How does one book a multi-city flight online?

Dennnyyy :)

A small suggestion? Can you maybe put in your question the dates you are leaving (if you feel comfortable), and where you will be flying into; such as: SEA to LIN (Linate) or MXP (Malpensa). That info is important when booking the multi-city flights.

Ex:
SEA to LIN Depart: October 1, 2014
it will bring up all flights and connections

FCO to SEA Return: October 18, 2014
it will bring up all flights and connections

And try to go on the direct website of an airline that you prefer. I am not saying that third-party sites may not be good.

If you can, yes, try to get a 1-stop layover with at least 2.5-3.0 hours as a safety net/buffer. (Consider flight delays, your personal health stats, the factor of where the connecting gate is - some could be a half hour walk to the connection depending on the airport.) Did you see my suggestion about the "golf cart" type transport I saw at London Heathrow? If you choose to go in October and your foot problem is not completely cured or acts up after the first leg of flight, maybe you can ask about some assistance to your next gate?

Ok, here is an example: go to British Airways.com

the first page is "booking" - check "flights only."

click on "multi-city/stopovers" - that will bring up another page that you can plug in your departing and returning information.

click "get flights"

It will direct you to all the flights and connections for your destination(s).

You can click the one you want (to and fro) and click to get pricing quote. You are not obligated to take that flight; but you can see the pricing. You can also elect to have that quote e-mailed to you.

Oh, if you are checking a bag, a lot of airlines partner with each other. Make sure you know in advance if the originating airline will forward your checked bag on through to the final destination.

In other words, if they do, at your lay over, you will not need to claim your baggage and go through the whole system again. All you need to worry about is your carry on and claim your luggage at your final destination.

Kayak.com has been annoying me lately. Particularly if I use my ipad. I seem to have better luck using my regular computer for things like booking flights or train tickets.

So, multi-city flights. Where do you want to fly in to and out of? Sometimes changing to a different city can make a huge difference in price and itinerary. Like if you are having trouble finding a flight going in to Venice with a low price and decent itinerary, try Milan. If Florence isnt working out for you, try Rome. All these major cities are connected by fast trains and you get get from one to the other in just a few hours and with minimal cost. BTW, a connection time of as little as 1.5 hours is fine, although I do prefer 2-4 hours. Anything less is stressful, anything more is a waste of my time.

Also, just use websites like kayak to get an idea of what is out there, then go to the airlines website to book the tickets.

Airline websites and the more comprehensive travel search engines (eg Travelocity) will offer three choices: round trip, one way and multiple destination. If you select multiple, the website will typically query Leg 1, Leg 2 etc with each leg requiring your specification of From, To and Date.

Some search engines may not offer a multiple destination option, or make it difficult to find that option.

As to pricing, I have had difficult in the past buying the travel at the stated price. Talking to a real person, that sometimes happens as airlines are in the process of changing pricing.

An old fashion alternative if you can't figure it out is to engage a skilled travel agent. The agent's fee may be worth the cost if you haver a complex travel plan requiring coordinating. With nonrefundable fares screw ups can be expensive.

The plan was as follows:

SEATTLE to MILAN (Oct. 10) (I'm not sure which airport to use to get to Varenna, where the RS group would meet for the first time) I would want to get into Milan no later than the afternoon to be able to get over to Varenna before dark, No idea how long it would take to get from Milan airport to Varenna.

ROME to SEATTLE (Oct. 28) Flights are showing up with 5:00 am departures, which I don't think is practical as the trains don't go the airport that early. Also it would be nice, but not absolutely necessary, to regroup with the members over breakfast. Getting in Seattle, I think I have a friend willing to pick me up even if it's after midnight. It's nice if the flight, of course, arrives before or around 11 pm to be able to take the local train back into Seattle in case my ride falls through.

I haven't been able to figure out a viable flight (one-stop only, no overnight stay) whose price doesn't change rapidly or sell out. And this is 2-1/2 months before departure.

The last time I really travelled abroad was during the days when you went to a travel agent and they looked up flights, wrote out a ticket, and you paid.

"SEATTLE to MILAN (Oct. 10) (I'm not sure which airport to use to get to Varenna, where the RS group would meet for the first time) I would want to get into Milan no later than the afternoon to be able to get over to Varenna before dark, No idea how long it would take to get from Milan airport to Varenna."

