city and then work your way down. For example, I would fly into Helsinki, sightseeing for a couple of days, then fly on to Stockholm, rent a car and fly out of Copenhagen. We drove from Stockholm to various drives in Norway. By the way, I strongly suggest you allocate most of your time to Stockholm and Norway. Another word of advice is Scandinavia is expensive, specially Norway. Consider apartments/home bases so that you can day trip from there.

Please post and ask awway as your planning progresses. There is a poster, Erin, who has traveled extensively in Norway and has kindly shared his/hers whole file/notes with many posters. Seek his/hers posts to learn more about the Norway portion. Nothing beats first hand recs. Have a great time planning!

Don't know if you are still looking but Delta's website mentions new service to Copenhagen and special fares if you book soon. There did not seem to be a must fly by date. Can't get much more convenient than Delta out of Atlanta!