Airline Tickets

[ONA 133]

I would suggest having one stop in Europe and then getting straight to LAX. The AMS is just perfect - flat, not crazy busy, easy to orient, the CDG (France) might be a bit complected for Olya. Why dont you check out the KLM? That's how he'll go (Kiev-AMS-SFO.) It's ~$900-1000, if buy a direct ticket in UA, not here.

Agreed.

AMS is great, I loved it.

We're looking at the tickets too (I'm flying to DC), the best prices we found are British Airways and Aeroflot-Delta.

[bestofboston 36]

My wife flew from the Philippines to Detroit. The time for processing her CR1 visa took longer than the scheduled 2 hour layover time between flights so the airlines booked her on the next flight at no charge. I think that may have been due to the flight into Detroit was behind schedule. She then flew from Detroit to Boston.

If you want to make sure she has no problems in getting her to LAX, then book the flight direct and pay the money. $400 is a big savings and I would lean that way as well but make sure the layover in DC is around 5 to 6 hours to avoid issues.

If you decide on the cheaper way, then make sure she has some american money or a way to contact you when she is ready to board for the flight from DC to LAX so you will know she is on that flight.

It takes longer to go through Customs when entering on a K1 visa than a tourist visa so don't count on it being fast.

My wife did not contact me until much later(4 to 5 hours later) after I had returned back home from the airport without her because she missed her first flight and she did not call me when she arrived in Detroit. Fortunately I only live 20 min from the airport. I think she did not call me because she was tied up in Customs being interviewed. You are not allowed to call anyone while going through Customs. She was able to convince someone later to send me a text message or email and I received it once I was back home. It just said what time she would be arriving in Boston. It was very stressful not knowing what was going on.

What I did do was go to the bagage claim with her itenary and they were able to tell me what flight she was on and what time she was due in.

You decide. I had no choice because there are no flights direct to Boston from the Philippines.

Edited July 21, 2011 by bestofboston

[Casprd 167]

Im not sure if it is the same for Russia, but when I came to visit the US from Canada, my customs experience was actually right at the airport in Calgary... which in some ways is nice actually because god forbid they DO deny you entry, at least you are already in your own country.

Different for most countries. Canada has pre-processing at many airports so you don't go through the same steps on arrival.

I have never been through Dulles, but the immigrations in LAX seems to be smooth and quick although it is a bit of a maze.

[an-ma 1]

Hey man it all depends. If I were you I would make at LEAST 4 hrs between flight. Form experience was 30 min in Chicago, another person I know spent 3 hrs, so it all depends.