Finding Cheap Travel to Europe Case Study

OK,

Let's have some fun right now... We want cheap flights to Europe, right?

Putting the gateway city theory to the test, let's do a little case study on getting Cheap Travel to Europe :

I'm going on a travel web site to check for fares to London. Just pick your favorite for now... I may have some recommendations on best web sites in the future. But let's keep it neutral for now.

So I'm going online today and searching for cheap travel to Europe on a specific date with specific destination in mind and find some cheap flights to Europe if it's possible today. Hey sometimes it is better to wait for a sale.

Ok...

Let's say I'm from... Indiana and I want to take a trip from there to London, and I want to go in the Summer.
I go online -sorry that some of this will be super specific to today =( I see that Continental has a special on airfare to Europe. Wow! I can go for as little as $168! There's always a catch, right. Wrong! There are always several catches. Nobody is going to just GIVE away cheap flights to Europe. You're going to have to work for it. But I'm ok with that! The first catch is that it's from the East Coast, Newark. The second is that they are showing the one way fare, so I have to double it, but hey $336 is still a great deal, right? Catch number three (working our way up to catch 22!) is that taxes aren't in the price and the taxes and fees are outrageous especially since Sept. 11 fees etc. The final price for March dates is $406 Round Trip from Cleveland to London. The final catch is that it's a Spring sale and it won't last until June. May quotes are around $665 and June goes up to $882 before taxes, which will put me at around $1100. USD in summer from the East Coast. So I will have to find cheap travel to Europe somewhere else!

So I see that United is having a sale specifically on flights to Europe, so I go to their web site. Those stinkers want me to enroll (incidentally I already am but don't feel like looking up my numbers), so it takes a few minutes, but I finally get to the "book travel" page and I can begin to look for cheap flights to Europe. They are bragging about a good sale. So I work on a flight to London from June 10 through July 7, 2009. I try my gateway city (see Last blog post for the whole nine yards). In this case, I start with Chicago, the windy city and it blows me a $1293.20 not-a-deal. Cincinatti is $1327 and St. Louis is $1329. Louisville was even more, but Indianapolis comes in at $1096. including the taxes. Base fare is 718 and taxes are $378 (50% taxes?? Are we already in Europe?). Cleveland also comes in at that rate (though I'm not driving there, thank you very much, since Indy is the same. So maybe I look like a moron, but wait a minute. I check another gateway city, Los Angeles. Wouldn't you know it? It's $1141, almost $150 cheaper than Chi-town! Since Chicago is a United hub, this makes sense in the sick sort of way that alot of what the airlines do make no sense! So our cheap flights to Europe today are out of Indy and Cleveland.
Don't get excited if you are trying to get last minute flights near the summer and you find this post. These cheap flights to Europe have several restrictions and rules, so you DON'T qualify. I am using this as an example of the process to get cheap flights to Europe. The restrictions were basically, 7 day advance purchase by Jan 28 (today I believe) with a 30 day max stay and minimum Saturday night stayover. In my opinion, we can beat these rates, but it doesn't hurt to keep your ear to the ground. Play around and find a couple good sites that you can use when you are ready to book your cheap flights to Europe. That way you're familiar and have a password. BTW, I would just an email account for the junk mail like JohnDoetravel@yahoo or whatever and even sign up for updates on trip destinations (LONDON) you are planning to take and have them send you a heads up when there are what they consider cheap flights to Europe.

Now, here's where the fun begins. On one of the main sites (I'm still keeping it under my hat, huh?) where I know I can look up any flights, including cheap flights to Europe, I click nearby airports and see some flights out of Chicago going to Birmingham via Dublin. Now because I know a bit about travel within Europe and I'm going to get to that on this blog, but not today, I know that if I can find a cheap flights to Europe that arrive in Dublin, I can get out of there to the rest of Europe really reasonably as well. So I look at CHI to DUB and find a non-stop flight on Aer Lingus for my exact dates for $799 including the taxes ($679 + $120). That my friends is one of the best cheap flights to Europe I've seen in a while. And it's non-stop. Am I driving up from Indiana? At this point, at almost $300 cheaper, yeah (since I have friends in Chicago who will drop me off =).

Use Gateway Cities to find Cheap Travel to Europe

Using Gateway Cities to find Cheap Travel to Europe

Cheap travel to Europe is not a new interest. It’s probably older than either of us know. But before we go into the history of cheap travel to Europe (and don’t worry, it’s going to be a while before either of us wants to, and it definitely won’t be this post), you want to know how to get to Europe as cheap as possible, right? And once you get there, you don’t want it to suddenly get expensive, so you want cheap travel IN Europe, too right? No, you’re not too demanding. I’m still right with you. And so are lots of young and older people (“older” is just a nice way of saying old. Wink wink!). But you are going to have to do some work to find the deals, with help from people like me along the way.

