Budget Travel - Please help me, experts! Looking for a cheap air tkt

Hi Flyers~

I'm planning a trip to Europe in June as a graduation gift for myself after a long long time in school.

So i've been searching air plane tkt for months, but i couldn't really find any good deal. i've been looking for all the major websites(kayak, expedia,..etc), but it doesn't seem to be cheap at all.

My travel plan will be

IN : From Seattle, US to Berlin, Germany June 10
OUT : Paris, France July 9 to Seattle, US

I'm flexible about any option to reduce the price of tkt.

if you know some good deal or magical tips to find a good deal, please let me know! i will be so happy to make my trip by your help!!

Amy

Using ITA (matrix.itasoftware.com) I see $1366 for your routing and dates. At this point in time it didn't change anything to check a day earlier or later.

It is always worthwhile to also check the airline sites themselves. Once in a while they surprise you. Beyond that, keep checking regularly and have an awareness of what a good deal is. If you see a sale, don't hesitate as it won't be there for long.

Dublin and London can be less expensive destinations (maybe $300) but then you would have to arrange the rest of the trip with somebody like Ryan. It wouldn't be hard to burn up the savings with the other airfare and maybe transportation to a different airport. Amsterdam looked to be about the same as your planned cities.

You are not alone in the sticker shock at the rates.

Good Luck,
Romelle

Welcome to FT! As you have discovered, air travel during Summer is not cheap. That said, it would help if your dates were flexible. For example, fares seemed lower about one week earlier.

If you can go during Aug - September the fares would be quite a bit lower.

Also try varying cities a little, eg, Frankfurt instead of Berlin.

Welcome to FlyerTalk InSeattle !

Congratulations on finishing school.

As you have discovered, air travel during Summer is not cheap. That said, it would help if your dates were flexible. For example, fares seemed lower about one week earlier.

If you can go during Aug - September the fares would be quite a bit lower.

Wise words.

I'm flexible about any option to reduce the price of tkt.
Unfortunatelly the advice is to not fly during the expensive tourist season (many, many threads on this). Of course I understand you probably want to go right after finishing school, and then come back and start work, when it will be rather difficult to take a month off for work.

EmailKid

...
Dublin and London can be less expensive destinations (maybe $300) but then you would have to arrange the rest of the trip with somebody like Ryan. ...

Romelle

If you see a way to get from SEA to Dublin or London for the dates above, please share - I'm sure it will help the OP and many others!

With ITASoftware.com, I see
SEA-FRA, June 10
FRA-YVR, July 8
all-in is $817 USD.

Extra expenses:
29-Euro train ticket to Berlin
39-Euro train ticket from Paris to Frankfurt
You'd buy these tickets on bahn.de, starting from 3 months in advance (but they do sell out). I'd suggest an overnight in Frankfurt in either direction, but that shouldn't be a hardship.
QuickShuttle ride back to Seattle from Vancouver airport - ~$35 USD.

At any rate for under $1000, you can have your trip.

You could also open-jaw this with LHR for about the same price.

Re: OP. You've got some things working against u, for sure. SEA is pretty isolated as a gateway (except for proximity to YVR or PDX, both smaller), so one of the tools in the toolkit is not likely usable. (As an example, I once flew to JAX for $39, got a one-way rental car driveaway deal at $15 with no drop charge and drove it to EWR to launch a Europe trip because of fare differentials).

Going as an air courier isn't what it used to be and SEA won't likely work as a base for that. Icelandair has also been a low price leader sometimes in years past; the old "classic" was to fly them connecting in REK to Luxembourg! But I don't think they go to SEA.

The guys advertising in the Sunday papers might be able to put you on Aeroflot or someone like that for $200 or so less than an airline like Northwest. FTers generally avoid arrangements that don't earn them usable miles, though.

Time-of-year is definitely working against you big-time. Airlines have always tried to charge their peak prices at that time, but lately it's with more attitude because they've been cutting flights. They tend to keep the high prices posted until about a month before departures and only then start backing down if they have to.

Would second the advice that your best hope is likely in being flexible about alternative start and or end points on the Europe side, as well as possibly the U.S. side (but more likely the Europe side). FRA sometimes gets sales when other cities in Germany don't; DUS also used to get a few. BRU might be softer on demand than PAR or AMS, and so on. Farecompare has a fairly good tool for showing you the cheapest published fares to various European cities. Sometimes they don't get the tax calculation right, though, so you have to confirm the all-in fare on another booking site.

P.S. I don't want to sound too much like a downer here. I hope you can make something work. I never got to do the post graduation trip because of finances and because it frankly wasn't on the radar screen (wasn't the done thing among people I knew at college). It took me 10 years and a buyout offer to get the funds and skills to do the long dream trip (favoring budget countries in Asia). I think you can have a certain energy and excitement in your 20s that you can't get back later, and that serves you well in staying in hostels or riding cramped buses or doing "budget" things you need to do to make the trip work out. It's great experience, though.

