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Ur Getting Fatter posted:I'm flying EZE-ATL on Aug 13 and I'd like to switch to the Aug 11 flight. Yeah, DL isn't publishing EZE-ATL to the GDS as operating that day, or any other day that week until August 12. AR is operating an EZE-MIA on the 11th or EZE-JFK on the 12th but I'm guessing DL won't push you to OAL without a cancellation on their part and even then it would likely be difficult. This is the unfortunate byproduct of international travel during a pandemic; poo poo isn't going to be easy.
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Jul 13, 2021 19:08
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I noticed skiplagged is not in the op, was there a reason for that? I've used it pretty exclusively for a few years now and its been great every time.
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Aug 9, 2021 22:25
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goodness posted:I noticed skiplagged is not in the op, was there a reason for that? I've used it pretty exclusively for a few years now and its been great every time. Great (and fair) question. I didn't include it in the OP specifically because use of hidden city ticketing is a sometimes complex undertaking that has specific restrictions and strategic considerations that have to be accounted for when planning a trip and the OP is really meant for the casual traveler that doesn't know much about searching for or buying airplane tickets. It's sort of covered in the "travel hacking" comment I made at the bottom of the post wherein I'm more than happy to talk about it and it's completely ok to bring those sorts of things up in the thread for questions and discussion. Hidden city tickets themselves barely qualify as travel hacking in my opinion; they're not nearly as difficult to accomplish as the fuel dumps of the good ol' days or making airline search engines break married segment logic. But they can be tricky and they are very specifically a violation of the Contract of Carriage that you're agreeing to with the airline when you buy a ticket, so there's a risk element there that has to be considered when booking a trip beyond the basic logistics of "don't check a bag." I use Skiplagged to search for opportunities but generally don't associate my frequent flyer account and other data that makes it easy for the airline to match things up on their end. Most airlines, and UA specifically, absolutely know when you use hidden city ticketing but thus far haven't really done anything about it except in very extreme cases (like that moron in Germany who was doing it multiple times per week on LH J tickets). As with most things, your mileage will most assuredly vary and anyone who wants to use hidden city ticketing should do so with both eyes fully open to the realities of what that involves and what it means if the airline decides they're not fond of you doing it.
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Aug 10, 2021 17:32
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Is hidden city ticketing particularly common anymore? I thought now that airlines are moving relatively away from "hub to spoke" type travel (and websites like this) that they were moving away from it. I found myself a good hidden city ticket about 11 years ago (turned a $1500 ticket over Christmas into a $1000 ticket) but never had similar luck again since. I just checked now for a few routes and skiplagged showed a ton of possible itineraries that Google Flights did not, but they were godawful – like turning a 16 hour transatlantic flight into a 45 hour transatlantic flight -- to save €100 out of a €1000 ticket, and that savings would be more than spent on airport food and/or an airport hotel. Maybe it depends more on where you start; I checked Zurich, Geneva, and Basel to a few random target destinations in the US and Asia and the best savings I could get was about 10% but only by making the itinerary miserable.
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Aug 11, 2021 08:47
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Saladman posted:Is hidden city ticketing particularly common anymore? I thought now that airlines are moving relatively away from "hub to spoke" type travel (and websites like this) that they were moving away from it. I found myself a good hidden city ticket about 11 years ago (turned a $1500 ticket over Christmas into a $1000 ticket) but never had similar luck again since. It's more of a domestic US market feature in my experience. For example, flying to a city where an airline has a fortress hub like AA does in CLT is a recipe for paying top dollar, but a hidden city ticket can drop a couple hundred bucks when MKE-CLT becomes MKE-CLT-JAX or something. I've also seen it occasionally for international hubs like FRA but it's usually sparing as there are a lot fewer international flights like that. For other destinations that don't have many ways to get there or are connected point to point, it's a lot less likely to find something cheaper that is also a reasonable itinerary.
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Aug 11, 2021 09:52
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Saladman posted:Is hidden city ticketing particularly common anymore? I thought now that airlines are moving relatively away from "hub to spoke" type travel (and websites like this) that they were moving away from it. I found myself a good hidden city ticket about 11 years ago (turned a $1500 ticket over Christmas into a $1000 ticket) but never had similar luck again since. You'll probably be better off just looking out for ticket sales, pre-pandemic it was pretty common to find tickets pretty much anywhere from Europe for $5-600. Like an airline would just do one month where FRA-SEA cost $500 which is how I got there, or a similarly priced Air China flight to Vietnam that got cancelled because of the Rona.
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Aug 12, 2021 21:31
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Quick car rental question - I found a car rental through Expedia at about 30% cheaper than what I found directly on the car rentals website (Sixt) I even factored in the transmission, mileage, car class etc and it's much cheaper on Expedia. Is this normal for car rentals on these 3rd party websites?
