Advice Flying to Europe

Am not sure what you mean? Are you getting a one way ticket on an airline to Europe and then a one way ticket home on another airline? Have never done that to Europe but years ago in the states it was very, very expensive to buy a one way ticket anyplace. If you are going to France and then to Norway, just get an open jaw ticket from states to France, budget airline from France to Norway and then home from Norway? Does that help?

It does help. I am going on the Internet to do some shopping tomorrow. I was afraid the two one ways might be too costly, the fares are all high for next year.

You might also look into other airports around you. Not sure where you are in CA but if near SF or LA you have some options rather than the major hubs. Might save money. Good luck.

If you use a search engine like Expedia or Orbitz, you can look at "open jaw" flights by ing "multi-city". To find budget flights from France to Norway, www.skyscanner.com will show you a comprehensive list of who flies where.

I tried to do this once on Delta using FF miles and it cost just as many miles to do one way as it did to do round trip.

I have done multi citi flight using miles on United and never paid more than what it would be for a round trip.

Like it was said, kick in multi city flights on Orbitz or Expedia. I've recently had great experience with http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ or Kayak.com. I haven't found Iceland's airlines to be any bargain. It would be nice to use one of their free stay over's to see the country for a day or two. U.S. Air had the best fares into London Gatwick last April and home from Rome. We used EasyJet within the continent, but you've got to really fly light to meet their luggage restrictions. Southern France is not the easiest place to get into from the U.S. And, California is also a little hard to get towithout having to change planes in large U.S. airports. Chances are you'll be flying on 3-4 different airlines on your itinerary. Good luck on your search.

I like to book directly with the airline and almost always fly open jaw. You can choose one-way, round trip and multi-city. Select multi-city. I have also flown open jaw using miles and it didn't cost extra miles than traveling round trip. Purchasing one-way tickets will be very costly.

I've done it lots of different ways. All with one airline as well as mix-matching flights. The only advantage I can think of for booking through one airline is if a flight is delayed/canceled, they will adjust your itinerary without a fee. That would apply to connections, not so much to flying over with one airline and back with another. The days of round-trip airfares being significantly cheaper than a pair of one-ways seems to be gone. Now it seems like you pay for each flight segment (but can score deals if you route through a lightly traveled segment).

Also think outside of the box, when considering your itinerary. Sometimes two cheap budget tickets + an open-jaw works out cheaper. Here's an example for a ticket for next June: Transantlantic - Flying open-jaw return into Dublin. Back from Lisbon.
PLUS: Dublin to Berlin + Berlin to Lisbon. The original plan was to vacation in Ireland before attending a conference in Berlin. Looking at open-jaw fares, returning from Berlin, gave me outrageously high fares. So I played around with the cheap flights to/from Berlin to other possible cheap return points in Europe, mostly using the budget airlines' own route maps and skyscanner.net. In your case, I'd look to see where the smaller French airports (Bergerac, Pau, Beziers, etc.) link to into Norway, then see where cheap flights go to out of Norway. There was no plan whatsoever to go to Lisbon. However, the money saved on the pond-hop flight, more than covered the Berlin-Lisbon AND the hotel in Lisbon for a two-night stay. Oddly enough, Budapest was also returning interesting fares. Be creative and dig.

Thanks to all for your advice.

I find flying to Europe direct from the West coast way to taxing on both my spirits and health. We fly say American to oh, Boston on a round trip ticket. Overnight at a charming Holiday Inn Express. Continue on the next day on whatever airline is most reasonably priced/timed. Did this a couple years ago and flew Iceland Air from the US to Heathrow r/t. I've also planned my itinerary flying American to Boston with a 18 hour layover spending the night at aforementioned charming Holiday Inn Express. It was a bit more than switching airlines but the timing was much better. While it does chew up a couple extra vacation days the payoff comes with being rested and ready to go upon arrival.

Unlike Marie, I prefer to flight straight from California to Europe with no stops in between. It cuts the length of the trip considerably. By at least 6 to 8 hours each way. For example I can fly from SFO to CDG ( or FRA) in 10 hours. But if I go through New York it takes almost 6 hours to JFK, plus a few hours lay over at JFK, plus another 8 hours from JFK to FRA or CDG. All in all from SFO to CDG it will be at least 16 or 17 hours via JFK, instead of just 10. Additionally there is the risk of missing the flight to Europe if the SFO-JFK flight arrives late (often due to weather conditions back East). Coming back is even worse because in the US you must clear Customs in the first port of entry (in our example: JFK). That means you have to get your bags in JFK to clear customs and check them in again. After all that ordeal, you need to wait for the flight back to California plus fly another 6 hours. Instead, if I fly back directly from Europe to SFO my first port of entry is already at SFO. Once I clear customs I'm home. You live in Tustin, therefore close to LAX. You should look for a similar flight. I'd suggest a non stop LAX-CDG with Air France (Delta codeshare), then proceed with Air France from CDG to NCE or MRS (Nice or Marseille). On the way back from Norway, you can still fly with Air France/Delta codeshare: OSL>CDG>LAX just one stop in Paris (CDG). The whole thing will be less than 15 hours each way, all included. There are other similar options instead of going through Paris going through other European major hubs connected with non stops to LAX (e.g. LHR, FRA, AMS, etc.)