worldview

Does anyone know any secrects towards obtaining discounted air fare from the U.S to Warsaw, Prague, Budapest area? If not these places, does any one have any other general secrets towards finding an unusually low fare?

mjs

What do you mean by an unusually low fare? When do you want to go? Where are you departing from? I do not think there are any real secrets.

Alec

Generally speaking, there are few bargains on direct flights to Eastern Europe. You are usually better off finding flights to major European city like London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam etc and connecting flight to Eastern Europe. Often secondary city like Manchester, Glasgow or Dublin have even keener transatlantic fare and it's easy to find a low-fare connection. There are now plenty of cheap flights from UK to Poland, for example, and it's possible to find a roundtrip fare not much more than £100 ($200), depending on season.

bobthenavigator

You are several years late--it is a whole new ballgame.

alanRow

I'd fly to a major European hub like Amsterdam and get a flight from there.

NOTE if you are flying to London, try to fly to Gatwick as there is a low costs airline that flies from there to Warsaw

If you fly to Heathrow then you have to change to another London airport which is a process you need to allow several hours for

alanRow

Oops link - www.whichbudget.com

AAFrequentFlyer

If you live in a city with a large Polish population, i.e. New York, Boston or Chicago, try to find a travel agent that specializes in flights to Poland. Many of the local travel agents will have access to consolidator fares which may save you couple of hundred $ on flights between US and Poland.

Also, try the following:

http://tinyurl.com/597udg

worldview

Great advice. I'm looking to fly into Prague, and i'm guessing some of the 'major European cities' have connections there, as well as to Warsaw. The tricky part is this: i'm trying to book a flight for two, and we're both leaving from different cities (Detroit and Philly) - my hope is that I can find a flight that lays over in New York, where my cousin can get on and we'll head over together. Otherwise one of us will need to fly to the other's city ahead of time. The same situation on the way back - I know many flights go through New York, so i'm hopeful. The idea was to go into Prague and wind our way up to Warsaw and leave from there...any additional advice is helpful.

WillTravel

How important is it to fly together, versus saving hundreds of dollars?

worldview

The importance of flying together is yet to be determined; however, you're probably right, if we could just meet at the airport in Europe, we may be able to save hundreds of dollars. I'm still worried that we'll need to spend $1200 + as it is.

cybertraveler

You can do a search on www.kayak.com, then save your search and they'll send you daily emails tracking the lowest price for your itinerary.

I did this, and snatched up a ticket from US to Venice for $1201. For the past month, that's still the lowest price shown on kayak.

Good luck!

Christina

I don't think you are going to find any unusally low fares to those points because they aren't major hubs for international flights. There are few flights that are even direct to those points from the US, they almost always go throug another city which is a hub (London or Paris, for example). Czech Air has nonstop flights from NYC, I believe, to Prague, and may be as good as you'll get. I think there is a large Czech population in the Chicago area, and perhaps some flights from there will be more reasonable.

I have flown into Prague a couple times, and the best flights from my East Coast city have been through either London or Paris.

Paul Laifer tours specializes in that area and they seem to have some special flight deals, also, you can check them.

walkabout

What time of year are you planning to go? I had planned to go to Prague in May, but the price was around $1100. So I went mid-March from San Diego to Prague, via New York and London for a total of $686. I flew American Airlines and got my ticket on vayama.com.

I know that Delta flies from Detroit and Philadelphia to Prague through New York and London. However, they don't necessarily offer the lowest fare. If you and your cousin don't mind making your way to Prague separately, you will probably save about $300 per ticket.

If it is essential that you and your cousin fly out of New York together, and you can't coordinate it out of your respective cities, you could of course, buy 2 separate tickets--one from Detroit/Philadelphia to New York and another from New York to Prague. If you do this, please allow yourself plenty of time to make the New York connection, particularly if it's on separate airlines.

worldview

Thank you, i'll be starting an aggressive search this next week. We're going in early August. My cousin is a teacher and unable to travel in September or October, otherwise I think we may go then (both because it's cheaper i'm sure, and there's less tourists).

romana

I fly often to Prague from Italy and use SkyEurope(www1.skyeurope.com/en/). They are a low-cost airline, and they are very reliable and efficient. Unlike other discoiunt airlines, like Ryan Air, you get a seat assignment, don't pay for luggage, etc. Since I am often travelling with kids, this is a plus. They fly to Prague, Bratislava and Warsaw from quite a few European cities, so you may consider this option. Good luck!

Big_Red

On sidestep's website, you can sign up for 'faretracker'. Faretracker will send you a daily e-mail with airfares for the cities and dates that you need. Its best deal will be quoted as well as a few option.

We still found a better by using a consolidator - ATIFlights.

worldview

We'll be flying in early August. Still hopeful that i'll find a 'great' fare.