BARGAIN AIRFARES US-ES

With all the expertise on this website it might prove useful to have any airfare specials people find posted... the fares change rapidly and time is usually critical.. to keep it less stressful maybe findings could be listed by: departure airport, airline, website/telephone number used,price, and expiration date... Madridman... after the expiration date maybe there can be a automatic purge of the expired info..

Great idea for a thread, jllawson! Hopefully everyone will remember to come here, to this thread to post their FOUND airfare specials.

Saludos, MadridMan

booked ticket 4/9/01...Dulles(IAD) to Malaga(AGP) roundtrip... $470.10!!!!!!!!!! ..used EXPEDIA.COM

I just paid $378 roundtrip from Chicago to Madrid. Air France. Only 21 days in advance.

I use www.Travelocity.com and www.cheapseats.com. I actually found my flight from cheapseats.com, but found it was even cheaper by going to the Air France, www.airfrance.com (they have an AM EX special right now) web site. I stayed away from Iberia from the stories on this board.

[ 05-07-2001: Message edited by: Nic ]

I'm looking at end June, early July. So far the best I've come up with has been Philly to London with British Airways at $691 (for a stay up to 9 months!!), and on to Madrid or Barcelona with Iberia for $138 - round trip for both. (Actually, I think there's an Icelandic flight to London that may be $40 cheaper, but I'm a big BA fan.)

Has anyone else come up with something better for the summer months? Also, any great deals in airfare to the Canaries from London for June or July? I'm coming up with around $300 each for a 14 day stay.

I found an airfare for $538 roundtrip from New York to Madrid on Air Europa... hope it's a good airline (-: Oh, I am leaving on June 25 and returning mid-July 2001.

I'm planning our trip for August 22 to September 9 of this year. I have searched for airfare from Detroit for months, only to find most fares above $1100. Tonight, I found airfare for $808 on Northwest and Continental.

sounds pretty good. 808 for the month of august. book it!!!

Looking for fares for later in the summer, I found round trip on US Air, from Philadelphia to Madrid for $393 ....but the fare is only good through the end of May.

I'm not certain where these fares came from, they seem much lower than most of the quotes, and may be worth looking at. Especially since they are available from various cities, and they allow travel through the middle of July, when the rates would be much higher. http://www.bestfares.com/travel/desks/story.asp?id=18214

Wolf

By the way, in order to get those BestFares.com deals as Wolfgang81 mentions above, you must first become a member for $60 (but you get their magazine subscription and some other "stuff").

British Airways has some great deals now. $665 round trip from Houston to Barcelona for travel in June and July. The next closest fare was $1200. I used www.travelocity.com. Even the student ticket from council travel was $850 with 3 layovers.

[ 05-10-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

I got a student counciltravel ticket for June 29th, and it cost me $850. I only have one layover in London, because I'm flying British Airways. I'm flying from Boston to Madrid. Then again, keep in mind the fact that they add taxes, so it really adds up to a decent amount. When I get back from Spain in August, I'm going to have to buy another ticket for January shortly after. Hopefully I'll be able to find a good deal. I was thinking that it might be really cheap if I fly to London and then get a different flight to Madrid from there!

After several hours of searching, I came up with two tickets, Los Angeles to New York, and then on to Madrid, for $573.00 each.
The flight is American Airlines/ Iberia. Booked it on May 4th for May 16th travel, so I was happy to get a decent price with less than two weeks to go before travel date!

Can't tell you how helpful this forum is for me,,,,,,,,,also can't wait for my trip to begin,,,,,4 days and counting

Has anyone tried www.hotwire.com? I don't know if they offer any bargain fares to Spain but last month my son flew non-stop RT Los Angeles to Amsterdam via NWA/KLM for $407 when he booked thru them!

If you're a student (you can qualify as a student by taking an online class from an accredited community college) or a teacher I would suggest checking with council travel first. They can find good special rate fares especially if you purchase several months in advance.
However, I have found tickets to Europe at good prices from the following web sites:
Discount Airfares -- who will send your travel dates out to a number of agents (mostly in the US) that deal in discounted tickets.
Airfare-for-Less -- offers tickets from "consolidators" who by tix in bulk at a discount.
Flights.com -- I am going to Madrid in June on a ticket from TISS.com (aka Flights.com). I paid $816 round trip from Portland, OR to Madrid by way of Dulles and Frankfurt.

