I need help with an open jaw trip to Europe!
 

I'm planning a trip to Europe in August of 2011 and I'm looking to fly in/out of different cities. I'm interested in flying into London and flying out of either France or Italy. Where are some of the best places to find deals on open jaw flights and how far in advance should I be looking?

Also from you experienced travelers, how much can I expect to pay for a one-way flight from San Francisco to London, and a one-way trip from the mainland in Europe back to SFO? Both of these flights will be in August. I'm trying to get a feel for a ballpark of what I should be expecting so I can jump on a good deal when one arises.

Thanks for the help!

try Kayak.com

You don't put in for two one-way tickets. That would be very expensive. Websites will let you select open jaw or multi-city or multiple destinations instead of round trip. That's what you want. www.kayak.com is a good one that compares the prices of many websites, both airline sites and discount places. It's too early now to get a good price. Can't help with prices from San Francisco, though, as I live in NY.

At some point, you need to decide how much you're willing to spend, check DAILY and be ready to jump on it when you see the price you want. I stress daily checks. I recently booked my flight to Rome for February. I had been checking daily, and then all of a sudden, the price dropped almost $150 in one day. It stayed at that price for only two days, then went up $60, then a couple days later it was back up the $150. If I had only been checking every few days, I very well could have missed that price!

You don't want ONE-WAY tickets!!! You want a round-trip ticket into one city and out of another. Called "open jaw" or sometimes on websites you need to look under "multi-city".

Flights from SFO to Europe are expensive in August. I have a $1,727 ticket RT from SFO to CDG for arrival in June & return in July. Flying Mon thru Thurs is a little less expensive, and flights to LHR are less expensive than CDG. In the past, I've flown for as little as $600 to CDG. Open Jaw is a little more expensive, but not much.

Like SusanP mentioned, do a "multiple destination" on Travelocity or some other site to find airlines that service the places you are interested in. Then go to the specific airlines site to save another $50 or so. I am flying Delta/AF non stop to CDG - which is about the same cost as 1 stops.

Stu Dudley

BTW, your best bet will probably be LHR/CDG. Rome seems to be difficult to get to/from SFO on open jaw - at least it was last time I tried (a few years back).

Stu Dudley

And when booking your open jaw, you will usually save quite a bit if you fly IN to London and OUT of another country instead of the other way around. UK exit fees/taxes are higher than most other countries. (Of course, w/ all the economy/budget problems -- other countries may be adding taxes/fees too)

Thanks so much for all of the tips everybody. I was only searching one-way flights before so I'm very pleased to now see the prices are coming down by nearly a factor of 3!

Are there any cities in Europe that are notoriously cheap or expensive to fly out through? Also, is there a particular time frame when deals on flights are at their best? As of right now we're about 8.5 months out from the trip.

>>is there a particular time frame when deals on flights are at their best? <<

IMO, not for travel in peak season !!!

Flights are cheap for travel in "low" season - but that is not whe you will be flying.

Stu Dudley

Not sure what your dates are, but I punched in leaving SFO to London on 8/2, returning from Rome to SFO on 8/23id. Cost was $1221 PP. One stop. Thirteen hours going over and fifteen hours on return. Did this on kayak. However, it's always dificult to suggest when the sales will happen.

Just for fun, I plugged a date in mid July for SFO to LON, and a return from PSA (Pisa) a month later, into hipmunk, a sort of new air fare site. http://www.hipmunk.com/ for a multi city trip. The low fare was $1355 on US Airways. You will have fun plugging in your own dates and cities into various sites.

Those prices seem very reasonable. What would you consider a "steal"? As in, the price that you can't pass up and book ASAP.

I heard that Tuesday morning is when the airlines open up seats for reward tickets. I usually use my miles to purchase my European tickets.....I don't know if at that time they also open up seats for special purchase prices. Good Luck

"<i>Are there any cities in Europe that are notoriously cheap or expensive to fly out through? </i>"

Not sure if you saw my post directly above yours since we were posting at the same time. But yes -- it generally is cheap-ish to fly into London due to the heavy competition on that route, and it is more expensive to fly home from London due to the high exit fees.

Check out Air Berlin, which flies from SF seasonally (in the summer) to many cities in Europe. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at their fares. I'm not sure if the SF to Europe fares for 2011 are available yet.

jw;

Do you have particular dates in mind? A range for outgoing/incoming, perhaps?
Are you wedded to France and Italy for the return? I'll presume London for arrival.
Do you need non-stop either going out, coming back, or both?
Can I presume you don't want anything more than one-stop if you don't require non-stop?

I will do some serious snooping for you if you put a little more of a box around this.

I have used vayama.com twice for open jaw trips. They have been very easy to work with and very easy to reach by phone.

Sebina

Try ITA software, which is the engine that drives a number of online booking sites such as Orbitz. You can't book through ITA but you can usually replicate their fares using Expedia, Orbitz etc. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

and I just bought a one-way ticket from London to Berlin on British and it was only slight more expensive than using EasyJet, greater baggage allowance, and more convenient airport and departure times and no seat selection charge

London is often the cheapest, not just because of the competition, but because it is one of the closest cities you can fly to. Dublin is also often good, for that reason, but not nearly as many flights go there. Obviously, it will cost a lot more to fly farther, time and fuel.