Airfare rant

[LvivLovers 39]

LL

Talked with my wife about the physical she said the physical was very easy and there was nothing to fear. Her physical was $100 and the extra shot was about $15 each. As for the airline I have had nearly the same experience except I was able to find the inexpensive one way fare on Expedia. It was about the same cost as the round trip.

Mike

I have been thinking about this also.... My fiance's mother is in good health but is fairly old. I was thinking of buying her a round trip ticket with a return date of close to a year. Is that possible? I know she will want to visit her mom and sister, etc. And, does anyone know if there will be any visa related issues within this time period concerning a visit home?

Joelunchbox, yes I think that is possible. Each airline has a limit how far in the future you can go, but the person I talked to indicated for that airline I could buy a return up to about a year in the future. It may be a little more tricky to lock in a good deal however. That's why I decided we probably wouldn't really use our return and just made it a week away.

I remember the days when a Saturday night stay was required to get the best airfare. Lot's of people were buying two round trip tickets and using only the first half of each one, in order to save money on business trips. I was single during most of that time, so preferred to have my employer spend a little less money funding hotels and food, so I could enjoy the weekend where I was working. My favorite was the week I worked a trade show at the Doral Country Club and then spent the weekend in the Keys on the company dime.

Nice. That's a good way to do it.

[edp333 9]

First we must deal with immigration. And then once that's over with, then the airlines!

I called NWA

Add the airlines to my hate list please...right up there with CSC!

Carefully check NWAs time between flights. They fly you to Minneapolis or Detroit for international connections and if your flight is missed you are stuck. There are very few international flights leaving from those two locations. My last international flight was with NWA and it was bad. They only scheduled one hour between connecting flights and decided to change a tire before we left Ohare. The 20 minutes delay turned into one hour and twenty minutes. NWA decided that the international 747 should leave Minneapolis while our NWA connecting flight was still in the air. Of course NWA did not have any other flights scheduled until the next day and retained 50 of us. Then they did not want to return our luggage for the 24 hour layover and did not have overnight kits. The poor customer service was only just beginning.

[paul&olena 0]

First we must deal with immigration. And then once that's over with, then the airlines!

Ok, so I'm just going to pass on my experience hoping that it may help someone in the future.

My wife will have her interview on Oct. 29, so I decided we should have plenty of time to receive the visa if I come on Nov. 10 and bring her back to the USA with me on Nov. 17.

I'm planning to travel round trip between Atlanta, GA, USA and Kyiv, Ukraine since that's usually easier to find flights along that route. Then my wife will join me just from Kyiv, Ukraine back to Atlanta, GA, USA. I wanted Atlanta to be our only stop in the USA so that would be her port of entry (also where I live). That way even if the immigration stuff takes a long time we won't miss our connecting flight. This limited our flight options a little bit.

I logged into Orbitz to see what flights I could get since I used them in the past and they were decent. I finally found a route I liked. I figured it might be a little complicating getting my wife on the same flights as me so I decided to call Orbitz. Long story short, I painstakingly gave the guy on the other end of the phone all the information but when it came time to add my wife going one way only, he tells me the system won't let him originate a flight from Ukraine. He then wanted to talk me into keeping my round trip ticket because it would be cheaper than going through the airline directly. Anyway, I decided I'd check that out.

I called NWA and told them what I was trying to do. I got an extra 5 hour layover since they have to use partner airlines only, but I figured that's ok. Total cost of my round trip ticket was about $800. I was pretty happy with this, especially since this was very close to what Orbitz had.

Then the shocker. She pulled the rate for my wife to join me just on the return flights. Cost: More than $2,500! I was like hmm.....that's not good.

I asked her if I could just make a round trip ticket the same as mine and have her only show up for the return flights, but she said if she does not show for the first flight they cancel the whole thing.

And now my tip for future travellers in case you don't know....I then asked her to make a round trip ticket for my wife starting with the return flight part and returning to Ukraine in a week (even though my wife will just skip this). The price came down to about $800. hahaha

Add the airlines to my hate list please...right up there with CSC!

Hope this helps someone!

Hey if you go to delta and search the trip from Kiev to atl as a roundtrip it should only be about 700. I fly to kiev on delta all the time and looking for my flight for my SO it looks like rountrip should cost me about 750 leavin Ukraine begiining of December with a return date in late Feb. Yes if you try to book roundtrip from US and skip first flight they will cancel entire flight. But if you book direct with airlines from Kiev and miss return to Ukraine what can they do? And if you call them to cancel return in advance you will have a partial credit for a year so if you go back the next set of tix will be cheaper

[zqt3344 21]

THE BEST WAY to get best price for your finance is for her to go to buy ticket from within Ukraine herself, they always get better deals and rates than you trying to buy it yourself inside USA airlines, just my experience. But the other thing you did by getting round trip ticket is best if you buy yourself from within USA, for if you get one way trip ticket you pay 3 to 4 times as much than the round trip ticket, and if they do not show to fly over with you from USA they do cancel the ticket sadly. It is a pain in ####### with airlines. AND try Aircompare.com for even lower Ukraine flights from USA. I have gotten airfare for$500 to $600 on it round trip from most midwest airports.

ZQT3344

First we must deal with immigration. And then once that's over with, then the airlines!

Ok, so I'm just going to pass on my experience hoping that it may help someone in the future.

My wife will have her interview on Oct. 29, so I decided we should have plenty of time to receive the visa if I come on Nov. 10 and bring her back to the USA with me on Nov. 17.

I'm planning to travel round trip between Atlanta, GA, USA and Kyiv, Ukraine since that's usually easier to find flights along that route. Then my wife will join me just from Kyiv, Ukraine back to Atlanta, GA, USA. I wanted Atlanta to be our only stop in the USA so that would be her port of entry (also where I live). That way even if the immigration stuff takes a long time we won't miss our connecting flight. This limited our flight options a little bit.

I logged into Orbitz to see what flights I could get since I used them in the past and they were decent. I finally found a route I liked. I figured it might be a little complicating getting my wife on the same flights as me so I decided to call Orbitz. Long story short, I painstakingly gave the guy on the other end of the phone all the information but when it came time to add my wife going one way only, he tells me the system won't let him originate a flight from Ukraine. He then wanted to talk me into keeping my round trip ticket because it would be cheaper than going through the airline directly. Anyway, I decided I'd check that out.

I called NWA and told them what I was trying to do. I got an extra 5 hour layover since they have to use partner airlines only, but I figured that's ok. Total cost of my round trip ticket was about $800. I was pretty happy with this, especially since this was very close to what Orbitz had.

Then the shocker. She pulled the rate for my wife to join me just on the return flights. Cost: More than $2,500! I was like hmm.....that's not good.

I asked her if I could just make a round trip ticket the same as mine and have her only show up for the return flights, but she said if she does not show for the first flight they cancel the whole thing.

And now my tip for future travellers in case you don't know....I then asked her to make a round trip ticket for my wife starting with the return flight part and returning to Ukraine in a week (even though my wife will just skip this). The price came down to about $800. hahaha

Add the airlines to my hate list please...right up there with CSC!

Hope this helps someone!

Hey if you go to delta and search the trip from Kiev to atl as a roundtrip it should only be about 700. I fly to kiev on delta all the time and looking for my flight for my SO it looks like rountrip should cost me about 750 leavin Ukraine begiining of December with a return date in late Feb. Yes if you try to book roundtrip from US and skip first flight they will cancel entire flight. But if you book direct with airlines from Kiev and miss return to Ukraine what can they do? And if you call them to cancel return in advance you will have a partial credit for a year so if you go back the next set of tix will be cheaper