economical way to get from San Francisco to Helsinki?

mrshourula · Post by **mrshourula** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:30 pm

My oldest daughter (and newly-minted Finnish citizen with at least half the appropriate DNA) will graduate from high school in June and wants to travel to Finland in the summer to attend a three-week cultural and language seminar hosted by the Suomi-Seura/Finland Society (It's at the Helsinki Christian Institute, Laajasalo -- is that a nice place?)

As I've never actually travelled to Europe (living in California makes trips to Mexico and Hawa'ii just too easy) I am at a loss as to how best to get her there without going broke

When I look for non-stop flights from San Francisco to Helsinki, the prices are (at least to me) exhorbitant ($1,400 - $1,500 USD). But it does seem that flying from SFO to London, for example, is reasonable and then flights from London to Helsinki aren't so expensive.

Is this what most people do? If yes, what is a good, safe airline to fly from London to Helsinki?

Thank you for any suggestions.

Mrs. Hourula

**Sponsor:**

vampe · Post by **vampe** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:03 pm

depends if she has alot of stuff.
go from stansted airport with http://www.blue1.com or http://www.ryanair.com
either that or you can fly BA or Finnair from heathrow.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:14 pm

*sigh* no a first time traveller isn't going to transfer themselves. *I* wouldn't do that even my travel agent promised me...

You can get pretty good package deals Helsinki-someplace-NYC/chicago/LA

Direct flights happen too, but they are expensive.

I just farted up something off ebookers HEL LAX return British Airways Finnair HEL-LHR-LAX for 697 euros next week. Can I come over? As anything is cheaper in the USA you can get the return for about 600-800 gringo pesos.

Other good options are Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam (Heathrow is damn congested) Also look for Icelandair. Oh, and the EU passport control is then going to be there (unless UK or Ireland), so Paris-Helsinki is a "domestic flight" like LAX-JFK...

Unless you know what to do, you neverever organize your own connections. OK, maybe a LAX or JFK flight. And then a HEL. If you organize your own tickets and miss the connection you are so much SOL. And people are not nice.

Go see a travel agent, unless you find this --- I forget, there is a USA website for flights and stuff.

Xochiquetzal · Post by **Xochiquetzal** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:18 pm

I fly from SFO or LAX yearly. Typically, if you book in well enough in advance (month+), the fares are around $500-600 with 1 stop. I've never paid over $800.

The most common stops for California to Helsinki flights are JFK (American), Schipol Amsterdam (KLM), Frankfurt (Lufthansa), Heathrow London (BA/Virgin), Chls De Gaulle (Air France) and Reykjavic (Icelandic Air). Of those, I highly recommend KLM and Schipol airport since the airport is gorgeous and new and KLM gives good service. Another decent choice is Heathrow with BA since everyone speaks English there (though BA flights tend to always be crowded). I do NOT recommend Chls De Gaulle France or Frankfurt - both are old and under nasty construction.

Non stop flights are naturally very expensive and perhaps that is why your quotes were so high. Have you tried Cheaptickets.com? or Orbitz?

... I' have around 15 years to wait before my half Finnish/half California girl starts to do the same

vampe · Post by **vampe** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:18 pm

It's only one bus from outside heathrow airport , ain't that hard.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:20 pm

I agree on Charlie and Frank being the pits. However the connections to Finland/timetables are decent.

vampe · Post by **vampe** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:22 pm

Xochiquetzal wrote:I fly from SFO or LAX yearly. Typically, if you book in well enough in advance (month+), the fares are around $500-600 with 1 stop. I've never paid over $800.

The most common stops for California to Helsinki flights are JFK (American), Schipol Amsterdam (KLM), Frankfurt (Lufthansa), Heathrow London (BA/Virgin), Chls De Gaulle (Air France) and Reykjavic (Icelandic Air). Of those, I highly recommend KLM and Schipol airport since the airport is gorgeous and new and KLM gives good service. Another decent choice is Heathrow with BA since everyone speaks English there (though BA flights tend to always be crowded). I do NOT recommend Chls De Gaulle France or Frankfurt - both are old and under nasty construction.

Non stop flights are naturally very expensive and perhaps that is why your quotes were so high. Have you tried Cheaptickets.com? or Orbitz?

