Booking Airfare to Europe (Seattle to Paris, Amsterdam to Seattle)

On Continental operated planes, they sell bulkhead seats on their transatlantic flights for just a over $100 extra..on top of the discount fare. That's usually much cheaper than premium economy.

There are basically two flavors of "Premium" Economy. Some airlines (like BA, Air France, Virgin) have a premium economy offering that includes more legroom, wider seats, upgraded meals and entertainment, etc. On these airlines, a premium economy ticket costs significantly more than economy (sometimes double). On other airlines (like United), the "premium" economy offering is much more basic. You just get more legroom. Nothing extra. United's offering is called economy plus and usually costs about $100 more each way from the East Coast. They also have an annual option which covers two people travelling together which could be a better deal for you. You might try checking United's website; when you click on the seatmap for a United operated flight it will show the seats with extra legroom and the fee to buy them. They also show the Continental flights and seat maps, but don't show the price to upgrade legroom. Delta recently introduced a similar product called economy comfort. Finally, when you check for flights, make sure you are using the multi-city option (rather than pricing two one-way tickets).

Hi Pamela. I did a simple search on Expedia using random dates of June 6-13 and see a one-stop for $1200 or a non-stop for $1400. That's a total of $4800-$5600 for 4 people. I suggest you first find cheap flights, then check that airline to see if they offer $100-$200 upgrades. That will end up with a total of $5k - $6k instead of $12-$15. Enjoy your trip!

Your numbers are not adding up unless you are looking at business class. Then your number are pretty close. Are you pricing business class? Give you exact schedule.

I checked on Kayak for a 2-week trip in July, flying mid-week both directions. The trouble is your "premium economy" desire. IcelandAir has the lowest-cost premium Exonomy flight, $2447 for flights with one stop in each direction, in Rekjavik. The same flight in Exonomy is $1401. And for even less than that ($1398) you can fly non-stop in both directions, on Delta. If your husband needs the legroom of Premium Economy but it is too expensive for the 4 of you, why not break up the seating, with him in Premium and the other three in Economy?

Does he really need "at least premium economy", or would he just be more comfortable in premium economy? You would probably be more comfortable there, too, wouldn't you? So would anyone. If he must have it for some reason, I like Lola's suggestion to split up your seating. I've traveled with some tall folks, and while they may have preferred more legroom in another cabin class, their wallets kept them in economy. And they were fine.

My husband is very tall and has a bad back, so yes, he needs the extra space. We are traveling with our children who are experienced world travelers but we prefer to fly together as a family. I recently booked a trip on United for my sister in law (who is also very tall) in a Premium Economy seat and she said it did have much more leg room so I will look into that. We found a Premium Economy on SAS which we have flown before for about $1600pp but we did not see on the SAS website how to book a mutli-city trip. They also don't fly out of Seattle any longer, so we would need to fly to another city to fly to Europe with them. We looked at many airlines so it is starting to run together. Thank you for the suggestions.
Pamela

To fly SAS, you will have to first go to one of the US airports they serve, such as Chicago, Washington DC, Newark. likely push it well over that $1600 you saw. Also, you will have a 2-stop flight instead of one. I like SAS and miss them (we last flew on SAS from Seattle in 2007), but their website is not user-friendly, expecially for multi-city or open jaw flights. Try calling Elizabeth Holmes Travel here in Seattle; they used to specialize in SAS bookings and may have some ideas. http://www.elizabethholmes.com/ You might also take a good look at the IcelandAir option. Friends of ours recently flew that way to London and said it was quite nice. It's still around 10K for the four of you in Premium Economy, however. For future travel, you might consider joining a mileage program that will allow you to upgrade an economy ticket wit miles. We do that on British.

Again, United's "premium" and Delta's "premium" are a lot cheaper than some of the other airlines. For these airlines, you buy an economy ticket and then pay extra to book an "economy plus" or "economy comfort" seat that has additional legroom. Go to their websites and check. If you select "premium economy" on a site like kayak, you will only see the airline choices that have a true premium product.

Not to be Captain Obvious, but...when are you looking to travel? Are your travels dates flexible? Prices can vary quite a bit by day of the week/week/month. And of course if you're looking for a ticket soon - you usually have to pay through the nose.

Laura' suggestion looks like a good option. You could use it on the non-stop Delta flights to Paris and back from Amsterdam. It looks like there are ample Economy Comfort seats available, for the dates I checked in July( I am assuming you are going in summer.) The one downside is you can't tell what the price is for the upgrade until after you book the tickets. Any idea what it is from the West coast on Delta?

Last May-June and Sept-Oct Delta was charging $120 each way on the SEA-AMS or SLC-CDG flights.

Laura has some very good points. Last June we flew Delta back from Amsterdam and I got a "Economy Comfort" seat for less than $120 additional. I did not think that it was that much better than an aisle seat, but it did have "up to 4" more leg room. I'm 6'3", and suffered with a bad lower back for years. I would try for bulkhead/exit row seats, and when I could not find them, would always opt for an aisle seat. I never had a problem. If we had to, my wife and I would split up. This kept the cost down. The key was to find a plane/airline/flight that had great seat pitch (distance from the back of one seat to the next.) I ALWAYS check this before I book my tickets. (Go to Seat Guru.com to see this info) It varies by plane type/airline. When we flew "over the pond "to the EU on Delta, there were no Economy Comfort seats, and I did just fine in an aisle seat. When a EC seat was available for our return flight I grabbed it; but I would have been just as happy in an regular aisle seat. The key is to find a flight with good seat pitch. Delta, and United usually have good seat pitch "over the pond". Icelandic air is another good one. My 6'5" nephew flew to and from Seattle on Icelandic Air and said that he had no problems. Once I get to the EU and transfer to another airline, I just grab an aisle seat for those short flights. I book one ticket, with both flights (the over the pond flight and the connecting flight) and the price is not expensive at all.