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Posted by
Bo Borre on Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 3:49 PM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Updated and revised August 2
When in Rome you probably know pretty much what to do by now. You hang with the locals and follow their lead (and Vespas) as they help you put your own spin on la dolce vita and teach you to twirl the spaghetti uncustomary gusto and wear you feelings on your sleeves, all while keeping it real alla Romana and trying not to turn into a complete Roman Holiday cliché. Even if you're not a cultural chameleon or a fan of Fellini, it's a safe bet that whatever the Romans do these days, it's most likely not all that different from what you yourself do at home every day, so you can also just go as you are and come back much the same.
Either way, that's where things get really tricky, of course. To live the good life on the Tiber, you have to get there first and the going isn't always easy, at least not on your wallet. American Airlines has just put Rome on sale for fall travel, but as sales go it really isn't much—or rather, it's really way too much! We've added a few of the fares that struck us as less than exorbitant, but we also left many of them out because at these prices you may simply not want to go.
Fortunately, the long-running Iberia sale we told you about last month has been unofficially extended beyond its official July 31 expiration and is still offering decent deals to Bologna, Genoa, Pisa (Florence), Turin, and Venice (fares from Washington did get a $50 bump). Also check out Air One's low fares, which we also told you even earlier (but do you listen?). Since then, they have teamed up with various U.S. carriers to offer connections and savings from more cities through their Boston and Chicago gateways to their Milan hub and beyond, including Rome, Naples, Palermo, and Lamezia Terme (in Calabria). Many of the early fall bargains are long gone, but can still be found (not always easily, mind you) for travel later in the year.
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 2:51 PM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Scandinavian Airlines is having a sale for late summer and fall travel, with Delta hot on its flaps and Continental likely to catch up sooner or later, and we've got it all wrapped up for you. First off, these deals are no screaming bargains, but then the only screams we hear around here these days is when the hair pulling gets too intense—no happy outbursts, no songs of joy, let alone rapturous rhapsodies, just endless grousing and grumbling peppered with a few choice expletives we have to keep under wraps.
In fact, for travel to this part of the world there hasn't been much to raise our voices about since the spring of 2007, when Malaysia Airlines still offered nonstop fares from Newark to Stockholm for as little as $380 round-trip, before some spiteful bean counter apparently realized that this was no way for an airline to make money and his boss took the route so far up-market in a desperate do-or-die move you can just forget them!
If you were paying attention, we did alert you earlier on this blog to a small price war that raged uncharacteristically for a couple of days in mid-May, with peak summer fares to Copenhagen going for well under $600 (I was lucky enough to get a ticket and will be going soon, so please be sure to miss me). Since then things have been very quiet on the Northern front, and this non-event probably won't do a whole lot to upset the peace.
As far as we can tell, prices have merely returned to the more reasonable levels seen earlier this year, so it's a little like getting a second chance. Still, that's small comfort and the nicest thing we can say about this sale is that fares are actually a bit better than advertised. Now, that's a lot like getting excited about the extra meat in your gourmet wrap, until you remember that it's still just chicken and you're still paying too much for it. But, hey, if you're hungry, you gotta eat, doncha?
And that, folks, is a wrap!
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 8:00 PM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Lower than advertised sale fares and cheap flights with good deals on late summer and early fall travel to Barcelona and Mardrid, Spain; Milan, Rome, and Venice, Italy; and Marseilles, Nice, and Paris, France, plus many other destinations.
We're not recommending that you start pairing sangria with foie gras or serving up your hearty lasagna as bite-size tapas, no matter how original or fashionable it might strike you. But we do want to remind you that Iberia, Spain's national airline, has both France and Italy well covered, and we're not talking checkered tablecloths here. With almost two dozen tasty French and Italian destinations and some equally sweet-smelling late summer deals, you might want to think about making your way through the kitchen Madrid rather than some of the more obvious—and expensive—choices, like the front door Paris or Rome.
Unlike the Iberia sales we told you about earlier this year, which helped make Boston the cheapest starting point for European travel and dining, this sale's best offers are from New York and, for an even more welcome change, the deals we've found are in fact considerably lower than list price. Starting mid-September, nonstop flights to Madrid and Barcelona go for around $700 including taxes, and connections to the nearest genuine French or Italian restaurant won't cost you much more than a drive to the local Olive Garden, unless you were smart enough to buy a Prius before they sold out.
So, here's a menu of delightful destinations for your delectation. Assuming you're not a total slave to your cravings, where you go will no doubt depend on more than just your taste buds. To make it easier for you to follow your nose as well as your passion, we've included visual aids today and you may consider the map below your geography lesson for the week year. Just pick the spot that piques your fancy (OK, your appetite), skedaddle over to our international fares page and type in the name of the city, then click on the fare to get all the dish details.
