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Mackieman posted:No, that seems like a pretty nifty way to do what you're looking for. Royal Air Maroc has decent fares to BRU or TXL that don't require insane connections or layovers. Ten buy a separate fare to LAX for 8/17. Do keep in mind that you're talking about one-ways and those tend to be very expensive compared to round trip fares for trans-atlantic flights. Also, make sure you're not going to have any citizenship issues as some countries don't want to let you in if you can't show proof of planned egress. I think I'll just buy the LAX fare first since that's the hard deadline and I know exactly when I'm arriving (just not where I'm leaving). For finding the cheapest-easiest flight, there's no search engine for "anywhere in Europe to Point B", right? So my best bet would just be to run Kayak searches to LAX from London, Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Brussels, Berlin, etc and just pick whatever's cheapest and fewest connections (and not crazy far from wherever I might fly into from Africa)? Good point on the proof of egress, but if I arrive in, say, Barcelona on May 1 with an paid-for ticket leaving London on May 15, I'd imagine that's pretty convincing proof that I'm not planning to hang around Spain forever, right? Only question with that egress thing or visas in general: sometimes the cheapest flights to LAX are from non-EU aiports, most notably Oslo. As a US citizen am I likely to have any issues at all just dropping into Oslo via ferryboat or cheapo flight, spending a few days there and then flying out to LAX, provided I arrive in Oslo with onward tickets in hand? Or am I smartest to stick to using EU countries for my entrance/exit from Europe? Very excited for this, spent the last year all in Liberia, a country the size of the US state of Virginia with only like 2/3 the population of the DC Metro area. So yeah, *really* looking forward to going places with a variety of restaurants, museums, and music, and where I'm not my default the most stare-worthy person on the block.
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Mar 30, 2016 15:13
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:I think I'll just buy the LAX fare first since that's the hard deadline and I know exactly when I'm arriving (just not where I'm leaving). For finding the cheapest-easiest flight, there's no search engine for "anywhere in Europe to Point B", right? So my best bet would just be to run Kayak searches to LAX from London, Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Brussels, Berlin, etc and just pick whatever's cheapest and fewest connections (and not crazy far from wherever I might fly into from Africa)? If you're a US citizen with money in the bank and a paid-for ticket to LAX, there's basically no way you'll be turned away at the border. You get 90 days on arrival without a visa as it is.
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Mar 30, 2016 16:29
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PT6A posted:If you're a US citizen with money in the bank and a paid-for ticket to LAX, there's basically no way you'll be turned away at the border. You get 90 days on arrival without a visa as it is. Holy poo poo, it's like US$250 for a one-way from Oslo to Los Angeles, 13hrs one stop, numerous flights/dates in mid-May. I had no idea I could get that far that cheap. I'm going to go Google up if there's any good deals (from anywhere in Europe) for those flights that give you just a couple days' layover in Iceland since I've never been there before and presumably May is an okay month. Any advice on how to get a long Iceland layover, or how to run a search engine to build that in or whatever? Starting to really look forward to walking into an airline locally in West Africa and just saying "get me out of here, to anywhere", that will be fun.