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Aug 29, 2021 07:08
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Busy Bee posted:Quick car rental question - I found a car rental through Expedia at about 30% cheaper than what I found directly on the car rentals website (Sixt) Nothing is normal with car rentals right now, but Expedia has their own negotiated rate code with car rental companies as a travel agency. Car rental companies have jacked their rates super high in response to demand and the increasing demand and thus price of used cars and the scarcity of new cars thanks to chip shortages. The only way to get a decent rental rate is through a corporate or other rate code these days.
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Aug 29, 2021 15:25
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At Beef's suggestion I'm posting here about my trip to Vegas and probably Seattle next month. I currently mean to get a return ticket from London UK to Seattle, spend a night then fly to Vegas, do some stuff there for most of the week, then fly back to Seattle, a few days there and back home. Basically I'm going to Vegas for an MTG event (plus a previous trip was cancelled for Rona) but a transatlantic trip ought to be longer than a few days, and I think Vegas is a few days destination, so wanted a leg elsewhere. Plus there's not a lot of direct flights to Vegas so I'd probably be doing a transfer getting there anyway. Does that sound like an alright plan? I don't think it's possible to book a ticket to Vegas that lets me transfer and stay in Seattle or anything like that, and I think this works a fair bit cheaper than getting a single ticket to one destination and a ticket home from elsewhere. Should also note I'm not 100% committed to Seattle, just because I know the November weather sucks, so might do something like San Francisco instead. I think the principle remains the same.
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Oct 20, 2021 13:19
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BizarroAzrael posted:At Beef's suggestion I'm posting here about my trip to Vegas and probably Seattle next month. Dates?
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Oct 20, 2021 13:22
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Beef Of Ages posted:Dates? Sorry, depart 17th November, return 27th/28th. And say fly from Seattle to Vegas 18th and back the 24th, but with some flexability
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Oct 20, 2021 13:54
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BizarroAzrael posted:Sorry, depart 17th November, return 27th/28th. And say fly from Seattle to Vegas 18th and back the 24th, but with some flexability Yeah, two tickets is going to be a good idea. I'm seeing (really good) fares of around $600/£433 for LHR-SEA round trip on AA or BA, or you can save another $100/£72 if you want to backtrack and connect at FRA and fly Lufthansa. Returns on the 28th are slightly less than the 27th but not a major cost differential if you want to return a day earlier. For SEA-LAS, you have a bunch of options and they're all in the ballpark of $220-$260/£159-£188. It's really up to you to pick the times you want to travel; later in the afternoon probably makes sense as SEA in the mornings can be pretty crazy and you won't have much time in town given your afternoon arrival the day before. Do keep in mind that some of the lower cost options here are LCCs (low cost carriers) that are going to charge you a bunch of fees for everything a la Ryanair or EasyJet. It may be easier (and more cost effective) to fly Delta or Alaska for that portion of the trip. Also be aware of checked luggage fees for all carriers. Finally, that is the week of Thanksgiving in the US so airports are likely to be a bit mad on the 24th; plan accordingly for time to get through security and whatnot.
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Oct 20, 2021 17:53
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Beef Of Ages posted:Yeah, two tickets is going to be a good idea. I'm seeing (really good) fares of around $600/£433 for LHR-SEA round trip on AA or BA, or you can save another $100/£72 if you want to backtrack and connect at FRA and fly Lufthansa. Returns on the 28th are slightly less than the 27th but not a major cost differential if you want to return a day earlier. Yeah thought so, thanks. Already noticed baggage allowance varied but can deal. Also noticed Thanksgiving, hadn't thought about it as part of my original plan was either to have the previous week and be gone by then or to be in Vegas for it. Are any days in that spell going to be better for travel? Maybe I could mitigate stuff being closed (I assume) by travelling on the 25th? But anyway, looks good, thanks! Looks like after the fee for my bag Alaskan and Delta are about the same.
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Oct 20, 2021 23:00
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BizarroAzrael posted:Yeah thought so, thanks. Already noticed baggage allowance varied but can deal. Also noticed Thanksgiving, hadn't thought about it as part of my original plan was either to have the previous week and be gone by then or to be in Vegas for it. Are any days in that spell going to be better for travel? Maybe I could mitigate stuff being closed (I assume) by travelling on the 25th? You bet. Travel on the 25th itself can be somewhat quieter, but everyone that flew on the days preceding Turkey Day are then going home on the days after Turkey Day so it's still nuts through the following Monday, for the most part.
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Oct 20, 2021 23:40
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Beef Of Ages posted:You bet. Travel on the 25th itself can be somewhat quieter, but everyone that flew on the days preceding Turkey Day are then going home on the days after Turkey Day so it's still nuts through the following Monday, for the most part. Did some googling and it seems travel will probably be concentrated on the weekends either side, but I can imagine the day itself will be quieter to the days either side. Or I may just move the whole trip forward a few days.
