PSA: great airfare deal to Europe

hoffse · May 2016

For Atlanta area folks, there are some insane prices on airfare to Europe today. H and I just booked Atlanta to Madrid, direct, for under $740/person round trip. We booked for next March, during our local spring break week.

I'm not sure if other gateway cities are having similar sales, but it might be worth it to check.

LillibetteV · May 2016

we just used Wow Airlines for our trip to Amsterdam and Paris - if you're willing to stop over in Iceland for an hour or two they have amazing deals too!

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

Great buy! What airline? @LillibetteV glad you had a good WOW experience! Their dates didn't work out for our Amsterdam trip, but we'll probably be using them the next time we travel to Europe or Iceland. It'll probably be Iceland.

labro · May 2016

@hoffse Any sites in particular? We're going to Norway in August 2017 so it's probably FAR too early for us to book anyway. I'm even thinking of watching for airline deals to Dublin or London and then booking a second ticket on an intra-Europe airliner to save money.

hoffse · May 2016

We got it on Delta. Atlanta is a Delta hub, so our options are limited!

I have been super jealous of Wow, by the way. Unfortunately they haven't made it as far south as Atlanta yet, so we would have to fly to Boston first, switch airlines, and then do the Iceland connection to use them.

If we ever make it to Iceland, I WILL fly to Boston first to take advantage of those prices though!

We are hoping that this trip is a babymoon for us (hate the term, love the concept), so we were looking for direct flights to minimize time in the air just in case. I debated a long time about whether to put my life on hold while TTC, and I finally decided we should not. Who knows how long it will take or if it will even be successful for us, and I want to have something to look forward to if it doesn't go well. If we do get pregnant right away, but my doctor tells me I can't go or I feel too awful to make the trip... well that's what trip insurance is for.

Anyway, I have wanted to go to Spain for ages, and I have been tracking prices on this flight for the last 4 years. I have never seen it go below $1100/person for the direct flight. I am stoked that we snagged it for such a cheap price. Actually, it was so cheap that I did something totally out of character and paid a little extra to upgrade to economy comfort. Even with that add-on, it was still less than $1,000/person, and that's a price I never expected to pay for basic economy.

hoffse · May 2016

labro said:

@hoffse Any sites in particular? We're going to Norway in August 2017 so it's probably FAR too early for us to book anyway. I'm even thinking of watching for airline deals to Dublin or London and then booking a second ticket on an intra-Europe airliner to save money.

Unfortunately it's too early! Most major airlines book starting 11 months out.

But for the dates we were looking at (end of March), every destination I entered was under $850, even the direct flights. I have no idea why. We quickly landed on Spain because it's been high on our list for a long time, and we are thinking we might spend most of our time in Andalusia. It will be getting warm there that time of year, whereas most of Europe will still be cold.

For the Norway trip, I would watch Dublin prices instead of London. Heathrow actually has its own tax, which makes flights in/out more expensive than most other gateway cities.

labro · May 2016

hoffse said:

labro said:

@hoffse Any sites in particular? We're going to Norway in August 2017 so it's probably FAR too early for us to book anyway. I'm even thinking of watching for airline deals to Dublin or London and then booking a second ticket on an intra-Europe airliner to save money.

Unfortunately it's too early! Most major airlines book starting 11 months out.

But for the dates we were looking at (end of March), every destination I entered was under $850, even the direct flights. I have no idea why. We quickly landed on Spain because it's been high on our list for a long time, and we are thinking we might spend most of our time in Andalusia. It will be getting warm there that time of year, whereas most of Europe will still be cold.

For the Norway trip, I would watch Dublin prices instead of London. Heathrow actually has its own tax, which makes flights in/out more expensive than most other gateway cities.

Thanks!! I had no idea!! I hope you have an incredible trip to Spain! That's another bucket list location for us, but Norway is first. My grandmother's family is having a reunion there next year so our plan is to attend that and then do some sight-seeing on our own both there and in Sweden.

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

@hoffse I totally hate the term but love the concept, too. Too funny! You're the travel pro so you probably already know this, but keep a close, close eye on your trip insurance details if you are hoping to be pregnant. I fine-toothed combed ours for Amsterdam, and we only would have been covered if I became high risk, not just if I was feeling crappy.

@labro if you're anywhere near Boston or can get there cheaply, keep an eye on Norwegian Air for your trip. They are pretty budget-oriented and working on expanding in the States. We went through Dublin for our recent trip though (not to Norway), and it worked great. One neat thing is that you clear U.S. customs in Dublin, so when you land back at home you can just hit the road. Aer Lingus had good food, too. Definitely recommend!

hoffse · May 2016

Xstatic3333 said:

@hoffse I totally hate the term but love the concept, too. Too funny! You're the travel pro so you probably already know this, but keep a close, close eye on your trip insurance details if you are hoping to be pregnant. I fine-toothed combed ours for Amsterdam, and we only would have been covered if I became high risk, not just if I was feeling crappy.

**********STUCK IN BOX***********

Thanks, that's good to know! H and I usually get a policy that supposedly lets us cancel for any reason because our jobs might require it. Now I have never tried to use that clause, but in theory...

If worst came to absolute worst and we couldn't go and our policy fought us on the cancel for any reason thing, I would be incredibly pissed (and would fight them hard), but it's not the end of the world. We have enough point to cover our hotels 100%, so we aren't going to be out of pocket for anything else except train tickets until we get there. H and I aren't going to make any reservations or anything until much closer.

labro · May 2016

@Xstatic3333 We're in Atlanta so it's almost always better for us to fly directly out of the airport here but I'll keep Boston and Aer Lingus in mind! Coming through customs in Atl is a breeze though...or it was when we came back from our honeymoon last year. They have tons of self-operated kiosks as long as you have nothing to declare and we were through in 5 minutes...I think we spent more time walking from from our gate through the terminal.

