csmart01

What is the best website you have found for monitoring general flights? I say general because I am flexible and am looking to put a low cost "watch" on flights from NYC area (any of 4 airports in my area) to France, Germany, Amsterdam or anywhere in the area for the month of June... or July ;-)

I know of may sites where I can pick a route and have it e-mail me if rates drop but never a site that allowed this much flexibility... am I asking for too much? I want a button that says "click here to be e-mailed if we find any flight from NYC to Europe for $650 or less R/T"

Thanks.

mclaurie

I like Kayak and I think they have something that will send emails. I just found this sale there

http://tinyurl.com/ax4fu5

Kayak also has a "chart" for major routes that gives you the history of the fares so you can see how high or low they've been.

Kyliebaby3

Kayak is the best IMO as well. They don't bombard you with emails, and they're good about sticking to your preferences for the email alerts you set-up. And Kayak will allow you to set-up an alert with a specific price, and then email you if it drops below that price.

If you're looking to check another website of your own volition (i.e. not have alerts set-up), you should try www.vayama.com too. I've found some good prices on there randomly, but I don't think they have the capability to monitor prices and alert you.

Good luck!

Kyliebaby3

I don't know if your dates are set, but I just got an email from Airfarewatchdog.com, and flights from LAX-Paris in mid to late August including taxes are $618-700. I almost fell out of my chair!

I checked it just to be sure...it's a US Airways sale on Orbitz. You might go there today to see what you can find from NYC (always cheaper to fly from the E Coast). This particular flight connected in Philly and another one connected in Charlotte.

Good luck!

Aramis

farecompare.com operates like kayak but it is less intuitive.

nytraveler

There are only 2 international airports in NYC and a total of 3 anywhere near the city.

(There are a couple of others in incredibly inconvenient distant suburbs that are best avoided at all costs, unless your destination is in the immediate vicinity, and none is international.)

Sassafrass

Bookmarking

Leely2

Try also sidestep.com.

Aramis

nytraveler;

The OP didn't ask to be corrected on an interpretation of "international" airports - which I presume you mean to be airports that have non-stop flights to Europe.

"Flexible" and "low cost" likely means a willingness to fly with a connection, which is probably why he made reference to the 4 airports in his area - LGA, obviously, and one other one (Westchester, perhaps).

If one of those is "down the street" from where the OP lives, it would hardly be inconvenient

kk21

I, too, have used vayama and found it to have decent fares and they are good about notifying you if the airline makes any kind if change in the time of flights. Just today I received a message from them regarding a flight I booked for my daughter, who's studying abroad in Vienna. She left here at the beginning of January but is returning home from Bologna, Italy after studying there for a month. Anyway, vayama contacted me to let me know that her return flight time had changed by 5 minutes! they would be departing 5 minutes earlier. Just last week I booked flights for my husband and I to go to Vienna and used a company I have purchased tickets from in the past. They seem to have more than one website; last summer I booked Italy travel through www.flights-to-europe.com. Last week I had to use their other site, www.travelpapa.com because the multi destination function was not working at the other site. To make a long story short, I found their prices to Europe to be the best I could find, and I checked all of the sites previously mentioned. They also had very helpful customer service that I used through the chat function. I have been very pleased with their prices and service.

nukesafe

Bookmarking

travelgourmet

Try this site:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

You can use the month-long search, and it will search for trips of a time-period you specify (i.e. about a week, about a month, 9-10 nights, etc.). Very flexible.

You can also search for multiple destinations on the same search, just separate the codes by semicolons. So, type in something like AMS;FRA;CDG;ZRH;DUS.

One warning, though, I find that the system does not always return every option when searching multiple destinations. Not sure what the deal is, but it happens to me frequently. I find it better to search city by city.

travelgourmet

Oh, for any search out of New York, just use the city code of NYC, rather than JFK, EWR, etc. This should search at least the big 3. Might not get Westchester, but I would say the likelihood of the cheapest flight being from there is slim to none.

One other note, the cheapest flights are almost always to London. There are probably 20+ flights a day between NYC and London, so there is a lot of competition. And London is cheap right now. I would consider flying into there, staying for a few days and heading onto AMS or CDG from there.

csmart01

Wow... this site is an amazing resource. Thanks for all the input. I have some work to do... but all fun.

PS: nytraveler - Thanks for the correction but I actually live in CT where NY, NJ, CT and if the flights are low enough Logan in MA is not a lot longer of a drive than JFK.

mclaurie

The other option you have if you don't mind changing planes is to fly to England or Ireland nonstop where flight prices are often cheaper and take one of the cheap airlines from there to your final destination in France or Germany.
whichbudget.com
is a website that shows which low cost carriers fly within Europe. One thing I'd avoid though is having to transfer airports within a city and many of the lowcost airlines use smaller airports.

But for example, you could fly from Boston to Shannon Ireland for ~$500 and then get a flight from Shannon to Paris for ~ $100 on Ryanair. Whichbudget.com will even show you a list of destinations for low cost airlines from different airports.

I'll also mention there are sometimes some good non-stop deals from Philadelphia on US Airways.

qwovadis

use www.cheapoair.com

as sort of a screener for wholesale

fares BUT the initial sale price

is not what you finally pay...

so $60 NYC-DUS might be $560

with fees still not bad for a return

www.skyauction.com

good deals sometimes less than $200

each way for summer fares...