I need some help here. I need to fly into Paris (preferably, however we can fly to London if need be) on August 11 (monday) and a return flight from either Milan, Florence, Pisa on December 22nd or 23rd. I cannot find anything for under $2,400 and that seems a little high.
any suggestions? thoughts on Lufthansa?
I just plugged all those date and cities into www.kayak.com and was able to get fares for about $1250 via US Airway and KLM/NW.
I'll look into that again, I swear three days ago they were pushing $2,000 on Kayak, which is usually the cheapest.
Is KLM and United a good airline? I've always been loyal to Delta, especially since some of my buddies have traveled United and been very dissatisfied
JB, you can still be loyal to Delta indirectly by using one of their SKYMILES partners, like Alitalia!
I lived in ATL for years and flew 4-5 times a year internationally out of ATL. Having booked flights often from ATL, I can tell you that Paris is an expensive site to fly into (I blame Air France and CDG!) Also, the week of December 20-27 is one of the most expensive weeks to fly BACK to the States. We fly back into ATL annually at XMAS each year... and use "miles" for those trips - avoiding the higher costs.
If you go into Gatwick you may get a better rate, but you'll have to add in the cost of flying or train (Chunnel) to Paris. If you could move your December flight forward even a week you'll save more money!
That said, on www.vayama.com I found flights on NW (SKYMILES partner - and future part of Delta) for $1266 all in doing your "original" itinerary (MXP return). If you insert Gatwick, it's $1205 all in.
FYI, You can fly out of Charleston on US Airways through Charlotte, and back through Philadelphia for $1241. You can also fly out of Myrtle Beach for $1246! Not sure if that is more convenient for you! In my previous life I flew weekly so I have a ton of search engines I've used...
Hope those suggestions help...
Ciao,
Ron
Loyalty to a particular airline in addition to set travel dates is never a good way to get reasonable airfare.
JB: Maybe try flying out your date, but pick a date that's not as far away?? Then make a differnt flight back for the December date??
Air france had a great rate flying into London Heathrow but that's from LAX. Give it a try and see if you can get a connection from ATL
