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CBS News Streaming Network just ran an informative piece for anyone planning on traveling to Europe this summer. I’m one of them so I was listening intently as I’m mapping out my summer travels now and I’m always trying to learn new tricks. RELATED: 12 Things to Know Before You Travel to Europe
CBS’ Anne-Marie Green interviewed my friend and CBS News senior travel adviser Peter Greenberg on airlines increasing their transatlantic flight options. In the first part of the two-minute and 38-second segment, Peter talks about how airlines are offering more flight options for crossing the Atlantic Ocean than ever before. He says United Airlines has tripled their offerings as they now have 37 flights to places like Cape Town, Stockholm, Rome, Barcelona and Dubrovnik. He also said Delta Air Lines has increased their transatlantic flights with 10% more. And there are a lot of new players like Play from Iceland and Norse from Norway.
As Peter says: “So all that capacity on the Atlantic at this time of the year that means a lot of capacity, seats to fill.” We’re seeing lots of pop-up sales out there on the internet right now with roundtrip fares are low as $398 from the United States. You can’t get to Cleveland for $398 from the USA. So it’s very good time to book. You gotta catch those fares when they pop up, they’re only going to be out there for about 36 hours. But they’re good through the middle of the summer.”
Peter’s right, as Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights) just sent out an alert this morning with some incredible fares all over Europe: $430 to $516 (Feb-May / Sep-Dec). Since I live in Los Angeles, the sample of fares below are roundtrip from LAX so note they will most likely be cheaper from other parts of the country:
Athens, Greece $489 (normally $850)
Dublin, Ireland $503 ($800)
Gdansk, Poland $476 ($950)
Oslo, Norway $448 ($800)
Warsaw, Poland $440 ($850)
The best part about it this is that almost all the major airlines are offering them so you will get your miles and points.
Air Canada (Star Alliance)
Air France (SkyTeam)
American (oneworld)
British Airways (oneworld)
Delta (SkyTeam)
Finnair (oneworld)
Iberia (oneworld)
Icelandair
KLM (SkyTeam)
LOT (Star Alliance)
Lufthansa (Star Alliance)
SAS (Star Alliance)
Swiss (Star Alliance)
TAP (Star Alliance)
United (Star Alliance)
ITA (SkyTeam)
So one of the tricks, which Peter talked about, is trying to find new airlines or new routes by legacy carriers since that’s where you will most likely find the deals. You probably won’t find deals to places like London, Paris or Rome but it’s worth trying. Peter says airlines “want to introduce these routes, they want people to try.”
Another valuable tip and reminder from Peter is that “Europe hasn’t fixed a lot of their infrastructure problems and the madness and chaos that happened in the summer of 2021 and 2022 is still very much with us.”
My advice is to not check bag, but if you have to (like us since we have little kids who plow through clothes like little Tasmanian Devils), divide up your clothes in two bags so if one of your bags goes missing, you will still have some clothes for everyone to get by with. Be sure to bring a change of clothes and bathing suit in your carry-on, and pop an Apple Airtag in your checked luggage to track it.
Here is more advice for avoiding lost luggage:
–8 Ways To Make Sure An Airline Doesn’t Lose Your Bag … And That You Don’t Get Robbed or Stalked
–Airline Executive’s Number One Tip For Avoiding Lost Luggage When You Fly
–Don’t Ever Travel With This Kind of Bag in 2023
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