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Paris to Bilbao - then back home...Suggestions for airline booking needed.

Posted by on

Hello. I am new to this forum so please excuse any community related faux pas that may occur. If price were not the biggest factor, least auxiliary travel time or most interesting auxiliary travel being a bigger factor how would you do the following. Honeymoon planning involved here. We have settled on Paris for a week and Bilbao/San Sebastian and/or Bayonne for 5 days. As we have to use some of our allotted vacation days for the wedding and related activities, we are looking to ease the travel time to/from locations. As the trip is still many months away and airline pricing so fickle I have waffled between the following ideas.

  1. Buy round trip Boston-Paris (any of the major airlines based on best fit for the outbound flight timing wise) and round trip Paris to Bilbao (Germanwings/Air Berlin style low cost European provider to be determined).

2.One way Boston to Paris, one way to Bilbao, drive or train to Madrid or Barcelona then one way to Boston.

I have traveled by bus in Spain before (early 20s, budget was key) and you get what you pay for. Train or rental car to Madrid looks viable on paper, but kind of wastes a day. Flying back to Paris also essentially eliminates half a day. I have not been able to find a "Bilbao to Boston" return trip that doesn't make us connect through Paris, Madrid or Barcelona anyway.

Any thoughts?

Posted by
3518 posts

Instead of booking one way back and forth to Europe, book it as a round trip into Paris and then back from Bilbao (with the connection through Madrid or Barcelona to make the best use of your time) which should save a lot in cost over actual one-way tickets. This type of trip can be booked on most airlines as a "multi-city" option.

If you find a better price for the round trip through Paris, booking that as a separate round trip and then booking Bilbao to Paris one way separately sounds like a good idea as well. One way tickets inside Europe are usually not that much more expensive than half a round trip would be.

Posted by
2 posts

You were 100% correct. I just tried this method and the prices and total duration of travel time win handily. Seems obvious in retrospect, train and bus rides to larger airports like Madrid take much more time for similar money as flying even with a modest layover.

Posted by
4105 posts

Multi -city...Boston>Paris...Barcelona>Boston

Interim flights...Vueling, a budget carrier. Look at baggage restrictions carefully.

Paris Orly>Bilbio 1H30min...Bilbio>Barcelona 1H05min

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