Ahhh, okay. Well, tomorrow, try to call the RS office and find out which airport they suggest to fly into to catch the train to Varenna. As I mentioned a couple times, Linate is near to the city, Malpensa is further out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linate_Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malpensa_Airport

In 2010 all direct flights from the US landed at MXP. If I were searching, I'd just search for flights SEA to Milan. It doesn't really matter at which airport you land, you'll still need to get either into Milan or on the train to where your tour starts.
You didn't ask, but I use itasoftware.com to see what flights and connections are out there, then go directly to the airline to purchase. If there are any delays, the airline will take care of getting you to your destination, the middleman probably won't be much help. (Edited to note date.)

Marie,
Thanks for reminding me to call RS directly rather than try to figure it out myself...
Denny

Denny, since you provided specific dates, I just looked at the United Airlines web site (as one example), and put in just the parameters you indicated. I found a ticket for just under $1450 with these facts:

Oct 10 -- Seattle thru Frankfurt to Milano (Malpensa Airport). These flights are actually operated by United's partner Lufthansa, which is generally better than United, I've found. There are actually a few choices. One leaves very early morning and arrives on Oct 11 in the morning, with not too much connection time. The other choices leave Seattle early afternoon and have more connection time and then arrive Milano the next afternoon. I don't think it really matters whether you go in to Malpensa or Linate Airport, as in either case you will need to get in to Milano Centrale RR station to catch a train to Varenna.

October 28 -- Rome with two stops (I think there are choices of connection cities) to Seattle. All these flights seem to leave Rome very early, and there is at least one option which gives you about 3 hours connection time at each stop. I have not flown out of Rome myself, but often read here that the best bet, especially early, is to have your hotel arrange a taxi for a fixed fare of about 48 euros, which would take you directly from the door of your hotel to the terminal you need at the airport, giving yourself enough time for all the check-in procedures. You might well find that there are others in your tour group also flying early that morning, and you can share a cab. You would probably find similar choices, maybe even better, at some other airlines. Certainly as time passes and seats are filled, the choices will be reduced. If you need more help I would really recommend going to a good, smart travel agent who might even find you better options. Since you are there in Seattle, I imagine the RS staff can give you a solid recommendation, or various people on this forum can. You asked about itineraries with two connections. Let me just say that air travel from home to Italy and then back, is generally the least enjoyable part of any trip these days. On my last trip, going over from my home in Monterey (CA) to Palermo in Sicily, I had four flights, including three connections, with two overnight flights separated by an eleven hour connection time at JFK in NY. It was tiring and not great fun, but got me to a wonderful trip. My return was less arduous but also had two connections, Venice to Philadelphia to LA to Monterey. Unless you have a private jet at your disposition, you have to do what you gotta do, to see the world! Good luck fellow traveler! Larry

I also looked up the Delta flights as well since there is a nice SEA to Amsterdam flight so you don't have to change planes on the East Coast. Going SEA thru AMS to Milan Linate , return Rome (FCO) thru AMS to SEA I'm getting around $1450 as well for your dates.

I have done the Seattle to Amsterdam flight a couple of times and it works out really well, especially if you are starting in SEA. Coming over from N. Idaho we usually have a terribly long layover in Seattle but you would not have to deal with that.

I'll jump in and muddy the waters just a bit, but perhaps save you some money. I see you are going over a day early, I presume for rest and jet lag recovery (good idea). If you depart a day later from Milan instead of Rome, you can save almost $400. Fly round trip to Milan on Delta/Alitalia. Besides saving money it will:
1. Preclude the need to get up at the crack of dawn to leave from Rome.
2. Allow the return flight with only one stop instead of two.
3. Allow you to spend a bit more time in Rome, or give you some time to see Milan for half a day.
Go from Rome to Milan on the train, it is only 3 hours and 20 minutes, and there are still 29 euro super economy fares available. You will need another day at a hotel and meals. You could stay by the airport for your 9 am return flight, or near the Milan central station for an early am train to the airport.

Hey, folks, I really appreciate all your super-nice replies, but I'm going to call it a night (at least until I wake up in the middle of the night). I'll have time to respond when I've allowed my brain to rest after a day of tapping away wildly on KAYAK.
Many thanks,
Denny

Lately I prefer hipmunk.com for researching airfare over kayak or orbitz.

The issue on see on your route in the fall is long layovers on most of the return flight options, yuck.

Really early departures gives one option via Delta for $1424.

https://www.hipmunk.com/flights/SEA-to-MIL-and-ROM-to-SEA#!dates=Oct10,Oct28&pax=1&group=1&selected_flights=556eb30966,29414bd866

Trying April 10-28 I see a non-stop Seattle to Milan and shorter layovers on the return for $1493.

The biggest problem for me with airfare is your dates are basically locked down. When you buy the plane tickets you are committed to the trip. That always feels like a huge leap of faith to me - that health and life will align to make the idea real.

