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Just read this entire thread - Love it! I had a bunch of miles building up and used them to book an award ticket to BKK this winter and it was amazing. I used Flight fox ($125 fee) to book an open jaw IAD-DOH-BKK-(10 days)-NRT-JFK-DCA in Business class for 120k miles and $65 in fees. However, now I'm spoiled. I met a girl in Thailand who lives in England and gently caress if I'm going to pay 100k in miles + $1100 in taxes to fly BA. AA is a little better at 100k + $300 fees. Am I just basically screwed trying to get to UK? And, what is the optimal way to search for award seats, if there is one?
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Apr 18, 2015 16:47
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BA charges ridiculous fees for mile redemptions, most notably the huge fuel surcharge. There are plenty of fees going to/from heathrow including APD (higher if you are in a premium cabin). Do not fly BA for long haul mileage redemptions. AA's new biz class is nicer, anyways.
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Apr 18, 2015 16:59
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When I go to an airline site such as Condor and they claim there are only 4-7 seats left, on a flight two months down the road for a random rear end line like Vancouver to Belgrade, are they lying or are those numbers accurate?
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Apr 21, 2015 06:18
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Rime posted:When I go to an airline site such as Condor and they claim there are only 4-7 seats left, on a flight two months down the road for a random rear end line like Vancouver to Belgrade, are they lying or are those numbers accurate? A lot of flights book out early, especially if you're travelling in summer.
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Apr 21, 2015 06:34
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Better get my poo poo sorted and commit to an itinerary ASAP then. 
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Apr 21, 2015 06:53
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Rime posted:Better get my poo poo sorted and commit to an itinerary ASAP then. I'd at least try just the Vancouver -> Frankfurt and see if it tells you there's only a few seats left then. That way if so you can just wait and book Vancouver -> Zagreb or whatever later on and train it down to Serbia from there. But yeah, I'd try and commit sooner rather than later just so you can start pricing out flights if nothing else.
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Apr 21, 2015 07:17
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Sometimes it means "only 3 seats left at this price."
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Apr 21, 2015 12:53
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smackfu posted:Sometimes it means "only 3 seats left at this price." Almost always this (more accurately, 3 seats left in this fare class), which makes it a bit meaningless as prices for different fare classes change anyway and they can increase availability in that fare class later..
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Apr 21, 2015 14:45
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Yeah, the only place I take it seriously is when it is a small plane like a Dash-8.
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Apr 21, 2015 14:49
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smackfu posted:Yeah, the only place I take it seriously is when it is a small plane like a Dash-8. That's why I like the seating maps. Last year I got two of the last four seats period on a flight from YVR -> AKL that I booked about six weeks in advance. I was like "holy poo poo, already?" and had zero leeway for what date to travel on, so it worked out well.
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Apr 21, 2015 17:21
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Those seat maps are not accurate either -- sometimes less, sometimes more. The best way to check is with a tool like Expertflyer which will only tell you if there are 0-6+ seats available.
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Apr 22, 2015 01:31
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sellouts posted:The best way to check is with a tool like Expertflyer which will only tell you if there are 0-6+ seats available. Or 0-9+ depending on your airline. Seatmaps are bad for estimating how full a flight is because you can have a valid ticket without having a seat assigned yet (and in some airlines or markets like Europe you often can't select a seat until check-in time) plus airlines often block off seats for handicapped flyers (usually first row of each cabin) and for elite flyers.
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Apr 27, 2015 21:42
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My situation is a slightly unusual one: - Origin: Savannah, so I could fly out of Atlanta (4hrs away) or Charleston SC (2hrs away) as long as I know the day before so I can make plans to travel there by bus/train/car - Destination: Berlin, but my understanding is the 6hr train ride is only like €50 or so from Frankfurt, and I assume Frankfurt has more flights. - Duration of trip: One-way trip. The plan is to stay with my girlfriend in Berlin for a month or two until I can land a contract job, likely in Africa or the Middle East - Flexibility: the big one, I'm pretty tight on cash, and extremely flexible on timeline. I wouldn't want to leave any earlier than next week, but generally speaking anytime in May is fine, I have no specific obligations. Earlier being slightly better than later. I notice that most airfare search engines only have "+/- 3 days" as an option, but is there any good way to look at an entire upcoming month to find the softest spots? I know the OP says that true super-deals are rare, but I have a pretty broad timeframe.
