Airfares - Moscow to Atlanta

[dallasguy7 0]

I am looking for suggestions for discount airfare companies from Moscow to Atlanta.

Any suggestion is helpful.

Thanks

[russ 1]

I am looking for suggestions for discount airfare companies from Moscow to Atlanta.

Any suggestion is helpful.

Thanks

I too am looking for a cheap flight, for the end of the summer in Business Class, if anyone has any tips. I'll probably end up using miles to upgrade, Delta TPA->ATL->SVO.

For a cheap one-way, there are charter companies that often have good fares. The only direct to Atlanta will be on Delta. Since the most expensive part of the trip is crossing the Atlantic in the summer (peak season), using a charter carrier will usually be the cheapest way to go. Assuming you need to change planes anyway, Martinair flys from Amsterdam to Miami or Orlando for about 198 EUR one way. (~$250).

Assuming you can get a cheap domestic flight (southwest, etc, ~$100) and a cheap flight to Amsterdam, this can save you some money. (you should be able to do it for about $600 if you are careful). This is a good strategy if you are going to Florida.

There are plenty of other charter outfits - EuroFlyUSA between JFK and Italy, Air Plus Comet between Spain and JFK, etc. If you are going to New York, this will only involve one change of planes as well. Assuming you can get to one of these European cities cheaply, and your dates are flexible, this can save big bucks. Biz class is often much cheaper on charters as well. ~$750 one way, while airlines are closer to $3,500 one way.

[obender 0]

unfortunately there're no discount airlines in this direction...

website

www.kayak.com

will tell you though lowest possible prices available for most, if not all, searching systems at once. then you might minimize your damage.

one last resort is to find russian agency in atlanta, which're plenty (i lost all my info on them though) and try to get slightly cheaper tickets for something like aeroflot or finnair...

if it's summer prepare to pay through the roof this year.

obender

[russ 1]

unfortunately there're no discount airlines in this direction...

website

www.kayak.com

will tell you though lowest possible prices available for most, if not all, searching systems at once. then you might minimize your damage.

Kayak (and other search engines) only will tell you about mainline airlines, that can be booked on a single itinary. When these are pricey, you will need to break the itinary into two or more pieces (i.e. SWA for the domestic connection, a charter across the Atlantic). A good travel agent should be able to do this for you (be warned, thanks to the internet, there are not many of these left...)

If you are willing to deal with multiple airlines and reservations, slightly longer layovers, and less flexibility, there is no reason a one way between anywhere in Europe/Russia and the US should cost more than $600.

[obender 0]

Russ,

i agree in general... however I've checked the companies you named and two out of three are included in what you called "mainline airlines" search engines.

their flights are rediculously inconvinient too (except of cause if you live in florida)...

also, Europe-Russia charters are nonexistent for individual travellers. there are tons of them in general, notoriously known for risky and terrible service, but they're reserved by travel agencies.

i'd be very surprised if anybody infiltrated those...

bottom line add about $400 (round trip - $300 one way) in average to get to russia from any european country

Edited March 20, 2007 by obender

[russ 1]

Russ,

i agree in general... however I've checked the companies you named and two out of three are included in what you called "mainline airlines" search engines.

their flights are rediculously inconvinient too (except of cause if you live in florida)...

bottom line add about $400 (round trip - $300 one way) in average to get to russia from any european country

The travel sites generally won't allow itinaries that can not be booked as a single reservation, with a single PNR (this may not be always true, just my experience). The majors also have daily flights, which is a big deal if you miss a connection. For that reason alone, a good idea for someone not familiar with international travel (probably anyone moving to the states from Russia).

Personally I think it is worth a few hundred dollars for the convenience and time-savings.

In my case, I do live in Florida, and don't mind stopping in Amsterdam along the way (I used to live in Holland, nice to visit.)

If you are within 200 miles of New York, this is a viable option as well.

The big low-cost airlines in Europe don't fly to Russia yet, just Talinn and Riga (ryanair and easyjet).

