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I'm looking for flights from Zurich to Chicago in mid-July and all the prices I can find are like crazy expensive, around $1000. Flights in June (and basically any other set of dates) are more like $600-700. Oddly flights seem to skyrocket in price for any date departing after the 16th of June, regardless of return date, and they don't go down again until the end of August. Are flights really just like half again as expensive in mid-summer to a major airport like O'Hare, or is there something I'm missing? I have some flexibility on dates but have to be in Chicago the 15th-17th of July and am buying two tickets, so saving $300/each would be a pretty substantial cut. The best I'm seeing right now is $950 with a 2.5 hour stop in ATL from Jul13–Jul[any-date-the-following-week] Edit: wow, flying out of Munich is a poo poo ton cheaper -- $550 -- but this flight stops working the 8th of July and only starts again the 17th of August, wtf. Jul 7–Jul17 MUN->ORD is $550 with a 2 hr layover in IAD. I'd rather not do that, but it's worth saving $900 (~$500/ticket - cost of train). The ticket price literally doubles departing the 8th of Jul (or any date after) vs. departing 7 Jul (or any day before). This is probably the biggest price discrepancy over a small time period I've ever seen, for weekday travel. Saladman fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Mar 28, 2016 |
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Mar 28, 2016 16:15
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peanut posted:The system should automatically seat you together unless an improbable number of single travelers pay to reserve seats in advance. I fly transatlantic several times a year, and flying from central Europe to central US and east coast is typically more like $600-$800. I flew last year to NYC on a Saturday -> Sunday (8 day) trip and it was like $650 in mid-June, and I flew to Houston in August for like $800. Yeah the Munich fare is ridiculously good, but I was expecting to find a flight more like $750-$850. I'm seriously considering going 4 days earlier than I want to just to save the $1k on flights. (I'll have a free place to stay.) It's $1300 for the nonstop directly from ZRH, but saving 4 hours of train + 6 hours of flight both ways isn't quite worth $800 per ticket. Saladman fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Mar 29, 2016 |
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Mar 29, 2016 10:45
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HookShot posted:If your wife is the type to freak out about potentially not being seated together she's probably also the type to insist you're at the airport five hours before departure time so if no one's allowed seat selection in advance you'll almost certainly be there early enough to get seats together anyway. This is giving me awful flashbacks to my childhood, and that was pre-9/11. We'd've probably camped in a caravan outside the airport if I was a kid today.
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Mar 29, 2016 10:47
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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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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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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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How did you figure out that itinerary? It doesn't strike me as something you would just stumble across while searching normally.
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Apr 25, 2016 17:18
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peanut posted:This popped up in my search too, what do you airfare nerds think? This is a cool idea, but it doesn't seem to work quite right for me. There are a LOT of dates I can't select? Also if I uncheck the "2 Stops+" button it tells me that it can find no flights? I can pretty much guarantee flights from London to San Francisco can be had with < 2 stops and < 20 hours.
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Apr 25, 2016 20:03
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I booked a flight with LOT -- hundreds of dollars cheaper than any other option -- and now I'm reading reviews about it on Yelp and most of the reviewers are unbelievable babies. http://en.yelp.ch/biz/lot-polish-airlines-chicago?start=20 Like half of these one star reviews are "flight attendants did not smile at me, and alcohol on the flight is not free, food is not gourmet. ONE STAR WORST AIRLINE EVER."
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May 19, 2016 00:17
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PT6A posted:"Did not receive blowjob from hot female flight attendant, only the plain, older flight attendant. ONE STAR!!!" That's just like what one of the commentators who gave 3/5* said. Some idiot posted:The cost was cheaper than competitors for a flight between Chicago and London (thanks to a brief stop in Warsaw). And while I will say that it was a delight to finally ride a Dreamliner across the Atlantic (the takeoff was one of the smoothest experiences I've ever had), the big let down for me was the attitude of the flight attendants. They weren't all bad, but enough of them were to leave a sour taste in the mouth. Maybe this guy is from an alternate universe where 2.5* out of 5* means "average service". I can only imagine what the "sour taste in his mouth" was.
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May 19, 2016 12:08
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Whip Slagcheek posted:Who the gently caress thinks flying all the way to Warsaw for a layover is sane? You'd need to be saving me an incredible amount of money to take that big of a detour. I'm flying from Zurich to Chicago by way of Warsaw, and for me it's $450 per ticket cheaper than the direct flight and $350 cheaper than the next cheapest single transfer flight that takes less travel time than going through Warsaw (through Copenhagen or Amsterdam). I'd guess they got something similar from London and it's a similar-distance complete detour in the wrong direction.