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Apr 28, 2015 23:26
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:My situation is a slightly unusual one: If you're willing to do a few layovers you can go ATL -> FRA for $702 on a combo of Air Canada and Iceland Air. Involves stopping in Toronto and Reykjavik. May 27th only. I'd jump on it, everything else is $900+
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Apr 29, 2015 00:31
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I'm seeing $950 Savannah - Charlotte - Frankfurt - Berlin (Hipmunk, "Mystery Airline.") It's worth $200 to save yourself a long drive to Atlanta and fussing with long-distance train connections on arrival.
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Apr 29, 2015 01:05
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peanut posted:I'm seeing $950 Savannah - Charlotte - Frankfurt - Berlin (Hipmunk, "Mystery Airline.") It's worth $200 to save yourself a long drive to Atlanta and fussing with long-distance train connections on arrival. Which search engine are you using to find that? EDIT: I'll have to bounce prices against time-value, since I'm paying $160/wk for housing in Savannah, but it'd be free living with my girlfriend in Berlin, so if I can go earlier than later I save a good chunk.
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Apr 29, 2015 03:20
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:- Duration of trip: One-way trip. The plan is to stay with my girlfriend in Berlin for a month or two until I can land a contract job, likely in Africa or the Middle East Something not airfare related, but are you a citizen of a member of the EU or have a residency visa? If you're coming in on a tourist visa, one-way tickets are a huge red flag to customs; they're going to want to know how you're planning to go home, or at least how you're planning to leave. Without a continuing ticket they may not allow you to enter. For that matter the airline may not agree to transport you since if you're refused entry they're on the hook to take you back.
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Apr 29, 2015 04:47
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fordan posted:Something not airfare related, but are you a citizen of a member of the EU or have a residency visa? If you're coming in on a tourist visa, one-way tickets are a huge red flag to customs; they're going to want to know how you're planning to go home, or at least how you're planning to leave. Without a continuing ticket they may not allow you to enter. For that matter the airline may not agree to transport you since if you're refused entry they're on the hook to take you back. Nope, US citizen, going on a tourist visa with an expectation of leaving the EU well prior to 90 days. Yeah, I had similar concerns coming to Colombia on a one-way ticket with a tourist visa. Ended up not being an issue in that case, but maybe Germany is more strict. Might it help if I get a letter from my employer saying I'm on standby to come work in Africa in the next month or so? To give an indication that I'm headed somewhere else within a short amount of time? Sidenote: years ago I was waiting for an overseas gig to start, so I drove from the US up into Canada just to dick around for a couple months. When I was crossing the border and they asked me what I was coming for, I said "I'm waiting on a job to start, and I'll leave Canada and go there when it fires up". The Customs guy pauses and says "... so do I understand you're currently unemployed?" I managed to slide through that one by pulling out documents showing I own rental property (not that such is a full time job or anything) so argued I was "employed" as a landlord and could leave the country because I was delegating supervision while I was gone.
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Apr 29, 2015 05:31
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Yeah, you're gambling by just having the one way. If you're white it [i]probably/i] won't be a problem but no guarantees. If you want earlier, Hipmunk has SAV -> Charlotte -> CDG -> TXL for $824 on May 2nd or 3rd (can't remember which it was). Also mystery airline. CDG with those connections looks like the transat part will likely (but not necessary) be with an American airline of some sort.
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Apr 29, 2015 07:21
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In that case, flying into France and showing a train ticket for Germany might solve one-way ticket suspicions at the airport. "It is the Germans' problem now."
