Yesterday, I told you about my summer travel itinerary which took me on a total of 15 separate flights over the course of a month of travel. Today I will give you insights into how I chose a few of those flights and some money saving tips.
Google Flights, My New BFF
I started my research with this tidbit of information I had filed away in the back of my mind (and Evernote): WOW Air would be starting $99 flights to Iceland and $199 flights to Europe from SFO in June of 2016. Alrighty then!
To begin, I looked for reviews of WOW flights to see if this budget airline was more Southwest-style budget or Spirit-style dirt cheap for a reason. Several reviews like this one convinced me that WOW would not be the way I would be going. Also, those super-cheap fares were immediately snatched up and the best remaining deals weren't available until something like November, well past the summer peak season. On the other hand, paying $2,000 - 4,000 for an economy round trip ticket (or potentially more if I purchased separate one-way tickets) on a major carrier like United, Delta, British Airways or Air France wasn’t in the budget so my next step was to look for well-reviewed lower cost carriers.
After much reading, I decided that Air New Zealand Premium Economy, with its stylish spaceseats (I will give this flight its own review), from Los Angeles to London would be my outgoing flight and, even though I wasn’t flying WOW Air, I would do an Iceland stopover on my way home via Icelandair in their Economy Comfort class. Despite purchasing separate one-way tickets and flying in premium economy rather than in rock-bottom priced economy seats, my tickets to and from Europe cost me less than a round trip ticket would have on one of the better-known legacy carriers. Even if I had gone the budget economy route, paying extra for checked baggage, seat assignments, water, food, etc… wouldn’t have saved me enough to make up for having to sit in far less comfortable seats for 5-10 hours.
In investigating Air New Zealand, I discovered that if you book a ticket flying out of SFO, they put you on a Virgin America flight to LAX and then you fly ANZ directly to Heathrow from there. So, since I have a fair bit of points accumulated on Virgin America, I would burn a few of them before the Alaska Airlines transition and just cover the SFO to LAX flight myself. If you have enough miles or points on an airline for domestic travel but not enough for international, this can be a way to save money by getting you to a hub city for a well-priced flight overseas.
I chose London as my arrival point as I planned to travel with my UK friend and I knew we would be going to Berlin so I had to arrive in time to comfortably travel to Germany for the first Springsteen show on my schedule. Off to Google Flights I went to find the best price/date for my flight in. Tuesdays seemed to offer the lowest cost so I booked a flight for June 14th. As it’s a 10 hour overnight flight from LAX to LHR, I didn’t arrive until Wednesday morning on the 15th. That still gave me four days to get to Berlin.
After my friend had to bow out of the trip, I debated staying in London for a couple few days before heading over to Berlin, travelling to Berlin straight away or cramming in another city between London and Berlin. As London is the only city I’ve ever visited in Europe (or even outside North America for that matter), I again turned to Google Flights and found that I could tick an item off my dream list and go to the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain before popping over to visit a grad school friend in Zurich, Switzerland on my way to Berlin.
Particularly if you have any flexibility in your dates and/or locations of travel, Google Flights is a fantastic way to find the best combination of price and quality of flight options. I adore this tool and can’t recommend it highly enough.
Trains Vs. Planes
I investigated train travel between cities which Europe is famous for but only one route made potential sense for me (overnight from Zurich to Berlin). However, the trains were virtually sold out with the only remaining sleeping berth option in a 5-bunk car where I would be joining random strangers. This option might be appealing if I were an adventurous backpacker and it were substantially cheaper than flying but it was actually nearly 3 times the cost.
After my first Springsteen show, it cost well under $100 to fly from Berlin to Copenhagen on EasyJet even upgrading to their “Flexi Fare” pricing giving me priority boarding, checked luggage allowance, a seat assignment and more. The catch however was that EasyJet flies out of Berlin’s more remote Schönefeld airport rather than the more accessible Tegel airport I had flown into (something I did not notice until I was in Berlin). I was able to take a relatively inexpensive train to Schönefeld but that required leaving before dawn. My other option would have been an expensive cab ride that would have erased the savings on my flight.
The lesson learned here is to pay close attention to the details on super-cheap flights. Do you have to pay for everything down to seat assignments and a cup of water, a la carte? How easy and/or expensive will it be to get to or from a secondary airport these airlines often operate from? Are there flights available at convenient-for-you times or are very early morning or red eye flights your only options? Can you really travel with a single (as in no additional purse or personal item – just one thing) 11 pound max carry on and no checked luggage? If you’re an in-between traveler like me then probably not. However, strategically paying for extras or upgrades and using airports that might not be the main hub but accessible to where you are staying if you’re not in a city center hotel can make for great savings. Additionally, upgrading to the next higher class (premium economy or business) on European carriers often gives you access to airport lounges where you can charge your phone, get something to eat and drink and, in many cases, even shower while you wait for your flight for a relatively small premium above the cost of an economy ticket.
Iceland Stopover
Reykjavik is all the rage these days. I know three friends who visited the land of Bjork this summer alone and many more who’ve got it on their wish list. With competing low-cost carriers increasing their flights from the U.S. and offering free stopovers in Iceland of up to a week either coming from or going to several destinations in Europe including popular choices like Amsterdam and Paris, you would be crazy not to pay a visit, right?
I knew I wanted to return on Icelandair and since I had found in my research that Boston is a hub airport for them (as well as WOW Air), I decided to visit a friend in Providence, Rhode Island before heading back home to the Bay Area. It would be nice to break up the trip back from Reykjavik by flying just 5 hours to the East Coast rather than 12 hours to the West Coast and easier to snag a low fare. Plus, I know from experience that for some reason, flying from Providence to San Francisco is dirt cheap so I got a bonus U.S. week in my summer vacation for not much, if any, more than coming straight home.
Google Flights discovered an even better option though than flying Icelandair from Oslo and stopping over in Iceland. I found a discounted premium economy fare that was inexplicably far cheaper than economy on SAS from Oslo to Iceland so I nabbed that and then picked up a one-way ticket from KEF to BOS on Icelandair. The total cost was significantly lower than purchasing a stopover flight on either airline. Once again, Google Flights FTW!
Summary of Tips and Tricks:
1. Use Google Flights to find the best prices and options. I have found this tool far more useful than other sites I’ve previously used like Kayak or Orbitz.
2. Investigate using frequent flier miles to get you to a city with better or cheaper flight options than your local airport.
3. Consider upgrading to premium economy (or whatever the next highest class of service is) on international or intra-European flights for more comfortable seating, “free” food and beverages, increased checked luggage allowance and possibly airport lounge access (I wound up being able to use lounges in London, Copenhagen, Oslo and Reykjavik). It can be cheaper than purchasing all these items separately.
4. Pay attention to the details. The cost of getting to and from the airports ULC carriers sometimes use alone can wipe out any savings you get from flying on them.
5. When pricing flights on European carriers, see if you can book in the local language, using a European currency. This can sometimes save you up to hundreds of dollars especially right now when the U.S. dollar is relatively strong and the Euro and other European currencies are weak (particularly in the wake of Brexit).
6. If you dream of the romance of riding the rails, in Europe you will probably need to book as early as possible, especially in the summer. Unless you are OK with sitting upright overnight or bunking with your 4 newest best friends.
Comments