multi city flights to europe
 

What is the best way to book flights to Europe. We will be flying Toronto to Dubrovnik, Venice to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Toronto next May. I was looking at justfly.com but apparently that is not a good way to go since they are a mileage broker. Is expedia safe to go with? I don't want to book with someone who is likely to cancel or change our flights, but I also want to find the best price of course. Any suggestions?

I always try to book directly with the airlines and not use a "middleman" like Expedia unless they are really saving me money.

Use Google Flights or Kayak to find out which airlines (or their partners) are likely to have the best flight options...then go directly to that airline's website. For example, Delta and KLM are partners; if Delta turns out to have the best flights, try booking on Delta's website, which use KLM's flights as "codeshares" meaning it's still operated by KLM but could be part of your Delta ticket.

I'd probably book the Toronto-Dubrovnik and Venice to Toronto flights as one open jaw ticket and book the Venice to Amsterdam separately, but it all depends. Try booking it different ways.

Lufthansa flies from Frankfurt to Dubrovnik, I believe, and they are star alliance partners with United, so they might have your best option for the inbound...not sure about Amsterdam back to Toronto. Always a bit of research to find your best flights! Sometimes you can book your own flight on to Dubrovnik from say Amsterdam on some other airline, leaving several hours after your inbound flight from Toronto might arrive. All depends on the flight schedules for your city pairs, at that time of year.

I think your approach is too simplistic to deal with the current market based environment. You will need to look at many different angles.

How long are you staying in Amsterdam?

If your stay in Amsterdam is more than 24 hrs, it usually becomes a more expensive stop over. If you try to buy YYZ-DBV; VCE-AMS; AMS-YYZ under one PNR, it often cost a fortune. In this case, book YYZ-DBV, AMS-YYZ under same PNR and buying one-way VCE-AMS separately from someone else comes out much cheaper.

If your stay in Amsterdam is less than 24 hrs, it might be possible to get away as a layover. Look at YYZ-DBV; VCE-YYZ under Skyteam. You might be offered a very long layover in AMS at no additional cost. If not, I try YYZ-DBV; VCE-AMS; AMS-YYZ to see if spikes up the overall price. I will not string together tickets bought from different sources without many hours of delay buffer. There is too much risk.

>>> not a good way to go

I presume it costs too much.

>>> I don't want to book with someone who is likely to cancel or change our flights,

The entity that changes/cancels your flight is the operating carrier, not the marketing carrier. However, if the operating carrier cancels flight, the marketing carrier tries to find an alternate flight within its alliance first.


>>> I also want to find the best price

Best price now or best price over a longer period of time considering the risks and other factors? You might be able to buy exactly same flights cheaper as LH tickets vs. AC tickets. If everything goes ok, you will not see a difference above how you earn miles and sometimes the pecking order of when you are allowed to select seats. However, if you need to cancel your flight, who holds your money matters. If it is LH, you can apply what's left after losing ticket change fee can be used against future LH marketed flight before the credit expiration. If it is from AC, you can use on your future AC marketed flights. Which one has more value to you over longer period of time?

I just look up prices on all the airlines I know about , Easyjet, Vueling , Ryanair , Air Berliner , etc etc ( as said look on kayak to get names and book direct with airline . We've done this for at least a dozen inter European flights

I like www.skyscanner.net to check possible flights within Europe.

I don't know what a mileage broker is, never heard that term, but given there are so many mainstream websites, as well as airlines themselves, why would you use an outfit like that.

Expedia is fine, I'm sure, but I also book directly.

I agree with Andrew's approach — open jaw from YYZ to DBV + AMS to YYZ ... and book VCE-AMS on a separate ticket.

google.com/flights is a great resource for pricing air

expedia is a travel agency, and *they* will not change your flights ... although the airline may. A savvy international air agent (as opposed to an OTA — online travel agency — such as expedia) may know some tricks to save you money ... and will also look for things that you may not look for — such as connection times that are too short. A good air agent will also monitor any changes on your behalf and proactively look out for you — but you can expect to pay for this kind of service.

I took all your advice. Looked on expedia for ideas and then booked directly on the Lufthansa website. Managed to get a great price. Thanks for your help.

Great! Would love to know which flights you wound up getting, what price, etc. out of curiosity.

Hi Andrew
We are flying Toronto to Dubrovnik next May, stopover in Munich. Then in June flying Venice to Amsterdam, with a stop in Munich and a week later Amsterdam to Toronto. The price for each of us was 1170 CAD