If you see a way to get from SEA to Dublin or London for the dates above, please share - I'm sure it will help the OP and many others!

schmare,

I didn't state my message very clearly. I meant $300 less than the #1366, or $1066, not a $300 fare.

Sorry to get your hopes up.

If I'd found something that great, after booking my whole family, I'd have put it out in all caps, oversized print, etc.

Romelle

Welcome to FT! Try changing the dates, and/or selecting other airports. Sometimes, changing your dates by one day either way can drastically effect the fare.

I did see an online ad that stated AA was putting some Paris routes on sale. However, they probably are flying from a destination other than Seattle. As RustyC explained, you may have to get creative to save some dollars. He explained that he once drove from JAX to EWR to get a cheap international launch flight. That is over 900 miles of driving, but it sounds like it was worth it.

I did a search on Orbitz for you route. SEA to BER on 6/10, returning with CDG to SEA on 7/9, and found an Air Canada price of $1000, after taxes and fees. It sounds pretty good, but you will have to evaluate the connection times, and other things to see if it will work for you. Other fares where in the $1300 range. You can probably get the same deals through the actual airline websites, which would be better for you in the event of irregular operations. Also, watch out for the fees and taxes. They are not the same for all airlines, so while base fares may not compare, the full fare may be equal.

I did want to re-emphasize that being flexible with dates and cities can save quite a bit of money. So investigate Vancouver instead of Seattle, Frankfurt instead of Berlin, a week earlier in June, etc.

One way to scan all this quickly in a few glances is at matrix.itasoftware.com.

For date flexibility start with month long search.

For city flexibility use the following syntax:

FROM sea;yvr
TO ber;fra;par

This example will look for fares from Seattle/Vancouver to Berlin/Frankfurt/Paris.

When you are ready to be specific, switch to specific dates and round trip. If you want "open jaw" (return from/to a different city) then use multi-city even though you want only two flights.

Using all this flexibility I was able to see fares as low as $650. Of course, such low fares will likely come and go---mostly go as seats are sold :)---but something in the range $700-$800 should be possible. The dates and the cities may or may not work for you but it is better to know the options and then decide.

ITA is a powerful tool but may be intimidating at first. Post questions here or feel free to PM. Good luck.

...Using all this flexibility I was able to see fares as low as $650. Of course, such low fares will likely come and go---mostly go as seats are sold :)---but something in the range $700-$800 should be possible...
I also saw a $650 fare for Air Canada, but it had $350 worth of taxes and fees on it. Did you see a fare for $650, all in? That would be something, and I am sure the OP would want to book that right away.

Wow.. I’m amazed by the knowledge flyers have here. Thank you so much for trying to help me out on this!!

Well.. There is suggestion on changing a date to reduce the tkt price and I do agree that it will be helpful. But I’ve got approved for those days off by my manager at current work and it’s kind of hard to change. And I want to go to Europe the day after I finish my finals. :D So it sounds like I have options to change the itinerary.

I will look it up all the suggestion has been made here and hope I can find the dream TKT soon!

Thank you so much flyers~ again.

Amy

Let us know how you are making out with booking your trip. Most of us subscribe to these threads, so we can automatically see if this thread has new posts.

If 6/10 and 7/9 define the absolute beginning and end of your vacation, you may still have to shorten it by a day or two to get the best fare, since you indicate that you can not extend those dates.

Once again, welcome to FlyerTalk.

oh! just quick question. does anyone know an hour will be enough to catch the next flight in (CPH) Copenhagen, DK? i have no idea how big or small the airport in CPH.

what if i missed the next flight, am i able to get the next flight w/o getting charge extra for those tkt purchased in internet?

I also saw a $650 fare for Air Canada, but it had $350 worth of taxes and fees on it. Did you see a fare for $650, all in? That would be something, and I am sure the OP would want to book that right away.

It was all-in on ITA, most likely YVR-FRA-YVR on Condor. IIRC, disappeared fast as well, no surprise there. But there were other options around 700.

oh! just quick question. does anyone know an hour will be enough to catch the next flight in (CPH) Copenhagen, DK?...what if i missed the next flight, am i able to get the next flight w/o getting charge extra for those tkt purchased in internet?

Is one hour enough to change planes? Yes, if your flight arrives on time. Will it be enough to absorb a delay in your incoming flight? That's tough. :)

If both flights are on the same ticket, then you'd be protected in a missed connection situation. If you purchased two tickets separately, you may be on your own. Therefore, try these tight connections only if both flights are on one ticket.

I understand you don't have much date flexibility, but what are the departure/arrival windows? Could you use Vancouver? Even if you keep your dates, Vancouver-Berlin, Paris-Vancouver prices to $880 right now; Seattle-Berlin, Paris-Seattle came to $1035. These are only examples, I am not saying they will be available tomorrow. Cheap tickets sell out very fast especially for the high season.