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Apr 29, 2015 10:49
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:My situation is a slightly unusual one: Matrix allows a 1 month calendar search as well as multiple airports searches (though these can sometimes be less powerful than single airport searches and miss out on stuff)
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Apr 29, 2015 13:58
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peanut posted:In that case, flying into France and showing a train ticket for Germany might solve one-way ticket suspicions at the airport. "It is the Germans' problem now." With the Schengen zone that likely wouldn't help. The border guards are going to want to know how you'll leave the Schengen zone, not their specific country since you can always cross back into their country with no problem. Although picking a country with more relaxed border guards than Germany (and for that matter France) might not hurt. TapTheForwardAssist posted:Nope, US citizen, going on a tourist visa with an expectation of leaving the EU well prior to 90 days. If the border guards do take an interest in you, you've got a number of red flags that point to you being a big big risk for overstaying your tourist visa: you have no travel booked to leave the EU, you may not have the resources to purchase said departure at a later date especially after living in the EU for a month or two, you're moving in with your girlfriend for that timeframe and you have no job or residence to provide ties to come back to the US. Maybe the rental property is enough to provide ties. And a number of airlines will want to see proof of continuing travel (or an EU passport or non-tourist visa) before they're going to bring you across the Atlantic since they'll have to give you a seat on the return if you get refused at the border. But you might not find that out until you show up at the airport to check-in. So finding a cheap refundable ticket out of the EU (to Africa or wherever) might not be a bad thing if you can swing it. Keep it to cross the border, then cancel it. Or at least contacting the airline you're looking to use ahead of time to confirm what they'll want to see at check-in and if they need proof of continuing travel.
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Apr 29, 2015 14:43
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fordan posted:And a number of airlines will want to see proof of continuing travel (or an EU passport or non-tourist visa) before they're going to bring you across the Atlantic since they'll have to give you a seat on the return if you get refused at the border. But you might not find that out until you show up at the airport to check-in. EDIT: Kayak is saying July fares as low as $90 1-way from Berlin to Istanbul, so how about I book that (or whatever slighty pricier refundable) as a backup? I took three years of Turkish in grad school, have a friend I've known for 10 years living in Istanbul now, and have visited Turkey before. EDIT2: is there a standardized way to see which tickets are refundable, or do I have to do a lot of digging for each individual ticket, or pay a certain fee to make it refundable? Not to be too sketchy, I do genuinely plan to leave the EU well before 90 days, not trying to stay in Germany for the year and dodge the fuzz, just pondering a credible way to clearly demonstrate onward travel even though I don't know exactly when I'm leaving. And if I do book onward travel (refundable) it is genuinely something I'm planning to do if for some weird reason I were to find myself on day 89 of the visa with no plans. quote:you may not have the resources to purchase said departure at a later date especially after living in the EU for a month or two, you're moving in with your girlfriend for that timeframe and you have no job or residence to provide ties to come back to the US. Maybe the rental property is enough to provide ties. I can print out my 2013 taxes (haven't filed 2014 yet, and my 2013 shows a higher salary) to prove that I own multiple pieces of rental property, and I can print out my statement from my 401k and IRA to show that (while somewhat illiquid) I have assets I can cash out or borrow against to leave the EU. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Apr 29, 2015 |
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Apr 29, 2015 17:03
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Tbh they probably won't hassle you much as an American  A cheap burner ticket to Istanbul isn't terrible, but I think financial documents etc for a tourist visa are overkill. Try the letters from future employer and a copy of your gfs information.
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Apr 29, 2015 22:56
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Fully refundable tickets for coach are in Y fare class; the airline you buy from may have a special marketing name for them but the fare bucket should show full Y.
