One way airline ticket from Europe to US hubs?

[Carol C]

Recommendations please for flying one way to USA from any major European hub. Consider price and convenience. Anyone? TIA for advice!

 

[happymum]

I used Momondo to search for a Oslo to Kauai flight. It came up with a considerably cheaper/better set of flights than anywhere else. It was only after paying that I found it was actually a return flight, and this lowered the cost considerably. (I just ignored the return portion of the ticket.)

 

[x3 skier]

I used to use ITA for fare searches but they were taken over by Google and now it's Google Flights.

You can search for flights from all of Europe using that tool. There's a feature that shows the lowest price flights in the menu someplace.

Difficult to cover "convenience" since you want to cover all of Europe and all of the USA.

Cheers

 

[MULTIZ321]

I used to use ITA for fare searches but they were taken over by Google and now it's Google Flights.

You can search for flights from all of Europe using that tool. There's a feature that shows the lowest price flights in the menu someplace.

Difficult to cover "convenience" since you want to cover all of Europe and all of the USA.

Cheers

I remembered reading somewhere the ITA Matrix is somewhat different from Google Flights. For more info, see
What is the Difference Between Google Flights and the ITA Matrix?
From Travel.Stackexchange.com

"The ITA Matrix software was developed by MIT engineers. ITA was then purchased by Google, and used to power Google Flights (as well as other non-google flight search engines). Quoting from the ITA website:

In the mid-nineties, a group of MIT computer scientists took aim at a complex computing challenge that had plagued the travel industry for three decades: how to quickly, consistently and accurately identify the best available airfares without relying on high-cost, low-efficiency mainframe computers. The results of their work was a revolutionary airfare pricing & shopping engine called QPX. The beta version of QPX was first introduced to the public in November 1999, and Orbitz became the first customer in 2001.

On April 12, 2011, Google acquired ITA Software, and shortly thereafter launched Google Flight Search, an incredibly fast and easy way to search and plan travel. So the Matrix isn't better nor worse than Google flights, since the former relies on the latter when looking for flights. It's just a matter of using one tool versus the other. Personally I stick with the Matrix because I've grown fond of the interface.

The main feature difference would be that you can purchase some plane tickets via Google Flights, whereas the Matrix itself does not allow you to do so. Moreover, the ITA Matrix seems to give you many more search options than Google Flights. Finally, Google Flights, being a Google product, will integrate with other Google products whereas the "pure" Matrix might not always...."


Richard

 

[isisdave]

When?

I looked at a return to US for 3 days away recently and found $300 fares on WOW, but for 7 days out they were over $500.

I would be checking WOW and the other Icelandic airlines, and also Norwegian these days. As they open up new destinations, they have cheap tickets to those places.

 

[x3 skier]

The ITA app hasn't been available in the Apple App Store for a while. I have it on my older iPad but can't get it on my new one.

Cheers

 

[K2Quick]

I booked Norwegian Airlines back from Europe last year. It was only $250 one-way from CPH to LAX including bags/meals. I believe all their flights are priced in one-way segments and the further out you book, the cheaper.

 

[MULTIZ321]

The ITA app hasn't been available in the Apple App Store for a while. I have it on my older iPad but can't get it on my new one.

Cheers

Open up your browser and put in matrix.itasoftware.com

This should work for you.

Best regards,

Richard

 

[x3 skier]

Open up your browser and put in matrix.itasoftware.com

This should work for you.

Best regards,

Richard

Thanks

 

[Carol C]

Great tips. Thanks everyone!

 

[sun starved Gayle]

I booked Norwegian Airlines back from Europe last year. It was only $250 one-way from CPH to LAX including bags/meals. I believe all their flights are priced in one-way segments and the further out you book, the cheaper.

How did you like Norwegian? I am looking at a cheap OAK to CPH flight but am hesitant to book after reading review. That's a long flight to be miserable !

 

[K2Quick]

How did you like Norwegian? I am looking at a cheap OAK to CPH flight but am hesitant to book after reading review. That's a long flight to be miserable !

I thought it was great. Brand new 787 aircraft, comfortable seats, really nice in-seat entertainment. We paid for the in-flight meals (which were frankly not very good ) so we probably got better service than those who didn't pay. If I were to fly them again, I'd just grab some meals and drinks to carry on the plane. My only hesitation booking them was we needed to get to SLC so we had to book another airline back from LAX and cross our fingers that the flight from CPH into LAX wasn't late. Alas, it was almost an hour early so we had plenty of times to get our bags, clear customs, and re-check them with Southwest.

I'm only one data point out there, of course, but I really wish they fley out of SLC - they'd be my go-to option.

 

[sun starved Gayle]

Thanks ! So you booked the cheapest seat ? I am looking at flying with miles from PDX to OAK or LAS then catching a Norwegian flight .

 

[K2Quick]

Thanks ! So you booked the cheapest seat ? I am looking at flying with miles from PDX to OAK or LAS then catching a Norwegian flight .

I booked the Low Fare+ which gave me a checked bag, meals, and a seat assignment. If I were to do it again, I'd probably just book the lowest fare available and pay for my bag and skip the meals and seat assignment.

If you're flying Norwegian, you might want to consider just driving up to SEA and flying from there. There won't be a direct to CPH, but you'd connect through London and at least that way your whole ticket would be on one airline and you wouldn't have to worry about rebooking if you missed a connection.

Or another option out of PDX is Icelandair. They have a good reputation, they're inexpensive (maybe not so much as Norwegian) and they price out in one-way segments as well.

 

[sun starved Gayle]

Thanks again for your reply. SEA to CPH fares have a stopover at Gatwick, anywhere from 13 to 19 hours, not very appealing. I have been looking at Icelandic Air, they are not so inexpensive anymore.