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Airfare costs

Hello - I'm flying to Vienna in September, traveling around Austria and Switzerland, then flying back to the US from Milan. Is anyone else finding airfare prohibitively expensive? I've been seeing airfare for $2-3,000.

Posted by
3391 posts

From where in the US are you flying? That will make a difference but still $2000-3000 seems excessively high.
Have you tried a consolidator like kayak.com or skyscanner? I usually find the best prices on websites like these, usually ending up with Kayak.

Posted by
2911 posts

Look into Iceland Air. They fly out of Minneapolis/St. Paul. We found very good prices for NJ to Munich in September compared to Lufthansa, Swiss, etc., which were all averaging $300 to $500 more per person than Iceland Air. You'll have a brief stopover in Iceland each way, but I've heard it's very easy and quick.

Paul

Posted by
7039 posts

Are you looking at non-stops? Upgrades to economy plus? What dates in Sept? I saw flights on Air Canada (MSP-VIE and MXP-MSP) with one stop each way in Toronto for $1173. But it does depend on what day of the week you want to fly, and those were normal coach (economy) seats.

Posted by
3962 posts

Is your price you're seeing for 1 or 2 people? In searching mid September for a 3 week period I'm seeing lots of options for $1300 pp/RT. Delta, Air France and others show these fares. Check matrix.itasoftware.com for flights and then go to the specific airlines you like to actually book. I chose Minneapolis as your departure and Vienna or Budapest for your European destination airport.

Posted by
4140 posts

What Mona says . I purchased NYC to Barcelona - VIE to NYC recently - on United , $2200 for two passengers

Posted by
7039 posts

Steven, it's hard to compare prices from NYC with prices from MSP. I know, I flew out of there for years and years and non-stops or cheap flights are usually just a pipe dream. Once in a while you get lucky but it's rare. I have the same problem now flying from PDX. I see all these wonderful low fares to Europe from the east coast and I cry.

Posted by
3962 posts

Sorry I didn't read your original post very carefully so I went back and did an open jaw flight on itasoftware having you fly back from Milan. It only increased the airfares by $100 pp. so on delta for example it is about $1400 pp flying into either Vienna or Budapest (not to be missed IMO) and flying out of Milan, mid September for 21 days.

Posted by
4140 posts

Sorry Nancy , I didn't take the departure airport into account . I think , even accounting for the additional distance for the OP's trip it would probably come in at the prices he saw , and certainly consistent with what your search found . By the way , I booked the hotel in Vienna that you recommended .

Posted by
2625 posts

Kayak is showing me a lot of options in the $1450 range for tickets with a single stopover. I see some on Air Canada and some on United. Have you searched on Kayak? I use it for easy searching, but I buy directly from the airline site.