DS is flying to Copenhagen in March for spring break. Closest airport to us is Austin, but he could also fly from San Antonio or DFW or even Houston. So far, we’ve found airfare to be in the $1100-1300 range and nearly every itinerary has two stops. Anybody with experience flying from Texas to Copenhagen? United has a couple of choices (Austin to Newark, Newark to London, London to Copenhagen) and there’s also one from Austin to JFK on JetBlue, then British Airways from JFK to London and Copenhagen. We are not frequent flyers at all and have never flown overseas, but just from news reports, he should probably avoid United if possible. Any thoughts?
Your best bet might be British Airways from Austin to London and on to Copenhagen.
Play with the dates as the fare vary from one day to the other. A flyer without much experience should stick to the fewest connections.
PS This is a codeshare with American Airlines. Same deal!
Is your DS flying alone or with a group? If with a group, he may wish to have the same ticket and itinerary as the rest of the group. I have mostly flown United all my life and have been OK with them. I’d suggest he try to stick with the came airlines on all his flights if possible, so they can fix things if something goes wrong on one leg of the itinerary or a connection is missed. They are more likely to do so if ALL his flights are with the same airlines than if he is on a bunch of different airlines, in our experience.
If possible, get him to DFW so he doesn’t have a third connection to deal with. The bigger the airport, the higher the probability of a more direct flight. Are you using Kayak or Orbitz or another of the search travel engines? …They make life so much easier! Just plug in all the variables and see which flights they find! Another hint: make sure he has necessities in a carry-on bag. Connections for overseas flights increase the odds of luggage loss and it can take several days for luggage to catch up to you!
^^ No need to drive to DFW to catch the BA/AA flight to London. One departs from Austin Bergstrom. Also, the simpler google search is just as convenient as Kayak.
See above link for BA or this one for AA
Thanks for those replies. He is flying alone (he has flown alone several times before, but always inside the U.S.). And we are trying to stick with a backpack and a carry-on, so he doesn’t have to check anything. We have looked on Kayak and various others. I kind of like the British Airways option the best.
There was one flight I saw (and discarded) because it had a one-hour layover with a gate change in London. I told him that I wouldn’t want a one-hour layover with a gate chance in Houston, much less London! Too tight of a window in my book.
My daughter is currently living in Copenhagen while she is working on her master’s. She has found Scandinavian Airlines or Norwegian Air to have the best prices. SA flies out of Dulles or Newark and they have nonstop flights, so if he can fly to one of those airports then he would only have one stop. Norwegian Air flies from JFK, so same deal. We have been able to find nonstop flights from Newark or Dulles for $745. We look on Kayak, and then when we find it, we go directly to the airline website. One time it wasn’t available on the SK site, so we had to buy through Kayak, but it worked out okay.
Try SAS air and enter austin to CPH. Play around with the dates for good pricing and make note that they price each way. He should be able to travel direct from Chicago, Dulles or New York. Copenhagen is one of our favorite destinations.
Okay, question for British Airways / Heathrow experts . . . the BA flight from JFK arrives at Heathrow at 7:55 a.m. The BA flight from Heathrow to Copenhagen departs at 8:55 a.m. Will one hour be enough to get from (presumably) one British Airways gate to the next? These flights are listed as a package on Priceline, so I assume one hour is okay. He would already be through security, so he would just need to get from the arrival gate to the departure gate. Right??
When we connected from BA at Heathrow to Berlin, we had to go through another security checkpoint. We had 45-50 minutes to make it to our gate (gate “closed” 5 or 10 minutes before departure), but we wouldn’t have made it without those “jump the line passes” and if our connecting flight had not been delayed. Maybe we had further to go, but that seems pretty tight, especially if there are any issues with the departing flight in the US. I remember being confused why we had to go through security again, but we absolutely did. I was so tired, so I can’t remember all the details, like did we have to change terminals. It seemed like we had to walk a good distance to get to where our connecting flight was.
Okay, Nrds, you’ve talked me out of that one! The one-hour window already made me nervous. I think there was another one that had a 2 1/2 hour layover so I’ll focus on that one.
Cgpm, in theory the one hour layover when you are sticking to the same airlines “should” be sufficient. In practice, that airport is so messed up with changes in procedures is that it is a crapshoot. One day they might send you to the gate under “escort” and the next they might send the entire plane through customs and immigration. Probably depends on the tea the boss had in the morning.
The real question is why you’d want a connection via JFK from Austin to London when you have a direct flight. I do not think that the difference in price will make the extra stop worth its while – if it turns out to be cheaper. I posted a link to the direct British/AA flight from Austin to London and onto CPH above. Does it not fly around the dates you are interested in?
The bottom line is that the 60 minutes connection MIGHT work but that the 2 hours one will present a lot fewer problems. Fwiw, you will feel a lot better with a AUS to LON connection as you will know when the flight departs as opposed to have your child on a multiple connection and especially through airports such as Chicago or JFK when the weather is still iffy. The only reason I’d take a AUS to Chicago flight would be to have a DIRECT connection to Copenhagen. In so many words, one stop at the most should be feasible.
Xiggi, the first link you posted looks like it has dates of March 10 and March 24, so I went to British Airways website and entered his dates of March 13 and March 30. That direct flight from Austin to London and London to Copenhagen flight is there, along with a similar return flight on the 20th. But the ticket is over $1600.
The other American Airlines link, with workable times, is about $1300, so that is definitely a possibility.
The Jet Blue/British Airways combination is less than $1100, but that’s the one-hour layover in London, so I think it’s worth another $200 for the American itinerary that includes more time to get around in Heathrow.
I tried looking up Southwest flights to Chicago or Newark and then booking another airline to get the direct flight to Copenhagen. But it doesn’t work out any cheaper. I think some of the problem might be that the week of March 13-20 is the big South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, and people come here from all over the world. So, a lot of the airfares are higher that week, just due to good ol’ supply and demand.
