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Tips for buying intercontinental flight tickets?

category: general [glöplog]
So I am planning my travel to Revision 2015 and I am facing a big issue: A roundtrip flight ticket is 4 times more expensive (1600 euros) than the base price. Maybe I should have bought it before. But anyway...

Is there any kind of tip you guys could give me for buying cheapers tickets?
If I can't get a flight ticket that costs at least 800 euros, I believe it will not be the first time I attend the party again. :'(
added on the 2015-01-11 19:33:01 by Danguafer Danguafer
Where did you look?
added on the 2015-01-11 19:48:42 by Gargaj Gargaj
swoodoo ?
added on the 2015-01-11 19:50:14 by .. ..
I have two questions. Can you cope in confined spaces, such as a small cage? And have you any objections to wearing a monkey suit?
added on the 2015-01-11 19:52:01 by Mtl Mtl
Guess we gotta know from where exactly you want to start and land. Sometimes choosing a different airport already makes big difference. Or different day (maybe arrive a day earlier or leave later, whatevs), etc.
added on the 2015-01-11 19:58:06 by elend elend
Maybe flying to cologne, frankfurt or frankfurt-hahn might already make a big difference - saarbrücken airport isn´t a major destination, and travelling by bus or train from one of the other airports is not a big deal. or even a more distant easy to reach city and trying to join other sceners travelling to the corner of nowher... erm Saarbrücken

(btw - your group website seems to be unreachable)
added on the 2015-01-11 23:41:32 by T$ T$
Also, try looking for more dates around Easter if you can afford taking a few more days off.
Try google.com/flights and set your destination as somewhere like Paris. You can get a direct train from Paris to Saarbrucken very cheaply.
added on the 2015-01-12 00:52:41 by dotwaffle dotwaffle
Gargaj: I'ved looked on skyscanner and other national alternatives. And U$1000 is a lot better :)
daXX: I did it right now. Still expensive.
Mtl: That would be animal traffic :<
elend: I am leaving from São Paulo - Brazil. I found better flight choices to Frankfurt.
T$: I will try looking for some options on those cities. And thanks for alerting me about the website!
Saga Musix: Unfortunately I can't :(
dotwaffle: I didn't know that service, thanks for pointing out.
added on the 2015-01-12 02:20:32 by Danguafer Danguafer
The best option I got so far is travelling to Frankfurt.

But I still have a ~2h travel from there to Saarbruecken. Does anyone know how much it cost?
added on the 2015-01-12 02:22:01 by Danguafer Danguafer
~50. oneway.
added on the 2015-01-12 02:38:33 by yumeji yumeji
Check the Bahn website. A quick check for me came up with the same result as yumegi, ~€ 50 one way for a route with no train swaps. If you don't mind swapping trains, it seems to go down to ~€ 40. Anyway, it's not too bad.

Depending on when you're coming in, you can perhaps see about meeting up with some other sceners for the trip in. There's more than a few that come in via Frankfurt, myself included.
Oh and I should say, that even though you can book with the Bahn website it is entirely possible to get your ticket in the airport too. I did that last year, but had to wait in the very short line for an actual person because I couldn't get the automated machines to list Saarbrücken as a stop.
There's also (usually) airport shuttles straight to the partyplace.
added on the 2015-01-12 02:59:58 by Gargaj Gargaj
Ah yes, sorry. I've come in on Thursday every year so not much of a choice there, and I believe the shuttles happen at an odd time if you want to stick around for all of the remainder of the party on Monday. (I leave on Tuesday, so train both ways for me!)

The complete 2015 site isn't up yet, but it should be soon enough, so here's a link to last year's airport shuttle page for an idea. It would think they'll offer them again. You have to remember to register to guarantee your spot when they do appear, you can't just hope to catch one on the fly.
http://www.rome2rio.com/fr/s/São-Paulo/Saarbrücken lists some other alternative airports (and includes the bus/train routes to get to Saarbrücken, as well). Beware, the prices are approximative but you get an idea which flights you can search for.
http://www.skyscanner.com is my flight-search engine of choice
added on the 2015-01-12 10:42:00 by v3nom v3nom
Frankfurt is a common pick, just fly there.
Train is not that expensive and there is that shuttle option as well.

Train swaps are easy if you want to go cheap. Just buy a ticket to your destination and you can print out a whole travel plan from the machine.
It's of course a tad bit slower but always got me to my destination without problems.

But my advice? Use the party shuttle :)
This way you can drink all the way, kick-start the inevitable terrible jokes and puns with other sceners and not having to worry about missing your stop.

These have always been well organized and cheap.


Flights? Hard one. Without extra "buffer days", you will end up paying quite a bit.
Not does it only knock cheaper days away but other airports that are moderately close as well since it might take quite some time to travel with a train.
added on the 2015-01-12 15:01:46 by oasiz oasiz
29 EUR each way 2nd class, 1h45m train, direct Paris to Saarbrucken:

http://www.thetrainline-europe.com/plan/paris-to-saarbr%C3%BCcken-hbf/2015-04-03/morning/return/2015-04-07/12-33

Far easier than the Frankfurt trip too :)
added on the 2015-01-12 15:05:05 by dotwaffle dotwaffle
I haven't myself tried but I've heard some good things about this site: Flightfox

It might save your day&money so try to give it a go.
added on the 2015-01-12 17:05:44 by waffle waffle
Also note that long-distance buses are much cheaper than Deutsche Bahn. Check out eg. flixbus and meinfernbus. Both offer a direct connection from Frankfurt to Saarbrücken and back for usually 10€ one-way.
Revision provided shuttle buses will probably cost 25€ as last year and will start of different times (just assuming on previous years experience - no guarantee)
added on the 2015-01-12 19:39:18 by v3nom v3nom
Sometimes you can find cheap Deutsche Bahn tickets on long distance bus search pages that aren't offered on the Deutsche Bahn website itself.
added on the 2015-01-12 20:34:02 by Kabuto Kabuto
i think with flight costs in the close-to-4digit-numbers 10 euros more or less for the last trip to the party are not that important? ^^
added on the 2015-01-12 20:42:29 by wysiwtf wysiwtf

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