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May 19, 2016 18:15
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Avian Pneumonia posted:Where should I go where it wouldn't be hot and wouldn't cost more than $700 bucks. Keep your eyes on: http://www.secretflying.com/ Basically none of the super good deals are valid in July and August though. Traveling in September will be far cheaper and less hot. Also Moscow can get incredibly hot in the summer although it'd require a bit of bad luck to go there the 1-2 weeks a year when it gets above 85.
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Jun 10, 2016 10:29
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DontAskKant posted:I got the notion of flying being cheaper from people who have been there and confidently relayed such. Same thing with it not being safe, but that comes mostly from female travelers getting groped on buses and trains. I've literally never even read or heard a single report of someone getting groped on a bus or train in Europe. Welcome back from Asia
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Jun 28, 2016 18:36
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787 is a huge improvement in flight comfort for overnights. I never thought to look up which planes are used on which routes before, but definitely will consider it in the future. Polish Airlines might serve dog food in economy but at least they have at least a couple nice planes.
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Jul 23, 2016 21:34
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Secretflying is the best if you care about dirt cheap tickets but don't care to where or when. Just list your nearest major airport and it will give you updates on super deals.
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Jul 30, 2016 17:47
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Ally McBeal Wiki posted:SAS is looking to be the cheapest (minus LOT which lol no thanks, unless anyone can refute a few hundred lovely reviews found online) at $854 with one stop either way (Copenhagen, Stockholm). Anything I'm missing? Any others doing this run for cheaper? You should fly LOT on ORD->WAW if it's the cheapest flight. That route always runs a dreamliner, and it's a fantastic flight. I took it twice, loved it. One of the best transatlantic flights I've had in coach. (Though maybe SAS flies new planes too.) Edit: Well I just looked and I see the awesome priced one (~$650) has a 19 hour layover in both directions. The better one (4 hour layover) is quite a bit more expensive (~$900). I guess it depends on how much money vs. time is worth it to you since the SAS flight I see is $1100 (or, oddly $1000 on Expedia--I'm always wary of that). Saladman fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Oct 17, 2016 |
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Oct 17, 2016 13:16
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Xinder posted:I feel like this probably gets posted a lot but I really have to ask: Is there some catch to SecretFlying? Some of these deals just feel way too good to be true The deals are all real. Sometimes with the "error fares" you have a chance of getting your ticket cancelled (although I've heard in practice this almost never happens).
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Oct 30, 2016 14:59
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Tasky posted:Hello All! I thought "hey what about looking for deals from Vancouver, I bet there are a ton of those." And there are some decent prices, like CAN$1800 on your itinerary, ... but holy poo poo it is expensive to fly between Vancouver and Toronto, like CAN$600 expensive. What the hell, Canada? It's like double the price of flying from NYC to LAX or similar distanced routes in the US.
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Nov 16, 2016 17:41
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Church Ladyboy posted:Anyone know, how's CDG for transfers? I am looking at LHR to KIX, all Air France flights, but the transfer in CDG is only about a hour and a half.. You should be fine, although I'd be a little bit worried about it in midwinter in case of weather delays since both London and Paris panic and fall apart if someone thinks there might be frost somewhere. But I guess worst case scenario they put you up in a hotel and you get to enjoy a day in Paris.
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Nov 29, 2016 13:15
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Church Ladyboy posted:Thanks guys, this is for next year spring so not too worried about winter weather bogging me down. And now Germany is now the worst offender for strikes, as of the past couple years.
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Nov 29, 2016 16:28
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PT6A posted:Isn't it mainly just Lufthansa over and over again, and not the German airport system itself? Or is it everyone? Yeah, it's just Lufthansa. And not, for some inscrutable reason, their subsidiary brands Swiss and German/Eurowings. I guess the contracts must be separate.
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Nov 29, 2016 23:26
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spoof posted:I'm trying to piece together flights from YYC-BCN in March. The cheapest transatlantic legs are on Westjet (YYC-LGW), but that means buying separate tickets for LON-BCN. I'm planning on visiting a friend on the outbound leg, so I'm not worried there, but the inbound leg would have me landing at LGW at 9AM on a Vueling flight, collecting baggage and checking in for an 11:35AM Westjet flight. Is 2.5h enough for this at LGW? They don't interline. That's plenty unless you get delayed. 90 minutes is about the minimum possible time for such a transfer in LGW. If you get delayed by more than an hour or so, you'll lose entire Vueling flight (including the return from BCN to LGW) though. So, I guess it depends on how pissed off you would be if you had to spend $200 at the airport for a new ticket.