I’m definitely going to check more into that American itinerary in the $1300 range; thanks for identifying that one.
CGP, you are correct as I just wildly used dates. The fares are changing on a day to day basis. Weekend departures are most often a bit higher. Your dates did indeed bump the fare to 1600 dollars and one that you should beat with a different scenario. Fwiw, I did this and found an option that might be attractive – despite a longer layover in Newark. Some people like to have the only connection in the US and then wake up at their destination. Connections in Europe in their morning can be brutal and especially hard when traveling solo. Take a look at this:
Not ideal on the return but you might find one that works better and is at lower cost. The google flight search works pretty well as a starting point. I moved to the 29th and I think it looks better
https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=AUS;t=CPH;d=2015-03-13;r=2015-03-29;sel=AUSEWR0UA381-EWRCPH0SK910;s=1 or
https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=AUS;t=CPH;d=2015-03-13;r=2015-03-29;sel=AUSEWR0UA381-EWRCPH0SK910,CPHORD0SK943-ORDAUS0UA709;s=1
and finally on your dates for less than 1200 dollars
https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=AUS;t=CPH;d=2015-03-13;r=2015-03-30;sel=AUSEWR0UA381-EWRCPH0SK910;s=1
Outbound flight
Fri, Mar 13
6:28 am – 11:01 am
Austin – Newark · AUS–EWR
United 381 · Economy class · Airbus A319
3h 33m
Layover in Newark EWR
7h 29m
6:30 pm – 7:10 am+1
Newark – Copenhagen · EWR–CPH
SAS 910 · Economy class · Airbus A330
Overnight flight
7h 40m
Return flight
Mon, Mar 30
3:40 pm – 5:40 pm
Copenhagen – Chicago · CPH–ORD
SAS 943 · Economy class · Airbus A340
9h 00m
Layover in Chicago ORD
1h 15m
6:55 pm – 9:56 pm
Chicago – Austin · ORD–AUS
United 1684 · Economy class · Boeing 737
You might want to click around dates and find what works at the correct pricing. Leaving on Thursday knocks it down closer to 1,000 dollars.
HTH
PS SXSW is a must-attend week for me, and you are correct about the fares going wild around those days. This brings DFW into play! So many options 
Xiggi, while I’m certain DS would looooooove to stay in Copenhagen from March 13 through March 29 or 30, he “regrettably” 
has to be back in class on Monday, March 23. I’ve found an SAS flight from Austin to Chicago and direct from Chicago to Copenhagen; it’s in the $1400 range, but it sounds like a one-stop combined with avoiding Heathrow would be well worth it.
Two years ago, DS’ best buddies all went to SXSW but he unfortunately was recovering from ACL surgery that he had right before spring break. He was in a big knee brace and on big-time pain meds, so there was no SXSW for him. Last year, he got a week-long pass and went the entire week. One of his buddies was clued in to getting passes for all the big shows, so they got in to the Jay-Z/Kanye West show and the Jimmy Kimmel show taping the night that Lady Gaga was on, and one or two of the other big shows. He had a blast. I was kind of surprised that he didn’t want to do that again, but I think he sees the advantage of visiting his best friend in Copenhagen. He can always go to SXSW in future years.
Oops! And I thought I used your dates as in “Xiggi, the first link you posted looks like it has dates of March 10 and March 24, so I went to British Airways website and entered his dates of March 13 and March 30.”
Anyhow, the trick remains to look at many alternatives and monitor the fares for a bit. My hunch is that you might see new lower fares in a few days/weeks after the airlines digest the holidays craziness.
Spending only one week in Denmark might make sense for … your wallet. It’s not exactly a cheap destination. Will you let your kid go to http://noma.dk/
Best of luck to find the airfare that makes sense. I think you will!
PS The fares are still between 1100 and 1200 with departure on the 12th or 13th and return on the 22nd.
https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=AUS;t=CPH;d=2015-03-12;r=2015-03-22;s=1
Kitchen pass for the last day of school?
Thanks for everyone’s input yesterday; we now have tickets purchased! He does have to make two stops, but the overall travel time is actually shorter than nearly all the other flights, not to mention we got the tickets for just over $1000. It’s a combo United/SAS ticket and we managed to avoid Heathrow. On the way over, he’ll change plans in Amsterdam; on the way back, in Oslo. Since he is going with strictly carry-on luggage, he’ll be fine. Plus, the layover times between each plane change are very reasonable, not too long and not too short. He is now officially excited! Just have to remind him he’s got six weeks of class between now and then.
Congrats on checking that off your list! Amsterdam is a wonderful airport to spend time in. Just remind him that he will have to go through passport control in Amsterdam if he leaves from a different terminal (all connected) and to keep an eye on how long the the line is. They typically have one or two lines for NON EU and multiple lines for EU so it can move slower than he may anticipate.
You may want to send along one of those TSA approved combination locks in case he needs to check his carry on for his return. International airports can at times view luggage and “carry-ons” in a different light.
Don’t forget to stop by your bank a couple weeks before he departs and surprise him by ordering some Danish Kroner so he has some “pocket money” in case the cash machine is acting up.
And for sure have him email himself and you a copy of his passport. (this makes it always accessible)
You probably don’t need all this detail from me…but…Make sure his cell phone carrier has him set up for International. We have AT&T and have found it helpful with our kids to purchase a short term international texting plan and depending on the child, data for the time he will travel. (we have one who forgot to turn off his data roaming…ouch)
He is a lucky boy! If taking a credit card, be sure to let them know his travel dates.
AMS also has a short connection line. I would not worry about missing a connection through AMS as long as it was an allowable connection time.