European flight questions for end of March

We just got flew back from London (via Paris, Athens, Santorini and Milos). What I found is booking a ticket from Denver to Europe round trip was over 2k, but departing Chicago and returning to Denver got the price down to $850 on United normal economy (not that cut rate fare). I was then able to book a one way ticket via American from Denver to Chicago for around $100, making our round trip tickets to and from the continent under $1k. I gave us 4 hours in Chicago in case of delays getting out of Denver and since we had to collect and recheck our bags.

YMMV, but everything went smooth for us and we saved a couple grand on the long flights of the trip.

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Originally Posted by cspringsposer

We just got flew back from London (via Paris, Athens, Santorini and Milos). What I found is booking a ticket from Denver to Europe round trip was over 2k, but departing Chicago and returning to Denver got the price down to $850 on United normal economy (not that cut rate fare). I was then able to book a one way ticket via American from Denver to Chicago for around $100, making our round trip tickets to and from the continent under $1k. I gave us 4 hours in Chicago in case of delays getting out of Denver and since we had to collect and recheck our bags.

YMMV, but everything went smooth for us and we saved a couple grand on the long flights of the trip.

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I've done this kind of positioning flightt a couple of times. You're wise to give plenty of time for any delays and for your checked bags to arrive, just in case.

OP, search for your trip on Google flights and use different starting airports in the US - - ones that are cheap and quick for you to get to from your home airport.

Mrs C and I are going to Thailand late this year, and our flights based out of LAX were about $600 less, each, than if we'd booked out of Reno. We're taking Southwest to /from LAX for $11 each (points, companion pass). Totally worth the little extra hassle.

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Originally Posted by zion zig zag

Holy shit, is $2500 per person for main cabin to LHR? That's wild. I'm seeing summer non-stops to Paris for $950 on Delta. What if you flew there and then took the train to London? Seems like that'd be a better/faster/cheaper option than flying with JetBlue and having a layover somewhere. Does the Olympics make that a bad idea? Just spitballing here.

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Good thought - it's much cheaper to fly into Dublin, thanks.

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Originally Posted by cspringsposer

We just got flew back from London (via Paris, Athens, Santorini and Milos). What I found is booking a ticket from Denver to Europe round trip was over 2k, but departing Chicago and returning to Denver got the price down to $850 on United normal economy (not that cut rate fare). I was then able to book a one way ticket via American from Denver to Chicago for around $100, making our round trip tickets to and from the continent under $1k. I gave us 4 hours in Chicago in case of delays getting out of Denver and since we had to collect and recheck our bags.

YMMV, but everything went smooth for us and we saved a couple grand on the long flights of the trip.

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4 hours doesn't seem like enough to me, but if it worked - great! But you are right, a quick search makes it look more affordable to buy each leg separate.

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Originally Posted by El Chupacabra

I've done this kind of positioning flightt a couple of times. You're wise to give plenty of time for any delays and for your checked bags to arrive, just in case.

OP, search for your trip on Google flights and use different starting airports in the US - - ones that are cheap and quick for you to get to from your home airport.

Mrs C and I are going to Thailand late this year, and our flights based out of LAX were about $600 less, each, than if we'd booked out of Reno. We're taking Southwest to /from LAX for $11 each (points, companion pass). Totally worth the little extra hassle.

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I saved about the same amount going to japan flying out LAX too - SFO and Seattle prices were much more for some reason. But I had planned to fly in the night before, stay at venice beach, then fly out. As you know, if you miss your overseas flight, they don't care if your flight to LAX was late or cancelled. Yer fucked!

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Originally Posted by muted reborn

I saved about the same amount going to japan flying out LAX too - SFO and Seattle prices were much more for some reason. But I had planned to fly in the night before, stay at venice beach, then fly out. As you know, if you miss your overseas flight, they don't care if your flight to LAX was late or cancelled. Yer fucked!

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Exactly. They're separate tickets, one airline doesn't have any responsibility to the other airline.

So it's not without risk.

After my last hellish time getting to Europe (which all went to shit in Denver), no way am I playing that separate-bookings game. 4-6 hours isn't nearly enough.

Getting TO Europe must be on a single booking--the connecting options are just too limited and you lose the ability to do complete reroutes (something wrong with DEN-ORD? no problem, we'll just fly you to NYC and put you on a flight to Europe from there). Fuckups on Europe trips can easily cost you a full day of your vacation and mess up other non-refundable/cancellable reservations (hotels, restaurants, etc.)

You can split the going and coming (although that's rarely cheaper). I'd also be willing to gamble on the return side of things...a separate domestic ticket once you land back in the USA is tolerable (especially since most airlines are more flexible about ticket changes post-covid). You can probably find another flight that works (especially something like NYC or Chicago to Denver), and worst case scenario you get home a day later...you're missing work or chores, not euro vacation time.

Or do it like muted reborn and plan to arrive a full day early and stay the night. That provides enough time to handle issues and should be enough time that most travel insurers (including credit card coverage) might start to pick up the tab for any issues, especially if you claim that the night in Venice Beach was something you wanted to do as part of your vacation.

As for the question of flying jet blue? I think I'd have zero qualms there about the quality/comfort of the flight. Only concern would be looking at their flight schedules to see what happens if something goes wrong. Will they be able to re-route you, or is it a deal where they only have one flight every day (or every other day!) and you'll be screwed if you miss it because the minimum delay is 24 hours and if others are hit by the same delay the plane might be full and you'll have to wait longer (or pay $$$ to rebook on a major alliance).

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Originally Posted by singlesline

As for the question of flying jet blue? I think I'd have zero qualms there about the quality/comfort of the flight. Only concern would be looking at their flight schedules to see what happens if something goes wrong. Will they be able to re-route you, or is it a deal where they only have one flight every day (or every other day!) and you'll be screwed if you miss it because the minimum delay is 24 hours and if others are hit by the same delay the plane might be full and you'll have to wait longer (or pay $$$ to rebook on a major alliance).

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that's a good point, many years ago I know they didn't code share, so if there was a problem, you were still stuck with them, they couldn't put you on another airline. Don't know if that is still the case.

I was in BTV, heading to DEN (BTV>JFK>DEN), there was some problem in JFK that shut the whole airport down. I could not get out until that was resolved, which meant the next day. Meanwhile, one gate over, United had plenty of flights to ORD and had Jet Blue code shared, I could have easily gone BTV>ORD>DEN.

For all the reasons listed above, I'd prefer a legacy carrier, all on one reservation. Dublin may be a good call, even if you have to backtrack.