Beemer, I always let one travel or cheap.com map out my itinerary least hours 16 to 18. Its the best price and schedule 2 connections, but i cant get any better than what they offer. But still my question is after Duraks discovery is what airline is flying directly from USA to KBP ? Anyone out there know ? I cant find any online without a connection in europe.
I don't think there are direct flights except the Aerosvit from JFK. The major hubs in Europe, Moscow and Istanbul. Regardless, 16 to 18 is the best you are going to do
It is unfortunate where you live sunvolt for trying to make shorter flights and/or less connections. I was just trying to see if you can avoid Frankfurt, Vienna has easier connection at airport. I understand.....you can walk long ways to gates at Frankfurt. Luckily, I live in big city and can fly into Ukraine with only one connection and 14-15 hour flight total. There was a guy here before who lived in Kansas that like you had terrible flights due to where he lived. One place I always tried to avoid is O'Hare, the sinking pot of delayed flights. And BTW, NO direct flights from US to Ukraine now
The point I was making is 2000 pounds is not really a big expense in this game and if you are serious there is a lot of time involved, you need to take your girl to your home country, visas, marriage arrangements etc. Cost in time and money is significant.
The trip prior to me getting married involved flying from West Africa to Perth (45 hrs) a week later Perth to Kiev (24hrs) Then two weeks later Kiev to west Africa 12 Hrs. Got a DVT which moved to my lungs causing a Pulminary embolism. Spent 10 days in hospital then had to fly Dakar to Bamako to Paris then Kiev, got married there a week later flew Kiev to Paris then Seychelles for a week, Seychelles Paris for 4 days then West Africa.
Nowadays Im flying from Ulaan Bataar to Brisbane which is typically around 24hrs with layovers.
One trick to learn is not all airlines register in search engines. Turkish is a prime example. If you want the best connections it is often handy to go to Skyscanner or flight stats to see the airline arrivals and departures. This can often throw up an airline option that is not always obvious when using a search engine and different search engines can throw up significantly different fares for the same route or event airline booking engines.
hmmmmmm, skyscanner is a search engine also but uses sites that are not used in States. It is great if you have to book flight while you are in Europe. I use several to check out pricing other than skyscanner, trip advisor( only departing from USA), bookingbuddy, BTstore or economytravel....one that I have used but has promise is asap.com great pricing but details are not known till after booking. Most are search engines for various sites.
Gemini, I will see about the airline D&A next time
Sunvolt,
Delta was flying direct from JFK to KBP, and Lufthansa used to fly out of Pittsburgh to Frankfurt, but no longer. Coming from Pittsburgh, your trip will be a little longer, but you still have plenty of options. The best prices are always out of JFK, followed by Newark, then others. As a resident of the Philadelphia area I sometimes use Philly and am quite satisfied as US Airways, Lufthansa, and British Airways provide excellent connections to European hubs, but most times I book the trip out of NY for a better price, and find my own way to NYC (Megabus, Amtrak) rather than pay several hundred for a flight from Philly to JFK as part of an expensive package. You should check out Condor, which is now owned by Lufthansa and is Germany's second or third largest airline (they are neck and neck with Air Berlin) as they fly out of BWI direct to Frankfurt for only a couple of months in the summer. The prices seem very good at www.condor.com.
As far as jet lag goes, I feel you pain as I can't sleep on those planes either. It would be a lot easier for me if I were able to travel across the ocean during the day. American Airlines has for years run a couple of morning flights out of JFK to London. I've never taken one, but it sure would be easier on me and I could hit the ground running the next day.