Debbielynn

I am looking to go with hubbie to Greece for several weeks in August. June and July are even higher! I am absolutely appalled at the prices this summer!!! New York to Thessaloniki, with one stop, is upwards of $1300- $1400 dollars RT each. The website lures you in in with lower prices, ($1100 - 1200 +) and at booking, return flights are 2 stops for that price. The cheapest airfare is via Turkish air but I don’t want to go to Istanbul first and I am not sure about the airline. Delta’s and KLM’s flights are with Transvia, a company I’m not familiar with. All so much more expensive than last year. I am at a loss.

lavandula

Prices from Australia to Europe are horrendous too - here and there there is an OK fare but most are double what we used to pay, many are three times or more. I know Transavia, it is an airline that is owned by KLM but apparently it is not so close that you can get your bags put through to it if you transfer from KLM to Transavia. I have been investigating KLM fares at the moment and reading reviews, which are almost all bad, but of course you only ever hear from people who have a grievance through those channels. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has taken KLM recently, perhaps it can help you too, Debbielynn.

On the airfares - one of the search engines (Skyscanner???) allows you to pick from nearby days - try searching like that as I am finding that occasionally you do get a good fare. I am not ready to commit to anything yet but I am learning a lot about the patterns of fares this way.

Lavandula

VANAARLE

Transvia is a wholly owned by KLM. It is their low cost brand.
I have used them for flights within Europe. They were ok better than Ryanair. Wonder what they are like for transatlantic?

janisj

Fares are what they are because of much increased demand and a little less supply. One way to save $$/€€ - if non-stops are too rich for your blood, you can fly R-T into a major European hub (depending on the airline -- could be LHR or DUB or FRA or AMS or CDG, etc). Then book onward to your final destination on one of the MANY decent European low cost carriers. Just allow generous time for the connection since you'd be unprotected. Even staying over night in the arrival city before flying on could end up substantially cheaper.

Or -- maybe look at airline holidays -- AA Vacations, BA Holidays - I think most of the legacy airlines offer something similar. With these you book the flights and some of the ground arrangements - could be a few hotel nights, or a car rental, whatever - and it becomes a package and can result in a very nice discount. My last AAVacation -- granted it was to London and not a Greek resort isle -- my R-T business class ticket from the west coast + 3 nights at a very (VERY) upscale hotel came in almost $2000 less than just the R-T ticket would have been by itself. And the schedules offered via the Vacation portal were much better then the 0-dark-30 departure with 2 connections I found when trying to book just flights.

lavandula

[QUOTE=janisj;17439696]Fares are what they are because of much increased demand and a little less supply. One way to save $$/€€ - if non-stops are too rich for your blood, you can fly R-T into a major European hub (depending on the airline -- could be LHR or DUB or FRA or AMS or CDG, etc). Then book onward to your final destination on one of the MANY decent European low cost carriers. Just allow generous time for the connection since you'd be unprotected. Even staying over night in the arrival city before flying on could end up substantially cheaper.

That's what we did for our recent trip to Belgium - we flew into Frankfurt because BRU was way too expensive (by a couple of thousand Australian dollars), then we caught the trains. It became a Belgium - Germany trip but we were fine with that. German trains are quite good, first class equals any plane ride and is accessible price wise to most people.

Lavandula

janisj

Oh -- definitely -- IF the final destination is practical by train that's another good strategy.

Debbielynn

I’ve looked at other countries too as I wouldn’t mind visiting somewhere else on the way home. I will keep searching. Last year we went to a wedding in Greece , a short stay in Thessaloniki and then on to Slovenia. This year my husband would like to have a laid back trip so I thought some beach time in Northern Greece in Halkidiki (beaches), a visit to his birth village in the mountains and more beach time in Platamonas, near Mt.
Olympus. It just bothers me to spend so much money. Thanks everyone for the tips.

BlueRidgeboots

August is so far out, I've noticed that as you get closer to 90 days out, the prices settle in. Also, could you move your dates to September? It may be cheaper as you're passed the summer months. Just a thought.

Good luck.

Gardyloo

Turkish Airlines' prices on JFK-xIST-TDK are considerably less than the competitors' - under $900 for many days in August. I wouldn't hesitate to use them; the connection in Istanbul will be quick and pretty painless.

yorkshire

Ditto, Turkish Airlines is fantastic. I’d not want to layover in Istanbul, but with this year’s prices, I would certainly consider it.

mjs

Prices to Asia also up quite abit especially Japan

lavandula

Well, Japan has only just opened up to tourism again, that explains that one for me. I also think the Asian airlines are not all using the full complement of flights yet, which is what affects Australia so badly. Demand is much higher than supply.

