East Coast (USA) To Central Europe
 

Can anybody let me in on any tricks of the trade for finding the cheapest available flights to Central/Eastern Europe? Websites, trackers, etc...

I'm specifically interested in spending time in Northern Poland as well as all of the Ukraine. So any arrival city that fits within those parameters.

I don't think I would go in April or May, but it's possible...otherwise I realize that I would probably wait until September (for price discounts).

Any travel tricks of the trade are appreciated.

Thank you!

1st of all. Get your tickets 60 days ahead. Use Kayak.com / fly.com / or tripadvisor.com they tend to be the best at offering the best rates available.

Hi wv,

There are no tricks of the trade.

All airlines constantly update their schedules and prices based on what is being sold and what isn't.

The best you can do is to log on to various search engines, such as www.kayak.com, and sign up for news alerts.

There are occasional one-day sales.

((I))

Look for cheaper tickets to hub cities like Frankfurt,Paris, London, Madrid, Rome and then fly on a budget airline regionally. Look at http://www.whichbudget.com/ for cheap flights all over Europe+

I flew into London and then took Easy Jet to Krakow; that worked fine. On the way back to London out of Kaunas, I flew Ryanair. There was a 10 hour delay. Of course, that might have happened with any airline, but I'm glad I hadn't paid much for the ticket. (Here's my experiences: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-july-2006.cfm ) I definitely agree with the above poster about using the local budget airlines for much cheaper prices into Central Europe.

Another site for budget flights In E urope: www.skyscanner.net

for a look at a TIME SPAN of flight prices FROM the US go to www.itasoftware.com and use the "month-long" view feature

I'm looking for flights back to Czech shortly also. "crzn1" is right, whichbudget is a good starting point for initial reference. My best rates have come from Orbitz however.
Of course we're getting into shoulder season when prices start to jump, and I'm noticing that even for April/May flights, the fares appear to be 200-450USD higher than normal already.
It would help to know what region you are flying from also. But Czech Airlines flies Chicago to PRG, and American codeshares, or at least used to, with them, as well as Lufthansa who has good transAtlantic fares. Then fly from some hub like PRG to Posnan or Warsaw. Also, consider smaller airports, for example Eindhoven, Frankfurt/Hahn, Bratislava or Brno as viable inter-Euro legs for discount carriers. And you can always hit up the forums on CouchSurfing for good current information. Good luck.

using the Low cost carrier in Europe is a great idea BUT be aware you will have to pay for luggage and you will be limited to what you carry on.They do enforce their own limits.it can cost you big time if you do not follow their rules.You will also pay for Online check in when you add bags to your flight and pay even more if you want to check in at the airport.
Also baggage weight allowance vary sometime as low as 15kg so check the websites very carefully .
Do not presume that things you can get away with on a US flight will apply to one of the LCC flights,they won't ,they don't and ingnoring any of the very strict rules they apply will cost you .
In saying all this if you stick to the rules you can get some great deals especially if going hand luggage only.

Trip was probably a couple of years ago.

After using several budget airlines in Europe I have learnjed one thing: the so-called legacy carriers are becoming much more competitive depending on the route/market. Last year we got a much better deal on a flight from London to Berlin than we would have gotten on EasyJet and I like EasyJet a lot. So it pays to compare.

Meant to say we got a much better deal on British Air

bugger ,got caught out by a necro-
poster.

Gdansk is a popular destination with low cost carriers. My brother frequently takes RyanAir from London.

WizzAir has connections to Gdansk from Paris and London.

Mark