flipstah

Fellow Canadians, looking to see if I can get some advice.

I'm interested in going to Europe in summer 2015 (Jul-Aug) and I'm looking to see which has been the cheapest way to enter Scandinavia? That's my #1 priority then the rest of Europe.

Is it cheaper to enter into Scandinavia then around Europe or Europe first (Germany, UK, etc.) then fly short-route into Oslo or Stockholm?

Right now, YYC->OSL around my time frame is mid $1k CDN

flipstah

If a moderator can move this topic to a different section that is more appropriate (maybe TravelBuzz?), that would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

iceblueshoes

I know icelandair has trips to Stockholm and I believe Helsinki via Reytjavick (sorry can't spell the damn city name!). Not sure if they fly to YYC though... Sorry!

flipstah

I'm pretty open to anywhere in Canada. If it's cheaper to fly YYC->YYZ->OSL vs. direct, then I'm all ears.

I wonder if this is considered to be a mileage run haha.

Doc Savage

Look into Norwegian Air out of JFK. Really cheap to Oslo.

ksu

Icelandair (www.icelandair.com) prices Edmonton-Oslo at CAD 1163 R/T incl taxes, outbound July 7, return Aug 4.

They fly to all Nordic capitals, as well as some other major cities (Bergen, Trondheim in Norway, though not daily). They offer free stopovers in Iceland, and do offer open jaws.

flipstah

Thanks for the tip. I'm getting 1,269.08$CAD for July-Aug roundtrip from YYC->OSL with a stopover in Iceland on the return flight.

I have no idea if that's cheap because I've only done Asia and North America for flying. Never had to canvas around for Europe.

gnaget

Check SAS as a yardstick.

Norwegian will be the cheapest from the US. It looks like you can fly for less than USD 400 one way next summer. But you would need to fly to SFO or JFK. And it's bound to be an unpleasant experience. Icelandair is also pretty unpleasant.

flipstah

Thanks. I checked SAS and IMO, their website sucks.

Also, from YYC -> OSL would be $2k CAD but then when I go to book, I can't get their lowest price.



Thanks for letting me know about Icelandair. Sounds like Air Canada to me.

I'll aim for Norwegian or SAS. I could get the round trip from either SFO or JFK then roll the dice on the YYC->SFO or JFK flight.

IMO, $800 is cheap for round trip but that's from a US destination.

ksu

Very true, indeed!

flipstah

Meanwhile, at Norwegian Air...



If my flight from YYC->LAX is typical, it's ~$300 round so ~1500-1600$USD.

MOC991

Don't pay $1337 roundtrip on Norwegian. You initially mentioned JFK rather than LAX. There is a direct flight daily to Oslo also, so I'm not sure how you managed to select the connecting ones. Any of the other carriers out of JFK would be cheaper than that. Use ITA Matrix and Skyscanner especially if you have some flexibility for your dates. SAS, United, and BA have been on and off lowering prices to get close to Norwegian fares out of NYC.

MOC991

I'm not even sure if the OP will see this, but I've researched it further. YEG which is Edmonton on Icelandair would be your best bet for flying on one airline if it isn't too much trouble for you to get to Edmonton. Since you mention wanting to go to other parts of Europe, you could fly into Amsterdam around July 28th. From there you can cheaply get to Scandinavia by plane after exploring AMS or take trains or planes to explore Benelux or Germany. Then you can fly back out of Stockholm (ARN) 8/21 or Copenhagen (CPH) 8/22. Those dates on Icelandair come out to 1007 CAD roundtrip.

There is also a one way Westjet flight out of YYC on July 23rd to Glasgow (GLA) for only 480 CAD which is pretty good. Glasgow is nice to visit in the Summer and there are cheap flights since Easyjet flies out of there. If you could figure out a way back from Edmonton, you could combine that flight with the return from Stockholm or Copenhagen to Edmonton on Icelandair which would come to about 970 CAD. You just aren't geographically close to any of the big Transatlantic hubs like YYZ and NYC to do much better than that. I wouldn't bother with Norwegian because you're tacking on almost 2,000 miles by flying to Oakland or New York. I don't know how Westjet and Icelandair compare as airlines, but I imagine they're better than Norwegian.

Also just off the top of my head, cheap fares that aren't out of a big TATL hub like NYC and YYZ in the summer are probably around $800-$1000 USD. In the winter, maybe around $600-$800. Obviously NYC might have summer fares in the $700s and winter fares in the $500s to $600s, but you have to add the cost of getting there to compare those. As you get closer to the west coast, you can figure an additional $100 on those fares. Those are just ballpark estimates to give you an idea because nobody can really predict all these sales and algorithms running amok.

flipstah

Just saw this and sorry for the delayed reply. Edmonton is a 3 hour drive from Calgary so it's not that big of a deal but if I'm only saving $100, then I'd rather fly from Calgary.

I saw the WestJet flight and is it cheap to start my Nordic trip from Glasgow? I'll have to check it out further.

Thanks for the tip!

iceblueshoes

I would think Glasgow is prob your best bet.
Don't forget you also have Edinburgh as another option to depart from as it's pretty close.

I think AC Rouge goes to Edinburgh?

WJ to Dublin is also another option but there's a stop over in St. John's as an FYI. I took it last year from Dublin to YYZ and check in in Dublin was a gong show. lol
Still I won't be too hard on them, as they had just started flying 5 days prior.