artey

I am lost in the forrest of search sites...lost in links and windows.
Does anyone have a better way? I want to travel with 3 others to Italy during Christmas break. We are flexible as to cities for arrival and can even be outside of Italy. I am just worn out with this jungle and tired of wasting time! :--[
Suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

Artey

kybourbon

I always use ITAsoftware for flight searches (they are the company that provide the search function for many of the online booking websites). You can't book through them. When you find what you want, book directly with the airline. You can search random dates or times along with multiple departure/arrival cities to find cheapest flights.
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

logos999

You have to check the flyertalk forums for the best deals. Those are called "fuel dump", which doesn't mean that they actually dump fuel, but they dump the fuel surcharge if you do it right. The classic is booking an open jaw flight where one airline involved issues the ticket but doesn't charge the fuel surcharge for the other airline for a number of reasons. Those tickets are appearing rather frequently on expedia. One option is to add a 3rd flight that doesn't charge ths surcharge but issues the ticket. This 3rd flight won't ever be used but brings down the total amount.

I've flown MUC-JFK roundtrip 140€ twice, MUC-BOS 180€,
right now MUC-LAX-LHR is available for 317€. This thing works both ways until they fix the glitch. They always do, but with new overseas airlines like BMI, it opens up again.

I'm contemplating flying MUC-LAX-LHR in February for 317€, but I've already been there a number of times and LHR-MUC either costs 65€ extra or is quite some hassle by car/train
Since the 2nd bag isn't free anymore, buying cheap stuff from walmart isn't an option either...

artey

Thanks, for your replies. I'll look into your suggestions today. Incidentally, my point of origin is Dallas.

logos999

Try nearby airports too. MUC-LAX-LHR is 317, but MUC-LAX, Ontario-LHR is even cheaper. So Dallas can also be Austin or HOU. It's just crazy. It isn't easy finding the best option but you can save quite some money.

Dukey1

Itasoftware will default you to kayak.com so you may as well go to that site directly. And don't forget that the airlines are very aware of the dates of the so-called holiday period and you can EXPECT prices to be higher regardless of trying to manipulate the system and avoiding fuel surcharges, booking segments you won't ever use, etc.

lrock5

Just bought tickets to Paris on Air France for 858 dollars over the Christmas Holidays. I have been looking for about 6 weeks and airfare has remained pretty steady. I finally just bought them today. Houston may have better choices. We always fly from there and I try to connect the least amount of times possible. You can try Air France and connect in Paris. We did that a few years ago to Italy and it was fine.

kybourbon

>>>Itasoftware will default you to kayak.com so you may as well go to that site directly<<<

No it doesn't. I've used ITA to search flights for years and it doesn't default you anywhere. It states on the page I linked that you have to go to the airline, etc. to book:

Note: Tickets cannot be purchased directly from ITA Software.
If you find a fare you like, you can give the information from this site to your travel agent or airline when making a booking.

highbay

I just put in a search on the Itasoftware for Orlando to Glasgow as we are planning an April trip. For the dates that we are looking at, the software gave us prices that were almost $200 more than Virgin Atlantic is showing....wouldn't use that as a sole search.

qwovadis

Just booked AA.com DFW Europe by getting

2 AAdvantage CCs 80000 miles total got

free FF flights just $50 tax each way

Took us 1 month total we closed out cards

right after we booked... cheapest we have ever done it.

might look at that also

farecompare.com deals out of DFW every Tues PM

also kayak.com/buzz and cheapoair.com

Happy Hunting!

artey

So many great tips - I appreciate them all. Will begin my search anew tomorrow. Maybe there is hope yet.

kybourbon

>>>>For the dates that we are looking at, the software gave us prices that were almost $200 more than Virgin Atlantic is showing....wouldn't use that as a sole search.<<<<

FYI - Ita Software is the software company that powers the Virgin Atlantic fare searches. You can see the list of companies that are their clients on their home page. If you are seeing a difference in fares, it's possible one has just updated and the other hasn't. Also, if you just looked at flight prices on the first screen on Virgin Atlantic's website, taxes are not included.
http://www.itasoftware.com/

easytraveler

Sometimes I've found better airfares on skyscanner.net than on kayak.

Once when thinking of renting a car, it turned out that AutoEurope had the best airfares - and one didn't have to rent a car from them.

I tend to use consolidators for travel to Asia, but haven't used them for Europe, so don't know if they would offer better prices for you or not.

phieaglefan

I fall firmly into the itasoftware camp. The greatest part is that you can search over a full month for the best fare from say Dallas, OKC, Witchita Falls, Austin, Waco or Shreveport to say Milan, Venice, Zurich, Munich, Paris or Rome. You then tell it you want to stay for 11 to 14 nights or whatever. It finds all of those options for you in a nice format.

For what it's worth, the site's real usefulness is in the advanced routing codes that can help you determine routes with the most mileage earning potential.

Another thought that I didn't see anyone mention, is try to get a cheap flight to London and take one of the inexpensive european airlines for your connection out of London. But that can be a royal pain as well.

Happy hunting!
H

mokka4

arty:
I just checked itasoftware this morning after seeing the above post...
It CONFIRMED the fares that I found over the course of the last week spent on expedia/travelocity/cheapoair/tripadvisor, etc. etc.
I will now START all my searches at this site!
Thanks kybourbon!

joannay

Signing up for notifications from Airfare Watchdog may yield some results: http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/

tdyls

Another endorsement for ITA.

Learn how to use the advanced routing codes to maximize the effectiveness (say I want to only fly on Skyteam airlines, with M class, no tight connections, etc. etc. -- there is an option for each of those). The ARC's are very cryptic to learn at first, but once you do, they are very powerful.

Equally as cryptic is learning all of the acronyms, inside jokes, and euphemisms on flyertalk. Flyertalk is also very useful, but it has a vocabulary all its own.

kybourbon

If you are really interested in air fare deals, the place to hang out is Flyertalk as tdyls said. If you don't understand what someone is talking about, do a search for their vocab list.

Fare Compare also is good to search for cheap flights if you don't have a particular itinerary.
http://www.farecompare.com/search/flyertalk.html

ed1mel

Dear Community members, especially logos999, could you please just hint me briefly regarding muc to bos route. I use it at least once a year to visit aging parents in Europe, so that will be really of great help. Many Thanks in Advance and once I'll get the idea how it works I'll come back with my contributions to this thread and other forum topics. thanx a LOT!

julies

logos contributions were a year and a half ago. I wonder if any of those types of deals and prices are still around. I got sticker shock this spring when I bought tickets to
Europe after not having visited or several years.

Go the itasoftware flexible search. You can specify a range of number of days to stay, and you can also search for flexible dates at the same time. You can do a search for up to 30 days. This is ALWAYS my first stop when looking for tickets. where you can enter flexible dates and flexible stay search for a month. That will help you to identify the best dates to fly.