The above websites can get you good deals, but be aware that most discount tix are very restricted. There are substantial fees for changes and cancellations. But, if you plan to stick to your travel plans you may find a good deal.

buen viajes!

Loren-zo

I think with a lot of hard work, people can find fares for an average of 700 or lower for a ticket to Europe all year. If you look hard enough, and are patient and flexible, you'll almost always find a decent fare, even in peak season. A lot of airlines have specials and sales. When my friend and I were booking our flights, we were first quoted 1,200. But with creative thinking, it is only costing me $568 roundtrip from Los Angeles to Madrid, (with a few stops in between )
Anyway... local newspapers are good for travel leads, the Internet, sta travel, council travel, and cheap tickets (800)-377-1000. Usually the fares in winter can go anywhere from 250rt la-london up to 475rt.
When May, June, July, and August hits, you're looking at about 510rt up to 775rt... (these are the lowest fares you can find, not the highest.) Anyway, good luck!!! One day, I'm not going to worry about how much a ticket will cost... I'll just call my travel agent and tell them, book me on a first class flight to Madrid for two weeks... wouldn't that be nice? -roses

I am having an absolutely impossible time trying to find tickets from Newark (not JFK) to Madrid June 24 or 25 to July 5 or 6. Unfortunately it was only this week that I decided to ignore the fact that I don't have a job and just go while I can, so most flights are booked. Travel agents were quoting me $945 or so with Tap Air Portugal, the cheapest I find online is $1092 with Air France. I really think I have looked at every single airline's site and all the sites such as Travelocity, Expedia, CheapTickets... BestFares seems to quote $658 but my question is, how can I determine if I'd really get that fare before paying the $60 to join?

You don't need to. The trick with best fares is that you have to have the super secret password to get the phone number for their travel agency. I booked my ticket through them and they did not even ask me for membership info or anything.

Majesty318 - thinnk I just saw far less costly fares on www.travelzoo.com
No passwords required - try under Best 20 deals and/or Europe sections. I wasn't paying very close attention to available dates as I have a few months to go before I can even consider going back --- but know the flights were during "peak season". Happy hunting!

Majesty:
Try Air Europe. They quoted me a fare of 538 (584 with taxes) leaving from New York on June 25th. Good luck!

Well, I did it! I'm going! June 24th to July 5th, Newark to Madrid on British Airways, for $704. Found it on Expedia. Not as cheap as I would have liked, but Priceline didn't want my bids and this was the best I found.

has anyone tried bucket shops like cheaptickets? i found fare for $850 with only one change in Philly. This is for travel from SFO, 6-13 to 7-16. They also have a 800 number...800-CHEAPTIX. buen suerte!

Jensdog, well, what is the supersecret password? We won't tell. Majesty318, all the places you mentioned, don't have fees associated with them. You do have to have log on, but no fee is involved. Bestfares is the only one that has a fee atached and Jensdog seems to have the secret.

RGF's methods for cheap tix include: the great promotional fares offered by major airlines, often about 3 months before your trip... checking expedia OFTEN, because wierd cheap fares pop up sometimes.

But my best recommendation is rather sneaky. I usually fly USAiR, DELTA or other usa based carriers. Something ALWAYS goes wrong on the flight: delay, lost luggage, etc. I always write a polite, to the point letter of complaint, and they always send me vouchers worth $100 to $150!! Then, bingo, your next ticket is going to be that much cheaper. Apply as often as needed. Repeat.

See, you guys missed me on the board... who else would tell you that!!

Just booked San Diego-Madrid, Sept 20
on Lufthansa for $517 inc. tax one-way
We are going back to the states by
ship. I checked everywhere and finally
found an agent in Houston.

Someone else had already posted it on here but the user name is making and the password is waves. It changes every month or so though.

I have booked a flight from Toronto Canada to Malaga for only 520 $...and that's the lowly Canadian dollar folks! Check out selloffvacations.com and lastminuteclub.com, both let you search for great deals, you do have to join lastminuteclub, but only after seeing if there are deals! For those of you from the US, it may well be worth it to catch a lastminute deal from the US to Canada...especially with your dollar!

I had a great experience on Air France and for $378 round trip, what more could you want? Flew into Paris with a 40 min layover and was on my way. Same on the way out. Here is another site that has tickets from $400 from NYC to Madrid. May be cheaper than the Philly flight. www.onetravel.com

Your first eight words have raised everybody's eyebrows Nic and we are all anxiously waiting for you to continue........ go on, tell us more!!

