Originally Posted by
deepbluesky
Both good comments-- thanks!
It seems there may be some more optimization I can do using IB, so I'm looking through their Eastern Europe options and comparing them to BA and Malev. I seem to recall that BA used to have a lot more flights that way, and to Africa and Central Asia too, but perhaps I'm remembering wrong.
No you don't. BMED used to be a BA franchise and is now part of Star Alliance via BMI. Luckily comair has renewed their BA franchise for another 11 years otherwise your trip to MRU wouldn't work anymore.
Originally Posted by
deepbluesky
Lastly, I might look at going up to HEL and taking the train to St. Petersburg if I can get a Russian visa before leaving on the trip. Unfortunately it looks like one of the St. Petersburg flights is a non-OW codeshare, so I can't use it as a stop between two hubs... unless I'm missing something.
There are AY operated flights between St Petersburg and Helsinki every day plus some codeshare, so you should be fine.
BTW the flight to SSG is not on the oneworld map yet, so good find. Hopefully it will be updated soon.