What are reasonable airfares I can expect to find for NYC -> Greece? I had a friend do a multi-leg RT for $1,000 so I'm thinking it should be less. But I'm finding things around $1,800 which can't be "normal". Flying in May....
1
oldpro
A multi-leg RT to Greece for $1000? That sounds exceptional. Might depend on time of year, how far in advance the booking is made etc. But multi-legs are not necessarily more expensive than a direct flight. It depends on how the ticket is put together.
Back to NYC-Greece return: judging by Europe to USA fares only, you should be able to do better than $1800. One problem may be lack of direct flights NYC-Athens with major carriers. Some that I know of fly to eg London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt, and then you're connected to Athens from there...all with major carrier bookings, which kicks up the price.
One way you can lower your costs is to find a cheap US fare to one of the major cities in north Europe, and then arrange your own onward flight to Athens with a European low-budget airline.
For example, Brussels airlines or German Wings
2
libervative
Where did you find this 1,800 dollars ticket? I just checked Expedia out of curiosity, 1-15 May, and I found FIVE well respected airlines flying from New York to Athens and back for anything between 930 and 975 dollars, all taxes and fees included. I'm talking about Air France, KLM, Iberia etc.
3
brotherleelove
This year I flew from my local airport in Oregon to Portland where I caught a Lufthansa flight to Germany and then another connecting flight to Athens from there, all for around $1200. The flight from my local airport to Portland, a distance of just over 100 miles, was around $250, very expensive, so the Portland>Athens flight was around $1000. I purchased these tickets in November of 2006 for my flight in May of 2007. Then I started watching airfares to see if the price would go down any further. It didn't. I bought at just the right time.
4
libervative
By the way, you can fly to Athens with HALF the money Air France, for example, will charge you. Try Zoom Airlines, from New York to London (something like 300 euros, return tickets), and then Easyjet, for example, for the London-Athens-London part. You can do the whole trip for something like 400 euros, maybe something more, if you need to spend a night at London.
Pro tip
Lonely Planet
trusted partner
trusted partner