The first task in finding cheap travel to Europe is getting there. I am assuming (and we know what happens when either of us assUME), that many of you are coming from N. America. So we’ll start there. I know I’ll get hate mail from Singapore to Auckland for this assumption. By the way, if you are looking for cheap travel to Europe from South America, though there are exceptions to every rule, you will probably find many deals flying to North America first, so hold the hate mail for a couple days at least, while you check that one out.

Time of year is helpful for finding cheap travel to Europe . If you can go outside the summer months, you will inevitably find it cheaper. Also flexibility of dates will help you find the cheap flights to Europe. If you HAVE to go a certain day or even week, reading this may just frustrate you. Sorry =( .

Since I assume (here we go again!) you are not looking to work on a freighter and get over to Europe on a slow boat, we are probably talking cheap flights to Europe. Cheap travel to Europe usually requires you to travel (at least) through or ideally from a gateway city. Now be careful here. Cheap Travel to Europe can look enticing at the stage of the low sticker price. But not so fast. Many airlines (especially European airlines) package their prices so that it’s not much more to go from your city than it is to go from a gateway city . But if you have to drive or take a bus to a far-off city and then transfer to the airport, pay gas, tolls whatever, your cheap travel to Europe will turn into an expensive trip at best, and a nightmare at worst (waking up at 2:00 a.m. to drive five hours isn’t fun). I am all for this kind of sacrifice—but only if you have genuine savings! Now, if you’re parents or friends are paying all the gas and tolls, food and hotel or you can find a cheap bus ticket, once again, you’ll have to get out the calculator and do the math, it’s your call. We are looking for cheap travel to Europe that helps you save hard earned pennies and in this case, we’re going to try and find a cheap flight to Europe that will offset your expenses and difficulties and be the cheapest all around travel to Europe, right? And once you get there, we’re going to continue to find cheap travel in Europe.

Where are you starting? This is a crucial question in finding cheap travel to Europe (or anywhere). I’ve already mentioned gateway cities, but distance will also define how low you can go in finding Cheap Travel to Europe . Is Los Angeles a great gateway city? Absolutely. Is it going to be cheaper than New York? Rarely or never, because NYC is 4,000 miles closer! Is L.A. better than Omaha, Nebraska? Probably. Let me see, cheap travel to Europe, as with all things will have exceptions to prove every rule, so please don’t get too upset if you find an exception here, in fact if you live in Omaha and you find super cheap travel to Europe, AWESOME! Be happy (and let others know in the comments) . OK, so what to do if you don’t live very near a gateway city and you still want cheap travel to Europe? Do you have friends or family in a gateway city? Can you go and visit them and combine your departure with that visit? This will also probably give you a free ride to and from the airport and avoid bus or taxi fares.

The same way that you use gateway cities in North America to find departure points for cheap travel to Europe, you will use gateway cities in Europe from which to come and go.

So now you’re probably saying: “Ok, get to the departure cities already that mean: Cheap Travel to Europe!”

But this isn’t an exact science either. Just using common sense, however, start with the bigger cities in your area that are East of you. I’ve already mentioned Los Angeles and if you’re on the west coast, It will be among L.A. San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. Moving west try Phoenix, Salt Lake, Denver, Dallas, Kansas City, Minn/St. Paul, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinatti, East coast: New York, Philly, Washington, Charlotte, ATL, and maybe Orlando or Miami. Remember! This isn’t an exact science or a rule without exceptions! Don’t give up if you don’t live near one of these places! There is still hope for you to find cheap travel to Europe.

You might be saying, “so just try a hub of one of the airlines.” But this is ironically not always cheap, in fact for years it’s been MORE expensive to go in and out of hubs, despite the fact they probably have many empty seats on the connecting flights that people are taking through there. In cases where these cities are cheaper, it’s often the airline which is NOT using that city as a hub (example: cheap travel to Europe out of Cincinatti on non-Delta flights! I know. Paradox.)

Finding cheap travel to Europe into gateway cities IN Europe will also require some thought and insight. But for now, just try to find the cheap travel into Europe using London as the gateway city. It has recently become a great hub city for travel throughout Europe. In fact I recently took a flight to London from Central Europe and then caught a flight out of London back to Central Europe. Total price for both flight: $80 USD! That’s what I’m talking about when I say cheap travel in Europe! I’ll give you some more ideas soon. Thanks for your interest in Cheap Travel to Europe

Welcome to Cheap Travel Europe

Welcome to Cheap Travel Europe. This site provide tips and techniques and relevant information about Cheap Travel, specifically related to Europe. The world is out there for us to explore and travel is not just for the rich and famous anymore. Cheap travel is more acheivable now than it ever has been. It's going to be a fun adventure sharing information with each other on how to find cheap travel in Europe and around the world. Ready for take off? Let's go!