Airfare, any tips?

eric71 · Post by **eric71** » Thu May 13, 2004 9:40 pm

I may have to get to Finland for some job interviews on fairly short notice. This will require me to get from San Francisco to Finland about a week and a half from now. Orbitz and Qixo are telling me > $2000. The cheapest way I've found is Virgin to London for ~$615 (Expedia sale) and then Ryanair form London to Tampere. I know this will require transfers and will be a major pain, but $2000 to stick to major airlines is out of the question financially.

Any tips or tricks for getting ther cheap on short notice?

Thanks,

Eric

**Sponsor:**

Ace · Post by **Ace** » Thu May 13, 2004 9:53 pm

KLM from Holland to Helsinki always seems to be cheap could you get a cheap flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam or something?

My family sometimes flies from Manchester to Amsterdam to Helsinki. Seems to be going well out of the way but it appears to be cheaper sometimes

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri May 14, 2004 10:53 am

I don't know what your chances are of getting to Munich, but V-bird usually flies cheaper from there to Helsinki than KLM from Amsterdam to Helsinki.

bretti_kivi · Post by **bretti_kivi** » Fri May 14, 2004 11:45 pm

v-bird? who they?

Bret

sunny · Post by **sunny** » Sat May 15, 2004 4:55 pm

http://www.v-bird.com

I used their flights. It is cheap (49 EUR from Helsinki to Dusseldorf) tax included. There is no meal (lunch), but you may buy some light food on the plane. They had super plane (better than I used to at Finnair).
They may be late a bit, so do not bank on their punctuality. :O

Sunny

bretti_kivi wrote:v-bird? who they?

Bret

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat May 15, 2004 11:01 pm

I've had only good experiences with V-bird.
Only the first time I flew with them, they departed about 30 mins late, but they landed on time.

They fly with airbuses A320, with comfortable (fake) leather seats and more leg space than in the average airplane of other companies.

Price - Quality balance is perfect in my eyes.

Check their website for destinations.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri May 21, 2004 1:01 pm

Blue1 also flies from Amsterdam to Helsinki now I read.
Maybe that's another option.
They seem to have reasonable prices (€ 79 for a one way).

http://www.blue1.com/en/index.html

Theriel · Post by **Theriel** » Fri May 21, 2004 7:13 pm

Not sure if it might be an option, but you can try http://www.airtech.com. They have flights to Stockholm for $200 from NYC, and flights to paris from LA for 200$. They're one way, and they're standby, but if price is an issue and exact times for leaving isn't, it might be an option. Just enter in a random number when they ask for the 6 digit number, (123456 will do) and see what flights they have available. Hope that helps some

eric71 · Post by **eric71** » Fri May 21, 2004 8:26 pm

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have been exploring them all. I've got a couple fairly interested companies, and one that is getting pretty serious. They may want to meet me before Juhannus, if things go well with our discussions up til then. Hopefully that will give me time to find a good deal. Getting to Amsterdam or Munich shouldn't be a problem, and London has lost its advantage as the Virgin sale seems to be gone. I welcome any other suggestions.

Eric

Ace · Post by **Ace** » Fri May 21, 2004 10:08 pm

What about via Iceland?

Theriel · Post by **Theriel** » Fri May 21, 2004 11:41 pm

yeah the one i mentioned is a standby flight through iceland air. as i said, it's 200 bucks, so worth it imo

Pelle55 · Post by **Pelle55** » Sat May 22, 2004 9:27 pm

There are often great prices from Seattle to Helsinki, via Amsterdam or Copenhagen on KLM and SAS, respectively. The best price I have paid is <$700, round trip. I use the Expedia instead of the others you mentioned in the original post. I do not know how expensive it might be from S.F. to Seatlle, though Southwest does offer very cheap fares now and then.
Good luck.

jwesthues · Post by **jwesthues** » Sun May 23, 2004 8:37 am

A friend of mine used to live in Seattle, and he would cross the border to Vancouver to catch a Europe-bound flight. Found the prices much cheaper. However, this was a number of years ago.

smeister · Post by **smeister** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:30 am

I flew with Iceland Air from Orlando, FL to Reykjavik, Iceland to Helsinki, Finland for $1100 with tax and that was within 2-3weeks from flying day.

You should try flying into NY and getting a flight out from there to Amsterdam or Frankfurt *shrug* and then a flight directly to Helsinki. I dont think flying RyanAir would be a good idea cause they can cancel your flight and wont care what happens to you even if you are on a important trip.

I guess you can check the Vbird and see how it flies and maybe connect with one of those flights. In the end it is going to come down convenience vs money. Flying can be a PITA so maybe shell out a little extra and be 'less' jetlagged when you arrive for your interviews.

my 2cents

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Airfare, any tips?

Airfare, any tips?

Airfare, any tips?

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