Originally Posted by
New York City Flyer
Sounds like it should be an amazing trip, wow. Good for you. Lufthansa is really wonderful. I love flying Lufthansa. I was hoping you weren't planning to go BOS-PHL-ATH on US Airways. I don't think Envoy Class could ever hold a candle to Lufthansa's Business Class, its not even like comparing apples to apples. Plus, it'll be so much easier to go from Boston directly across the Ocean rather than flying down to Philadelphia and going through that awful experience. Very exciting for you. I live vicariously through others vacations these days.
I'm not surprised the short hop flights within Greece are so expensive, take the visitors for everything they're worth. Have you ever looked at prices for travel within Argentina? There is the Argentine citizen price, the non Argentine citizen flying an Argentine airline into Argentina price, and then there is the non-Argentine citizen flying a non-Argentine airline into Argentina price. Big difference there. Imagine if the U.S. flags could find a way to charge all European passport holders flying within the U.S. on domestic tickets double the price.
I agree with you, US is a pitiful trans-atlantic product, particularly in "Envoy." Their business class has to be one of the worst in the sky. Definitely not worth the extra miles to upgrade. We made the mistake of doing BOS-PHL-DUB once because of a good fare, and it was miserable.
I don't know about different airline prices for Greeks and non-Greeks, but I will tell you that hotels have different rates. We found a hotel in Santorini that we wanted and the price was one rate on the Internet. My Greek friend said let me give them a call and she was able to get a rate that was 20% cheaper (and a better room to boot!).
At some level this is annoying, but on another level I guess I don't mind up and coming countries taking full advantage of their natural resources. Greece has beautiful islands, the country could use as much money as it can get its hands on for infrastructure improvements and the like, so I don't necessarily mind paying a premium for that kind of thing.
Now, if only the dollar was doing a bit better vs. the Euro....
