Best flights from Seattle to Greece

traveling in the fall season

Autumn 2019 in Northern Hemisphere will begin on
Monday September 23
and ends on
Saturday December 21

Can you narrow down when you plan to travel?

Some of the layovers I am seeing are very short

How do you define 'short'? If you are doing a single booking with the airline, you should be OK. The airline is not going to book an impossible connection as they do not want to be stuck re-booking a plane load of passengers

If you can provide a few more specifics, the folks here will not have to guess or assume what they think you mean and will be able to provide better, on point answers

Looking at flights now for over a year from now may not get you the most accurate price information.

When we flew to Greece (though not from the PNW) we booked two flights; one to whichever European destination was least expensive, and one from that destination to Athens. We were able to pay far less that way BUT, we also risked missing that second flight if anything happened to our first flight because the two were not on the same airline. This also turned into a long journey, as we had one lay over in the US en route, and then the lay-over between the two. That said, we were able to save hundreds per ticket, and multiplied by several of us we saved thousands. It really depends what you are looking for (of course the second, independent flight could be booked with a huge lay over to increase your chances of making it. In our case, we gave ourselves a layover of 4 hours)...

Our plan is to travel in Oct 2020, I know that is too early to book flights, so I have been looking at Oct 2019 flight info, just to get a feel for pricing. Some of the layovers are less than 2 hours and that seems iffy to me. For me, short is less than 2 hours, but am wondering if 2 hours is even enough?

We are also going to Athens this year in October, but we leave from Anchorage.
Our route is Alaska airlines, through Seattle, to Newark. From Newark there is a direct flight to Athens on Emirates.
We are using AK miles to get to Newark and then paid for our flight on Emirates.

We flew a few Octobers ago from Seattle to Athens via Amsterdam, and returned via Paris. The Amsterdam layover was 3 1/2 hours, which was more than enough. As I recall the first flight was on time or nearly so, but in case of a delay that layover would have provided a good margin. AMS (aka Schiphol) is a well-organized airport which manages vast numbers of people and flights about as well as one could expect.

Returning via Paris, we had a 4 1/2 hour layover at CDG, which also was ample. But I remember riding a bus between terminals, dealing with confusing signage and bigger, less well-managed crowds. CDG is an airport I try to avoid unless my destination is Paris, and I think others on this forum share that view.

I agree with your preference to fly all the way to Europe first. That way, if there's a serious arrival delay, you have more options for getting to your destination. You need a significant scheduled layover, I'd say more than a couple of hours, to feel confident about making your connection. Flying home, the layover in Europe needn't be so long because the chances of being significantly late are less for a shorter flight. And it's easier to clear US border control at my home airport than somewhere else where I have to recheck my bags and sit around instead of heading straight home. SeaTac does a good job with that and they're opening a new international arrivals facility soon.

Besides Amsterdam, Frankfurt would be another good choice for layover. So would Heathrow if you're flying British Airways, otherwise you might have more trouble as other airlines tend to get second-class treatment there. But conditions change and you're looking so far ahead that anything's possible!

Two years ago we flew Delta to Athens from Sea Tac>>JFK>>Athens. At the time it was our best option. We prefer to fly direct to Europe. With that said, our favorite connection is Schiphol. Well organized and straight forward. Most of the time it's a about a 3 hour layover. That's okay with us. We avoid layovers at CDG. We have experienced delays in passport control.

Agree about Frankfurt being a good place for a connection. Lufthansa also codeshares with Aegean so there are many flights to choose from.

SeaTac does a good job with that and they're opening a new international arrivals facility soon.

"Autumn" 2020 is the target date I have seen. Has there been a revision to open earlier, or is my concept of 'soon' unreasonable?

I flew Polar from Vancouver BC long ago, so I looked at Vancouver to Athens...and if you want to book shoulder season flight starting mid-September (if they still have that)...it looks like you have to wait at least two more weeks to book the adjusted price dates in September.

Thanks, everyone, for your input! I know this is super early, but I am a crazy planner and it’s great to get some idea before I “really” start looking into flights. This year I got a wonderful price on Aer Lingus, direct from Seatac to Dublin, it was half the price of our previous trips to Europe. I am leaning towards flying direct from Seattle to Amsterdam or Frankfurt, and then to Greece, hope those flights still exist when we are ready to purchase.

The budget way to get there is to take Aer Lingus to Dublin and switch over to Ryanair into Athens.

I'm a huge fan of the Delta/KLM partnership, as Delta flies direct from SeaTac to Amsterdam, and then KLM Cityhopper should get you to Athens, probably with less than 2hr layover. I've made 45min connections in AMS no problem - they have kiosks all over the place that help you check-in to your connecting flight. And I always check bags if I have a connection so I don't get hung up in customs (worth the risk of the bags getting lost, which has never happened to me...knock on vinyl).

Delta's Comfort+ is a tremendous value for the added leg room and decent food.

Condor and Lufthansa fly this route, with one stop in Frankfurt. The schedule for this October has a flight departing Seattle at 6:05 pm, with a 4-hour layover in Frankfurt, before reaching Athens ( on Lufthansa) late in the evening the next day. The cost for the lowest fare varies day by day, but for this October you can do it for around $650 pp each way. This fare includes checked baggage and meals, but not seat selection. Personally, I would pay the $60 extra for that.

A nice thing about this flight is the seating is 2-3-2 (plane is a 767), so if there are two of you, it is comfortable to get the window and aisle seats and have no strangers to share your space.

We flew Condor home from Frankfurt to Seattle last August and the flight was fine. Admittedly we were in business class, which increased the comfort, but the plane is the same for Economy and we were happy with the smoothness of the flight and the professionalism of the flight crew.

"Autumn" 2020 is the target date I have seen. Has there been a revision to open earlier, or is my concept of 'soon' unreasonable?

joe, it's Seattle. Believe it when you see it.

We are flying to Athens in October. We are opting to fly out of Vancouver BC on Air Canada Rouge Premium Economy, connecting in Montreal. I have read some less than great reviews for Air Canda Rouge, but price wise and schedule it worked for us. We live north of Seattle and have Nexus border passes, so Vancouver is a good option for us.

We purchased in December for our October travel. I am a planner and wanted to flights booked.