Well, I was meeting my husband in Madrid as he flew on the company first class (British Air).. So, while the company paid for room and board, I had to pay my own flight. So, I found Air France, a Delta partner, got a frequent flier card, (charged on my Diner's for double mileage) then booked my flight on line. My tickets arrived within one week. I checked in no hassles. Flight left on time, the plane reminded me of Singapore Air. You get your own TV screen that plays about 4 movies that you can choose from, tv shows, music or games. They give you headsets, ear plugs, eye shades etc..I played a little solitaire, watched a few movies, had some really good french food and wine(all the french bread you can eat and you have two meals that you can choose from)This is where I learned my lesson to wear shoes with ties, as the feet do swell up nicely, and you don't want to get blisters the first day. Anyway, I landed in Paris(saw the Eiffel tower from the plane)had enough time to get to my next flight gate, walk around the shops and left on time, they served us another meal with wine, and we landed in Madrid on time. I actually beat my husband there and I left three hours ahead of him(he got stuck in all kinds of air traffic in heathrow). For those of you that haven't flown to Barajas airport before, there is only one place that foreigners exit from, so it is an easy meeting place. Met my husband within an hour, stopped at the ATM right behind the pole after you exit the gate, for some pesetas and off we went. No problems on the way back either.Like I said $378?? www.airfrance.com

Hey, I just went to back to Luces note, and it's gone, so everyone is probably wondering why I added this air france note. Anyway, Luces said she didn't have a good experience flying them, but didn't say why.

[ 06-01-2001: Message edited by: Nic ]

Hi,
Sorry I made a mistake with my previous post and then my computer crashed and... Oh, long story anyway.
My first and only experience with Air France was terrible. Actually I went from Venezuela to Madrid in Iberia. Small seats, rude attendants, bad food... and then from Madrid to USA in Air France. The flight from Madrid to Paris was okay. Then in Paris our flight was delayed for 7 hours and they didn't give us any information about why we couldn't leave France. I ask them in Spanish and they pretended they didn't understand, I asked them in English and same thing. Only people who spoke French got some news and that's how I knew the airplane had a major problem. Instead of changing the airplane we had to wait 7 hours until they fixed the airplane and everybody was scared to death because we had to travel in that airplane that have had a major problem. The pilot was not very experienced and the take off and landing was the worst in my life. We got to JFK and our luggage was "missing". No clothes, no medicines... turists were very angry. I wrote Air France a letter complaining about the whole thing and they never got back to me.
By the way, the attendants didn't understand/speak Spanish or English very well. I suppose that if you fly from/to Spain and from/to USA you should have basic Spanish/English, right?
This was years ago, but I have friends that came to visit from Spain and they used Air France and had similar problems.

[ 06-01-2001: Message edited by: Luces de Bohemia ]

Hello All! Iberia Airlines is running a monthlong (July) special on airfares in the autumn to Spain from the USA. CLICK HERE for details.

In short:
USA - to Spain & Europe in September From $225 one way (based on round-trip purchase)

USA - to Spain & Europe in October From $175 one way (based on round-trip purchase)

USA - to Spain & Europe in November From $125 one way (based on round-trip purchase)

Flights leave the USA from Chicago, New York, & Miami and go to Madrid, Barcelona, and a few other Spanish destinations.

Here are some of the conditions:
Tickets must be purchased by July 31th 2001
Roundtrip purchase required for these fares.
Minimum Stay 4 days.
Maximum Stay 30 days.
Iberia flights only. Fares do not apply on Iberia 7000 series flights.
From New York to Barcelona valid only on IB6282/6283.
Tickets are non-endorsable/non-rerouteable/non-refundable.
Changes are not permitted.
No child, infant, or other discounts apply.
These fares may not be available on all flights.
Taxes and airport surcharges extra.

[ 07-04-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Hello Everyone!
First time poster here to the message board. Will be making my first trip to Madrid and environs, November 17 through 25. I have been exploring this site for a couple weeks and am amazed at the wealth of information. Thanks to Madrid Man and all contributors.
Just wanted to pass along that I indeed was able to book four discount fares on IBERIA Airlines new US website: http://www.iberia.com/iberia_us/home.jsp
I have been comparing prices for a few weeks and was thrilled to book all four tickets at $299 each including tax.
Keep up the good work everyone!
Thanks again null