Budget Travel - NYC to Portugal or France-How do I do it cheaply

Hello! I am trying to fly out of NYC and into Portugal at the end of June 2007. My dates are flexible, and I do not mind several stops/layovers. A friend of mine told me to look at flyertalk and said it is possible to take a lesser known airline/two for half the price? Anyone have any suggestions? Also, my sister and her hubby are doing the same thing, although flying out of Indiana...any suggestions for them?

Thanks!

Welcome to FlyerTalk kerabear !

We have been getting a lot of posts lately that come very close to asking members to find them lower fares. There's a sticky thread in our forum that talks about that, and you can find the thread here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=565617).

I suspect you will find help here, but most experienced travelers know it's hard to find a good fare to Europe in the summer :(

EmailKid

Welcome to FT!

My advice? Tell your friend to stop giving you bad advice :D


In all seriousness, getting a cheap fare to Europe in the summer is difficult, especially if you have expectations that you'll be able to get a 1/2 price ticket. That said, some suggestions:

-there are charter flights from BOS and PVD to the Portugal mainland via the Azores. My guess is that the large Portuguese population in Southern MA/RI has already snapped up the cheap seats, but it still may be worth a look.

-fly into a cheaper city in Europe (e.g. Dublin), then get a low cost carrier (LCC) to your final destination in Portugal. This method has the disadvantage of drastically reduced baggage limits on the LCC, and problems if your flights misconnect.

A few airlines that you may want to research to get you into Europe. Iceland Air can get you cheaply to Paris from JFK or BOS via Reykjavik, Iceland. Added benefit: your stopover can be as long as a week without extra charge. Also, look at flights connecting into London from the US.

A number of Asian airlines also offer point to point Us-Europe routes. Singapore does a JFK-Frankfurt route, and Air India flies nonstop EWR-Paris. My experience has been the fares on these specific flights can be very low. In 2003, I saw a Singapore flight from JFK-FRA for under 200 r/t per person. In June.

If you're open to connections, you can get flights into Paris for under 500 r/t out of the NYC area as long as you're diligent.

There *might* be a chance of flying as an air courier on an NYC-Paris run or something like that, but that arrangement isn't as common as it used to be and many others likely will be looking for it, too.

Icelandair is an old standby. They're like the kid who doesn't play well with others, but sometimes to travelers that means the last one with availability at a reasonable price.

I agree very much with the advice about LCCs. I usually have to do a version of that in SE Asia every summer, often needing an open jaw or a partner route to get a standard award to book. The LCC routes make it possible, and you get to see another city or two as well. Trying to get a straight RT at standard award to a place like BKK on a U.S. carrier sometimes feels like it takes an act of Congress.