Good luck finding flights, enjoy the planning and the trip!

Hi,

I checked Delta and this is their best option. It's showing $1343. If you wanted to leave in the evening from Rome, the layover is atrocious in Amsterdam - 11 hours.

You may want to arrive in Varenna the day before meeting up with the group, so you have a chance to get over the jetlag in a beautiful, relaxing location.

Delta leaves Seattle at 7am - DL418
Arrives in Milan thru JFK at 7:45am; plenty of time to make connections to Varenna during daylight
15 hours, 45 minutes total

Delta leaving Rome at 7:15am (operated by Air France)
Arrive in Seattle thru Paris at 1:42pm
14 hours, 27 minutes total

Thanks Jean,
For some reason this Delta flight never showed up on KAYAK. I am wondering if it's possible to get the airport in Rome early enough to take the flight back to the U.S. without taking a taxi...It definitely sounds doable. I've just been renewing the KAYAK page and coming up with the same flights for the most part.

*> The biggest problem for me with airfare is your dates are basically

locked down. When you buy the plane tickets you are committed to the
trip. That always feels like a huge leap of faith to me - that health
and life will align to make the idea real.*

Thanks, Beth, for searching and for stating what is on my mind: that leap of faith, more than two months before the actual "fact" in question. The earliness of the flight departures is something I would want to ask RS about. Has anyone else taken a flight that early out of Rome ?

*> The issue on see on your route in the fall is long layovers on most of

the return flight options, yuck.*

Jean, you hit it on the head. Maybe if I started earlier looking for flights, this would not be the case. Thanks for confirming what I think is likely or inevitable, or almost, at this point.

If you depart a day later from Milan instead of Rome, you can save
almost $400. Fly round trip to Milan on Delta/Alitalia.

Sam,
Thanks indeed for the alternate plan. I had dismissed it out of hand. It's good to know the particulars of what that would mean. More to ponder on...My concern would be staying an extra day in a large city I'm not familiar with, in particular, after a long trip abroad. Plus navigating a Rome-to-Milan (probably not that difficult) and train station-hotel-airport the next day.
Denny

Let me just say that air travel from home to Italy and then back, is generally the least enjoyable part of any trip these days. On my last trip, going over from my home in Monterey (CA) to Palermo in Sicily, I had four flights, including three connections, with two overnight flights separated by an eleven hour connection time at JFKemphasized text* in NY.*

Thanks, Larry, for sharing that bit of information. I have been thinking to myself: Is it possible that people would jump through that many hoops just to take a RS tour, enjoyable as it is? I know the answer now.

You should do whichever plan you think is easiest. Either Malpensa or Linate airport is easy for your connection into Milano Centrale train station. The tour department will send you instructions to get to your hotel, but see also p. 373 in Rick's Italy book for more about airport connections. Many of your fellow tour members will be leaving Rome very early for their flights, so your guide will make a list to help people share taxis to that airport. I typically fly Delta to Europe because it has direct flights from Seattle to Amsterdam or Paris and is an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan partner. Lufthansa also flies direct to the Continent, or Iceland Air has been pretty competitive for anyone who wants a stopover in Iceland.

I'll confirm that what Laura says was in fact put in to practice for the 2 RS tours I have been on. The guides sorted out who needed to be a the airport at what time (and to which terminal if that was pertinent) and the hotel ordered the taxis according to that. In Florence we stayed extra days after our tour and the hotel got us a taxi for 415AM. It's pretty common to have an early morning flight to one of the European hubs. I prefer to get the early AM flight, then the morning Delta flight from Amsterdam to Seattle which allows me to get my final flight back to Idaho and get home at a reasonable hour.

I still consider myself a novice traveler even tho I have been on 2 RS tours. I will do almost anything to avoid changing planes in NYC or other airports along the East Coast which is why I like that Delta flight so much. I found changing planes in Amsterdam very easy for a novice. Everyone speaks English and KLM has a lot of transfer hubs with staff who can answer your questions.

Another thing you might consider if you are still on the fence about the whole tour thing is that Rick usually has a Fall and Spring travel festival in Edmonds. There are presentations going all day on a Saturday with him doing several himself including a Basic Travel Skills class. It gives you a good feel for what you might experience on a tour and is so much fun! Tour guides also present. In January there is a Tour Group Reunion along with travel presentations all day with many of the guides coming in for meetings at the home office. The presentations are all free. I don't see a date for the Fall one yet, but it is often in November. I've gone over a couple of times from N. Idaho (6 hr drive) and have learned a good deal. http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/travel-classes

We are throwing a LOT of information at you! Can you tell we all love to travel and want you to enjoy it too?

