cheaper European airlines

For budget airline info you might look at this link . A few of the "budget airlines" do fly to the States but with VERY limited routes. I've flown Air Berlin often - most recently from CPH-TXL (Berlin). They are very reliable and inexpensive. We went roundtrip for under $100. Depending on who you are booking through, what time of year you're going, your point status (Platinum? or Elite?), amount of points you want to spend, and reward seat availability... you can do open jaw tickets. In the past, when I had more than a million points, I often flew into Venice and out of Rome... back to ATL. Sometimes I had to take a "round-the-world route" based on "reward-seat" availability... but I always managed to get there!

Actually Air Berlin does fly in and out of JFK. Unfortunately Ron, I have no where near enough in the way of miles to get to Europe! Looked at open jaw on several US carriers and can get to New York on "freebies" but am trying to cost out the differences between using United or American or Delta open jaw versus piecing together flights including Air Berlin. Glad to hear they are reliable. Read somewhere they did win a recent award for the "smaller carriers" in Europe.

Hi Sarah. I'm not sure what you're asking. The budget European airlines only fly within continental Europe and the UK. If you want to look at European airlines that fly to the U.S., like KLM or Lufthansa, you can take check out Kayak.com to compare prices between European airlines and American airlines. Also, you can easily get from Venice to Rome by train.

Sarah, not sure when you're headed over but I looked at an open jaw ticket on kayak for SFO-VCE-FCO-SFO in March and got rates of $741 and up. Iberia has many flights on this route for about $890 in March. The $741 flight does take you around the world.... SFO-YYZ-MUC-VCE on the first leg, and then SFO-ZRH-SFO on the return (which is actually pretty good!). SwissAir has a great flight for $877 with only one connection each way: SFO-ZRH-VCE and FCO-ZRH-SF). Delta has a similar flight for $896, again with only one connection, SFO-JFK-VCE and FCO-CDG-SFO. Unfortunately, if you are coming in June (or the height of the season), the same Swiss Air Flight for $877 will cost you $1,341... and it's the cheapest flight available. I think you have to look at these type of options to avoid using your points on domestic flights. In addition, if you book a flight WITH an over-the-Atlantic flight, you can avoid the luggage issues you will face if you switch to a European budget carrier. Air Berlin, for example, I beleive is 20 kg. That may or may not be an issue for you... Good Luck!

Thanks Ron-unfortunately we will be there in July since I have a conference.

I've flown on both Air Berlin and Easy Jet and didn't have a problem either time. The Air Berlin flight, though, was a short flight within Germany and was a turboprop.