Hello,
We will be doing the 21 day Europe tour next year. We need to fly in to Amsterdam and out of Paris. We will be starting from United States probably from Chicago. Any recommendations for the airline? I have not flown much so any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Deanna
Use Google Flights -advanced search for a multi city flight
United hub is Chicago and flies to both Amsterdam and Paris so that might be your best choice
Set up price alerts and watch for a while
When you see a price that you can live with-book on the actual airline website and don’t look back
I second the advice to use Google Flights as a place to look at options and prices. Google will offer links to the airlines and 3rd party sellers for the actual transaction—only go through airlines.
In addition to United, there will be non-stop options to go out on KLM and return on AirFrance (They're partners—the same company, actually.)
I usually fly Delta, but I'm sure you'll want United or something else. So what you can do is play around with your dates. If you can, I'd recommend getting to Amsterdam a few days earlier so you are rested and adjusted to the time zone before the tour starts.
So what I do is put into the search a round trip to Amsterdam with flexible dates and then another search with Paris and flexible dates. That should give you an idea of what dates are cheaper into/ out of those cities. I'm assuming you can do that kind of search with google flights or United. So if you have the flexibility to be in Europe longer, you can now, set up a multicity search--Into Amsterdam on the desired date and out of Paris on the desired date.
I hope this makes sense and helps.
What you have is an open jaw itinerary and those are quite common & convenient!
I do what I can to fly nonstop as I hate changing planes and you have an opportunity to do that too if you also want to fly nonstop.
You can fly United on both flights as O’Hare is a United hub.
If you have any mileage with Delta, you can accrue more miles with them by flying KLM to Amsterdam & Air France from Pars’ CDG to O’Hare. Both KLM & Air France are partners with Delta in the SkyTeam alliance.
So there are two options.
Thanks for all of the great info! Since I have time for my flight I'm also going to check the airlines for Credit cards that could get me some miles to use.
We do that all the time … we usually book Delta or AirFrance. I caution you about using credit miles to book airline tickets …. It's SO hard to work through the credit card companies if you need to change your flights or more likely the airline changes your flight and you don't like the changes. You must go through the credit card company. I have spent many hours on the phone with the credit card company as it is an issue you cannot change on the computer. At least that has been my experience.
You may also want to check Aer Lingus out of Chicago. They fly to Dublin first, then onward to many other European destinations including Amsterdam and Paris. Depending on your dates they can sometimes be less expensive. I have flown them several times and would not hesitate to do so again. And on the return, you clear Customs in Dublin.
We live in Wisconsin and always fly out of O'hare to get direct flights to Europe. You should have no problems getting multi-city flights. We fly whichever airline gets us the best price. People have given you great advice on how to track it. As soon as you buy your tickets, go to parksleepfly.com to book parking and hotel on your way back. The earlier you book, the more likely it is to get a good deal on parking and hotel. We have 3 weeks of parking and a 4 star hotel when we get back in country for less than $300. You will be too tired when you get back to the US to drive that 200 or 300 miles home.
You've been given great advice. Let me just suggest that you arrive in Europe at least two days ahead of time to get over any jet lag.
