flying to santorini -- help needed please
 

we want to fly to santorini from rome, and then fly out of santorini to paris. we will be traveling mid-june.

we don't mind 1 stop (in athens, i assume), but we really need to try to get cheap fares.

the only airlines i can find are aegean air and olympic, and right now, the flights are pretty pricy.

any tips/advice on summer sales or other airlines??
i really appreciate any help.

thanks!!
dina

Hi

I checked www.whichbudget.com and www.kayak.com but lucked out. Aegean quoted EUR 273,86 including taxes for Rome to Santorini on 15 June. Sorry!

You may well get a better fare by going through Athens and booking separate flights. For example, using 15 June, again, I found Aegean flights from Rome to Athens as low as €79.45 on that day. That flight arrives in Athens at 2:00PM. By waiting for the 7:20PM Aegean flight from Athens to Santorini, fares are as low as €54.48. Both those prices were the Saver Fare, including taxes. You will have to input your own actual dates to see what your flights will cost.

For Athens-Paris, also try www.easyjet.com

ok, that's a good idea.

and i'll try easyjet -- we've flown with them before and they're great.

are there more airlines that do athens/santorini?

<are there more than one airlines that do athens/santorini>

On that route, only Aegean and Olympic with Aegean being the better choice IMO.

Dfr4848 is correct - only Aegean and Olympic fly between Athens and Santorini. Aegean sometimes offers Saver fares, which beat the Olympic prices. Sem-flex fares are about the same for both airlines.

Olympic Airlines is up for sale, with binding bids due by Jan 30th, I believe. The result will be a trimmed down airline with many job losses. Unions, not wanting this, have been staging work stoppages, so Olympic is less reliable than Aegean at the moment.

ok, thanks.

what does sem-flex mean?

Dina4-

https://eticket.aegeanair.com/itd/it...fare_rules.jsp

thanks everyone.

brotherleelove, do you think that there will be summer sales in the next month or two?
flights seemed so much cheaper last summer, but i can't remember when i booked -- i think february...

I do think it's possible, but there aren't any guarantees.

Hi dina4,

With easyJet, if you wait, prices will only get more expensive.

The Aegean Airline prices I showed in my earlier post <i>were</i> the Saver fares. When they are gone, all that will be left are the more expensive Semi-flex. Perhaps Saver fares aren't presently available on the dates you wish to travel. If that's the case, check other dates just before and after, and you may get a better deal. As brotherleelove said, it <i>is possible</i> there will be a summer sale, but no guarantees.

It seems with the SemiFlex fares that those are refundable and carry a 15 Euro change fee. Thus, unless I am reading the chart wrong (very likely), if there's a fare sale and the lower fares are more than 15 Euros cheaper than what you have already purchased, you can change to the lower fare and seek the refund.

Of course, this is a bit of a hassle and who knows how long it would take for the credit back to occur.

I am looking at these same issues and it seems the only non SemiFlex fares, mostly, are on the earliest or latest flights of the days, unfortunately. . .

If there ARE any summer sales on Aegean Air, which I very much doubt, they certainly will not be on Santorini flights, which are the ones MOST in demand and which sell out ... they would be on much less promoted destinations, such as: Chios, Samos, Lemnos, Mytilene (Lesvos), Larnaca etc.

ok, thanks. that's all very helpful, if not good, news.