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aegean/olympic flights from Naxos on sale--and a couple questions about transatlantic flights

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I have been watching these flights and finally purchased them a few days ago. They are 60 Euros compared to 80 Euros previously through middle of June. I had recalled that someone said they had purchased this same flight for 40 Euros last year but decided not to push my luck by waiting to see if price would be reduced further as there are not that many flights a day and the planes are small.

Now I still need to buy transatlantic flights. A few questions.

  1. Has anyone used Justfly to purchase tickets? I have never heard of them but flights came up on skyscanner. I typically use search engines to find flights and then purchase directly from airline but there are some combination of airline flights that have reasonable prices and times. The price to purchase a SAS ticket (one of the airlines) from the web site one way is three times a round trip ticket. Unfortunately, the return trip would take in excess of 20 hours and thus why I am interested in purchasing tickets on different airlines for going and coming from Athens. But if this isn't a good idea, I can go up in price about $100 and buy a different ticket.

  2. I know there is a visa dispute between US and Turkey. Does anyone know whether that has affected ease of travel through Istanbul in route to and from Athens? There are some very well priced tickets that my daughter and husband have been looking at from Atlanta to Athens on Turkish Airways. They would not leave the airport.

Beth

Posted by
985 posts

When I went to London, England, I bought my airplane tickets on Expedia.com, and I randomly got one airline on the way to and another airline on the way back. Before I went to Italy, I figured out that Delta has one flight per day from Detroit to Rome, no stops; I bought my tickets from the Delta website. I suspect that there is some advantage of buying round trip tickets directly from a USA based airline, but I don’t know how to prove this. I checked Orbiz.com this week for tickets for myself; for example, for me starting in Detroit and going to Athens, the best combination of price / shortest duration seems to come from United airline; this flight would be Detroit to Toronto to Athens. Delta offers a more expensive flight plan for my same trip. I know nothing about United airline yet. Do your research and figure out which USA based airline has the best combination of duration, fewest stops, and lowest price for you. Where are you starting from?

I also bought my tickets to Italy 6 months in advance, not because I know anything about how far in advance to buy airplane tickets, but just because this is what I did. I know that for amtrak train tickets, you have to buy them at least 6 weeks in advance or the tickets increase in price or get sold out.

Posted by
1803 posts

There was this recent thread regarding the Istanbul airport hotel. Apparently you can stay on the airside of the hotel which would not require a visa.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/turkey/flying-through-istanbul-airport-without-a-visa

I’ve never used justify so I can’t help with that. Just make sure that they are not bundling together flight segments with unprotected connections. Nothing wrong with that but you should be aware of what you’re getting and decide for yourself if the potential hassle is worth any savings.

Posted by
2498 posts

This is a family trip with adult children coming from several different cities. The question about Justfly was in regard to a Miami flight. There is a connection in Copenhagen. From my research, you can fly in North America directly from Toronto, Montreal, New York, and Philadelphia to Athens. From everywhere else, you must connect at least once.

How can you tell if there are unprotected connections? I think I bought one once without realizing it and missed the connecting flight in Boston. A flight on Jet Blue had been combined with Virgin airlines on Orbitz but I could not check through from Ft. Lauderdale airport to Virgin flight in Boston (although they took my luggage somehow). I ended up getting put on a British Airways flight later than night and still made my connection in London to Amsterdam but the experience has made me leery of 1) having any more connections than absolutely necessary 2) buying flights on consolidator sites.

My daughter and her husband would not stay in Turkey but continue on to Athens. I know you don't have to have a visa to do that but wondered if the atmosphere at the airport is unfriendly to Americans in light of the tensions involved in Visa dispute.

Beth

Posted by
888 posts

Flying to Athens you would be on Air Canada Rouge, Air Canada’s so-called discount arm. They would codeshare with United. If you chose this route go for Premium Economy. Good leg room and better service. Ordinary Economy is cramped and it’s a 10 flight! But best fare I could find from the West Coast (Vancouver).

Posted by
985 posts

What is an unprotected connection? If You didn’t know any better, you would try buying one ticket from Miami Toronto or one of the cities that have flights directly to Athens, and a separate ticket from Toronto (or one of the other cities you memtion) to Athens. But l find it more difficult to search for flights by trying to choose which intermediate airports to stop at; it is much easier for me to just search for flights from Detroit to Athens, and then take whatever flight plan is the best compromise between cost and shortest time; and similaly it is easiest for you to search for flights from Miami to Athens and then just take whicher flight plan is the best compromise between price and shortest time, thst is, the Miami-Copenhagen-Athens flight. But you are right to fly to Athens and then buy a separate ticket to Naxos; buying a ticket from Detroit or Miami, to Naxos would give longer and more expensive flight plans.

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