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Mar 30, 2016 17:12
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Holy poo poo, it's like US$250 for a one-way from Oslo to Los Angeles, 13hrs one stop, numerous flights/dates in mid-May. I had no idea I could get that far that cheap. If those are with Norwegian you'll have to pay for food, seat selection and luggage, but it's still a great deal The Iceland layover is easy to book via the Icelandair site (they have a section for it), almost impossible via third party booking engines
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Mar 30, 2016 17:44
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Geriatric Pirate posted:If those are with Norwegian you'll have to pay for food, seat selection and luggage, but it's still a great deal Huh, this Iceland Air thing is interesting. For Economy tickets, leaving from either Stockholm, Oslo, or Copenhagen I can spend three nights in Iceland, then arrive in Washington DC for about $500 total. Then about $250 r/t to fly me out to LA for a wedding and back to DC which is my (monetarily) final destination. Or I can fly Oslo to LAX directly for $280, and then another $150 o/w from LAX to DC after the wedding. So I guess the question is just whether it's worth it to spend $300ish to have the overnight in Iceland for a few days, plus I think there's some luggage savings since Iceland Air gives me 2 bags and the uber-discount WOW presumably gives me one or nothing. In whatever case, this is looking staggeringly less expensive then I feared to bounce around Europe, and if I do say arrive in Barcelona from Africa, it's like a $50 RynAir flight to get up to Oslo, practically nothing. I feel almost silly working out an itinerary this disjointed, but there's several days of flex built into each stage for any fuckups, and it kinda makes logical sense and is on-price. For contrast, my boss is looking to leave Liberia, go up to Senegal for a few days on business (no idea what that costs or what airline), then save a bunch of money flying to Paris (like $330 vice $800 flying from Monrovia) since Dakar is a major air hub for the region, then spend a couple days in Paris and then $300 or so o/w to DC. He could conceivably be flying from West Africa to DC with two business/vacation stops on the way for like $900. This is kinda crazy compared to our peers here who work for the UN or US Gov and are always casually mentioning the $4,000 tickets their employer is buying to get them out of Liberia and up to Brussels.
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Mar 30, 2016 19:25
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As far as I can tell, airlines basically survive based on people who don't have to use their own money to pay for flights.
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Mar 30, 2016 21:33
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PT6A posted:As far as I can tell, airlines basically survive based on people who don't have to use their own money to pay for flights. Wasn't there some scandal a few years back about how the US military requires a bunch of their offices to always buy expensive refundable tickets in case their plans change, but then gets too busy to cash in the refunds so just eats the whole cost? TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 23:10
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Boom-shaka-laka: 17 May, one-way flight from Oslo to Los Angeles, 18hr trip (4hr layover at Gatwick), US$262 plus $60 for one checked bag. If I'd been willing to leave one day later I could've paid another $30 and gotten a direct 10hr flight, but 17 was as late as I'm willing to leave. Now just gotta figure out to get from West Africa to Norway...
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Apr 1, 2016 21:01
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Boom-shaka-laka: 17 May, one-way flight from Oslo to Los Angeles, 18hr trip (4hr layover at Gatwick), US$262 plus $60 for one checked bag. If I'd been willing to leave one day later I could've paid another $30 and gotten a direct 10hr flight, but 17 was as late as I'm willing to leave. Jesus, that's a good deal. Canada's getting close now that WestJet flies to Gatwick, but unfortunately they've not established any codeshares within Europe, which is a bit of a deal-breaker for me.
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Apr 2, 2016 01:10
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Passenger on United decided they wanted to do yoga in the aisles instead of letting the flight attendants do their meal service. Got escorted to the rear of the plane where they proceeded to head butt and bite at a couple of marines that were assisting the flight crew with restraining him.  http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/31/travel/violent-united-passenger-yoga-arrest-feat/index.html
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Apr 4, 2016 01:01
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quote:Pae told FBI officials that he didn't want to sit while flight attendants served a meal, preferring to do yoga and meditate. He said he had not slept in 11 days. Lmao wtc
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Apr 4, 2016 12:08
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Schizophrenic/NYD psych.
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Apr 4, 2016 12:28
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Is there some trick to flights to Iceland? I've heard that flights there are supposed to be like insanely cheap, but I'm looking at flights and Iceland Air seems to be by far the most expensive carrier. It's around €1500 (????) for a direct ZRH<->Iceland in mid-June, whereas I can get the same thing with a layover in LHR or Berlin for more like €400 on the same dates. The direct flight would be nice, but not really €1100 nice. Maybe they just already sold out of all the cheap tickets? If I look for October it's more like €450 roundtrip. Edit: Whoa, political upheaval and massive protests leading to their corrupt dictator fleeing the country. Will I be safe in Iceland in June or should I cancel my trip and go somewhere safer??? (/s) Saladman fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Apr 5, 2016 |
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Apr 5, 2016 11:22
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Looking for flights from Korea to Sapporo on the 5th of May, I got the following results off ITA: There's that (relatively) super-cheap flight from a mysterious "Hahn Air Systems". Is there some way to get a ticket at that price? It's hard to tell from Hahn's site what they're about, given that they describe themselves in vague marketing-speak. I think they only sell tickets to travel agents? One of the few clear statements they make is that their tickets aren't sold to the general public. But elsewhere on their site, they make it sound like they do chartered flights rather than regularly scheduled stuff. In which case, why are they showing up with a ticket price on ITA? I could be misreading their site badly anyway. Anyone familiar with this at all? Is a regular schlub like me locked out of an opportunity like this?