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Apr 30, 2015 03:14
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For what it's worth my (extremely ditzy) ex flew into Europe without a return ticket or the ability to speak the local language once, and they let her leave the airport in my custody on the promise that we'd go and buy her a ticket right the gently caress away 
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Apr 30, 2015 05:48
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When I was working in Colombia, my boss's 23yr old sister spontaneously decided to emigrate and crash with us and look for work. She showed up at Customs in Bogota with an unused passport, speaking no Spanish whatsoever, and because she mistook the "Calle 63" on the home address we gave her, she was telling the clerks she was moving to Cali (which is hundreds of miles away). They ended up letting her through; as best we can tell they just didn't want to deal with the hassle and figured she seemed non-threatening enough. EDIT: Just booked that flight. Two hours ATL-ORD, 2hr layover, 8.5hr direct to Berlin. And $34 to Greyhound to get me from Savannah to Atlanta the day prior so I have a safe margin. I'll buy a cheap/refundable Berlin-Istanbul flight for late July just to have a documented departure date. NavyFed was kind enough to temporarily raise my balance just enough for the tix, until my payments clear at midnight. Never hurts to ask. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 21:55
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Ok, so I want to visit Munich and Lübeck* (medium-sized city about an hour northeast of Hamburg) this summer with my wife and 3-year old son, hopefully including July 2nd and 3rd in my trip since I get those days off work automatically. I'm in the bay area, my current plan was to fly from Oakland -> Copenhagen because that's relatively cheap on Norwegian Air, and spend, say, 4 days in Copenhagen (I like biking as transport so Copenhagen is cool for that), 3 days in Lübeck, and 5 days in Munich. I'm fine taking any of the 3 bay area airports and being flexible with when I fly and to what airport. I guess my main problem is that I'd rather not have to come back from Munich to Copenhagen for the return flight, but I can't seem to find a way to avoid it without having to pay way more (other airlines seem to be much more expensive than Norwegian). * this probably seems like a random choice of city; my company has an office here and part of what I'm doing is checking places out because in the medium-term I may be thinking about transferring internationally Cicero fucked around with this message at 03:01 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 02:58
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Cicero posted:Ok, so I want to visit Munich and Lübeck* (medium-sized city about an hour northeast of Hamburg) this summer with my wife and 3-year old son, hopefully including July 2nd and 3rd in my trip since I get those days off work automatically. I'm in the bay area, my current plan was to fly from Oakland -> Copenhagen because that's relatively cheap on Norwegian Air, and spend, say, 4 days in Copenhagen (I like biking as transport so Copenhagen is cool for that), 3 days in Lübeck, and 5 days in Munich. I'm fine taking any of the 3 bay area airports and being flexible with when I fly and to what airport. Yeah, you're pretty much going to have to head back out of CPH in order to make that work. Norwegian doesn't code share so if you don't want to route back to CPH, you'll be buying two one-ways and as we've noted often in this thread, those are usually wildly expensive. Also keep in mind that OAK-CPH is a long flight and if you're going with your kiddo, you would be well advised to pony up the seat fees and grab a bulkhead for extra space (kids can't sit in the exit rows). It will come down to an issue of pricing. Is it more expensive to book SFO-MUC (or SFO-East Coast-MUC) after you consider your positioning costs to get from CPU to MUC and back, plus the time and effort that involves? It's a personal valuation that you have to make.
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May 4, 2015 03:04
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The only thing I know about Lübeck is that when I flew in there several years ago, it was RyanAir and seemingly nobody else's airport
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May 4, 2015 03:09
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simplefish posted:The only thing I know about Lübeck is that when I flew in there several years ago, it was RyanAir and seemingly nobody else's airport And it was probably RyanAir's Berlin airport.