The only low-cost European carriers I know of serving Moscow or St Petersburg are Air Baltic and evolavia.com (Italy and the Baltics), and germanwings.com from Germany (these flights can be as cheap as 49 EUR). None of these sell tickets on US travel sites as far as I know of.

I'm not saying this is the best way to go, or that I would do it myself. It is very possible though if you need to do this as cheaply as possible.

I'm actually suprised there are no Moscow/New York or Moscow/Miami charters. They both seem to be popular routes. Maybe I should start a new business as a charter operator... There is probably a good market for no-frills, $450 one-ways Moscow to NY...

[russ 1]

Oh - I nearly forgot the best way. If you are under 27 years old or so, ISIC (student ID) cards can get you a great deal on these flights. Tickets are even changable.

STA travel in the US, or thier Russian equivelent ( http://www.startravel.ru ). You don't need to be a university student, just young. A nonstop one way Moscow to Atlanta is $877. (pretty good for a changable nonstop. Sorry, this site is in Russian. СЩА = USA, Москва / Атланта ). Use www.rambler.ru if you need translation help. Словар = dictionary

My wife and I both qualify (young and university students).

When I was an undergrad, I took advantage of this for school breaks visiting friends in Europe. The flights are dirt cheap, the only downside being no frequent flier miles. (to save a few hundred bucks, who cares?)

Hope this helps!

[JamesT 12]

The best site by far to get airfare to and from Russia is http://www.gotorussia.net/

They are excellent, and based right here in Atlanta. From my experiences, they always have the best deals on round-trip, one way (either way), and they offer flights on all the "major" airlines like Delta, Lufthansa, Air France, etc and the small airlines too.

[slim 1,525]

That's awesome info, russ! I will definitely keep that in mind on my next trip. Charter flights are something I didn't even consider before.

When I went to Moscow, (and also a couple other international trips) I just checked and rechecked different travel websites. I googled "cheap airfare, cheap tickets, discount airfare, etc." and spent an hour or so each night plugging in different things on different sites.

The big tip that I can offer is be flexible, and travel on weekdays with a minimum of a weekend stay. (Leave on a Thursday one week and come back on a Tuesday the following week, etc.) If you can be flexible, even a day or two could save you literally thousands of dollars.

Another thing to keep in mind is layovers. There are some awesome layovers out there, and if you can plan them accordingly, a well-placed layover could equal a day or night in a city that you wouldn't otherwise get to see. I had a 13-hour layover in Paris, and instead of sitting at the terminal reading a Clancy novel or something, I got to visit the Eiffel Tower, Arc d'Triomphe, Louvre, etc., and all for about $10... I took the bus from the airport to downtown, walked around, and took the city bus to save time on longer walks. All of this I pre-planned by using websites before I got there. When I arrived, I knew where to catch the bus, how much it cost, and when I got downtown, I had a list of what to see, where it was, and how to get to/from there. So, pre-plan. It could save you a bunch of money and will maximize your trip experience. Don't waste your time sitting at the airport or in a hotel. When's the next time you're going to be in Europe? For most of us, that's a once-in-a-lifetime deal. (Or maybe two or three times if our wives drag us back to see the in-laws.)

One other tip: Get the miles! If you don't have a credit card that offers miles or points or rewards or whatever, get one! You can usually get like 15,000 or 20,000 just for signing up, with a domestic ticket only costing 25,000. I actually used my miles for my wife's ticket inside Russia (Domestic is domestic, whether it's inside the U.S. or Russia, or even the U.K., Canada, China, whatever.) and that saved us about $850 on her flight here.

[obender 0]

Hey guys,

here's something I dug from russian part of the net

http://www.discountairfares.com/lcosteur.htm

complete list of all european airlines (dead or alive) !

as I mentioned before cheap transatlantic flights on odd airlines are not likely (even Condor which does three or four "99euro" flights a year from Orlando with taxes and other ####### can be beaten major airline for the same dates)

however Europe and even Russia now, apparently, could be reached by these guys...

enjoy

obender