Planning Multiple Trips to Europe? Use This Travel Hack to Save Hundreds!
Hopper explains how to use a simple trick to save hundreds – up to 20%! – on your second round-trip flight from New York to Europe.
Dakota Smith - Tue Jan 27 2015
Our previous travel hack on finding cheap flights to Europe showed travelers how to save hundreds of dollars by buying two separate tickets, one to a cheap destination and one onward to the final destination.
This travel hack is a little different, as it shows travelers how to save hundreds on their second round-trip flight to Europe by buying two separate round-trip tickets, one to the destination and another nested inside those dates from the destination to the origin.
How could this possibly save money, you ask? Well, to put it simply, airfare pricing is highly influenced by market factors such as demand and competition and flight prices from Europe to the United States are much lower than prices from the United States to Europe – despite the fact that it's the same distance and the same airlines are making the trip!
Sure, this travel hack is only useful for travelers planning multiple trips to Europe, but for anyone with family in Europe, destination weddings to attend or who just really love Europe, this trick can cut up to 20% off the price of the second flight.
Let's demonstrate how this travel hack works using New York as the departure city and Rome as the destination.
How the travel hack works:
A round-trip flight from New York to Rome non-stop is $1198 on Alitalia.
A round-trip flight the opposite direction from Rome to New York is $768 on Alitalia.
By buying both tickets and nesting one return within the other, travelers can book two trips to Rome for only $1,966 – a savings of $430!
Say, for example, you want to visit Rome once in June and once in August. You could buy a round-trip flight from New York to Rome departing in June and returning in August. You could then buy a second round-trip ticket from Rome to New York that departs in June and returns in August, effectively giving you two round-trip flights from New York to Rome.
More examples of nested returns savings on flights from New York to Europe:
A round-trip flight from New York to Berlin is $1023, but only $705 the other way
A round-trip flight from New York to Brussels is $1047, but only $754 the other way
A round-trip flight from New York to Paris is $1157, but only $800 the other way
A round-trip flight from New York to Porto is $922, but only $648 the other way
A round-trip flight from New York to Sevilla is $1054, but only $756 the other way
It's worth noting that airlines frown on the practice of nested returns, or back-to-back ticketing, as business travelers oftentimes use this trick to avoid paying surcharges for flights without a Saturday night stay. But if you use the hack sparingly and don't use it specifically to circumvent fare rules, like the Saturday night-stay discount, you should be fine.
If it sounds too risky, you can still save money on your flights to Europe by taking a look at Hopper's when to fly and buy reports, which detail the cheapest days to fly to Europe and the best time to book your tickets.