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Dec 16, 2016 14:51
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That website throws off so many scam sirens it's not even funny. If it does anything at all, which it might, it probably just goes through SkyScanner on a weekly basis and then emails you the cheapest flights from [your input city] to [destinations]. If you want a real site, use secretflying.com , which lists error fares and sales. E: I guess if you're super lazy it could be worth $25/year to have flight details emailed to you?? I guess "scam" is too hard of a word. I should have said "rip-off" since it just doing something you can do in 30 seconds on flights.google.com. Saladman fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Mar 17, 2017 |
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Mar 17, 2017 22:22
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dalstrs posted:Secertflying.com is what I want, just I want the deals for my local airport sent to me in real time. Seems like there would be some site that does that for free. They do daily-ish digests that you can get for [your input region], but unfortunately yeah [your input region] is [entire drat continent] and not [local city area]. Oddly they have a reasonably-precise one for "UK/Ireland" but all of their other search spaces are massive. Maybe email them and ask? I would be massively surprised if the one you mentioned above lists error fares and sales. Most likely it just runs SkyScanner for your airport to select locations and emails that. Which, hey, maybe is worth $25 a year.
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Mar 18, 2017 17:19
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Mackieman posted:TAP is often joked about to be an acronym for Take Another Plane. They're fine, certainly nothing special or dramatically worse than other carriers, and LIS is an ok airport. Their connection times can often be wonky but if the schedule meets your needs, go for it. Yeah, but there's a joke like that for almost every single carrier in Europe. Lufthansa? Hope you like strikes! Germanwings? Hope you like getting suicide bombed into a mountain! RyanAir? Hope you like experiencing holocaust cattle trains! EasyJet? Hope you like getting nickel and dimed! WOW airlines? More like UGH Airlines! LOT? More like NOT! British Airways? More like "we won't fly if we've heard there's snow somewhere in the northern hemisphere" airways! AliItalia? Hope you don't mind we lost your luggage and won't respond to customer service calls! etc etc etc. I guess I've never heard anything bad about Virgin or Swiss, which somehow gets to avoid the constant strikes of Lufthansa despite belonging to it. Saladman fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Apr 1, 2017 |
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Apr 1, 2017 12:47
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peanut posted:So what is covered? If the flight attendant stabs you? It looks like they cover sudden illnesses or "normal" weather incidents like snow delays, although it's possible that they would consider snow falling in Lisbon to be "natural catastrophe". I wonder why "sidereal bodies" is different from meteorites. It also seems like if you die between buying the ticket and your trip, they'd refund the ticket to your next-of-kin. That's a pretty hilarious policy.
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Apr 2, 2017 13:05
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If you bought a ticket and they cancelled the flight, the airline should refund your ticket, so I'm not sure I quite understood your first post. 3.5 hours is way more than enough time to transfer Domestic-International in LAX unless you get some exceptional nonsense like those 12 hour check-in times that Chicago had last Easter. I probably wouldn't pay extra for the 2:20pm flight, since if you miss your 1pm flight, they'll normally put you on the 2:20pm (or a subsequent flight), unless you really have to be back that evening for something important.
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Apr 5, 2017 12:49
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The Schwa posted:How is Norwegian for longer or intercontinental flights? I'm looking at flying Dublin to NYC, and Norwegian is literally half the price of Aer Lingus. I've heard mixed things but is it really that bad? Differences between major European national carriers are pretty trivial and mostly boil down to what the specific plane is used for your flight, unless you care about rewards or lounges or whatever. And even then I think they're mostly on the same alliances. Mainly just ask yourself whether you'd rather have the extra money, or the extra time and reduced hassle from getting a direct rather than a layover in Oslo.
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Apr 5, 2017 14:51
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Geriatric Pirate posted:Norwegian is not a national carrier, has no lounges and doesn't belong to any alliance. Food is BoB, luggage costs extra, even on long-haul. My bad, I got them confused with SAS. Food is BoB even on long haul? That should be illegal. E: Though if I have the choice between a LCC and a national carrier in Europe, I would still not pay more than a few extra % to get the national carrier. I've never taken a long-haul LCC, but the only difference I've noticed between, say, EasyJet and Swiss is that flying Swiss you get a little chocolate square. I'm only 5'9'' though, so I don't usually have issues with pitch and don't look it up before buying tickets. The only time I've ever noticed it was on Colombia's LCC (Viva Colombia) which has the smallest, most ridiculous pitch I've ever seen. Actually, do any LCCs even fly trans-Atlantic besides Norwegian? And WOW I guess (if Iceland to the US counts as trans-Atlantic). Saladman fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Apr 5, 2017 |
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Apr 5, 2017 17:19
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i fly airplanes posted:There's more to the equation than just on-board service. [...] baggage allowances, and so forth. For some people, it's also a matter of perceived safety and familiarity with the brand. Fair enough, although for that specific point a lot of major carriers are now trying to be even worse than LCCs, like loving United: http://uk.businessinsider.com/united-airlines-carry-on-baggage-ban-customer-communication-problem-2016-11?r=US&IR=T If that cancer spreads to other airlines, I hope whoever started it at United has a nice place saved for them in hell next to Judas.