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May 4, 2015 05:55
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No lies, the departure lounge was a marquee on the apron
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May 4, 2015 06:14
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I think this is the best thread for this... here goes. I fly Virgin America pretty much everywhere in the US. Today I am flying to London on Virgin Atlantic which has a weirdo transfer program and I was wondering if it made sense to buy a Miles Booster? From what I can tell I'm getting 10% of my SFO -> LHR flight and then 50% of my LHR -> SFO, and buying a Miles Booster would add some serious miles to it, and that'd transfer over to America which is what I really want. Any ideas on if this works? edit: I was able to chat with Virgin Atlantic, the extra Miles Booster miles just go directly into your Flying Club account and are not 'earned' really, so they don't transfer to VX under any circumstance. Beast of Bourbon fucked around with this message at 20:03 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 19:17
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Cicero posted:Ok, so I want to visit Munich and Lübeck* (medium-sized city about an hour northeast of Hamburg) this summer with my wife and 3-year old son, hopefully including July 2nd and 3rd in my trip since I get those days off work automatically. I'm in the bay area, my current plan was to fly from Oakland -> Copenhagen because that's relatively cheap on Norwegian Air, and spend, say, 4 days in Copenhagen (I like biking as transport so Copenhagen is cool for that), 3 days in Lübeck, and 5 days in Munich. I'm fine taking any of the 3 bay area airports and being flexible with when I fly and to what airport. Would Icelandair be competitive for price? They allow you to easily split your arrival and departure cities in Europe. I tried to look it up but I wasn't sure which European airports they serve would work best for you. Also it looks like they don't serve the bay area directly, it'd be an Alaskan Airways connecting flight to Seattle, but maybe an option to poke around with. E: Or JetBlue from the east coast to Bay area, depends. FISHMANPET fucked around with this message at 19:56 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 19:48
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Beast of Bourbon posted:I think this is the best thread for this... here goes. It almost never makes sense to buy miles. But if you're looking to book an award and the cash outlay makes sense for you, go for it.
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May 4, 2015 22:33
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Best as I could tell, refundable tickets are sufficiently pricier than non-refundable that I'm probably just better off eating the ticket if I end up leaving Berlin prior to 90 days. So I bought a ticket for Berlin-->Istanbul for July for $105, so I have an established plan to leave Berlin and the EU before my 90-day tourist visa runs out. I checked out physically closer non-EU options on the map, that turned out to be pricier (like $120-150), so no go on Switzerland or Bosnia or whatnot. And no way I'm going to Byelorus or Ukraine. However, minutes after booking the Istanbul tix, I decided to check out the Oslo prices, figuring it has to be more... but actually Oslo is just $70. Then again, I don't know anybody in Norway, or speak Norwegian, or have been anywhere remotely near there. Whereas I know people in Turkey, speak ok Turkish, and have traveled all over that region, so in the very unlikely case that Immigrations wants to get punchy, Istanbul is a pretty credible fallback plan.
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May 5, 2015 02:55
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:However, minutes after booking the Istanbul tix, I decided to check out the Oslo prices, figuring it has to be more... but actually Oslo is just $70. Then again, I don't know anybody in Norway, or speak Norwegian, or have been anywhere remotely near there. Whereas I know people in Turkey, speak ok Turkish, and have traveled all over that region, so in the very unlikely case that Immigrations wants to get punchy, Istanbul is a pretty credible fallback plan. Norway's a part of the Schengen Area so that wouldn't have worked anyways. Honestly, I don't think you'll have too much trouble. Last time I went to Schengen for a length I might have gone past the 90 day limit I just told them I was going to the Balkans after about 2 months and had no problems. It's definitely good to have proof, but if you're polite, white, and fairly clean you shouldn't have many problems. MagicCube fucked around with this message at 04:19 on May 5, 2015 |
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May 5, 2015 04:02
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Hey, so I got a Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card a while back, and built up a bunch of points. I've always had cash/Amazon cards before. How do I actually use the points? The Chase site can't find any flights (Stansted to Pisa).
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May 5, 2015 09:04
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Brisbane to Stockholm, departing anywhere between 20-25 June, returning 3-7 August. Finally in a position to book my flights; can't find anywhere that will get below ~$2,100 AUD. This is.... ok, but was wondering if the ticket wizards here could find anything better? I'm considering flying to Copenhagen and taking a train, which does appear to be a cheaper option. I also thought maybe flying to London or Paris first then taking a Ryanair flight might work, but they both seem to be more expensive to fly to....
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May 5, 2015 09:35
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Dominoes posted:Hey, so I got a Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card a while back, and built up a bunch of points. I've always had cash/Amazon cards before. How do I actually use the points? The Chase site can't find any flights (Stansted to Pisa). You can either use the Chase site or transfer to partners, might be a 3rd option for cash or redemption but not sure. A quick glance at kayak however seems to show that only budget airlines fly that route and Chase isn't partnered with them so you might be screwed.
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May 5, 2015 09:40
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