traveling on

[ritaxis]

It seems to be -- though I'll be doing more research on this -- that getting Frank to and from California to Prague is cheapest on the 17th of July and the 22nd of September respectively. It also looks like we can't really get the cost much below $1000, though we could run it up to $1700, by choosing different dates or European cities for him to fly out of and into. However, he doesn't really have a place to stay in Prague after his finals or before the end of September, so he may as well fly out of some other city and back into a third city: travel on the ground in Europe is cheap enough, and hostel rooms are cheap enough, that it's not harmfully more expensive than hostelling it in Prague for the extra days.

It looks like the cheapest flights this year are in and out of Ireland. And also Brussels. Why would that be? I get the Ireland one: that's like Ireland's main industry or something. Anyway, if it still looks like that on the day I actually buy tickets, I suppose that means he can pass through the intermediate countries and get a quick look around: I think that aggregate travel time would eat up a day or two of his time, meaning he could actually have some lookaround time.

Since the government has decided to send us a check instead of, for example, actually paying for the costs of government, we are a bit flush for the moment, and we'll be able to fund this little lookaround. Especially since he will have his student loans in place when he goes to school next year: no possibility of failure there.

So currently, too, I'm sifting through all the possibilities I can think of -- and so far reinforcing the impression I've gotten about those dates -- and when I think I have an answer -- or think I can't get one on my own -- I'm going to call a travel agent with my best guess and ask if they can line me up with anything better (that is, less expensive).

There are airports in Czech Republic that seem to only have flights to Prague and Moscow.

Comments

[ckd]

I'm curious; what airline are the Brussels flights on? Back In The Day I found a few good deals on Sabena, but they got run into the ground by/with Swissair.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I don't know that yet. I've just been using skyscanner for dates. Air France keeps putting these teaser ads on skyscanner for really cheap flights and then you go and look for them and they aren't as cheap as that really. You know how advertisers say ". . .from $569" or whatever? And then you look at the prices and they say return and not round-trip. And so they've got you confused both ways.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

From my non-extensive experience in travel outside the US, I understand "return" as meaning the same as "round-trip."

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Are you sure? Because that's what I thought it meant too, until I looked at the specifics and it seemed more and more that they were charging separately for the two sets of flights.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

If the airline is giving separate fares for the flights then it does appear they are not using return in the sense of roundtrip ticket.

Good luck in finding a decent deal.

[ellarien]

Just a precautionary note: some of the low-cost European airlines (RyanAir, for example) would rather not deal with hold baggage at all, and charge a substantial surcharge even for one checked bag, so it might be wise to check for that and figure it in to the cost if applicable.

(If it sounded as though you were in any danger of arranging flights through Heathrow, I'd say Don't, too. Heathrow's a nightmare even when it isn't on strike or trying to absorb a major expansion.)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I think he went through Heathrow last time and it was, in fact, a nightmare, so yes, I think we'll avoid that. Thanks for reminding me about the baggage: I forgot we ran into that before.