Editing to add: If getting from one of the Milan airports to Varenna seems like it will be too hard, go back to considering either Venice, Florence and Rome or the 10-day Heart of Italy tour. Particularly for Heart of Italy, arriving in Rome and transportation to the first hotel is quite easy and straightforward. If there is a concern, sometimes money is well-spent on a taxi.

Thanks Jean for the Delta info.

Can anyone tell me if the following means that in the return flight one doesn't have to change planes (thus avoiding having to possibly run across the airport and/or go through customs all over again ). Or do all passengers have to get off the plane anyway?

http://www.delta.com/booking/polarisItin.do;cohrBkgSessID=mcjC1VB9BzfV6tC?dispatchMethod=retrievePolarisItin&cacheKey=mcjC1VB9BzfV6tC&hiddenFieldsId=mcjC1VB9BzfV6tC&checksum=44535105&XSSID=46e907af-93cc-4b3d-97f9-0cab6e6f97fa

It sounds like in the outbound (SEA - MXP) one does have to change planes, but I can't tell how much time there is between connecting flights.

Does "layover" mean not having to change planes, versus "stop-over"?

Thanks Jean for the Delta info.

Can anyone tell me if the following means that in the return flight one doesn't have to change planes (thus avoiding having to possibly run across the airport and/or go through customs all over again ). Or do all passengers have to get off the plane anyway?

http://www.delta.com/booking/polarisItin.do;cohrBkgSessID=mcjC1VB9BzfV6tC?dispatchMethod=retrievePolarisItin&cacheKey=mcjC1VB9BzfV6tC&hiddenFieldsId=mcjC1VB9BzfV6tC&checksum=44535105&XSSID=46e907af-93cc-4b3d-97f9-0cab6e6f97fa

It sounds like in the outbound (SEA - MXP) one does have to change planes, but I can't tell how much time there is between connecting flights.

Does "layover" mean not having to change planes, versus "stop-over"?

When I go to your link, it just shows the search page with a note in red across that the search time has expired, so maybe it would be better if you could post the routing with the pertinent flights and times.

Going from Seattle, I generally try to fly direct from Seattle to either: London, Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam. Reason being if you fly from Seattle to the east coast you will add often 4-5 hours of travel time. It takes a bit of playing with the schedules and watching for favorable fares but my days of flying to Europe through New York, Philly or Washington are behind me.

My last trip I left from Vancouver after catching a puddle jumper up from Seattle which was also a decent option as it boogied right over to London.

Thanks for letting me know, Pam.

YOU SELECTED THESE FLIGHTS:
FLIGHT 1 Fri, 10 Oct 2014 |7:00AMSEA to 7:45AM Sat, 11 Oct MXP | 1-Stop |DL 418

Hide Details
7:00AM
SEA
7:45AM
Sat 11 Oct
MXP
1-Stop 15 hr 45 min
JFKChange Planes
DL 418
Economy (X)
View Seats
Complete Delta Air Lines Baggage Information
This flight arrives the next day | You change planes in JFK
Fri 10 Oct
Departs: 7:00am from WA, Seattle (SEA)
Arrives: 7:45am in Milan-Malpensa, Italy (MXP)
Change Planes | View Seats | View Seats
Economy (X) | Meal Services
DL 418
15 hr 45 min

FLIGHT 2 Tue, 28 Oct 2014 |7:15AMFCO to 1:42PM SEA | 1-Stop |DL 8497 1 , DL 33

Show Details
7:15AM
FCO
1:42PM
SEA
1-Stop 14 hr 27 min
CDG 1h 15m Layover
DL 8497 1
Economy (X)
DL 33
Economy (X)
View Seats
Operated by:
1Air France
Complete Delta Air Lines Baggage Information

OK, plugging in that info into the Delta.com site, here is what I see.

Outbound: SEA to JFK Departs at 7AM, arrives into JFK at 3:18 PM. You have a 2 hour 45 minute layover in JFK. Someone else will need to tell you if that is enough time to comfortably change planes and whether you will have to change terminals. Then your flight leaves JFK at 603 PM for Rome, arriving there at 830AM Rome time.

Inbound: OK, the flight coming home that you have listed is from Rome to Seattle. Did you want to fly back out of Rome or were you thinking you wanted to fly home from Milan? The flight you have listed you change planes in Paris and have 1 hour 15 minutes to change planes which is probably going to make you uncomfortable. That is a pretty quick time to get thru that big airport for a newbie, and you can work out better flights than that.