France: Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Lyon, Paris, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Rennes, Strasbourg, and Toulouse.
Italy: Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Pisa (Florence), Rome, Turin, and Venice.
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 6:41 AM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Unadvertised sale with good deals on late summer flights to Vienna, Austria.
Hark! The hills are still alive with many good things and the fictional Von Trapps are having a "vonderful" party. There will no doubt be singing and dancing involved, so be sure to bring your best baritone and tap shoes, and if we know this beer garden right, there should be plenty of fine wine and smoked Vienna sausages, so better bring your appetite, too.
To get you and your vocal talents there, Austrian Airlines has teamed up with some favorite partners and party planners and put a few good seats on sale for late summer travel. Fares for early September departures start at $670 from New York, $710 from Chicago, and $840 from San Francisco, and you can see all the fares right here.
Believe it or not, at current price trends these are good deals to pricey Vienna, even if they are more the kind of fares we'd have liked to see over the summer. Still, seats aren't easy to come by, so if you want to join this party you'd better get cracking and quit your whining. It'll only ruin your beautiful yodeling voice, anyway, so just hush, smile and say tschüs!
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 11:26 AM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Unadvertised airfare sales with cheap codeshare flights and great deals to London Heathrow and Gatwick.
This is not where we tell you about a sudden shortage of healthy sprouts in the English diet, because depending on who you ask this predicament is either famously chronic, spanning centuries of bad cooking, or an equally famous myth that no longer holds true, thanks to the likes of Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey and other Brit champions of naturally naked, nearly raw vegetables.
What we do have for you is a whole batch of freshly picked, crisp London fares for late summer and early fall travel, a mostly motley medley of curious codeshare deals on virtual airlines, and that's quite a mouthful!
The low price leader is Brussels Airlines offering 2-stop connections through — you guessed it — Brussels, but don't let the fact that this newly invigorated European carrier doesn't ever cross the Atlantic throw you, because in most cases you won't set foot on even one of their aircraft during the 6 legs of the trip, but will instead be carried on a combination of American Airlines and British Airways flights.
From some cities a few bucks extra buys you a better connection, sometimes even non-stop service, on BMI British Midland, which again doesn't actually ply any of these routes, but simply lends its rather unfamiliar name to United Airlines and partners.
Why these deals are served up this way we can't really tell you, but you should do fine as long as you ignore the brand names and marketing ploys and just focus on the cost and total travel time when shopping around, keeping in mind that once you add the dressing they all taste more or less the same.
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 8:04 AM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Catch Continental's unadvertised summer airfare sale with cheap flights and great deals to Cologne, Germany.
Updated June 17 (see below)
No, no, we're not asking you to stop using cologne. Or deodorant, after-shave, toilet water, eau de somesuch and whatever other fancy tricks you've got in your toilet bag and hide up your sleeves to get you through the dog days of summer without smelling like a... well, like a wet dog. Your cover-up may strike some as a bit heavy-handed and a French shower really is no substitute for one that actually involves water, but it sure beats the alternative and is much appreciated, truly.
Rather than lecture you on personal hygiene, we're actually here to tell you a breaking "good news, bad news" kind of story, and in true New York tabloid style, we'll insult you first, then sock you with the bad news and finally pick you up with a teaser at the end. All right, let's get to the point already!
Continental's recent announcement that they will stop flying to Cologne, Germany, by Labor Day after little over 2 years of service marks the end of what was consistently one of the least expensive—and probably least profitable—routes to continental Europe. Remember those $230 roundtrip fares with taxes back in the winter of 2007 when the route was young and oil was cheap? Well, you just hold on to that memory because it'll be something to tell your grandkids about.
It also proves yet again that when it comes to air travel these days, what's good for the goose (that would be you, the flying public, freshly showered and nicely perfumed) often isn't so good for the gander (in this case a chastened Continental), even though in this sorry story the lucky golden goose still gets cooked in the end, because we'll all probably be paying more to get to Germany soon.
The closure of this route adds at least another couple of nails in the coffin of transatlantic competition and at this rate, the whole hard-won Open Skies caboodle that after years of negotiation was meant to herald a surge in traffic and bargains galore seems headed for an early funeral, a fast victim of OPEC and circumstance.
