$350 hou muc rt

[Hal3]

OK, so fees bring it up to $457.

Does anyone have enough money to take advantage of cheap flights to Europe?

 

[Hal3]

What is the most amazing, low fare intercontinental ticket price you have seen?

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Google helped me decipher your thread title: Houston to Munich, Round-Trip for $350 ($457 w/ fees).

That's the lowest fare I think I've seen, outside of the occasional teaser ad for a NY to Paris flight for ~$200. When I've flown internationally (years ago, now), the tickets were nearly $1000, from what I remember.

 

[W2R]

OK, I don't normally post on the Travel Information threads, since I don't have the travel bug... but I just had to interject that in my case I wouldn't go to Munich even if they PAID me $457 dollars to do it. I wouldn't even go if they paid me 40 times that. Now 50 times that would be $22,850 and I suppose I would drag myself over there and back for that much if I had to.

Nothing against Munich. I am just very, very tired of traveling.

Yes, that is probably a good price.

 

[deserat]

W2R - wow - that's harsh!!! To the OP , that's an AWESOME price - about what I got in 2000 with a 4 month pre-buy.

Munich is beautiful - has awesome museums, is near the Bavarian Alps, near Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau as well as Linderhof. There are other nice palaces as well by Ludwig the Mad And the shopping is pretty good in Munchen as well. Plus once you get to a German city, a train can take you anywhere in Europe and there are 'Southwest-like' airlines (RyanAir, GermanWings, etc) that can take you even farther afield inexpensively. That quick flight/train ride to Italy can then get you to Venice to take advantage of the great cruise prices over here.

So, awesome price to get you here and then you can check the place out!

 

[W2R]

Sorry, didn't mean to be harsh! I just don't value overseas travel very much. Munich and Neuschwanstein are indeed jewels. But I just have no desire or need to travel and actually BE there or to go to any other destination outside the U.S., other than (possibly) Canada.

There is so much that I haven't seen "right in my backyard", so to speak. To me, overseas travel has not been fun for a very long time, especially since 9/11.

 

[deserat]

W2R - no problem! Always room for lots of opinions - just wanted to make sure mine got in there

You are right - it can still be interesting to look in your backyard - it just happens Munich is part of my backyard right now As for overseas travel, well, let's just say the US TSA is much more intrusive than the Europeans....much more and rude, too. I hate air travel in the US anymore. We're treated like we live in a police state - can't stand it and think the terrorists won on that part of the battle.

Tschuss!

 

[Bestwifeever]

Go for it! Munich and Bavaria are beautiful and that is a good fare--what are the time restrictions? I sometimes see great deals to Europe but the return has to be in mid-April or something. Harder to find a deal in the summer.

We had a memorable trip almost 20 years ago--$1200 round trip total Chicago to Frankfurt, back from Paris for two kids (ages 10 and 8) and two adults, in March I think. Booked it as soon as I saw the ad and took the kids out of school. We took a train from Frankfurt to Heidelburg, where we joined up with some relatives, and then another train to Paris. We have hysterical memories.

 

[randyman65]

I've found that Frommer's usually highlights some specular deals. Of course, being in NY I get the benefit of the cheapest Euro flights. The 457 is the cheapest I've seen (Delta).

 

[FUEGO]

I saw some flights from NYC to Barcelona Spain for $200 total earlier in March on Iberia Airlines. And last week I saw flights from multiple east coast locations to Moscow Russia for sub $300 (I believe on united). Visa to Russia is another $130 or so apparently.

 

[randyman65]

The bucket shops get great prices. From my experience, the cheapest entry points are London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam.

 

[FUEGO]

The bucket shops get great prices.

I have heard of bucket shops before but never any details. Can you elaborate on how these work and what kind of deals you are seeing?

 

[OhSoClose]

W2R - no problem! Always room for lots of opinions - just wanted to make sure mine got in there

You are right - it can still be interesting to look in your backyard - it just happens Munich is part of my backyard right now As for overseas travel, well, let's just say the US TSA is much more intrusive than the Europeans....much more and rude, too. I hate air travel in the US anymore. We're treated like we live in a police state - can't stand it and think the terrorists won on that part of the battle.

Tschuss!

That doesn't reflect my experience - the security was much more difficult in Europe than in the states. We just returned from Paris to the states last week. The security for boarding our return flight out of Charles De Gaulle Airport was incredible. We went through six different check points in the airport. In addition to walking through an EM detector, they physically searched my whole family, searched our carry-ons after they went through the xray machine, and swabbed our carry-ons with some sort of chemical detector. My wife had a six inch wooden knitting needle that they confiscated. I asked her how she got it to Paris in the first place, and she said that the TSA didn't care about wooden knitting needles. Not to mention the police patrols in the CDG Airport. Four guys in camouflage fatigues patrolling in a spread, tactical formation with vicious looking automatic weapons at the ready. Actually, they looked more like Army than Police.

I didn't think about terrorists while visiting Paris, but the Airport did make me think about them.

 

[NW-Bound]

Sorry, didn't mean to be harsh! I just don't value overseas travel very much. Munich and Neuschwanstein are indeed jewels. But I just have no desire or need to travel and actually BE there or to go to any other destination outside the U.S., other than (possibly) Canada.

There is so much that I haven't seen "right in my backyard", so to speak. To me, overseas travel has not been fun for a very long time, especially since 9/11.

Well, you should go see more of our backyard (the US). Then, go see the neighbor's backyard too.

US travel is good for nature, while the Old World travel is good for culture. They've got real castles there, not phony ones like in Disneyland or the Epcot Center. Traveling around the East Coast visiting historical sites, I was somewhat disappointed that not much left was preserved by the young American nation, while the Europeans still have their old architectural structures.

