By now most of us know that Steemfest 2017 will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. It looks like it will be a wonderful time of learning and relationship building.
BUT...how to get there from here.
I always take it as a challenge to find the least expensive way to get to my destination. I subscribe to several twitter feeds, facebook pages, and even a paid service. I'll list my sources at the bottom. on to my analysis.
I realize that this community is not USA centric but that is where I'm from and this article will focus on getting to Lisbon from several major hubs in the USA. The principles in this article can be used to travel from anywhere to anywhere so read this an open mind focusing on the technique not on the starting location.
I'm from The People's Rebublic of New Jersey and the closest airport to my home is Newark's Liberty Airport. Flights from Newark happen to be direct which is great. I hit my favorite flight search engine Momondo.com with my airport preference and dates to find it's and average of 7.5 hours non stop and $527 but flies out of JFK. That airport is a pain in the neck to get to and is over an hour away and $20 in tolls. back to Momondo.com to just check just from Newark to Lisbon.
Flights are $464 but with a stop over in Toronto on the outgoing and a ( hour stop in Amsterdam on the return flight. Now that sound interesting. With 9 hours I can leave the airport, tour the city , and get back in time for my last leg home. This is the way to go. Less money and a mini vacation in Amsterdam. But I'm not done yet. I always check other large departing cities to see if the flights are cheaper. Search engines don't always get it right. Now I check for re positioning flights. These are short cheap flights that allow me to fly out of a better priced market. Sometimes this works sometimes it doesn't. I check Boston to Lisbon...$473. Too high to consider a re positioning flight. Done.
Now let's look at other major cities to Lisbon
Boston-Lisbon $473
Chicago-Lisbon $735
Dallas-Lisbon $765
Los Angeles-Lisbon $656
Miami - Lisbon $473
Washington DC - Lisbon $714
San Francisco - Lisbon $645
Seattle - Lisbon $678
These are what the search engine brought up but lets try something else. Let's see what flights are from the western cities to Boston or Newark.
Chicago - Boston $155
Dallas - Boston $152
Los Angeles - Boston $296
Washington DC - Boston $143
Seattle - Boston $298
Chicago - Newark $134
Dallas - Newark $243
Los Angeles - Newark $357
Washington DC - Newark $154
Seattle - Newark $330
Dallas - Miami $349
Los Angeles - Miami (Ft. Lauderdale) $214
Now we have our raw data. Let's put it together. By purchasing 2 separate nested tickets you can actually get from one city to the other for less....sometimes.
If you check the numbers they show that it's cheaper to book 2 separate flights for the trips starting in Chicago, Dallas and surprisingly Washington DC. While the longer haul flights are best if booked from start to finish on one ticket.
Be careful with nested tickets. Flight delays and connections can sometimes screw things up with drastic consequences such as missed flights with little or no recourse. Leave plenty of time for connections and you should be fine.
Happy travels everyone and I'll see you at Steemfest 2017.
My sources
Momondo.com The best flight search I've found for 90% plus best results.
Scott's cheap flights. Great watchdog for cheap flights and error fares
Twitter, my 3 best following
Errorfares
Secretflying
hacktheflight
and many more on twitter.