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Oct 21, 2021 00:38
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Are there no reasonable flights between Cancún and Havana? I was looking to buy cheap tickets to CUN around February or so but it seems there's almost nothing and what is available is ridiculously expensive considering it's like an hour away.
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Oct 25, 2021 12:10
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Probably more flights in to Havana in a year or two. International air travel is still a fraction of what it used to be
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Oct 25, 2021 12:19
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mobby_6kl posted:Are there no reasonable flights between Cancún and Havana? I was looking to buy cheap tickets to CUN around February or so but it seems there's almost nothing and what is available is ridiculously expensive considering it's like an hour away. I saw some stuff for like $280rt which isn't awful, but you can't buy it (or even look at it on most sites) as a US Citizen because of the embargo reintroduced by the last administration. There are ways around that, of course, but some effort is required.
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Oct 27, 2021 16:33
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Beef Of Ages posted:I saw some stuff for like $280rt which isn't awful, but you can't buy it (or even look at it on most sites) as a US Citizen because of the embargo reintroduced by the last administration. There are ways around that, of course, but some effort is required. It seems to be more of a COVID thing; there only appear to be about 4 flights/day that go to Havana right now: https://www.havana-airport.org/arrivals.html Trump only unrolled some but not all of the Obama changes -- and for independent travel he kept the exception that anyone can tick to use to go as a tourist (the "support for the Cuban people" category). His first ruling in 2017-ish banned cruise ship travel from the US to Cuba and also (toothlessly) banned American tourists staying at certain hotels and such. His outgoing parting gift was to ban flights from the US to any airport in Cuba besides Havana's, but at least before COVID started it was still possible to just go to united.com and buy a flight from Houston to Havana or whatever. Google Flights shows flights to and from Havana just fine, whether searching for the US or elsewhere, but it doesn't show charter flights (usually? ever?) and Havana still seems largely shut down. I found TripAdvisor's forums to be a good resource for specific questions about Cuba travel, at least pre-COVID.
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Oct 28, 2021 11:18
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Thanks. I'm not American but Kayak didn't want to show me anything at all. In any case it's not really relevant for now as the Cancun trip didn't pan out.
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Nov 3, 2021 17:39
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People who chose to remain unvaccinated can eat my whole rear end.
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Nov 26, 2021 16:08
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Beef Of Ages posted:People who chose to remain unvaccinated can eat my whole rear end.
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Nov 27, 2021 14:12
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Currently looking for car rentals in the US. I read online that the car rental rates can be much cheaper if you are an American booking in America for a US car rental while it can be more expensive for someone trying to place a US car rental reservation while outside of the US. Is this true?
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Dec 10, 2021 15:47
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Busy Bee posted:Currently looking for car rentals in the US. I read online that the car rental rates can be much cheaper if you are an American booking in America for a US car rental while it can be more expensive for someone trying to place a US car rental reservation while outside of the US. Where did you read such a thing? In general, car rentals in the US are made without regard to the origin of your licensing authority. I made a test reservation at National just now and there is no criteria for country of origin as far as pricing is concerned. The only thing to be aware of is that you must have a valid driver's license from your country or state/province/local authority that is readable by the desk agent. If it's in a non-English language (like Japanese or Russian) then an International Driving Permit (which is basically an English translation of your license and a money making racket by the companies that offer them) is required. Those regulations generally apply to all of the major car rental agencies in the US. Age is the only thing that has a pricing impact in the US; 25+ pay standard rates and 18 or 21 to 25 have a higher rate usually.
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Dec 10, 2021 16:01
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Busy Bee posted:Currently looking for car rentals in the US. I read online that the car rental rates can be much cheaper if you are an American booking in America for a US car rental while it can be more expensive for someone trying to place a US car rental reservation while outside of the US. TBH I've never heard of any country that had car rental discounts for local residents/citizens. That sounds like someone gave you bad info. Things that do make a difference besides age are where you rent and return the car - city rental locations are often cheaper than airport rental locations, for example.
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Dec 11, 2021 10:49
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I think it's not a discount, they don't include insurance on the assumption that you're covered by yours or credit card etc. At least that was my pre-covid experience in the US
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Dec 13, 2021 20:13
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If you book through an American website with a valid credit card it shouldn't matter If I'm entitled to special discounts by birth, that's loving awesome, but also news to me It's possible if you pay with Euro or £ you might pay forex fees? Especially if your credit card doesn't waive forex fees. You'd have to be more specific
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Dec 14, 2021 01:52
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Can any experts here figure out how to get from VLC to RDU with no more than one transfer? We used to be able to fly through Paris but that seems to no longer exist. I would even consider leaving from MAD or BCN...