Xstatic3333 · May 2016

labro said:

@Xstatic3333 We're in Atlanta so it's almost always better for us to fly directly out of the airport here but I'll keep Boston and Aer Lingus in mind! Coming through customs in Atl is a breeze though...or it was when we came back from our honeymoon last year. They have tons of self-operated kiosks as long as you have nothing to declare and we were through in 5 minutes...I think we spent more time walking from from our gate through the terminal.

Oooooh nice, lots of good options for you Atlanta flyers! I have cleared customs in Atlanta and I agree, it's super nice! The kiosks are pretty cool, although after my last trip I put myself into the "needs to talk to an agent" category by bringing home cheese...

LillibetteV · June 2016

hoffse said:

We got it on Delta. Atlanta is a Delta hub, so our options are limited!

I have been super jealous of Wow, by the way. Unfortunately they haven't made it as far south as Atlanta yet, so we would have to fly to Boston first, switch airlines, and then do the Iceland connection to use them.

If we ever make it to Iceland, I WILL fly to Boston first to take advantage of those prices though!

We are hoping that this trip is a babymoon for us (hate the term, love the concept), so we were looking for direct flights to minimize time in the air just in case. I debated a long time about whether to put my life on hold while TTC, and I finally decided we should not. Who knows how long it will take or if it will even be successful for us, and I want to have something to look forward to if it doesn't go well. If we do get pregnant right away, but my doctor tells me I can't go or I feel too awful to make the trip... well that's what trip insurance is for.

Anyway, I have wanted to go to Spain for ages, and I have been tracking prices on this flight for the last 4 years. I have never seen it go below $1100/person for the direct flight. I am stoked that we snagged it for such a cheap price. Actually, it was so cheap that I did something totally out of character and paid a little extra to upgrade to economy comfort. Even with that add-on, it was still less than $1,000/person, and that's a price I never expected to pay for basic economy.

That is EXACTLY why we just took the trip to Amsterdam and Paris! 1.5 years of TTC and we avoided vacations that entire time because I didn't want to risk having morning sickness on a plane. My doctor told my husband "rule number 1 - keep your wife happy and relaxed" and so he booked the trip for us! I was kind of hoping we'd bring back a little souvenir from Paris but no such luck. At least we got one big trip in before we start our first round of IUI this cycle. I hope you get to feel awesome AND be pregnant for your trip!

jtmh2012 · June 2016

I'm kicking myself on this right now. I was looking at airfare this week from our local airport to Rome. It's now $300 more for the same flights. Or we can spend 3 more hours in a connection (5 hrs total) for the same amount. Someone shoot me.

brij2006 · June 2016

LillibetteV said:

hoffse said:

We got it on Delta. Atlanta is a Delta hub, so our options are limited!

I have been super jealous of Wow, by the way. Unfortunately they haven't made it as far south as Atlanta yet, so we would have to fly to Boston first, switch airlines, and then do the Iceland connection to use them.

If we ever make it to Iceland, I WILL fly to Boston first to take advantage of those prices though!

We are hoping that this trip is a babymoon for us (hate the term, love the concept), so we were looking for direct flights to minimize time in the air just in case. I debated a long time about whether to put my life on hold while TTC, and I finally decided we should not. Who knows how long it will take or if it will even be successful for us, and I want to have something to look forward to if it doesn't go well. If we do get pregnant right away, but my doctor tells me I can't go or I feel too awful to make the trip... well that's what trip insurance is for.

Anyway, I have wanted to go to Spain for ages, and I have been tracking prices on this flight for the last 4 years. I have never seen it go below $1100/person for the direct flight. I am stoked that we snagged it for such a cheap price. Actually, it was so cheap that I did something totally out of character and paid a little extra to upgrade to economy comfort. Even with that add-on, it was still less than $1,000/person, and that's a price I never expected to pay for basic economy.

That is EXACTLY why we just took the trip to Amsterdam and Paris! 1.5 years of TTC and we avoided vacations that entire time because I didn't want to risk having morning sickness on a plane. My doctor told my husband "rule number 1 - keep your wife happy and relaxed" and so he booked the trip for us! I was kind of hoping we'd bring back a little souvenir from Paris but no such luck. At least we got one big trip in before we start our first round of IUI this cycle. I hope you get to feel awesome AND be pregnant for your trip!

All of this. You won't regret this trip. Whether you're pregnant or not when you go.

We put life on hold for a few months, then were diagnosed with an issue early on in our TTC journey.
After that, we just let things be and lived. It was really nice. It took us a little under 2 years to get pregnant, but I'm so glad we stopped putting life on hold because of it. We had a miscarriage after one round of treatment, and were so glad we had a little trip planned to help get our mind off of things.
We're a year into TTC #2 right now, with no success. So so so glad we did our trip to the U.P and to Hawaii during that time. I was leery about both since the one meant 4 days on a snowmobile in -30 degree weather and nothing around but trees, and the other meant a long flight. If things had worked out the way we wanted them to, I would have been 7-8 months pregnant during both. Here we are 5 months after both of those trips and still not pregnant.

Trust me, you will not regret not putting life on hold. I'm a firm believer to keep on living until there are 2 pink lines. Even when there are, you can continue doing things as normal (obviously except drinking heavily and drugs). The body is resilient.

PSA: great airfare deal to Europe

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