General information on flights to the USA and within the USA

Ye-ha, last week we booked our flights from Zurich to California and started planning our honeymoon in Hawaii...

Currently airline rates are pretty reasonable, though there are no specific "specials" for September/October 2011. As the oil-price is pretty volatile at the moment (and more than 1/3 of an airline's cost is gasoline), it is probably a good point in time to seal the deal and book your flight. Below you will find some information on flights from Switzerland to the US and on domestic flights within the US.

Flying from Switzerland to the United States

We booked our long-haul flights with Swiss International Airlines, as Swiss offers daily nonstop service to many US cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago). The closest airport to get to Sonoma is San Francisco International Airport (it's about a 45 min. drive by car). We will fly from Zurich to San Francisco, then go on our honeymoon to Hawaii and return from Los Angeles to Zurich.

Open-Jaw Flights

It is possible to book so called "open jaw" flights without additional cost. This means you can, for instance, fly from Zurich to San Francisco then fly from San Francisco to New York (with a separately booked one-way flight, see more below) and fly back from New York to Zurich. You can't book open jaw flights on www.swiss.com directly - to do so you should use www.ebookers.ch and there use the option "multiple airports" (as opposed to "round-trip" and "one-way"). You can also call Swiss and book your open-jaw flight over the phone - but then the booking/ticketing fee is substantially higher than online.

Flights with connections

It is also quite convenient to fly with Lufthansa and change at one of Lufthansa's German hubs in Frankfurt, Munich (best connection airport in Germany) or Dusseldorf. Air France often also offers fairly reasonable rates with connections in Paris. Not too convenient are flights with British Airways where you connect in London Heathrow.

Airlines from the US also offer direct flights from Zurich to the US. Please consider that you have to clear customs when you enter the US, which means that you have to claim your baggage for customs inspection and then recheck you bags (no transit!). This can be quite annoying and often you miss your connection flight. You should also consider that with Swiss you can always bring two bags (2 x 23kg) of checked luggage per person, whereas with all airlines from the US you have to pay an extra fee for you bags. Especially travelling with Delta Airlines can be rather inconvenient, because you often fly via Atlanta (which is far in the South!), the world's largest and busiest airport!

Domestic flights in the US

Whenever you travel the US you should always consider to fly to cover longer distances. There are good and direct connections from almost every place. You can, other than in Europe, always book one-way flights at no additional cost. To get an overview of available flights I normally use one of the big travelportals such as www.expedia.com (make sure you are not redirected to expedia.de) or www.orbitz.com. You can always use one of the major carriers such as American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta, Continental or US Airways. If you fly to or from New York JFK, you should always consider flying with JetBlue Airways (our favorite Airline for domestic flights - 1st bag is free and you have satellite TV and radio in your seat, unlimited drinks and snacks - don't forget to bring you earphones with you:) - www.jetblue.com.
Especially in the West of the US it is most convenient (or even the only reasonable way) that you rent a car from and to the airport. Within the western states one-way car rentals are normally free of charge. This means you can fly to San Francisco, rent a car directly at the airport, drive to Las Vegas, drop off your car at Las Vegas Airport and fly on to New York (where you probably don't want to rent a car:). We are negotiating a special discount rate with www.holidayautos.ch  - probably the best place to rent cars for travelling the US (very low prices, all-inclusive rates).

If you have ANY questions regarding flights (or travelling) please feel free to contact us and it is our pleasure to help you!