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Feb 8, 2022 16:58
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Associate Christ
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other people posted:Can any experts here figure out how to get from VLC to RDU with no more than one transfer? Lots of 1 stops from MAD or BCN but none from VLC 
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Feb 8, 2022 17:40
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Thank you for that. How did your generate that chart? That is really cool. In summer sometimes there were direct flights between CLT and MAD or RDU and London but these days I cannot find them
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Feb 8, 2022 18:38
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other people posted:Thank you for that. How did your generate that chart? That is really cool. That chart appears to be from Skiplagged. AA killed most of the TATL service out of CLT during the pandemic (and it was never a strong international hub to begin with) but I think some of the LHR stuff is coming back, and I heard MAD service starts in March.
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Feb 8, 2022 19:38
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other people posted:Thank you for that. How did your generate that chart? That is really cool. Like Beef said, skiplagged. I use that just as because I've been using it forever. Funny enough, AA did start asking me why I was getting off in the middle of flights after doing it a few times in 2-3 months last year. I just keep saying I got too drunk in the layover.
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Feb 9, 2022 04:14
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goodness posted:Like Beef said, skiplagged. I use that just as because I've been using it forever. Do be aware that hidden city ticketing is explicitly against the contract you're agreeing to when you buy the ticket. If you're doing it often enough that they're asking you about it, your AAdvantage account might be at risk, among other things.
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Feb 9, 2022 04:51
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skiplagged is cool, thank you. It seems the CLT-MAD flights begin March 27 which is too late for us. The RDU-CDG flight is apparently beginning again August 3rd (i'm finding these at https://www.flightsfrom.com/). Sigh.
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Feb 9, 2022 10:53
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other people posted:skiplagged is cool, thank you. Given your timing, I'd take the train to MAD and do MAD-NYC/WAS-RDU and call it a day.
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Feb 9, 2022 12:07
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Beef Of Ages posted:Do be aware that hidden city ticketing is explicitly against the contract you're agreeing to when you buy the ticket. If you're doing it often enough that they're asking you about it, your AAdvantage account might be at risk, among other things. I'm a plebe without an account  No bonus miles for me
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Feb 9, 2022 16:42
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Looks like error fare's are back, baby. Awoouu. Just got PRG-JFK-BER for like $200 in May. Haven't been to the states in a few years so hopefully it won't get canceled. Funnily, this fare also only works if you start in PRG. BER<->JFK is more than twice as much.
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Feb 18, 2022 13:29
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Hey guys! I have the privilege of being invited to the wedding of a good friend of mine in Kansas City in May, but living in Europe I'm kinda lost as to which is the best airport to fly into the US. JFK, ATL, Chicago? I'm not afraid of driving a bit, and the closest airports to me are FRA and CDG (with the TGV). Right now the cheapest flight I found is from Paris to Chicago for about 400€, but there is a 7h drive to be included. Also, I was thinking of flying down to Mexico afterwards for vacation, however one-way tickets are way more expensive then round trip tickets... Is that normal? What do I risk in case of a no show? Thanks guys!
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Feb 26, 2022 15:53
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Chikimiki posted:Hey guys! I have the privilege of being invited to the wedding of a good friend of mine in Kansas City in May, but living in Europe I'm kinda lost as to which is the best airport to fly into the US. JFK, ATL, Chicago? I'm not afraid of driving a bit, and the closest airports to me are FRA and CDG (with the TGV). MCI is the Kansas City airport, you can probably find an inexpensive flight from Chicago. Note that Chicago has two airports, O'Hare is the big international airport and Midway is the smaller one so double check the airport codes and give yourself a few hours to get between them if you find an itinerary that suggests it.
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Feb 26, 2022 19:19
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Chikimiki posted:Hey guys! I have the privilege of being invited to the wedding of a good friend of mine in Kansas City in May, but living in Europe I'm kinda lost as to which is the best airport to fly into the US. JFK, ATL, Chicago? I'm not afraid of driving a bit, and the closest airports to me are FRA and CDG (with the TGV). I missed this post the other day. You can price out FRA/CDG-MCI which will have you connecting in JFK, ATL, ORD, or elsewhere and compare that with the price of booking directly to those cities and then having a separate ticket for the domestic US bits. I would also price FRA/CDG-US and then MEX(et. al)-FRA/CDH as a multi-city ticket to see if it's cheaper than trying to return to the US for a round trip out of a US gateway. Not messing with the US means not dealing with US immigration again as well which, depending on the airport and time of day, can be a significant win. And yes, as noted in the OP, one-way international tickets are often much more expensive than round trips; searching multi-city can help overcome this.
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Mar 3, 2022 17:56
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