Inbound: OK, the flight coming home that you have listed is from Rome
to Seattle. Did you want to fly back out of Rome or were you thinking
you wanted to fly home from Milan? The flight you have listed you
change planes in Paris and have 1 hour 15 minutes to change planes
which is probably going to make you uncomfortable. That is a pretty
quick time to get thru that big airport for a newbie, and you can work
out better flights than that.

That's what I was worried about (75 minutes to change planes in CDG). I meant to fly back out of Rome, not Milan, to Seattle. Unlike the outbound flight, the inbound flight changes planes, unfortunately. [inboard Delta 8497 operated by Air France /Delta 33 versus outbound Delta 418/Delta 418].

If I went, then, I would have to find a better flight, I see your point.

The itasoftware.com seems to be the most powerful flight search engine. Thank you, Darcy.

It is difficult to sort out this forum at times. Only recently have the Rick Steves personnel been identified with the RS logo which makes it nice to sort out who is posting as a representative of the company and which are just travelers who choose to post on an open forum. The logo identifiers are only connected to the number of posts one has, nothing else.

It always amazes me that people spend time posting hurtful remarks when it takes less time to not even open a thread if you think the content is not going to be something interesting to you.

BTW, let me assure you that on the 2 RS tours I have gone on, no one exhibited boorish behavior. The other tour members were interesting people to travel with and by and large a pleasure to spend time with. There is always a mix of people who are experienced travelers, those who have a moderate amount of travel experience and those who are completely new to International travel. One of the things I liked most about the Heart of Italy tour I took was that the guide spent time teaching us how to travel independently. For instance in Rome, as a group we all took the bus to the Central area then took the Metro home. It is much easier to get around independently after you have worked it with the group!

Back to the airline tickets....I am not an expert in changing planes in Paris or JFK. As a novice, I know that I would not be able to manage a 75 minute transit time and it would cause me too much worry. I do know I can manage a 1h30m transit time in Amsterdam as I inadvertently booked that the first time and it worked just fine. Last year my flight home involved a 38 minute transfer time in the Salt Lake City airport to catch the last flight of the day back to N. Idaho. To keep myself from worrying, I printed out a list of the airport hotels in SLC in case I missed that connection. It helped with the worry and then I found that it really only took me 15 minutes to get out to the far gate in SLC (including a bathroom stop) so I will not worry about that connection time. I have enough confidence in my travel skills now that I know I can troubleshoot that if I miss the connection. The more you get back in to travel, the easier these things will seem.

Hi Pam,

Thanks for your many posts in response to my queries. This is a good forum, aside from an occasional "stinker" ("poisonous" posting). I didn't realize TripAdvisor also has a forum as well that unites travellers from all over.

I definitely like the idea of doing some, essential things together as a group, in a foreign city, if only to be able to do things independently with some confidence!

In truth, the RS Forum unites people who haven't even been on a RS tour--I'd assumed, wrongly again, that most of the people would be interested in an RS tour (otherwise, why post on this site) and/or have taken a RS tour. Thanks for your clarification.

It does seem that people have good experiences transferring in Amsterdam or Frankfurt versus Paris. One thing I like about the forum is that one's questions and others's responses can benefit many people, who may have the same questions and concerns.

One other, to me, "pressing" question would be (and I hopefully am not being "negative" but instead "pragmatic" or "prepared" is the following:

What happens if one misses a connecting flight in Europe? Does the second airline arrange for the next flight? Does one have to pay a supplement? (If it's the same airline, I would assume "no"). This would seem to indicate that if one has a "layover" (or "stopover", not sure what the difference is), there is security in having both "legs" of the flight being the same company, and better yet, if it is the same plane for both (which I think is apparent if you examines the details of the flight on KAYAK, or Expedia.

For me, I like the idea of being able to independently book a flight by myself rather than relying on someone else to, unless it's really just too risky or difficult to.

In many ways, people on the forum have been very nice to me, so I don't have a lot to complain about, really. (I only felt attacked once).

Thanks again!
Denny

I think most people here have watched Rick's TV programs or read his guidebooks but the number who have been on tours is probably a minority. Most agree with Rick's travel philosophy or at least parts of it.

As to missing a plane which does happen. If you book all on one ticket you are protected and the airline will reschedule you. Sometimes people will book an International flight on a standard US carrier, then book internal European flights on one of the cheaper European airlines. Since those are on separate tickets then you are not protected if, for instance, your overseas flight is delayed and you miss your next flight. People here and other travel forums general encourage people to book flights all on one ticket. When you book you want to make sure you go thru an airline site, not one of the 3rd party travel sites.