CDG is a horrible airport. :/

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:24 pm

However price of flying Helsinki-CPH-Paris, then taking the Eurostar to London, is not that bad

the tubes, the tubes

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:39 pm

mrshourula wrote:It's at the Helsinki Christian Institute, Laajasalo -- is that a nice place?

I don't know much about connections... but Laajasalo... you probably mean this place?

http://www.hkro.fi/

It's rather near to Herttoniemi, where I used to live a couple of years ago. Laajasalo should be a fairly peaceful place (as just about any place in Helsinki, come to think about it - I mean "peaceful" in the sense of not much traffic

), but it's also conveniently close to the centre. The nearest Metro station, Herttoniemi, is only about one kilometre or so from the Institute. By Metro, it takes less than 10 minutes to go to the Central Railway Station.

Your daughter will save money and hassle if she gets some kind of a travelcard for the Metro, trams and buses for the three-week stay. Buying single tickets does not usually pay, if one travels daily by public transport. I'm not sure what kind o alternatives there are to cover the three-week period, but maybe this link will help

http://www.hkl.fi/

mrshourula · Post by **mrshourula** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:34 am

Thank you all for these very good suggestions. This will be my daughter's first time travelling by herself and I am extremely nervous about it but also excited that she has this opportunity. My way of protecting her, I guess, is making sure her travel plans are carefully arranged;-)

deojuvame · Post by **deojuvame** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:01 am

cheapest way - via Heathrow, British Airways, finnair from Heathrow to Helsinki.

(usually)

direct flights - usually not worth the extra expense

Xochiquetzal · Post by **Xochiquetzal** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:37 pm

We just booked from Helsinki to SJO San Jose airport 590e. BA, 1 stop in London.

mrshourula · Post by **mrshourula** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:46 pm

I hadn't thought of checking SJO, but I will look into those flights as well. Thank you for the suggestion.

Kathryn

chickensexer · Post by **chickensexer** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:57 pm

mrshourula, for your particular case (your girl travelling alone for the first time) I would highly recommend IcelandAir (they do fly out of San Francisko as well) for the simple reason of making its connection in Reykjavik, Iceland. The airport is really compact, safe and has pretty laid back traffic of both aircrafts and people. I mean the chances of being confused, frusrated and lost in the airport, or standing a huge line for passport control, are very slim. Also, time between connecting flights always seems to be perfect: enough to make a swift and painless connection yet far from exhausting waits that add hours to that quite strenuous journey.

It probably would make more sense than Shiphol airport of Amsterdam, Neteherlands because if flying through that place one can easily find himself in a very challenging time conditions, running desperatly a mile or so to the opposite end of the airport and going through a 15 min passport control line, barely making it to your plane but his luggage didn't, which he won't find out until his arrival. Or the other way around - sitting there for 5 hours or so. Also, I had some unpleasant experience there of my wallet being stolen but I probably shouldn't generalize on that.

That was just my honest opinion for a first time trans-atlantic traveller.

As for a good fare I would agree with the previous suggestion of online discount ticket sites such as Orbitz.com or Priceline.com. Priceline is kind of a funny thing as you can bid your own price below the one they posted and you get response whether they accepted it or not. It's like a Hotwire in a way so you don't get to see what aircarrier you get and what time are the flights. Personally I prefer Orbitz though cuz they seem to perform a more thorough search and also have that nice "Search also one day before and after the requested date" option. Fares are just as good as at Priceline and without that blind pick thing.

Good luck!

smilesalot · Post by **smilesalot** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:19 pm

As a native californian, To check prices when traveling, I usually go to travelocity dream maps option, http://dps1.travelocity.com/dreamMap.ct ... RAVELOCITY
They always list all the sales there, Helsinki is found in the eastern europe map. I start with the lax departure city and the maximum amount of 600 dollars or whatever budget I have to see where the sales are. Once you know the sales prices and dates ie Helsinki 637, KLM and Air France you can then place a bid 50 - 100 less on priceline.com or hotwire.com and get the ticket(just remember non refundable and little control over time). Other websites I have used are Travelzoo.com which is a searchengine all the travel websites sort of like mamma.com. Sorry Ive written so much if you still need info try flyertalk.com here is their link to web based travel sites
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=518767
Its great because its continously updated and its maintained by travel addicts like me

smilesalot

incidently if you want to see which budget airline flies to finland or anyother country youv'e gotta try out whichbudget.com.
Im currently trying to find a cheap flight to Nice for a confrence in May

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