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Apr 5, 2016 11:58
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It looks like they're not an airline, but a logistics company. I think you'd better check ANA directly, or HIS (Japanese discount agent.) Or look at the Chitose airport site and see what lcc carriers fly there.
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Apr 5, 2016 14:05
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Saladman posted:Is there some trick to flights to Iceland? I've heard that flights there are supposed to be like insanely cheap, but I'm looking at flights and Iceland Air seems to be by far the most expensive carrier. It's around €1500 (????) for a direct ZRH<->Iceland in mid-June, whereas I can get the same thing with a layover in LHR or Berlin for more like €400 on the same dates. The direct flight would be nice, but not really €1100 nice. It's definitely your dates/the cheap tickets are likely sold out, I did a random check and found some early/mid june tickets for around 500E return.
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Apr 5, 2016 17:24
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Saladman posted:Is there some trick to flights to Iceland? I've heard that flights there are supposed to be like insanely cheap, but I'm looking at flights and Iceland Air seems to be by far the most expensive carrier. It's around €1500 (????) for a direct ZRH<->Iceland in mid-June, whereas I can get the same thing with a layover in LHR or Berlin for more like €400 on the same dates. The direct flight would be nice, but not really €1100 nice. Icelandair does cheap transatlantics but Icelandic demand is a lot less elastic so they charge a lot more for that. Ditto for EU-HEL-Asia vs HEL-Asia on Finnair
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Apr 5, 2016 18:37
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Mr. Belpit posted:Looking for flights from Korea to Sapporo on the 5th of May, I got the following results off ITA: What's going on in Sapporo that weekend? I checked multiple airlines and they're all sold out on the dates you're looking at.
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Apr 6, 2016 05:53
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One of the longest Golden Weeks in a decade [RIP]. Abandon all hope for flights to/from Japan around April 29 - May 8.
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Apr 6, 2016 06:49
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Mr. Belpit posted:Looking for flights from Korea to Sapporo on the 5th of May, I got the following results off ITA: Hahn Air is a ticketing agent that carriers can use to sell their stock to third parties like travel agents. The now defunct Air Lutanica (national airline of Lithuania) used them to sell tickets on their website for a while. Having them go tits up was not awesome in terms of getting money back. So no, Hahn Air will not sell you a ticket though they offer their fares on the GDS which travel agents use and some display on their website. A travel agent could book it for you, but it would be seats on what is effectively a charter that could vaporize easily if the operating carrier decides not to do that flight.
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Apr 6, 2016 22:10
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Is there a consensus in here on the fares you get offered through third party booking sites on momondo? Or do you guys advocate the "book directly through the carrier" philosophy? Looking at EWR>DUB; if I book direct through United it's 1k, but "bookairfare," "kiss&fly," "faregeek" all offering the same flight in the 750-800 range. The reviews I can find online of these sellers seem pretty mixed with lots of bad experiences sprinkled in, some of which seem to be the buyer's fault, but anyone with a lot of experience here have any insight? I'm not trying to roll the dice, but at the same time it's a $250 difference for the same thing.
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Apr 15, 2016 23:55
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I wouldn't trust a third party site unless its got an established history, IE: Kayak, Expedia, etc. But even those sites are generally redirecting you to the airline because they're pulling their prices from the ITA Matrix or a similar database. "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."
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Apr 16, 2016 02:33
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I always recommend booking through the operating carrier whenever possible. If something goes tits up, you don't need another step between you and getting it fixed. If you provide dates, I can look at it and see if I can figure out where the "savings" really are.