Until that doleful day, one little piece of good news is that Continental is doing what few dare to do these days and having an old-fashioned fire sale to fill seats for the remainder of the season. For peak summer travel, non-stop fares from Newark are just over $800, although unfortunately the even better August fares that we've been showing you for over a month seem to have suddenly disappeared overnight and gone the way of most good deals, that is into the eternal night.
| Good News: The great August deals are back after a short, inexplicable absence, once again making Cologne the cheapest European destination for summer travel from many cities, with round-trip fares including taxes starting at $640 non-stop from Newark and $780 from Houston. Be sure to check out all the fares. |
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 2:38 AM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares, Asia/Australasia Airfares
Last call for unadvertised Air India summer and autumn airfare sales with cheap flights and great deals to London, England; Paris, France; Delhi, India; and Mumbai (Bombay), India.
If you've been snoozing past the great Air India summer fares from New York to London and Paris, better sit up right now and take notice because there are still a few seats left. At several hundred dollars off the going rate, they're going fast and so should you! These are some of the best bargains to Europe this side of the Atlantic, so even if you're nowhere near New York, don't just sit there, get yourself over here to make your connection! Be aware that a cheap Paris date can be tricky to find at this point, but gets easier as fares fall into fall (see London and Paris fall fares).
On a different, but somewhat related, note, Air India also has some good deals for late summer travel to India, nonstop to Delhi and Mumbai for under $1,000. Check them out!
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Friday, June 06, 2008 at 8:17 PM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
OpenSkies launches new route from New York to Paris, but don't expect any cheap flights or great deals.
Possibly the worst kept secret in aviation history and the first airline to be planned by blog, OpenSkies by British Airways is now open for business and ready to fly you from New York to Paris Orly. Well, almost. Like an overly ambitious Chinese restaurant, they'll be happy to take your order for, say, sesame noodles, but they won't actually be able to deliver for another couple of weeks, by which time your noodles should be as cold as we hope you like them.
All similarities end here, unless you happen to think that high-class Chinese take-out is not an oxymoron. Sure, a ticket buys you some chow—and "healthy" airline food to boot, if you can believe that oxymoron—but dinner at this lofty joint definitely comes at a price. After a quick gander at their smart new web site you could be forgiven for thinking that this is just another business class-only airline, because all those "high value" concepts are really just a fancy way of saying "overpriced" and marketing-speak for "no bargains here."
All-business is allegedly all British Airways wanted all along, but after watching three such airlines—EOS, MAXjet and SilverJet—fail dramatically in as many months, they decided to play it safe with a very traditional three-tier class system. They got hip new names like prem+ and biz to make them sound fresh, except for economy which is apparently just too boring to rebrand and gets squeezed into less than a dozen rows in the far back, while the bulk of the aircraft is reserved for what is essentially a very large and very expensive first-class cabin.
Nice seat if you can get it, and you can get if you pay, to paraphrase the classic blues song. By pay, we mean something starting close to $4,000 for a round-trip ticket, which is enough to give our charge cards the blues and obviously caters more to the old disenfranchised Concorde crowd. There is a summer sale of sorts going on for premium economy at around $1,600, but the best coach fare we could find for July is over $1,300 or nearly double what Air India is currently charging. That's a lot of price padding for a little extra seat padding, and sesame noodles or no, we hear they serve a mean curry!
As for increased competition to keep fares in check, this venture doesn't hold a whole lot of water. Not only are transatlantic routes being hosed down and washed out by the week, this is after all British Airways by any other name, not an airline known for aggressive pricing. What's more, the sole remaining independent business class-only carrier, L'Avion, which serves Newark from Paris Orly, is actually in code-share cahoots with OpenSkies, so this is really nothing more than a run at Air France for the suits and of little consequence to the grubby unsuited rest of us. So much for the promise of Open Skies, the treaty!
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Monday, June 02, 2008 at 6:55 PM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Read about the Air One summer and fall airfare sales with cheap flights and great deals to Milan, Italy from Boston and Chicago, plus get useful Milan airport and ground transportation information.
Turin has its sacred shroud and basketball has Bobby Plump, but these days the real Milan is experiencing a minor miracle of its own in the shape of the small, scrappy second Italian airline known as Air One (not to be confused with Air Force One which remains property of the U.S. government and, contrary to pernicious rumor, has not been sold off as scrap metal to pay for your tax rebate or hocked for oil and moored like some modern-day Spruce Goose in a certain free-wheeling, spendthrift sheikdom).
Even more miraculously, and despite a parliament always eager to preserve national relics (witness third-time prime minister Berlusconi), it appears that the laws of physics, finance and common sense also sometimes apply in Italy. So, as ailing Alitalia is finally forced to become profitable (or at least marketable) and struggles to staunch the fiscal bleeding by cutting off ever more limbs and routes, others rush in to fill the vacuum and pick up the proverbial slack.
Rising like a phoenix—or make that its trademark heron (airone, in Italian)—out the ashes of the flagging flag carrier's former overpriced Malpensa hub, Air One has launched its first intercontinental routes to Boston and Chicago with what can only be described as not a flutter, but a bang.
