Airline insanity (Kalwejt and I in Warsaw!)

[Franzl]

Air travel is so (inks)ing expensive this year, and I decided to subject myself to something that would seem to prove my insanity.

Round-trip flights to Chicago from Frankfurt are going for about 800-1000€ on the dates I'm interested in.

I managed to book something for slightly over 600€...via Warsaw, Helsinki and Manchester.


Question: Am I insane?

[fezzyfestoon]

Oh boy, that'll be fun. I might be wary after the second stop. I don't know though, that's a pretty fantastic deal. I think it's doable.

[CLARENCE 2015!]

Not at all...but I''d try to get one of those carry-on bags and fit all your luggage in there so you don't risk your luggage being lost

http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=8&id=42

I recently bought two of these for my upcoming trip to Europe...Rick Steves recommends minimizing your luggage which makes sense as I can't haul much thru busy town squares and up a bunch of stairs...
The side benefit is that it won't get lost if you carry it on- just don't leave it on the plane!

[Tender Branson]

Air travel is so (inks)ing expensive this year, and I decided to subject myself to something that would seem to prove my insanity.

Round-trip flights to Chicago from Frankfurt are going for about 800-1000€ on the dates I'm interested in.

I managed to book something for slightly over 600€...via Warsaw, Helsinki and Manchester.


Question: Am I insane?

Maybe I find something better ...

Franzl, when is your travel window ?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I managed to book something for slightly over 600€...via Warsaw, Helsinki and Manchester.

And you haven't stop for a beer?

How dissapointing.

[ZuWo]

Yes, that's really a bit insane.

And I had qualms about flying from Zurich to Alicante via Dusseldorf last year because I thought it was complete nonsense...

[Bacon King]

I have an acquaintance who did something similar; he was flying IIRC to Berlin from the US, and the cheapest option was to take some Polish airline, fly directly into Warsaw, and then have like three layovers back and forth at other Polish cities before finally flying to Berlin. Apparently he even had luggage that managed to make the trip as well.

[patrick1]

It was nice knowing you Franzl.

[Boris]

I'm doing basically the same thing. Travelling from Chicago to Amsterdam, but doing layovers in London and Helsinki for a fifteen hour journey to save like $400. Definitely worth it IMO.

[Mr. Morden]

I did a round-the-world trip in December/January.  Australia->Israel(for a conference)->USA(to visit family for X-mas)->Australia.

The first leg was supposed to be Sydney->Tel Aviv with layovers in Bangkok and Amman.  It was supposed to take ~24 hours.  But the flight out of Sydney was delayed by four hours, so I missed the connection out of Bangkok.  In Bangkok, they told me that they'd already automatically rebooked the rest of my trip, but via London, and there was nothing I could do about it without paying full price for a new ticket.  So I flew all the way to London, stayed in Heathrow for nearly a full day, then flew to Tel Aviv, arriving ~48 hours after I first arrived in the airport in Sydney.  Then it took another ~24 hours for my luggage to arrive.

[Torie]

Well I might very well do the same thing, so if you are insane Franzl, I am in a zone for which no word has yet been coined (I could probably manage to cut down my pot consumption by a few percent or give Mittens a bit less money to cover the difference and so forth and so on). The insanity of airline pricing structures and procedures, and airlines in general, and airports in general, must be undermined and frustrated in every way possible. Fight back!  Bring it all down!  And with the money saved, savor even more what you eventually spend it on.

[Vosem]

Me, my father, and my brother once flew Cleveland-Minneapolis-San Diego-Edmonton once instead of a direct Cleveland-O'Hare-Edmonton, saving $150 per person.

[minionofmidas]

Air travel is so (inks)ing expensive this year, and I decided to subject myself to something that would seem to prove my insanity.

Round-trip flights to Chicago from Frankfurt are going for about 800-1000€ on the dates I'm interested in.

I managed to book something for slightly over 600€...via Warsaw, Helsinki and Manchester.


Question: Am I insane?

Wouldn't hitchhiking have taken less time, been even cheaper, and saved you the ordeal that is air travel?

The answer is no, of course.

[Franzl]

Kalwejt and I met in Warsaw a short while ago! Was a very nice day. About to board flight to Helsinki...

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Now I finally meet a living Atlas poster!

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Awww how cute ^__^

Either Franzl is really tall or Kal is really short

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Awww how cute ^__^

Either Franzl is really tall or Kal is really short

I'm 1,72 cm, hardly an impresive height.

And yes, Franzl is definitively not small

[Tender Branson]

I think I've never seen a pic of Franzl before ...

[Хahar 🤔]

Stalinist architecture is cool.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Stalinist architecture is cool.

You bet.

[AndrewTX]

You met at an airport? That's super creepy. I tend to meet people from forums at rest stop bathrooms.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

You met at an airport? That's super creepy. I tend to meet people from forums at rest stop bathrooms.

Nope, we meet at downtown.

[Napoleon]

I'm jealous.

[opebo]

Well I might very well do the same thing, so if you are insane Franzl, I am in a zone for which no word has yet been coined (I could probably manage to cut down my pot consumption by a few percent or give Mittens a bit less money to cover the difference and so forth and so on). The insanity of airline pricing structures and procedures, and airlines in general, and airports in general, must be undermined and frustrated in every way possible. Fight back!  Bring it all down!  And with the money saved, savor even more what you eventually spend it on.

You don't fly first class?

[The Mikado]

Congrats, Franzl!

Glad you and Kal got along.