Travelers

WendyToo · January 2012

So I am looking at flights for our trip to Europe and I never realized the extent of taxes and fees. I found flights for $375, with $608 worth of taxes/fees. Are they always that high or am I doing something wrong? Do I need to just play around with every combination of cities to determine where to go first/last to minimize these fees or will it not make much difference?

lmydogally · January 2012

That doesn't sound right, what site are you using?

WendyToo · January 2012

I've tried travelocity, orbitz, and expedia so far.

lmydogally · January 2012

Hmm, try kayak.com so you can compare all of them.

WendyToo · January 2012

I'm getting basically the same results, only it looks like the taxes are rolled in to what it shows me upfront.

lmydogally · January 2012

Under 400 for a ticket to Europe is really cheap, so maybe the taxes are normal. Whatever you do, make sure you wait until 3 months out from travel date before you book.

modb1rd · January 2012

Is that fare round trip only or does it include all your stops? If that includes multiple destinations it isn't a bad deal. Also there are a number of Europe only discount airlines you could use for internal flights. Mr. Mod and I have used them, I can get some names for you if you want.

WendyToo · January 2012

lmydogally:
Under 400 for a ticket to Europe is really cheap, so maybe the taxes are normal. Whatever you do, make sure you wait until 3 months out from travel date before you book.

Why this?

That price was flights into one city and out of another.

lmydogally · January 2012

Rates are actually higher the further out. They price the same as hotels. They try to fill seats at a higher rate to get some base. Then when they hit their booking window (3 months out) they get more aggressive to fill the inventory.

krisdi78 · January 2012

My mom works for an airline and says that sounds right. Taxes and landing fees are ridiculous. She says depending on how many countries you plan on visiting, you may want to buy a Europass from the airline you are flying on. This will include coupons to use when flying between countries so you will eliminate the extra taxes and fees for each individual country. You'd have to price it out to see if it is worth it, but definitely something to look into.

WendyToo · January 2012

Thanks guys.

Dawg, should I also wait that long to book hotels if I'm planning to use reward points for the majority of them?

lmydogally · January 2012

If you are using reward points, you will want to book sooner since they put restrictions on those sometimes.

WendyToo · January 2012

I thought that might be the case. Thanks!

boxerfan · January 2012

OTAs like expedia and orbitz are good for comparing prices, but you will always get the lowest price if you book directly at the airline or hotel website. You might sometimes get the same price at an OTA, but never cheaper.

Also, along with what Dawg said about the 3 month window, if you book further out, there's a greater chance that they will change your flight times on you, because the specific flight you book might get cancelled if they don't sell enough seats.

BobLoblaw · January 2012

Are you flying into the UK? Because I just looked real quick (we're thinking of going in the fall) and there's some insane fee for flying into/out of the UK. And it was around $600. WTF.

WendyToo · January 2012

BobLoblaw:
Are you flying into the UK? Because I just looked real quick (we're thinking of going in the fall) and there's some insane fee for flying into/out of the UK. And it was around $600. WTF.

Yes. This is exactly what I was running into. When/where are you going?

BobLoblaw · January 2012

We wanted to do the British Isles in the fall. I'm hoping for late November because I'm lame and I want to see stuff decorated for Christmas. I spent Thanksgiving in Dublin about 10 years ago and Grafton Street was lovely all lit up.

Fares on Aer Lingus didn't look too terrible going into Dublin.

BobLoblaw · January 2012

NEVER MIND, I wanna take Virgin Atlantic.

WendyToo · January 2012

We are planning on Ireland, England, and Scottland in early-mid November. I'll look into virgin Atlantic.

BobLoblaw · January 2012

Also check Iceland Air. They used to have a deal where you could stay over in Reykjavik for a night on your way back for the hell of it, because when else are you ever going to Iceland?

WendyToo · January 2012

That is a cool idea. Thanks

wingedbride · January 2012

Heathrows fees are notorious in the travel community if you enter straight from the US. If you go throw a place like Amsterdam and then to the UKyou often bypass the high fees.

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