Airfare to Copenhagen - Update

Ever since we booked the cruise from Copenhagen we have been checking out flights and watching fares.

If you haven't read my first blog about booking flights to Europe read it first by clicking here.  

Today we found the best deal and the best routing.

Our main issue was our flight to Copenhagen.  Our options from Halifax were

Option One:  Halifax to Toronto (2 hour layover) then flight to Copenhagen getting in at 910 am.  Nervous about the two hour layover as often you have to change terminals and this would not give us enough time. Also the arrival time of 9:10 was difficult as what do we do with bags and exhaustion until we can check in.  

Option Two: Halifax to Munich (6 hour layover) then flight to Copenhagen getting in at 5 pm. The long flight was a better airplane type.  Yes there is a long layover but it really ends up being only 2 hours longer than option one.  We clear immigration into the EU in Munich.  Also arriving at 5pm allows us to check in to accommodations right away.  

Both options were about the same price. 

We ended up going with Option Two!  And a similar flight for our return home but a shorter layover.  

And we found it for a good price of $1,046 Canadian each.  Note that Princess' easy air service was $1,100 US!  Which was shocking and made the decision to book our own flights an easy one.

I guess the point of  this blog is to say, get a great travel agent who will do all this kind of work for you.  Or if you do your own flight bookings, search numerous options and track costs (often as easy as getting the site to email you daily the current price of the flight you are watching).  Weigh out what is right for YOU.  What I like is not going to be what you like. And enjoy.

We are arriving in Denmark and will have four nights to explore the city!

Now off to narrow down accommodations.  Some of the best parts of travelling is the researching.

Airfare to Copenhagen

Wow airfare is expensive to Northern Europe.  

First thing we checked out was Princess Air.  We have always had good experiences with Princess Air and the price has always been very competitive.  Unfortunately this time it is not.  Not sure why, but the price was at least 30% more than what I was finding on line.

We looked at a few options.

First option - Round trip direct to Copenhagen.  

Second option - One way direct (meaning one booking) to Copenhagen.

Third option - One way with a cheaper flight to a major hub (London, Dublin or Frankfurt were options from Halifax) and then a cheap separate booked flight to Copenhagen.

Armed with my note pad I started surfing and checking prices.  I did look in an incognito window so that my browser did not follow and trace the continual flight checks.

So results.

First option - Prices were the highest and the routing was not that great.

Second option - Not bad prices, and better flight options.  Also with booking with one booking number so if there is an issue with connecting to 2nd flight we are covered.  Also only have to pay bag fees once.  

Third option - Very good price to London or Dublin, and even Frankfurt (under $400 Cdn).  Then a cheap flight to Copenhagen (around $100).  But we would have to ensure we have a long enough layover to clear customs, get bags, and re check in for second flight and clear security.  Also if there is an issue with connecting to second flight we could be in trouble.  Also we would have to pay bag fees for each flight.  

In the end I think we will go with the second option for a bit higher price (around $600 Cdn.) but more security and no extra fees for bags.

We will book as two one way flights as again it is much cheaper than booking the return flight.

Key in the end is to look at all options and find out what is right for you.