Google Flights, Part 2

So you have to go to Tuscany, eh? Excellent choice, and you'll need strategies to get there that are not covered in Part 1 of my Google Flights tips. You probably need to fly to Milan (MXP). A sale ATL-PAR really doesn’t help you.

Well, maybe it does, we’ll see. If you have a must have destination, it pays to expand your search parameters, and get ready to change planes, multiple times.

First thing is to go ahead and take off the “direct only” filter in your Google Flights searches. If it’s that important, one stop shouldn’t bother you. You may get lucky and snag another ATL-PAR flight for $600.

You may want to consider searching alternate departure points. Yes, you can try Huntsville or Montgomery, sometimes something quirky can happen. I’d include Nashville, too. They don’t have direct flights to Europe, but they do have plenty of competition and even a few bargain carriers that keep prices. I checked, and I would not choose any of the cheap flights (three planes, 30+ hours),and I’m not keen on flying bargain airlines across the pond, but Nashville is a drivable distance, so it’s worth a look.

Your better options include checking prices on major hubs, and see if you can get a *really* low fare. I generally scan Chicago, NY, Boston, Philly, DC, and Charlotte. The trick here is that if you find your low fare from one of these hubs, you can then see if there happens to be a low fare getting there from Birmingham. Chicago is a good option on this, in particular. It’s possible to get to Chicago for $200-$250 direct – check SWA, too, they don’t show up on Google Flights. From there, you may be able to score a direct to Milan for $650. It’s not likely, but not impossible. In fact, the best option here is probably NYC, there are cheap flights to Europe leaving Newark all the time. The trick is to get there: BHM-NYC has gotten outrageously expensive, nearly $400. That’ll negate any savings from NYC-MXP.

You can try to get really crafty, though, and see if you’re willing to drive to ATL and fly to NYC from there. ATL-NYC can sometimes be had for under $200. Nashville-NYC can be competitive, too. It takes a good deal of hunting here – you have to keep going back and forth between the Europe leg and the US leg, checking dates, but it can work. Case in point: two years ago I bought tickets NYC-MXP because they were at $599 R/T. That’s a pretty good deal, and I knew we wanted to go there. Now, getting to NYC isn’t easy, but I had a Delta companion ticket from my credit card (side note, Delta companion tickets are rarely worth it – you have to pay an increased fare to use them, which eats into the savings, sometimes completely. But it’s always worth a look). I also had a $300 credit from being bumped on a previous flight. I found $250 tickets, used my companion on one, the credit on the other, and all told, made it to Milan from Birmingham for $712/person. Pretty darn good. Without the companion & credit, it still would have clocked in at a respectable $850. This was when oil was at $100/barrel, mind you.

The added benefit of this kind of arrangement is that you can break up the trip and enjoy a secondary destination. For the above trip, we stopped for a night in NYC and got to do a little touring around with the kids. Chicago, Boston, Philly, DC would all offer similar opportunities. The break in the travel gives you a chance to ease your way into your vacation.

You can flip it around, too – remember, you may have found a great direct flight ATL-BCN (Barcelona). Now, go see if there’s a cheap ticket from BCN-MXP. Europe has a lot of bargain carriers, I find that flying within Europe is cheaper than flying within the US. In my example, BCN-MXP is $114 round trip. $114! And that’s on a British Airways codeshare, so you get one bag free. You have to be careful about that, btw. For example: You can fly RyanAir from Shannon, Ireland (SNN) to Paris for as little as $46 RT. Let that sink in. Then build an itinerary: ATL-NYC ($176), NYC-SNN ($571), SNN-PAR ($46). That’s $800 to get to Paris, RT, from ATL – pretty good. Plus you get to spend a day in NYC and another couple in Ireland. I think that’s a solid trip. Note your total flight time is minimal – 2 hours ATL-NYC, 6 hours NYC-SNN, 1 hour SNN-PAR. 9 hours total. That’s a whole lot better than going BHM-DFW-Istanbul-MXP.  

Now RyanAir is, I’m told, a less than pleasant experience. They charge you for everything, bags, snacks, beverages, etc. You’ll probably end up with an extra $200 in fees, maybe more. Plus, it’s extremely cramped. So, beware when booking domestically, on either side. Check the T&C’s and make sure you’re not going to get severely dinged.

A last note: The idea of bargain domestic flights has been around for many years. It’s starting to show up for international carriers, too. I was very excited to read about a new airline called Norwegian Air; they fly out of Boston, NYC, and Orlando, and offer RT fares in the $500’s to destinations like London and Copenhagen. Plus, they fly new 787’s, which I’m dying to try.

But read the fine print: $500 RT does not include bags, or seat assignments(!) You can’t fly as a family without assigned seats, that’s right out. Once you add all the necessities in, you’re back up to $800+. Still decent, but not enough to move the needle. So beware of these – there’s another airline called WOW, same deal. But if nothing else, these bargain carriers keep prices low everywhere. I wish one would buy a slot in ATL. Or BHM – there was a rumor of a BHM-Stuttgart flight from a bargain German carrier (for Mercedes folks) that sadly never materialized. Sad Panda.