The Cold Turnkey

Back in the days of I Love Lucy, when people would want to cross the Atlantic they’d have to carefully consider whether they should go on a ship or by plane. Now everyone is concerned with flights to Europe, and only a very few people go by boat. When looking for a cheap price on a seat to Europe the best place to start is flying into London and then booking a separate flight to your final destination. There are many discount airlines operating in Europe, and you can’t take them from the States, but you can take them cheaply once you land in one of the bigger cities there. But before you try this approach you have to realize there are potential downsides to it as well.

One tricky thing is often the flights into London land at Heathrow, and then the cheaper flights on to other European cities leave from Gatwick or Luton. You might be able to save a bit of money on this combination of flights, but you have to weigh that against the amount of time it takes to get from Heathrow to the other airport. Most flights across the Atlantic land in Europe in the morning, so it’s possible to get into Heathrow at 8am and then be on a flight out of Gatwick at noon, but what kind of a way is that to start out a fun vacation?

You can also try the same trick flying into Frankfurt, Paris, or Amsterdam, but it’s a bit harder to save money this way since the flights to those cities are usually higher than to London, and the flights to the next place will be the same price, more or less.