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Found LAX-DUB nonstop on Ethiopian Airlines for $1250-1300, easily $200-300 less than the one-stop competition. I'm a novice at booking so should I book now or can I afford to wait?
That doesn't seem like a good deal at all. Don't book that.
Are you opposed to a stopover?
I fly to Europe from Toronto, ON, notorious for its high airport taxes and I still would never pay more than $800 or so for a round trip in to Western Europe from there. In fact, in a few weeks I have a flight from YYZ to Brussels and back which cost me $650, with just a single stop in Philadelphia. I know LAX is thousands of km West of YYZ, but it still seems quite disproportionate. Try to find something for around $900-$1000.
Those 'thousands of km West of YYZ' do often make a difference. Seems like the only relatively cheap west coast-Europe flights I've seen lately have been Norwegian to Oslo or Copenhagen and then the US legacy carriers dropping price to compete.
Hadn't realized Ethiopian had negotiated fifth freedom rights to Ireland, but the complete route of the flight makes sense. They don't seem to be perking through the usual databases yet for that route either. Nothing wrong with the airline from a safety or service standpoint- they're a member of one of the big alliances and recently made good with the FAA. But if you feel more comfortable with a more familiar name, I'd give it a couple weeks and see if they trigger a bit of a fare war with United, Delta, Aer Lingus, and the like once those $800 fares really get entrenched in the ITA Matrix database. Check ever few days and see if it goes down. No real rush at this point.
That doesn't seem like a good deal at all. Don't book that.
Are you opposed to a stopover?
I fly to Europe from Toronto, ON, notorious for its high airport taxes and I still would never pay more than $800 or so for a round trip in to Western Europe from there. In fact, in a few weeks I have a flight from YYZ to Brussels and back which cost me $650, with just a single stop in Philadelphia. I know LAX is thousands of km West of YYZ, but it still seems quite disproportionate. Try to find something for around $900-$1000.
Not opposed to a stopover (until the Ethiopian Airlines flight starts in June, that is actually the only option to Dublin). However, in this case all the stopover options are costing significantly more and are not favourably competitive to other European destinations.
Those 'thousands of km West of YYZ' do often make a difference. Seems like the only relatively cheap west coast-Europe flights I've seen lately have been Norwegian to Oslo or Copenhagen and then the US legacy carriers dropping price to compete.
Hadn't realized Ethiopian had negotiated fifth freedom rights to Ireland, but the complete route of the flight makes sense. They don't seem to be perking through the usual databases yet for that route either. Nothing wrong with the airline from a safety or service standpoint- they're a member of one of the big alliances and recently made good with the FAA. But if you feel more comfortable with a more familiar name, I'd give it a couple weeks and see if they trigger a bit of a fare war with United, Delta, Aer Lingus, and the like once those $800 fares really get entrenched in the ITA Matrix database. Check ever few days and see if it goes down. No real rush at this point.
Does "only 7 (or some other number) tickets remaining at this price" mean I'm out of luck later or may there be inventory opening up?
I checked the Norwegian website and there are no available connecting fares to Dublin. Also, I would be nervous flying with them because of their notorious delays.
It's absurd what travel to Europe is costing these days... I remember just 6 to 7 years ago flying to London for $600 roundtrip from LA during May, now that same ticket is north of $1300!!
Here is a tip. Look for the cheapest flight to Dublin from any North American airport. Then look at what it will cost you to get to that airport. You do not need to do the whole thing on one ticket.
For example, we are flying to Singapore and then back from Hong Kong in February/March. Cheapest flight we found was out of LAX. But we live in Arizona. So we will simply buy separate tickets from Phoenix to LAX, probably with Southwest for an extra cost of $145 per person round trip. The saving we are making on the flights more than covers the additional cost.
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