Question:
To rec.travel.europe --

My family and I are planning a trip to Europe in the second half ofApril. We'll be visiting Frankfurt, and probably Paris and Amsterdamas well. Our current plan is to fly to Frankfurt, and then take thetrain to Paris and Amsterdam, flying home from Amsterdam. We'd like toget our plane tickets through a consolidator, for cheapness sake. Butdoes it have to be a lot more expensive to fly home from a differentcity than the one we arrived in? (The only fare quote I have so far ison Delta: New York->Frankfurt, Amsterdam->New York for $670 + tax.)Would it be more economical, for example, to take the train back toFrankfurt from Amsterdam, and fly home from Frankfurt (the city we flewto), than to fly home from Amsterdam?

I think it might be useful for us to have a travel agent that deals withconsolidators. Can anyone recommend a good one? And how much of a fee(if any) should I expect the agent to charge me? I know that there canbe such fees nowadays, but I haven't used a travel agent in a longtime ...

Thanks so much for any help you can provide!

Answer: You may also want to check British Airways and fly through London bothways. I usually do that and it seems to be considerably cheaper eventhough you add about five hours to your trip. Another advantage for youwould be to join their frequent flyer club with a family membership(Household Account). You'd get about 10,000 miles each for the trip andyou only need 40,000 for a free trip (Oct 15-April1)