After much agonizing, I finally booked the Rick Steves 21 day best of Europe tour June 16-July 6, 2008 for me and my daughter as a high school grad gift for her (ok and for me too!). Now I'm looking for best time to book flights, and best itinerary if we want to spend an additional week in London. Since it's easier to get from Paris to London at the end of our trip, that's what I'm planning. What's the best way to book our trip? Should we fly SFO-AMS and then LHR-SFO or is it cheaper to fly into somewhere else and take bus/train/ferry to Amsterdam? In the past I've always flown internationally out of SFO, but would it be cheaper to take a commuter flight and try some other US airport? Also when is the best time to book? Most of the flights I'm looking at now start at $1200 each rt.
Aer Lingus seems to be the cheapest, but I hated them several years ago flying from LHR to Dublin (they charged for tea bags and messed up my reservations!!). Are they decent for international flights? My only two previous flights to LHR were both on Virgin (in 2000 it was great, in 2004 not so great). Hope this isn't too lengthy, guess I'm excited and over-analyzing as usual!!