Getting to Riga from USA
 

Hello Flyertalk!
Long time reader, first time poster. I lived in Latvia year as an exchange student, and had tickets to me provided by an organization that were EWR-CPH-RIX round trip. I am going back this summer, including a stop in Germany for a few days to meet with friends. What is the cheapest way to get to Riga from Boston or JFK? I live near SJC but I'd be flying out of the east coast. So far all I can find are Finnair through HEL, but id like to include a stop in Germany at least one of the ways there. My biggest question is about Air Uzbekistan, it seems that everyone in Latvia i talk to knows that they fly to JFK from RIX, but nobody knows how to buy the tickets! Anybody have any idea what prices are on the JFK-RIX nonstop and if its a reliable airline?
Thank you, and apologies if this is not in the correct section.

I'd fly Finnair over Air Uzbekistan any day.

If you are considering traveling to Germany, why not check out flights to Germany and then look into discount European airlines like RyanAir, Air Berlin, Wizzair to get to Riga.

Also consider Lot, but you may have to connect through Warsaw. Icelandic Airways may even fly to Riga.

Just some thoughts.

Uzbekistan Airways direct flight JFK-RIX can be bought for about $825 r/t, any travel agent should be able to sell it to you.

You can also find a cheap(er) ticket to Germany or somewhere else in Europe and fly Air Baltic to RIX and back from there. You can get BT-tickets to or from Europe for less than €150 r/t.

Try searching on www.sidestep.com or www.momondo.com for cheap flights.

Cheers!

Might be cheapest to go through LHR, I would assume the cheapest trans-Atlantic flights go through London?

Then jump on a Ryanair flight from STN. If you don't want to stay in London, tou could get the tube to Liverpool St and jump on a Terravision bus out to STN. Total cost one-way LHR-STN within London would be around £10.

Else: check Lufthansa, LOT, Finnair, Czech... They all fly to RIX.

I don't think anyone's going to argue with that!

Finnair's not bad, but if you're planning to go to Germany anyway, the LH ticket (normally more expensive than AY, at least these days) may save you money in the end.

As for $825 r/t JFK-RIX on Air Uzbekistan: I don't know when the OP was planning to fly, but plugging in some random February dates on Finnair's website gives prices as low as $710.

You could also do JFK-FRA on Lufthansa and then go FRA-RIX on AirBaltic.

Is there bus or train service from Helsinki to Riga?

That may be another option to save yourself from Air Uzbekistan.

I wonder if any of the people blasting "Air Uzbekistan" (actually Uzbekistan Airways) have ever actually flown them. The JFK-RIX route is on a 767. The airline is joining SkyTeam next year.

If you don't want to do that, but still want to fly, Air Baltic is probably going to be the connection you could make to Western Europe for cheap.

Or you can take a night train from Berlin to Warsaw, and take a train from there to Riga through Lithuania.

It's not so much that I haven't flown them as that I haven't -heard- of them. Considering that Finnair is a known quantity with decent service, and costs $100 less for the same route, why experiment?

Paying an extra $100 for non-stop service, particularly trans-atlantic, is not unheard of.

They may be fine as an airline, but I would hesitate to fly the airline of such a repressive dictatorship.

+1 for Air Baltic.

Perfectly functional LCC (and a large step up from Ryan Air) the two times I've flown them and they seem to get around Europe pretty well at decent prices.

bus/train would be a long trip via st petersburg ;)

there's a ferry across the gulf, though! it'd be followed by a bus to riga - 5 hours or so. the whole process would take a long time...

airbaltic serve the region, and they're cheap.

As far as I am aware there are currently no train links between Lithuania and Latvia.

You can get from Warsaw to Vilnius by train (daytime service, VERY slow, and not too comfortable once you've changed onto a Lithuanian train just after the border). You can then get from Vilnius to Klaipeda, near the Latvian border, on a very fast and comfortable train, but once you're there that's it.

Air Baltic has a good reputation, so if you want to spend time in Germany as well then a Transatlantic flight to a convenient German airport and a separate ticket on Air Baltic might be your best bet.

Or you could use Ryanair for the last leg... but I wouldn't!

Check out bahn.de

That's what I did, extensively, before our journey through Poland/Lithuania/Latvia just a few weeks ago!