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Apr 16, 2016 23:34
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I want to travel to mainland Denmark for a family wedding on August 13. I have August 4-21 off from work and could add a couple extra days off if needed or shift the days a bit (but no more than 15 week days off). Right now I'm looking at flying from TIA to Copenhagen, Gothenberg, Stockholm, Hamburg, or Oslo and the cheapest price I'm seeing is around 1120 to Stockholm and I've been watching the prices for about 2 weeks. I usually pick my vacation destination based on ticket prices and I've never paid more than a thousand for airfare so 1120 sounds like a lot to me but I know August is prime tourism time. I'm not sure if that is a reasonable price and I should book it or I should keep watching the prices? My other idea was to get a cheap flight to Boston and then take WOWair from Boston to Gothenburg. I think that would be around 800-900 but I'm not sure if it would be worth the extra hassle? I don't mind flying to somewhere besides Copenhagen as long as transportation times and additional costs are reasonable. I like train travel so that's why I'm also looking at Sweden and Hamburg. I would also consider flying out of Orlando if it meant saving a couple hundred dollars but the prices seem similar to Tampa. Anyone have any other ideas or should I settle for the 1120 Stockholm airfare?
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Apr 17, 2016 05:12
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TPA like Tampa, right? I'd jump on that.
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Apr 17, 2016 06:01
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I'm checking on Google Flights and I easily find flights in the $900 range, which is closer to what I'd expect than $1100. e.g. Wed Aug 10 -> Tue Aug 23 is €749 with United with two stops (Chicago and Stockholm). Flying through Copenhagen on the same dates is only slightly more expensive (€800) but with only 1 stop in DC, so that's maybe a better flight. That's assuming we have his starting point right of TPA, since if he was coming from TIA that would be a pretty crazy itinerary.
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Apr 17, 2016 06:32
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Yeah, I am dumb and meant TPA.
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Apr 17, 2016 15:06
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flynt posted:I want to travel to mainland Denmark for a family wedding on August 13. I have August 4-21 off from work and could add a couple extra days off if needed or shift the days a bit (but no more than 15 week days off). Right now I'm looking at flying from TIA to Copenhagen, Gothenberg, Stockholm, Hamburg, or Oslo and the cheapest price I'm seeing is around 1120 to Stockholm and I've been watching the prices for about 2 weeks. I usually pick my vacation destination based on ticket prices and I've never paid more than a thousand for airfare so 1120 sounds like a lot to me but I know August is prime tourism time. I'm not sure if that is a reasonable price and I should book it or I should keep watching the prices? Norwegian has decent fares out of Orlando and Fort Lauderdale (to CPH non-stop) if you can make it there. You will have to pay extra for bags and seat selection, but I did a random August search and found flights for 700 euros... Their website has a search by month feature and roundtrip pricing is not enforced, so you can basically pick your own price / quality ratio. WOW Air is probably similar to Norwegian in terms of charging for extras etc.
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Apr 17, 2016 16:38
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Mackieman posted:I always recommend booking through the operating carrier whenever possible. If something goes tits up, you don't need another step between you and getting it fixed. If you provide dates, I can look at it and see if I can figure out where the "savings" really are. OK - that's what I kind of figured. June 23-June 30 (first date is not flexible, but I can stay a day longer or shorter if there ends up being a huge price difference somewhere) I actually need to be in Portugal (Lisbon) on Friday the 24th, and then ending up in Dublin on the 27th before returning to the US on the 30th. It seems to me as if getting a round trip to Dublin and then booking a separate round trip between Dublin and Portugal is the way to go, but if I'm wrong about that I'm open to any travel plan that gets me where I need to be. I'd much prefer flying out of EWR, but any NYC area airport is accessible. Also looking for any advice on when to buy and whether the current prices seem like roughly the best it's going to get (round trips currently in the 900-1000 range) - we're a little more than 2 months out at the moment. real dilemma fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Apr 18, 2016 |
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Apr 18, 2016 14:43
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I am looking at MSP > LIH next year, most likely after April. Google flights is showing me $1350 for 2 people is the cheapest fare. Anyone have any other good ideas to look for better prices?
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Apr 19, 2016 15:39
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real dilemma posted:OK - that's what I kind of figured. Yeah, that's the going price. IF you were a few weeks early you could do the TATL for $550 or so but that's getting into peak summer so $800 or so to DUB is about right. And yeah, book the trip to LIS separately, RyanAir and a bunch of other LCCs can get you there.