I am no art connoisseur, but could tell that the Getty Museum in LA, despite the huge amount of money spent, was fairly sparse in exhibits, while the museums in Europe (Louvre, Prado, Riksmuseum, or the British Museum) are full of famous paintings that a Philistine like me could tell that he had seen photos of them somewhere (Art 101?).

But, seriously, travel can be tiring. I can do a European trip once every 6 or 9 months, as my flight from Arizona is longer than for people on the East Coast. Heck, the flight to Bangor, Maine was an ordeal for us already.

 

[W2R]

Well, you should go see more of our backyard (the US). Then, go see the neighbor's backyard too.

How about if I reverse the order? That's how my life has gone.

 

[Urchina]

About ten years ago I got a mid-February fare from Portland, OR to Amsterdam, Netherlands, nonstop, for $250 rt total (including fees).

I went and took my mom. Had a great 10-day vacation in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Last week I saw a nonstop fare from LA to London, $350 rt, total (including fees). That's pretty good.

 

[FIREd]

I have found NYC to London $270 + taxes and fees on Lufthansa (RT). Also, Madrid $340, Paris $374, Frankfort $360. You have to leave before 04/01 though.

Definitely some good deals compared to the last few years. I am going to spend a few weeks in Europe this summer so I am looking forward to lower airfares.

PS: I find flying domestically or internationally really stressful and tiring. For me, the enjoyment only starts once I reach my final destination.

 

[Gumby]

I don't mind flying, but I do prefer foreign airlines. I have enjoyed trips with Alitalia, Air France and British Airways. US airlines -- not so much.

 

[randyman65]

Bucket shops usually package tours and/or packages for airfare and hotel. They buy up blocks of tickets and resell them at discounted rates. They're pretty easy to find on the web, but they also tend to specialize in ethnic travel - if you have a local ethnic community, they will specialize flights to their home country. I've found that Frommer's budget travel is the best source for the best values.

For international travel, price is not always the most important factor. My fiancee recently took a trip to South Africa to visit relatives, and took Virgin Atlantic instead of British Airways. The $100 she saved on airfare cost her $500 in taxi's, food, and hotel charges when VA couldn't make their own connecting flight.

 

[FUEGO]

For international travel, price is not always the most important factor. My fiancee recently took a trip to South Africa to visit relatives, and took Virgin Atlantic instead of British Airways. The $100 she saved on airfare cost her $500 in taxi's, food, and hotel charges when VA couldn't make their own connecting flight.

That is true enough. And I'm always willing to pay a little more if the flights are much better. But BA isn't guaranteed to make their connecting flights either, so you may be out $500 for incidentals if you have to wait till the morning for a flight out anyway, right? I guess allowing extra time for layovers and not arriving too late at night in your connecting airport may help with making connections.

Also, about Frommer's Budget Travel, all I found was this link. Is this the bucket shop you are talking about?

In case anyone hasn't seen farecompare.com, they have a neat service that allows you to input your home airport (or anyone you specify) and then they display on a map all the cheapest fares from there. For domestic and international destinations. http://www.farecompare.com/maps/myAirportCategoryMap.html?category=Mexico is the link for flights to Mexico. This service is helpful if you know you want to fly to a certain region or just want to get away but don't really care where.

 

[randyman65]

That's the magazine, but the bucket shops are numerous. Frommer's is just the best place I've found to find them.

The VA vs. BA choice was based on 1.5 hour layover vs. 7 hour layover. But VA was late departing and made the connecting passengers go through customs (?), therefore missing their connection. The quality of the experience can be worth a few extra dollars. Domestically, I always fly Jetblue, since the were the first to treat passengers like humans, have plenty of seat room, and generally fly into smaller airports. I hate flying into LAX, but Jet Blue flys into Burbank, which is like stepping back into the 50's. It has no jetway - you deplane by walking down stairway rolled up to the plane, and the baggage claim is outdoors under a breezeway.

 

[ziggy29]

I don't mind flying, but I do prefer foreign airlines. I have enjoyed trips with Alitalia, Air France and British Airways. US airlines -- not so much.

I've never traveled on a foreign airline, but just about everyone who has tells me [-]that the flight attendants are hotter[/-] the service is far superior on most foreign airlines, particularly the Asian ones.

 

[sailor]

OK, so fees bring it up to $457.

Does anyone have enough money to take advantage of cheap flights to Europe?

Yup.
Whole Sailors family (now 5 of us) is flying to Europe for summer.
We were able to score cheap flights through Helsinki, which we never visited, so are planning to stopover there. Depending on timing we might add an overnight jaunt to Tallinn too (too bad Trek moved to Germany, we could visit him there).
Cheapest intercontinental fares I remember were part of now defunct "Delta Escapes" program. From Atlanta, Athens was $249, Paris $199, Tokyo $299.

 

[NW-Bound]

PS: I find flying domestically or internationally really stressful and tiring. For me, the enjoyment only starts once I reach my final destination.

Same here, although if one is truly rich and can afford first class or business class for all travel, the flight wouldn't be so bad.

Most companies have the policy of allowing business class tickets for flights of certain distance or duration. Several airlines have abandoned the first class section and expanded the business class section. As the result, the business class seats now recline much further to be near flat.

In the most recent overseas trip (overwater leg of 12hrs duration and 7 time zones from the East Coast) I was able to sleep through most of the flight, and was able to work the next day with no jet lag. The domestic leg of 4 hrs was a bummer; back to coach, due to company policy! Ticket price due to such short notice: $5000 for roundtrip.

We have not paid our own dime for business class seats; all such travels have been paid by our megacorps or by upgrade. With the incredible shrinking portfolio, we would be happy to afford travel at all, leave alone such luxury.