Hello all:
First time posting here. I travel from the west coast to continental Europe (EU, plus Switzerland and Norway, excluding Bulgaria and Romania) usually once per year for leisure. My aching body cannot stand econ seats, and thus I buy business class tickets. However, I don't have an unlimited budget.
Deals on biz class to Europe from the west coast are very rare. I would like to avoid quasi-business seats such as those offered by Icelandic Air, Wow, Condor, or Norwegian. I watch air fares like a hawk and haven't found much of any real deal since Nov 2017. I still haven't bought a tix for my Aug 2018 trip. I cannot use the hotel+air trick because my trip lasts longer than 26 days, which is the limit for package deals.
Questions:
1. Need advice--The best fares I have seen are around $2700-ish from SFO to BUD or MXP. Given that we are approaching the end of May, should I press the button to purchase soon as the chance of further deals is almost zero (correct me, if I am wrong)? From BUD or MXP, I can easily position to other cities.
2. Fares from Europe to the US are always much cheaper than the reverse direction. So, one way to save $ is to fly outbound to Europe on an award ticket, buy a roundtrip from Europe to the US, and use the inbound flight of this roundtrip for next year. But this inbound trip won't take place till summer 2019. In other words, this ticket has to be valid for 12 months. Are these very expensive? How do I buy these?
Thanks very much, everybody!
