Sher

I thought this might be of some interest regarding purchasing airline tickets.

I am flying from Budapest to Zagreb in October. I have called the Malev Airline service center's toll free number to get some information. I only need a one way ticket and was prepared to purchase a one way fare.
The agent told me to buy a round trip ticket which is much cheapr and do not use the return. He even told me if I cancel the return after completing the outbound flight that they will give me a credit of $20 to $30. This is on a ticket that only costs $111 round trip.

I was astonished.

BigRuss

What's wrong with this? The agent gave you fine customer service -- the lowest ticket price and a way to shrink your costs even more. The fact that many airlines charge more for a one-way ticket than a round-trip ticket on the same route is not news.

Sher

There was really nothing wrong. I was delighted.

There are many posts here about only using part of a ticket and the consequences. I just thought I would post this as it was such an easy painless way to do business.

RayKrebs

Good post, Sher. It's nice to hear the occasional good experience with airlines as these forums are usually only full of bad ones.

Sher

I did read here once where someone had a bad experience with this airline on the flight. I hope that doesn't happen to us.
But traveling from Budapest to Zagreb it was either the one hour flight or a six hour bus/train ride.

ellen75005

That's good news. We're taking four legs on Malev in a couple of weeks; Paris-Budapest and back and Budapest-Pristina, Kosovo and back. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good experience. Hope your trip is uneventful, Sher.

Sher

Thanks ellen and back to you too. Now if I could get from Krakow to Budapest so effortlessly!

grandmere

I hope you will write more of your trip plans, Sher!

Sher

Hi grandmere. I am flying into Krakow for three days. We are taking the night train to Budapest which seems to be the best option.
Four nights in Budapest and then a one hour flight to Zagreb where we pick up a car for seven nights touring Istria, Plitvice Park and the country surrounding Zagreb.
I am saving Dubrovnik for the next trip as I don't like to stretch myself too thin,

grandmere

Sounds like a wonderful trip!

Sher

I have been planning it long enough so I sure hope so!

ellen75005

Sher,

My daughter is visiting Eastern Europe now and plans to take a night train from Krakow to Budapest early next week. She's been looking at schedules and mentioned yesterday that there appears to be one that takes 10 hours. That appealed to her because she can get a chunk of sleep. I'll let you know what she says about it.

By the way, I think you're smart to save Dubrovnik. You'll be able to explore that part of Croatia without worrying about getting down to Dubrovnik - which, by the way, is heaven on earth.

ellen75005

I just looked at flight schedules Krakow to Budapest; is it schedules or fares or both that don't appeal to you? It looks like the best bet is Lot with a connection in Warsaw for just over $200 (for the dates I chose). Interesting that Malev apparently doesn't fly to Krakow.

Sher

ellen75005. The flight schedules take a long time. At least the ones that I have considered and they are at least twice what the train would be even in a sleeper.
I believe the train leaves around 11:00, at least the sleeper does, and arrives about 6:30 in the morning. We felt that we would still have the whole day in Krakow and just use the night to travel.
So the flight schedules AND the prices does not appeal to me but mostly the schedule. We would lose almost a whole day besides having to go to and from two different airports when the train stations are so close to where we want to be.
I would very much appreciate her report of the night train if she takes it.
If your daughter changes her mind about the train, the buses are supposed to be very reasonable and quite nice. I just do not want to spend the time.