Tips to Buying Cheap One Way Tickets to Europe
Who decides how much you pay for an airline ticket? Buying airline tickets can be tough because prices seem to change from day to day like the stock market. Before the presence of popular online travel sites we needed the assistance of a travel agent to get the best deals and connections.
These days you can buy all sorts of airline tickets with a few clicks on your favorite travel sites. Better yet you can buy one-way tickets at a great price, which saves you lots of money and gives you flexibility for your journey. (Warning: make sure you have other ongoing arrangements. Some countries may not allow you to enter without a round trip ticket.)
Here are Travelmath’s 5 tips to buying cheap one way tickets to Europe:
For this example, we want to get to St. Petersburg Russia to take an overland tour to Siberia, Mongolia and China. So this trip requires a one-way ticket to St. Petersburg. Is it possible to find a cheap one-way ticket with a free stopover anywhere in Europe before arriving in St. Petersburg?
One: Study the map
A basic map is a useful tool to plan out your trip to Europe. On the map you’ll see that Lisbon Portugal, Reykjavik Iceland and Shannon, Ireland are very close to Boston.
In fact it is only
3,197 miles to fly from Boston to Lisbon or a
six hour 54 minute flight. It is only
five hours 22 minutes to fly from Boston to Reykjavik Iceland, closer than to
San Diego CA.
Which means, if you are looking for a gateway to Europe, Lisbon or Reykjavik could be the best entry point to Europe.
Two: The airlines
Now let’s take a look at the airlines that fly into Lisbon or Reykjavik. There are about
42 airlines flying into Lisbon. And
nine airlines to Reykjavik.
Since we are flying from Boston and looking for the cheapest one-way ticket, let’s take a look at both cities for the best airlines and the best one-way fares.
Three: Direct flights and one-way tickets
Since we have narrowed it down to two cities, now we will look at which airlines fly directly into both cities.
From our research, we find that Icelandair is the
only airline that flies directly from Boston to Reykjavik. There is
no direct flight from Boston to Lisbon.
Which means we have only one choice if we are looking for direct flights.
Four: Could we have a free stopover?
Icelandair allows one free stopover for up to seven nights in Reykjavik Iceland.
How much is the one-way ticket from Boston to St. Petersburg with a free stopover in Reykjavik?
At the time of writing this article, the one-way ticket from Boston to St. Petersburg with a free stopover in Reykjavik was $477 including taxes, fees and air transportation charges. This is for September 1 from Boston to Reykjavik and on September 6 from Reykjavik to St. Petersburg.
If you choose to fly out of Reykjavik to St. Petersburg on September 5 (a Friday) the price is higher at $761.
Is that a good price?
Let’s find out how much it costs to fly into St. Petersburg with other airlines without a free stopover. The one-way fare was with Aeroflot at $589 including all taxes but it has two stopovers and the total flight and wait time would be 16 hours 14 minutes.
For those who prefer to stick with a U.S. operated airline, American Airlines offers $803.95 for a one-way ticket from Boston to St. Petersburg. This flight stops in New York City and Helsinki and takes about 18 hours 21 minutes before arrival. (Note price valid on day of writing).
You can’t have free stopovers with these flights operated by American Airlines and Aeroflot.
Five: Know your options
Icelandair is not the only airline that offers one-way cheap tickets to Europe. If you are adventurous and want to travel far at a cheaper price you have options. Recently Norwegian Air Shuttle offers non-stop flights to Europe from United States. You can get $369 for September 1st flight from New York City JFK to Helsinki Finland. Helsinki is only a three-hour train ride from St. Petersburg.
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