However, I partly stand corrected as I have now been reminded that there is a once-a-day service from Vilnius to Daugavpils, in the evening... too late to connect to any other places in Latvia (which is probably why I'd forgotten about it - we looked at it and said "no use"). Using this service it would take 24 hours to get from Warsaw to Riga. From what I read when I did the research for our trip there used to be a more direct route.

Taking the train to Riga would, undoubtedly, be quite a nice adventure... but probably not do-able for someone who just wants to get there!

I have flown HY (Uzbekistan Airways) a few times on TAS-IST route on 767-300 in Y (2077nm).

It's an adequate service and adequate aircraft interior, and the seat was pretty much what you'd get on AA or UA TATL, and the food was edible and fairly generous portions.

Overall, the whole HY environment, I would say was fairly similar to what you get on AZ, and certainly better than FR!

AY will be bit better than HY of course, but if you're a student and need to purchase mostly on price (and direct flight if possible), I'd happily go for HY.

If you want to go to Germany as well as Latvia, my suggestion would be to look for a cheap ticket to Germany and LCC it from there.

Frankfurt has edged out London as the cheapest place to fly into (or rather, out of) in Europe because the British government has slapped various "carbon"-taxes onto tickets departing from there.

So, look for a decently priced flight to Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart or Berlin, and then continue on on Air Baltic.

You can also fly Ryanair to Riga, but personally, I'd rather have bowel surgery in the woods with a stick than fly with that sorry excuse for an airline again.

Only if the bus or train can swim. The baltic sea is between the both countries. So there is a ferry service.

Partially corrected? It's OK just to say you were mistaken. ;)

i.e. "there are currently no train links between Lithuania and Latvia"

What's unuseful or undoable to you may be someone else's adventure :)

But it is true that Latvia is not well-connected to the rest of Europe by rail.

Thank you all for the advice. It seems that HY hasnt posted their schedules for JFK-TAS yet, but when they do I will be calling around to get a quote. Whoever answered their phone spoke very poor English, and I speak very poor Russian, so it was fairly humorous trying to get my point across.

At the moment I am considering JFK-RIX with HY, and then on the way back taking a LCC to Germany and then finding a cheap way home.

Latvia is tough to get to from most other Eastern European countries because the rails are Soviet Style. The 'easiest' way to Riga from Poland or farther west is with Ecolines bus lines, Berlin-Warsaw-Vilnius-Riga, however by train is also possible Cologne-Warsaw/ Warsaw-Vilnius/ Bus Vilnius-Riga or once nightly Train Vilnius-Sankt Petersburg stops in Daugavpils, where I have a few contacts. I have taken Ecolines bus from Riga-Moscow, and Sankt Petersburg-Riga, and would really love to avoid riding with them. We will see what I choose, but if i take HY, i will be more than happy to report back on their JFK-RIX service.
Thanks all. Any other ideas are welcome

Well, one thing to keep in mind is that on intercontinental flights round-trip tickets still tend to be significantly cheaper than two one-way tickets. It may be a better idea to book a roundtrip into RIX or into Germany.

If you're dead-set on two one-ways, consider flying Air Berlin back to the States from Germany - they are one of the few European airlines that offer one-way pricing even on their long hauls. Oh, and Condor does so as well, and often has reasonable deals on their nonstops to Vegas from Frankfurt.

On the subject of things to avoid... I would also avoid the train from Warsaw to Vilnius.

The first part (Warsaw to Sestokai) is fine - it's very old rolling stock, but it's rolling stock that was designed for long-distance journeys.

The train from Sestokai to Vilnius is a real bone shaker - with seatbacks that only go up to your shoulder so you can't lean back.

I enjoyed the journey (for the adventure factor) but wouldn't do it again.

I flew Uzbekistan Airways once from RIX to JFK. Old 767, old style projector showing some Russian cartoons and movies that are impossible to see given the light on the big screen at the front. OK seats. I had a woman from Uzbekistan in front of me keep farting non-stop the whole flight, so it was not an enjoyable flight. The cups for the drinks keep leaking, so each time you are given a drink as it leaks out it's put in a second and sometimes even third cup to prevent leakage. No diet/light (sugar-free) drinks, as such don't exist in Uzbekistan (wonder why don't they just grab those in RIX).

But, other than that it's fine. Really just like any lower end airline..