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Etihad equity partner airline Air Serbia now flies New York JFK – Belgrade 5 times weekly. And you can book their service with connections to Sofia, to Sarajevo, to Bucharest as well as several other cities for $215 roundtrip.
You’ll see pricing of $227 through most online travel agencies.
However airfare metasearch site Momondo will help you find even better pricing than that.
Cities that appear to work with this fare include Podgorica and Tivat (for $18 more) as well.
Outbound travel is permitted August 21 through April 1, and a Saturday night stay is required. Fare rules say this must be ticketed by Thursday, but is likely not to last that long.
You’ll find the fare available most days that Air Serbia operates (remember, the flight is 5 days a week rather than daily).
How good a deal is this? The base fare appears to be just $38.50 each way.
Air Serbia’s flight times to and from New York vary and so while there may be a great connection on the outbound, depending on day of week for your return there may also be an overnight in Belgrade (which some may view as a feature rather than a bug).
This is a T fare which earns 25% of flown miles when credited to Etihad Guest, so you’ll earn a little over 2000 miles for the roundtrip.
Credit: Air Serbia
Since we don’t know for certain how Air Serbia will feel about such a deep discount airfare sale, whether they might get seller’s remorse, I’d wait a few days after buying tickets before making additional non-refundable travel plans around the fare.
In theory an airline refusing to honor a sale like this would have to reimburse any out of pocket costs you incurred but there’s not much history with enforcement of that particular DOT statement so I’d still not test it.
(HT: Secret Flying and Fly4Free has a list of other cities that are available with this fare.)
Fare appears to be gone.
See my article, “7 Foodie Restaurants in Eastern Europe” for fabulous restaurants that are also inexpensive. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-s-lintz/7-foodie-restaurants-in-eastern-europe_b_8668452.html
Southern Europe, for God’s sake … 🙂
Awesome information! I’ve always wanted to visit and explore New York. Just to see what all the fuzz is about, you know :). So do you think this trip is possible the other way around on similar prices? Have you done this journey yourself? I would really love to hear about your (or anyone’s) personal experience booking this flight and what was the final outcome.
P.S. Since you’re after the best deals, do let us know if you’re willing to explore the Balkans via a car and we’ll hook you up. Please feel free to delete this part of the comment if you find it inappropriate.