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Apr 7, 2017 12:54
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PT6A posted:My parents did and a few years later they still rave about the experience any time flying gets brought up, so probably pretty good Was it solely because of Air New Zealand's themed safety videos before takeoff, or did they like it for some other reason?
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Apr 10, 2017 18:24
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Saladman posted:Fair enough, although for that specific point a lot of major carriers are now trying to be even worse than LCCs, like loving United: http://uk.businessinsider.com/united-airlines-carry-on-baggage-ban-customer-communication-problem-2016-11?r=US&IR=T Man, that was a timely jab at United. Now, on top of making you pay for all baggage, they also punch you in the face and drag your unconscious body out of the plane if they overbook your seat.
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Apr 11, 2017 15:34
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Falukorv posted:Haven't flown with AF or easy jet, but haven't experienced that while flying with SAS (from Stockholm). I've flown EasyJet dozens of times with a large, limit-sized suitcase and never got a sticker either. I vaguely know what HookShot is talking about and I've seen it a couple times but it's pretty rare except maybe at specific airports. EasyJet also liberalized heir carry-on policy 2-3 years ago and I never even see them check anymore. I've only had to gate check my bag one time ever and I'm usually one of the last to board since I hate waiting in lines since anyway you're all going to leave at the same time. I don't really get why some people are up in arms about people bringing large carry-ons. Don't think I've ever been on a flight where it was a more significant problem than the last 10 people getting their luggage checked at the plane door. I haven't flown much in the U.S. in years though so maybe there's some reason it's way worse there.
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Apr 18, 2017 14:42
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photomikey posted:and checked baggage is free. The problem is that this is so rarely the case nowadays that I think a lot of people just carry-on by default. Most companies in Europe at least now charge for checked luggage on all "local" flights (within Europe / Mediterranean). It's not just LCCs either, even Swiss doesn't give you a single free checked bag, nor does Air Malta, nor does Alitalia, or AirBerlin, nor do etc many other major carriers, if you buy the lowest ticket class. You have to carry on or pay €30 or whatever. Yeah you could pay 1.5x the ticket cost and get your checked bag included in "Economy Plus", but then you're paying 1.5x the ticket price for a bunch of nonsense you don't care about like priority seating. Anyway I always travel with a 33L backpack now and it's way more convenient than a rolling suitcase.
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Apr 19, 2017 12:22
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If you want a miserable time to save a couple hundred bucks, can't you still take those Chinatown buses? or did they get shut down because the drivers were all stabbing each other and meth addicts without commercial licenses? Yeah even counting you and your friend ($600) renting a car will still be approximately the same price for a week + all that gas. Also the awful drive.
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Jun 7, 2017 08:52
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Mackieman posted:Hope your friend doesn't have any visa issues. I imagine it'll be OK as long as they're not from some imaginary country with a fake passport, like whatever a "New Zealand" is supposed to be.
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Jul 20, 2017 08:40
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asur posted:He needs to check KLM luggage checkin time requirements, but I'm guessing he's hosed. The norm is 60 minutes and luggage being at the carousel in 15 minutes is iffy, much less through customs and back at the KLM counter. I would guess this too, but he should call KLM / whatever other carrier e has and also make sure his luggage gets the "priority to baggage claim" tag like first class passengers get (although anyone's guess if Kazakh baggage handlers give a drat; though probably such baggage is near the front of the hold too). Also make sure that in the likely case he doesn't get his luggage, how will it get transferred to him later? Or you know, he could pack lighter and not check a bag. Or pack heavier and just smuggle it on somehow. If he needs to travel with massive amounts of liquids for some reason then ??
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Jul 21, 2017 09:18
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Sounds like two of you majored in snitty replies to reasonable questions. Also the answer ^^ is wrong. The pricing difference could also be due to weird ways they handle routing and incentivizing certain flight routes, or it could be a fuel dump mistake (quite common) or any other reasons. Calling it all "supply and demand lol" is bogus. Nice job being a dick and also being wrong. Saladman fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jul 31, 2017 |
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Jul 31, 2017 23:24
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Extremely Penetrated posted:I'm looking at going from Toronto to Auckland through SFO, 6h + 13h flights. Which experience would be less awful for the longer leg: United on a 787-9, or Air New Zealand on a 777? No price or layover difference so I feel like it's a tossup. I personally find the 787 a lot nicer for overnight flights due to the increased humidity and pressure in the plane, making sleeping easier and waking up easier (since my contacts are not glued to my eyes). I did a 13 hour layover in Warsaw last year after a long flight and 7 hour timezone shift for similar reasons and while i didn't regret doing it, I don't think I'd recommend it or do it again if I had a better option. We walked around for 4-5 hours, ate lunch, then passed out in a park for 4 hours before heading back to the airport. If you do take the long layover, just make sure to check all your luggage and keep a little daypack so at least you don't have to deal with your stuff.
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Aug 9, 2017 01:06
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