Best approach for multi-destination international flights

In My Humble Opinion
1

This October, I’m excited to attend an international family reunion in southern Italy.

I’ll be in/near Cosenza for the event, and afterwards will spend a few days in Paris with my mom and uncle before heading back to the US.

The airport in Cosenza doesn’t have many direct flights, but it does connect to Rome.

So, I’m thinking that I might fly out two days early to spend time in Rome. Then fly to Cosenza, then to Paris, then home.

I’m trying to figure out how best to approach ticket-buying. Flying one way into Rome, and then returning home one-way from Paris is a non-starter $$-wise, so I am thinking about “nesting” some flights: Montreal<>Paris would be on the outside. Then 3 one-way tix from Paris to Rome, Rome to Cosenza, and then Cosenza to Paris.

My first question is: is this dumb and/or is there a better approach?

My second question, presuming I separately book a flight from Paris to Rome for the same day I fly into Paris: how does that work with security/customs? Will I have to queue up to re-enter through security after going through customs, or will I be able to go directly to my next flight?

(I suppose there’s another approach, which would be to fly in and out of Rome. That would simplify my arrival, but then coming home I’d be flying one-way from Paris to Rome to then catch my flight home, which feels risky)

2

You’re not booking separate one-way flights; you’re booking a multi-city trip or, as it’s sometimes known in the trade, an open-jaw return.

I just went to Webjet and priced Montreal-Rome return (out on 1 April; home on 15 April; dates chosen at random because you have to put in some dates to get a quote). That was priced at $998 with Delta; $1,020 with Air Canada.

Then I priced an open jaw return for the same dates, out to Rome but home from Paris — Delta $998; Air Canada $1,020.

Obviously, these are not your dates, but they do suggest that flying out to one European city and home from another is not inherently more expensive.

For travel within Europe, on the budget airlines buying one-way tickets is the norm. The cost of a return ticket on any route would simply be the sum of the cost of the two one-way flights that you select.

Cosenza itself is not a city you can fly to; there’s no airport. The nearest airport would be Lamezia Terme, about 45km away. For the last leg of the journey you’d be on a bus or in a hire car. And it has limited services; flying into Rome and then on to Lamezia Terme would not be a problem, but if you then wanted to go from Lamezia Terme to, say, Paris, you’re probably looking at connecting in Rome or Milan.

You could consider the alternative of flying into Naples, which I think would be the nearest airport with transatlantic services, and then going on by rail to Costanza. Doing the last leg by rail would cost less than by air, and might be easier and less stressful.

On the second question, if you fly into Rome, you’ll deal with customs and immigration on arrival in Rome. Flying on from Rome to Paris will not involve any more customs or immigration controls. Exactly the same would be true if you flew into Paris and then on to Rome; all flights between countries in the Schengen zone are basically internal flights.

3

Most of my trips to Europe have been open jaw tickets, and they were not any more expensive than a single pair. And this is over the last 25 years.

Unless there’s some kind of screaming deal on a particular route.

4

I will third this. We flew into Venice and out of Rome in March and just took trains in between. In 2019 we flew into Tallinn, Estonia and out of Copenhagen. With stops in 4 other cities we booked separate flights, trains, and busses.

If you have checked baggage on separate tickets, you typically have to clear immigration, pick up your bags, clear customs, recheck your bags, and go back through security. With carry on only, you can just clear immigration, possibly reclear security (we had to last time we transited CDG, but not in FRA), and then head to your gate.

5

Have you looked at booking them all on the same airline? I am doing something like this in June, going to Paris, then Dublin, then home. I thought about booking one way there and back, but the trip back from Dublin was well over $1000 itself and the flight to Paris was $700+. I got all three for $1700. I went with United so tickets were a bit more expensive, but looking at a lot of other sites they were not a whole lot more, and they were a lot easier over all.

6

It’s been a decade since I’ve traveled in Europe (I’m due for a visit!) but I seem to recall that non-EU residents don’t get the full benefit of the Schengen area when travelling by air. There’s a different departure and arrival procedure including some passport verification but it wasn’t nearly as daunting as North American security theatre. Just a different lineup, as I remember it (UK to Germany and back to a different airport in the UK, pre-Brexit; our British friend who was traveling with us skipped ahead and met us on the other side each time).

7

More and more countries are moving to eGates and the new Schengen electronic tracking system will eliminate passport stamping entirely. Otherwise there is not much different for EU residents.

Note that some low cost carriers like Ryan Air require that non-EU/EEA/UK passengers are required to have a printed boarding pass and that documents be verified by an airline agent and the boarding pass stamped or they will be refused boarding.

8

Thanks for the thoughts all! Maybe I’m looking things up incorrectly, but when I use Google to look up flights from YUL to CDG for my dates (Oct 8-Oct 17), I see round-trip tickets for ~$635.

When I look up one way YUL to FCO, I see one-way tickets for $691, and then one-way home from Paris for $1300+. So, it looks like easily 3x cost to book “open-jaw” travel.

@UDS1 , yeah, I’ll be flying into Lamezia Terme, which is why I am considering Rome as a stopping point: I can get there direct from home, and then it’s one flight from there to SUF.

I won’t have any baggage. I don’t travel a lot compared to some, but I’ve flown internationally 3 times in the last 8 years, and I’m comfortable doing so with a single soft backpack/luggage piece (laundry in the sink after day 5 or so).

9

Go to the Google Flights page (not just the small search box) and select Multi-City. I don’t know if this link will work for you, but this is for your dates and route and gives a TOTAL fare of $644 on Air Canada / Lufthansa.

https://www.google.com/travel/flights/booking?tfs=CBwQAho_EgoyMDI0LTEwLTA4Ih8KA1lVTBIKMjAyNC0xMC0wOBoDRkNPKgJBQzIDODkyagcIARIDWVVMcgcIARIDRkNPGj8SCjIwMjQtMTAtMTciHwoDQ0RHEgoyMDI0LTEwLTE3GgNZVUwqAkFDMgM4NzVqBwgBEgNDREdyBwgBEgNZVUxAAUgBcAGCAQsI____________AZgBAw&tfu=CnBDalJJTmxJNWNHZzVaRzV3TjJkQlJURkpiMUZDUnkwdExTMHRMUzB0TFMxdmRXZHBPRUZCUVVGQlIxZDRVRUZaUWxGb1ZXZEJFZ2RCUXpnM05TTXhHZ3NJc3YwREVBSWFBMVZUUkRnY2NMTDlBdz09EgIIASIDEgEx

All the major airline sites also have “multi-city” options. The more unusual your itinerary, the less likely it is that google will be picking up fares from all airlines correctly, and the more variable the pricing will be among airlines, so it’s worth checking around extensively before booking.

10

That’s not open-jaw multi-city travel, that’s two one-way tickets. Gotta find the multi-city setting in your booking tools.

edit: beaten to the punch by @Eonwe

11

Amazing, thanks! This is exactly what I was hoping for!

12

Have you considered trains for intra-Europe travel? European trains are generally inexpensive and reliable and fast, and a lot less trouble than flying. Plus you get to see actual scenery. Even Cosenza to Paris (probably you would change trains in Naples) would make a nice day trip. Just a thought. We did that in 2017 (flew to Paris, trains to Milan, Venice, Naples, Rome, flew back home) and I loved it.