Lavandula

Debbielynn

My husband would like to be in Greece for the august 15 th holiday. It is a big holiday all over the country, celebrating the Virgin Mary. That is when his mountain village has its celebration. I will look at the Turkish airway rates again. It is really advised to wait until 90 days out to book? I don’t think I have ever booked that close to a European trip. I would be nervous that many of the hotels would be sold out.

janisj

Hotels and flights are different . . . however I certainly would not wait until 90 days out to book hotels! August is the highest of high season and I'd think some of the nicest properties are already booked up.

I've booked flights anywhere for 8-9 months ahead to a few days in advance. Most airlines have loosened their cancel/change rules so booking far ahead isn't the risk it may have been in the past . . . but with all the schedule changes happening daily, any flights booked now are really just a suggestion/place holder.

I have an SMF > SEA > LHR trip in mid May -- that I booked the first week of January, and the SEA flight has changed twice, and the LHR flight once . . . so far. I expect there will be more sked changes. Went from a reasonable-ish 4 hour layover at SEA to now an 8 hour layover and LHR arrival moved from noon to 4:15 PM which kinda sorta screws up my first day . And those changes happened over the course of 3.5 weeks.

balthy

I wouldn't wait 90 days to book, its not advisable to do that, its peak holiday time in that part of the world.

I also don't particularly recommend Turkish Airlines, I find them OK, nothing more. I wrote a post earlier but it has not appeared so if it does appear, its a repeat. Istanbul is not easy to transfer in, the walk is really long, you need plenty of time to walk from one side of the airport to another. I wonder if it is a deliberate ploy to get you to walk right thru the airport to see how impressive it is.

I would think it is best to take a flight from NYC to say, London then any number of airlines from there to the destinations you want.

Easyjet has flights to SKG
TUI has flights to Kavala
BA flies to Skiathos
Jet2 has several flights to Greece

I listed them all previously, hopefully the post appears at some stage.

The airline websites are also pretty good for hotels and car rentals, even if only required for part of the stay.

I think you have quite alot of options to create an itinerary to cover all the places you want to visit.

Leely2

Oh no! I booked a May flight to southern Italy on TK this week, and purposely built in an overnight in Istanbul on the way home--have never been to Turkey and thought I might as well squeeze in a day. I'm flying business, so hoping it will be good/fine. Like probably many others, because of work obligations, I don't have a lot of flexibility in when I travel. There were better fares earlier in January (I fly Star Alliance or SkyTeam). I hesitated at the time, so...

janisj

And . . . yet another schedule change just arrived. The LHR > DFW > SMF flights have both changed -- its now been 5 fight changes since Jan. 7. This one is a better departure time from LHR but just 1:40 on the ground at DFW so guess visiting the flagship Lounge is off the table

No matter what you book now its a good chance something will change before you travel. Now I have to go in to my booking and re-select seats . . .

CounterClifton

I think Transavia is to KLM what Jetstar is to Qantas.

Speaking of which, we were trying to book from Melbourne (September/October) into Paris and return from either Rome or Venice. But both of the potential end cities were unusually expensive unless we chose a routing using one of the budget carriers to get to Southeast Asia. Consolidation sites kept wanting to put us on Jetstar or AirAsia or Scoot but airline sites were through the roof. I can sometimes live with those sardine-can options on short hauls around Australia or within Europe but I'm not a glutton for punishment enough to do 8 or 9 hours all the way to Singapore or Bangkok or KL.

We ended up booking our return from Milan, which was considerably cheaper than our preferred cities. Singapore Airlines (and not their discount carrier, Scoot) though I have no idea why Milan made the difference. It was still well over $2000 per ticket though for basic economy. Turkish Airlines did the same thing. Cheaper for Milan than Rome or Venice (plus would have added another connection in IST as well as SIN)

yorkshire

I don't get the Oh no, Leely--Turkish airlines is great. I generally don't have time to insert a stopover in Istanbul on my trips, so I meant that I would not want to kill several hours in the airport, not that an overnight would be unpleasant. A quick tour of Istanbul makes it well worth the savings--And if you are flying business, who cares anyway, lol!

HappyTrvlr

We found much cheaper international fares on Air Canada out of Montreal and may book them.