jojoblais

I'm trying to find the lowest fares I can. I'd like to leave 6/7 from newark or JFK to Barcelona.
Then we want to return from Paris on 6/16.
I know that sometimes strange, odd, seemingly indirect routes can be much cheaper than the traditional flights, which right now are exhorbitant.
also - what can you tell me about train travel from barcelona to paris? or would it be better to fly?

jamikins

Can't help with flights from the US but I would definitely fly between the two cities. Check www.whichbudget.com for cheap flights but watch out for all the extra charges and luggage restrictions on budget airlines as they are very strict!

Christina

I think it would be better to fly, but you can compare rates, I think flying is cheaper (certainly quicker). I think Easyjet flies that route.

Coincidentally, I'm doing that same trip in July and compared airfares forever. I wasn't willing to take the cheapest rates as I wanted at least one way to be nonstop (Paris to home). But you must have seen all the regular flights like I did, they were very expensive and didn't vary that much (some a bit cheaper due to long layovers or something). I'm flying KLM, I think United was a bit cheaper.

I don't know of any odd indirect route that will give you something much cheaper for that flight.

jojoblais

Thanks I will try those.

Yes, the airfare is crazy expensive.

Seamus

Also looking at that same itinerary for July, trying to decide whether to stay in Spain the whole vacation or spend time in Paris, too.
Best place to compare fares is http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ where you can look at multiple options. For departure city use NYC to see both EWR and JFK. For return use PAR to see both CDG and ORY. Looks like out of JFK best price for nonstop is Delta ($1548), out of EWR best nonstop is UA ($2155). Flights with connections from both available at lower cost ($1480 JFK, $1580 EWR)

You can also use the ita site to search for BCN -PAR flights - looks like plenty of nonstops into Orly for €65 - 95 on Vueling. That is cheaper and faster than the overnight train.

Robert2533

Check with an agent! As nice as ITA is, it does not include all possibilities. A good agent, who does consolidator fares, may be able to find just what you're looking for, and you don't have to waste your time searching endlessly on the internet.

MrNuke

@lojoblais<i>"I know that sometimes strange, odd, seemingly indirect routes can be much cheaper than the traditional flights, which right now are exhorbitant."</i>

It can, but I think you also need to recognize how the vast majority of multi-city tickets are priced. Using Seamus' recommendation of ITA shows this pretty well. If you buy a NYC-BCN and a CDG-NYC multi-city round trip ticket, the airline prices it as a NYC-BCN leg on round trip fare and a CDG-NYC leg on a round trip fare. Unless the outbound flights to Paris from New York are incredibly booked up on a given day, the price savings flying to Barcelona on leg 1 typically aren't going to be great.


Using your dates for DIRECT flights, it was actually cheaper to fly to Paris directly (Air France) and back instead of flying through Barcelona. <b>If your goal is to get to Paris and spend the entire trip there</b>, I'd strongly consider skipping Barcelona. The way airline pricing works the majority of the time, it isn't going to be overly advantageous to your plan.

Consider looking at XL Airways as well. They are a low cost carrier and I just priced out a flight on your dates for less than $1000.

@Seamus,
I love ITA and always look at it before booking a flight, but particularly for Europe it is advantageous to look at other sites as well. Just like how ITA won't show Southwest flights in the U.S., there are multiple low cost carriers that ITA won't show in Europe. In this instance, Easyjet, and Ryanair have direct flights that ITA doesn't show.

Southam

www.skyscanner.net turns up European budget carriers that may not appear on ITA and other aggregator websites.

Christina

I don't think it is surprising that a RT to Paris is cheaper than going to BCN and returning from Paris. Barcelona is just more expensive to get to, that's all, although not that much. I was comparing those two options, and RT Paris was always cheaper, but I think only by $50 or so.

But I presumed the goal here was to actually spend time in Barcelona, otherwise there was no point to even mentioning Barcelona, it wouldn't make sense to expect that such a route would be cheaper than RT Paris, especially given the cost of then getting from Barcelona to Paris.

Seamus

I thought the same thing, Christina. The reason I am looking at open jaw itineraries is to spend time in BCN then Paris.

BigRuss

<<If your goal is to get to Paris and spend the entire trip there, I'd strongly consider skipping Barcelona.>>

That's not the goal.

Someone misunderstood the question. The OP wants to go to BCN, stay and explore, then go to Paris, explore, revert to USA.

jojoblais

Actually, we've decided to look into doing some days in Lisbon instead of Paris. So, now Lisbon to Barcelona and Barcelona home.
Mostly finding the cheapest I"m getting is around $1576, no matter how I cut it.

Any suggestions on decent, but economical hotels in those cities?

MrNuke

Yep I certainly did misread the OP.

Lojoblais, where are you looking? Using your dates, I'm seeing multiple flights in the $1300-$1400 range including a direct flight from EWR-LIS on United and a connecting on 1 stop in Germany or Switzerland. I can price out an intinerary for under $1500 on ITA that includes the LIS-BCN flight as well.