Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site inuxa.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!we13!ihnp4!inuxc!inuxa!linda From: linda@inuxa.UUCP (Linda Pearlstein) Newsgroups: net.travel Subject: charter flights to Europe Message-ID: <267@inuxa.UUCP> Date: Thu, 16-Feb-84 09:07:49 EST Article-I.D.: inuxa.267 Posted: Thu Feb 16 09:07:49 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Feb-84 03:12:15 EST Organization: AT&T Consumer Products Div., Indianapolis Lines: 32 Some of the charter fares to Europe this summer are so inexpensive that I'd like to hear experiences with and opinions of charter companies. I was just quoted a roundtrip fare to Brussels of $400 for summer 1984 (maximum stay of four weeks) by a New Jersey travel agency with an 800 number. When I asked what carriers would be used, the agent indicated they probably couldn't tell me that till a month before departure. She said that the trip would probably be on a "scheduled flight" -- presumably of a commercial airline; charter agents book blocks of seats on commercial airlines who don't want it known you can buy their seats more cheaply through a charter company, according to her. We had an entirely positive experience on a charter flight last summer - $479 round trip New York to Paris through the international student exchange charter known as C.I.E.E. Although the carrier was supposed to be TransAmerica (it was on the return trip), we were transferred to an Air France flight for the trip over. Both flights departed on time and were comfortable en route. Now I'd like to explore even cheaper alternatives and charters that leave from Chicago -- much closer for us than New York. Random thought -- is there some version of the Better Business Bureau for charter companies? Has anyone gotton valuable information from it?