Booking flights to Athens

I hve also mainly traveled to Greece in Mid May (in 11 of my 12 trips), from Philadelphia. Once Upon A Time, there WAS a drop in price by USAir somewhere around late January-early Feb. Almost never, these days. Less competition, AIrlines profiteering. Since you have such a cruelly long trip, to make it bearable in economy seats, you need to plan for just 2 stops .... West to East, then a nonstop. You'r limited to 3: Delta (NY);, American/formerly USAir (PHL) and Canadian (toronto). Delta's most expensive, AA most uncomfy seats. If you can possibly fly direct to Toronto, Canada. Air Canada best experience.

Oddly enough, sometimes people from outside the East sometimes get better breaks than us philly/ NY people. I remember a travel companion from MInnesota scored a $1250 flight from Mn-Phil-Ath while I was looking at $1400 from Phil!!! same flight. All I can suggest is check every week, evenings, between Tuesday & THursday after January. In 2015, late March, my price suddenly dropped on a Wed night $200 and I pounced.

Departing from Oregon I've always found the best prices for May right around the end of the year. Including a short (and expensive!) flight from a regional airport in Oregon to an international airport (Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, etc.), then onward to Santorini, I've been paying somewhere around $1250, all in, for my last few trips. If you can get it cheaper, all the better. If you plan to fly to an island from Athens you can book with Aegean Airlines. Sign up for their email newsletter and you will be notified when they release their deeply-discounted domestic flights, sometimes as little as €29 one way. RyanAir also flies to the islands from Athens. Take note of any baggage restrictions for these flights and plan accordingly. And regarding visiting the islands it's best to fly straight out the same day you reach Greece and save any exploration of the mainland for the end of your trip so you aren't wasting time backtracking or stressing about returning to Athens at the last minute for your flight home. It's rare, but sometimes cancellations or long delays due to unforseen circumstances do happen. Nothing will ruin your time in Greece faster than missing that flight!

Flights from West Coast are still astronomical. Is there a website that finds cheaper flights you'd recommend? I've historically used Kayak since they do a mashup of a lot of sites, but flight prices seem to be going up, not down, for May/June. Thanks.

Flight prices can change overnight -- all you can do is keep looking. People have posted on this site when they have found great fares, but the sales often last for only a few days. Easiest way to get good flight prices is to be flexible on date and destination, which you unfortunately are not.

The Air Canada flights are on their leisure airline Rouge. its a direct flight from Toronto or Montreal to Athens. We have used their fake business class twice called Premium economy. Its a good cabin about 20 seats, with drinks and good meals with priority boarding. The seats are also comfortable but do not recline very much. Both times the cabin was about half full of Americans taking advantage of the low Canadian dollar.
Back of the bus will be a bargain but not too comfortable,

Prices can change daily. I would suggest setting up a price alert at various websites like Trip Advisor or Sky Scanner. I check almost daily for prices and fortunately I got an outstanding price just before Black Friday for a Oct. 2017 flight from Boston-Paris-Athens for $468 with great departure & arrival times and short layovers going and returning! I booked directly with Air France rather than a third-party site.

Obviously you have further to go from the West Coast. Once again check daily with web sites and if you find a price that fits your budget and needs rather than buying from a third party go directly to the airline's website and see what they offer. If there is a huge difference between a third-party site and the airline's site then something may be "fishy" about the third-party site.

It's a gamble sometimes when to buy a ticket. If you find a good deal go for it. However waiting can sometimes get you a better price . . . then again the price could go up!

The best answer for when to buy a ticket is when you feel it's in your budget range with departure/arrival times and layovers that work best for you.

Tommyk5, for your sake I hope your Air France layover at CDG is longer than the legally-required 45 minute minimum. That, or you aren't required to go through Customs and Passport Control until you reach Athens. CDG can be an incredibly stressful nightmare if you have a short layover and have to "process" there.

We have been tracking prices to Athens from SF in mid September and a few days ago they went from $1000+ to $700+. We got tickets on American Airlines for $703 RT. Surprising that the cost for May is so much higher. It's hard to know when/if the prices will go up or down as it seems plane fares are volatile now. Can you switch to mid September?

Thanks all! Good advice and insight. Stanbr, I just looked at Vancouver departure and you're right, considerably cheaper. About $1,100 U.S. compared to $1,600 for the most direct routes from Seattle and $1,850 from where we live. Worth looking into.

Lee: We have had lay overs in Paris twice before and while it's a large and crowded airport we have never had any delays or missed flights. Our layover on arrival from Boston to Paris will be 1 hour & 25 minutes and return from Athens to Paris the lay over will be 2 hours. Both are more than ample times to get from one terminal to another, as long as everything is on time!

Still can't get over the unbelievably low cost. Apparently it was a one day price because the next day the cost was in the $850-$900 range, both reasonable but still can't beat the price I got!

Your Paris layovers are much longer than mine were. I agree, you won't have any issues.