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Apr 20, 2016 01:11
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kri kri posted:I am looking at MSP > LIH next year, most likely after April. Google flights is showing me $1350 for 2 people is the cheapest fare. Anyone have any other good ideas to look for better prices? Next year? Most carriers won't sell tickets more than 330 days out so you're not even in the bookable window yet. Give it a few months and then start watching fares not only to LIH but to HNL, OGG, and KOA as well since if you find significant savings to another airport, the intra-island travel may not cost more than the savings. Something to look at in any event.
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Apr 20, 2016 01:13
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Mackieman posted:Next year? Most carriers won't sell tickets more than 330 days out so you're not even in the bookable window yet. Give it a few months and then start watching fares not only to LIH but to HNL, OGG, and KOA as well since if you find significant savings to another airport, the intra-island travel may not cost more than the savings. Something to look at in any event. Yeah I know I can't book that far out, I was just wondering if there were any other things I could think about. I will look for deals to the other airports too.
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Apr 20, 2016 15:05
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Google Flights is going to cover you 90% of the time unless you're flying some bizarre itinerary. It's just way too early to project flight prices this far out so they're going to appear more expensive. Check back at the end of the year.
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Apr 20, 2016 15:26
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Heads up for anyone looking to do some Europe travel in the next few months, British Airways is running a decent sale depending on where you're flying from. Seeing solid fares to LHR, DUB, BCN to name a few.
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Apr 21, 2016 19:02
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Whip Slagcheek posted:Heads up for anyone looking to do some Europe travel in the next few months, British Airways is running a decent sale depending on where you're flying from. Seeing solid fares to LHR, DUB, BCN to name a few. Where has good deals? I looked at their flights to Chicago in mid-July and they were terrible (£800/ea) even for weekday travel.
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Apr 21, 2016 20:25
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Is there any way on Google Flights to find the price of flights TO [specific city], FROM [anywhere]? You can do the opposite by looking at the flight map (find prices of all destinations from [City X] but it keeps auto-filling "from" so I can't do it in inverse. I can flip the ticket around of course and get an approximate idea, but this doesn't work very well for special deal savings, e.g. Munich to Chicago on the dates I want is $750, but Chicago to Munich on the same dates is $1200. I should've bought the tickets for $550 when I saw it, even though it's really out of the way from where I live... drat.
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Apr 21, 2016 20:59
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Saladman posted:Where has good deals? I looked at their flights to Chicago in mid-July and they were terrible (£800/ea) even for weekday travel. I think the sale is for flights originating in the US, not seeing the savings leaving from the UK.
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Apr 21, 2016 21:07
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Saladman posted:Is there any way on Google Flights to find the price of flights TO [specific city], FROM [anywhere]? You can do the opposite by looking at the flight map (find prices of all destinations from [City X] but it keeps auto-filling "from" so I can't do it in inverse. Use ITA Matrix and just select every airport within 500 miles of your departure.
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Apr 21, 2016 22:34
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Escape from Liberia is now fully booked, found some really good deals: - Coworker: Monrovia to Dakar ($400 Arik Air), four days in Dakar for business, then $312 to fly Dakar-Paris with TAP Portugal *but* I stumbled across a flight with a 24hr layover in Lisbon, so deliberately chose that one since he speaks Brazilian Portuguese but never been to Portugal before, so he's uber-stoked. A couple days with friends in Paris and he flies to Baltimore ($350). So a total of just around US$1000 to escape West Africa with a business trip, 1-day rager in Lisbon, and Paris excursion on his way out. - Me: missed out on $574 Monrovia-Brussels (Air Maroc) and had to pay $700 since prices notched up. Fly to Brussels, train to Paris to see friends, night train to Copenhagen, and a few days, night ferryboat to Oslo and a few days, the Oslo-Los Angeles for $262. So still a thousand to escape West Africa, dick around in Europe (train prices extra), and get to LA. Feeling pretty clever, and eager to get somewhere different after a year of mucking around.
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Apr 23, 2016 13:33
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