Europe Summer Airfare
Jun 6th, 2007 | 04:39 PM
#1
Original Poster
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 72
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Europe Summer Airfare
I know summer is always expensive for airfares to Europe but I thought I'd check to see if anyone had ideas.
My brother-in-law needs to fly from LAX to Vienna for a music festival in August. My in-laws would love to go with him (they've never been to Europe) but things are way too expensive.
I've found an airfare of $1200 using Kayak but was wondering if anyone had any other ideas for a way to find cheaper flights (besides the usual search engines).
Thanks!
My brother-in-law needs to fly from LAX to Vienna for a music festival in August. My in-laws would love to go with him (they've never been to Europe) but things are way too expensive.
I've found an airfare of $1200 using Kayak but was wondering if anyone had any other ideas for a way to find cheaper flights (besides the usual search engines).
Thanks!
Jun 6th, 2007 | 05:27 PM
#3
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,228
Likes: 0
Can you adjust your airports?
Vegas to Frankfurt is $872 each total for sample dates 8/7-8/21 on Condor. www.bahn.de offers 39-Euro "Europa Spezial" tickets each way FRA to Vienna. Could constitute a substantial savings if you have the time.
Condor also flies to Munich so you might check that option as well.
Vegas to Frankfurt is $872 each total for sample dates 8/7-8/21 on Condor. www.bahn.de offers 39-Euro "Europa Spezial" tickets each way FRA to Vienna. Could constitute a substantial savings if you have the time.
Condor also flies to Munich so you might check that option as well.
Jun 7th, 2007 | 06:39 AM
#5
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 35,159
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I don't think that's a bad fare at all myself for August for that long distance. I paid more than than for late July/August from the East Coast to Switzerland, and also, some of the cheaper fares may have been booked by now.
I used to live in LA and I don't think it makes any sense nor would you save anything by flying in/out of Las Vegas instead of LA (Las Vegas isn't that close to LAX, you'd have to pay for a flight to/from it--if you are lucky you can get one for around $100 RT on Southwest), and 39 euro is around $50 also.
So that would add on $150 minimum to that $872 airfare (which only exists on those specific dates, it would be higher on any other date in August, it appears) and make it over $1000 plus adding on hours and hours of your time and making connections. So I wouldn't call that a substantial savings.
I don't think there are going to be any bargains out there, but the best thing to do is try to find some consolidators or travel agents who deal with them, I suppose, as I think Kayak etc will find the cheapest for standard airfares. Sometimes there are local ones that are best, and I don't know them anymore in LA, but a few on the internet are:
www.1800flyeurope.com
www.airgorilla.com
www.airlineconsolidator.com
www.flights.com
www.airfare.com
flights.com seems to have some flights in mid-August on Lufthansa for $1180 total, which seems to be about the same as Kayak, so maybe that's in the best deal ballpark. How about Priceline, one could try that.
I used to live in LA and I don't think it makes any sense nor would you save anything by flying in/out of Las Vegas instead of LA (Las Vegas isn't that close to LAX, you'd have to pay for a flight to/from it--if you are lucky you can get one for around $100 RT on Southwest), and 39 euro is around $50 also.
So that would add on $150 minimum to that $872 airfare (which only exists on those specific dates, it would be higher on any other date in August, it appears) and make it over $1000 plus adding on hours and hours of your time and making connections. So I wouldn't call that a substantial savings.
I don't think there are going to be any bargains out there, but the best thing to do is try to find some consolidators or travel agents who deal with them, I suppose, as I think Kayak etc will find the cheapest for standard airfares. Sometimes there are local ones that are best, and I don't know them anymore in LA, but a few on the internet are:
www.1800flyeurope.com
www.airgorilla.com
www.airlineconsolidator.com
www.flights.com
www.airfare.com
flights.com seems to have some flights in mid-August on Lufthansa for $1180 total, which seems to be about the same as Kayak, so maybe that's in the best deal ballpark. How about Priceline, one could try that.