It's been well over a month since we first told you about this summer's only new entrant in the transatlantic market for budget-conscious travelers (the other newcomer, Open Skies, being decidedly not so, as we'll tell you more about soon), but with a newly relaunched summer sale and bargains galore, it surely bears repeating.
A mere $800 buys you a seat on Air One's no-nonsense non-stop flights to the bustling business heart of Italy almost every day all summer and far into fall, except during August, when all the Italians are apparently coming over here. So unlike some of the extremely selective summer sales we have previously shown you (or teased you with, depending on your luck and point of view), these deals are actually easy to find, making them even better deals.
Need we remind you that even if Milan is not exactly your cup of cappucino, you have so many more options? Lookit, you've got the stunning alpine Lake District, the sizzling Italian Rivera and the extravagant Verona opera festival all within earshot, that is less than 100 miles away. Adding Venice or Florence to the mix will add only a couple of hours to your journey, plus, with no less than four airports making up the Milan Airport system, there is practically nowhere you can't get from there, da vero!
Four airports? That's probably three more than you really need, but don't worry, we'll explain...
While Malpensa (MXP) may sound a bit like Italian for "bad idea" and was considered to be just that for many years, it is now Milan's primary international airport. Located over 30 miles northwest of the city, this felt until quite recently like a day's journey in Europe, where even short distances often seem so much longer, but the Malpensa Express train or Malpensa Shuttle bus now make the trip a snap.
It was meant to replace the much more convenient and congested Linate (LIN), which lies literally a straight line down the road from Il Duomo, so close you can almost walk (that's why your suitcase has wheels, you know). But it never happened, because in true Italian fashion (just not the good Prada kind) and not unlike its top management, who was found guilty of criminal negligence in the 2001 runway disaster, Linate has been pardoned many times over, and with Alitalia now focusing their operations here, it looks set to yet again get its lease on life renewed.
Just outside Bergamo, about the same distance from Milan as Malpensa, but in the opposite direction, making a transfer doubly inconvenient, you'll find Milan's booming budget hub, the poetically named Orio al Serio (BGY). Thanks to the recent massive expansion by Ryanair, this once sleepy provincial airport is no longer just a pretty face, but a serious contender with a broken nose, spoiling for a fight. From here, a shuttle bus provides quick connection to the nearby mainline railway station and off you go!
Finally, there's tiny Parma (PMF), which is really neither convenient nor a serious contender but a distant, ham-fisted fourth at best, and a whole different ball of waxy cheese altogether, so just fuhgeddaboudit, as they say in Bensonhurst and now also in Bologna!
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Posted by
Bo Borre on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 4:05 PM to
Europe/Africa/Middle East Airfares
Finally, a real summer sale to Europe!
All last winter, United and Lufthansa conspired to be the low price leaders to Europe by offering some amazing deals, but so far this season they have been acting like meek wallflowers, waiting on the sidelines and ceding the low ground to others. Now the two primary Star Alliance members and favorite tango couple have once again reunited for a repeat performance and seem poised to take a seasonal star turn on the dance floor.
All right, before we all get too excited, you should be aware that some of these sale fares can be as high as jitterbug summersaults and about as easy to pin down as a decent swing partner that won't crush your dainty toes, but at least United makes it a bit easier to see when you can take a spin by putting their dance card online for the whole world to see (you can check out the nifty calendar on United's web site when you're done reading).
Also note that the fares we list from this sale do not include taxes, as is usually our custom, so expect to shell out at least another $100. Such is the high price of admission to Europe's finest ballrooms this summer and we're sorry we can't do better by you. Yes, we have told you about better deals, but they've been pretty hit-and-miss, so if you've been waiting for a decent sale, this could be it. Plus, others might just join the party soon, so it could be a big one!
All you have to do is pick a style that fits your rhythm, then check out the fares on our Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Munich, Paris, Rome or Zurich pages, keeping in mind that even if we don't list your hometown, it doesn't mean you can't boogie down. Just put your best foot forward, shimmy on over to United and get your groove on, baby!
OK, here goes... reunited and it feels so good, reunited 'cause we understood... Go ahead, sing it out loud. Do a little dance, too, if you got the bug. We already did!
Important Note:
- For sales of this magnitude, with hundreds of routes and several thousand possible travel scenarios, we simply do not have the resources to check or calculate taxes for every single one.
- Based on sample checks, we have found these fares to be generally valid, but as we have also warned, they can be very difficult to find, assuming they haven't already sold out.
- Needless to say, these rare fares are only useful to someone flexible enough to take advantage of the few dates they may still be available and willing to spend the considerable effort it could take to find them.
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