Greetings all,
My wife and I will be taking the Athens & the Heart of Greece in 14 Days In September. We generally fly out of Chicago. Has anyone done the same? Would you please share your flight itinerary?
Thanks, I appreciate any comments. Chicago to Athens.
A quick check reveals AA has non stop service. If there is another airline with nonstop service I did not see it. One stop service looked to be $150-200 less, which is not enough of a saving for me to endure the hassle of changing plans in London or Paris
Not flown that route but would plan to be in Athens at least one day before the tour starts.
When do you plan to return in relation to the end of the tour?
If your tour is in 2 months you need to get a move on to get your flights.
My $0.02
We took that tour in April 2022 on United. We flew from ORD to Heathrow, and then Aegean from Heathrow to Athens. It was a very smooth flight, but we did have three hours to make the transfer. I’m paranoid about tight connections. That was on one ticket through United. We couldn’t book our seats on Aegean until the day before the flight. That was our second booking. The first booking had a combination of United and Air Canada. In my obsessive checking of my flights. I realize that suddenly one leg of my flight was missing. Air Canada canceled without notifying us. Beware Air Canada.
Take the AA nonstop ... if you can afford the Rick Steves tour, you can afford the $150 you'd save by doing a transfer in London. Have you ever transterred in Heathrow? Busiest airport in Europe, so they don't give you gate info ahead of time... you have to stand with your luggage, staring at a bnk of monitors, then they show you a gate that's 20 minutes away via bus & corridors, and it's already boarding (!!). And dont get me started on Chas. De Gaulle airport. Take the nonstop.
I don't fly out of Chicago but Boston.
I normally fly with Delta and for years there was no non-stop flight to Athens. I had a layover somewhere, usually JFK or worse London or Paris. It not only made the day extra long but the flight(s) seemed forever.
Thankfully Delta finally started non-stop from Boston to Athens last year and while somewhat higher it made all the difference in the world not having to stop somewhere, deplane, go to the next gate, either walk or a take a shuttle, and then wait anywhere from 2-3 hours for the flight to Athens.
It's worth the extra money to take the non-stop flight.
I find it less expensive to book as many months out as you can rather than waiting the closer you get to your departure.
I spent $980 for a non-stop flight to Athens by booking last January! The flight now is anywhere from $600-$700 more!
