German flight booking sites

[level42]

OK guys.

Can some of the German guys indicate me to a good/cheap German flight booking site ?

The thing is we want to fly from Holland to the East side of the US.
Ideally, flights would be:
Amsterdam-NYC
Boston-Amsterdam

Now comes the funny thing. If I book this flight for the desired dates directly from/to Amsterdam, I have to pay MORE than if I would fly from Dusseldorf.
So, suggest I book flight KL0641 directly, I have to pay 993 Euro for 1 adult ticket.
Now, if I fly the SAME flight KL0641 but FIRST fly from Dusseldorf to Amsterdam I pay ONLY 664 Euro !!!!

A whopping 329 Euro difference for 1 ticket, and I will need 3 (2 adults, 1 child). The difference in total for this is 861,16 Euro, in other words a FREE iPad plus extra's !!!!  

The insane thing is that I will be on the SAME flight as someone who booked the more expensive flight from Amsterdam.

Sooo, our OWN DUTCH Royal Airlines is ROYALLY SCREWING it's "own" citizens !!!

I know about this practice and that it has been going on for ages and that it's all about competition bla-bla, but it DOES make people move totally unnecessary kilometers and thus unnecessarily loading the environment....and of course, it's a completely insane system !

Now, I have a feeling that it probably works the same way around too....so that's why I would like to try and see if there are any interesting offers from German flight companies.

The really funny thing is that on my return trip from Boston to Amsterdam, in the case of the "German" variant, I will actually be flying DIRECTLY from Boston to Amsterdam and then would have to fly to Dusseldorf, but in the "Dutch"/direct option I would fly from Boston to Paris and then from Paris to Amsterdam !!!!

So....it seems like the system is programmed to decieve you so that you think you can't get off in Amsterdam and "forget" to take the flight to Dusseldorf.

Now, I know that you can't pass on the outbound flight from Dusseldorf to Amsterdam, if you do that you get a "no show" at that flight and the Amsterdam to NYC part will be cancelled.

However, who is going to stop me from asking to label the luggage for Amsterdam at the return trip and get out in Amsterdam and head for home straight from there. Anyone ever done this ?

[liquidx]

I don't know what your dates are so it's difficult to check, but on kayak.com I'm getting €653 from Amsterdam on that flight and €100 less by using AA/BA.

You might try that site and see what you get.

[level42]

Thanks Liquidx

However, I found another, even weirder option, but it's about as good as it can get for us.

When it works out, I'll post it here.....it's nuts, but if you know about it, you can save a LOT of money.

One more tip: Don't follow those "cheap tickets" sites blindly. Sometimes it is cheaper to book directly with the airline itself (and also you can have more flight times)....
F.I. www.cheaptickets.nl SEEMED cheaper than Lufthansa.com at first, but in the end I was charged a 20 Euro "file costs" (WTF ?) making it MORE expensive than booking directly....

[level42]

DONE !

Hold your horses.

Now....let's suppose we book a DIRECT flight (very comfortable) from Amsterdam to NYC on KLM.com:

The total for my family (2 adults and a child of 9) would be (for our dates):
2982,81 Euro. That's almost 1000 Euro per person.


HOWEVER, if you enter Antwerpen Central Station (yes, the TRAIN station) as starting point of the journey, you will be able to do the SAME flights for the total of
1310,55 Euro  !!!!! That's 436,85 Euro per person.

Less than HALF the price. I save a whopping 1672,26 Euro in total !!!!!!!

Of course the drawback is that we MUST travel to Antwerp by car (only about an hour from us), then we will drive BACK and up to Schiphol by Thalys (a very fast train). You MUST show your stamped train ticket there, else no flight.
Of course this adds some time for the journey, but well worth it IMHO.

The other way around, we are going to "forget" to take the train back and have some family pick us up at the airport (OR we still take the Thalys only to Rotterdam...depending what time it goes).

We got this tip from a friend who did the same with her family up to Canada last year.

So....for people in the South of Holland, this is an excellent way to save a shit load of money on your flights AND still have a "direct" flight.

(Alternatives like flying from Brussels or Dusseldorf all require a stop-over (and are STILL more expensive), which would add even more  to the traveling time..

For what it's worth....it's a crazy, insane system, but whatever...

[McVenco]

Thanks for the tip! I was thinking of going to Florida and Aruba at the end of this year, and there's indeed a huge difference in those prices. I'll keep it in mind 

[Ronald Reagan]

completely insane.

some students with OV's should make some money out of this crazyness

[Belike]

Well done André, we live in a crazy world and it's getting from bad to worse.

[level42]

Aaaaahhhhhhh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-8_Se1n67Y

OK it's a cliche song, but I don't give a shit, it's in my mind all day

OK, for the more modern people, this ain't bad either):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8

Barcade, Funspot HERE WE COME !!!!



One thing I'm actually looking up to.....visiting Ground Zero. I have to go there. This may sound silly but I was absolutely devastated when it happened. My brain just couldn't capture how people can be SO totally rotten to do something like that. I was sick for days...need to pay respect.

[level42]

So weird......


Just for fun I checked what the difference would be with a trip to San Fransico around the time of CAX (California Extreme). It is still a dream for me to visit that at least ONE time in my life.

But tickets are very expensive to SF.

Anyway here are the results:
I took the dates a bit liberal, figured if I would do a trip like that I'd also like at least a couple of days in SF and area. (More realistically, it would be a "full size" holiday with CAX "built in" but whatever...

Flying from Amsterdam to SF:
Euro 1169

With the Antwerp "train trick" Euro 1247 !

So this time, not cheaper (damn ! )

Actually, this time Cheaptickets is cheaper with 995 Euro through US airways.

I want a flight to SF for 600 Euro in 2012

[polaris]

i cant remember who i heard this from, but flight pricing is a dark art (hope that phrase makes sense), the discounts and offers are extremely finely calculated and manipulated to get the best money for the airline, there are no rules or simple system we as customers can follow to get good deals, its totally random to us, so the comparative pricing seems crazy

[liquidx]

I'm flying Brussels to SFO next month for €464, must be a season thing.

[level42]

I'm flying Brussels to SFO next month for €464, must be a season thing.

Wow that is a VERY VERY good price !!!
Problem of CAX is that it's always in july, so high season and thus expensive tickets...

[liquidx]

I just remembered I bought the tickets during the annual sale at connections, that's also why it's so cheap.

Every year on the 1st of January they slash prices  for a few days, so if you know at that time where and when you'll be flying you can get some pretty good deals.

http://www.connections.be/

[level42]

I just remembered I bought the tickets during the annual sale at connections, that's also why it's so cheap.

Every year on the 1st of January they slash prices  for a few days, so if you know at that time where and when you'll be flying you can get some pretty good deals.

http://www.connections.be/

Another brilliant tip ! Thanks and keep them coming !