Part II: Planning Your Trip to Europe in VS .NET

Generate Data Matrix 2d barcode in VS .NET Part II: Planning Your Trip to Europe

So you want to plan the trip on your own This section tells you all you need to know to research and book the perfect flight

With the introduction of codesharing one carrier selling flights as its own on another carrier customers now enjoy more travel options and an easier time making flight arrangements Chances are, you can call your favorite airline and come up with a plan that flies you from just about anywhere in North America to just about anywhere in Europe Listed in the Quick Concierge are the phone numbers and Web sites for all the major North American and European airlines that offer direct flights from North America to Europe In these days of airline alliances, widespread codesharing, and carrier consolidation, it hardly seems to matter which airline you call to make your booking Chances are, their interlocking partnerships will ensure you can flit from your hometown to your European destination on any combination of carriers, foreign or domestic, and any one of them can arrange this for you Getting to Europe from the US, you may have to travel first to a hub, such as New York, Chicago, Minneapolis/St Paul, Atlanta, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, in order to pick up a direct flight to your destination To reach smaller European cities, you ll probably be routed through a major European hub such as London, Paris, or Frankfurt

Competition among the major US and European airlines is unlike that of any other industry Every airline offers virtually the same product (basically, a coach seat is a coach seat is a ), yet prices can vary by hundreds of dollars Business travelers who need the flexibility to buy their tickets at the last minute and change their itineraries at a moment s notice and who want to get home before the weekend pay the premium rate, known as the full fare But if you can book your ticket far in advance, stay over Saturday night, and are willing to travel midweek (Tues, Wed, or Thurs), you can qualify for the least expensive price usually a fraction of the full fare On most flights, even the shortest hops within the United States, the full fare is close to $1,000 or more, but a 7- or 14-day advance-purchase ticket may cost less than half that amount Obviously, planning ahead pays The airlines also periodically hold sales in which they lower the prices on their most popular routes These fares have advance-purchase requirements and date-of-travel restrictions, but you can t beat the prices As you plan your vacation, keep your eyes open for these sales, which tend to take place in seasons of low travel volume for Europe that s generally September 15 through June 14 You almost never see a

sale around the peak summer-vacation months of July and August, or around Thanksgiving or Christmas, when many people fly regardless of the fare they have to pay though this is less true if you can get a direct flight to Europe from your home airport (most folks travel domestically for the holidays) Often, flying into Europe s major cities (usually London and Paris) brings the price of a ticket down Also, look into purchasing an open-jaw plane ticket, one that allows you to fly into one European city and depart from another say, flying into London but out of Madrid on your way home Open-jaw tickets can sometimes be a more expensive option, but it s a wonderful way to keep your itinerary flexible, and you don t have to backtrack to the first city on your trip Consolidators, also known as bucket shops, are great sources for international tickets Start by looking in Sunday newspaper travel sections; US travelers should focus on the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Miami Herald For less-developed destinations, small travel agencies catering to immigrant communities in large cities often have the best deals Bucket-shop tickets are usually nonrefundable or rigged with stiff cancellation penalties, often as high as 50 percent to 75 percent of the ticket price, and some put you on charter airlines with questionable safety records Some reliable consolidators include: Air Tickets Direct (% 800-778-3447; wwwairticketsdirect

com)

AutoEurope (% 888-223-5555; wwwautoeuropecom) Cheap Tickets (% 800-755-4333; wwwcheapticketscom) Flightscom (wwwflightscom) Lowestfarecom (% 866-210-3289; wwwlowestfarecom) STA Travel (% 800-781-4040; wwwstatravelcom)