Kiran wrote:

mrtravel wrote:


I usually can find better fares to Africa by separating the tickets,
like ORD-LHR-ORD and LHR-NBO-LHR.. I cut it down to $1100 off peak.


Thanks. You seem experienced, so let me run my larger "optimization"
problem by you he

Not that experienced.. I don't work in travel, unless Bill gets his
wish. The $1100 figure was a simple two ticket purchase calculation via
Travelocity with hardly any work required.


I need to visit Istanbul, Nairobi, India (Delhi or Bombay), and Tokyo.
However, it has to be divided into two trips, loose dates are 8/25-9/18
and 12/3-1/3. So what combines best with what for the cheapest total
cost?

If you are in Chicago, which travel agents do you use?

Shop around, but at least compare prices of agents in the ethnic
neighborhoods of countries you want to visit. Sometimes the best deals
are from the airline's website, sometimes calling the airline, sometimes
another website, sometime's an agent, sometime coupons, etc... I have
not found one place that is the cheapest to everywhere at anytime.



Do bucket shops let you buy a muti-city ticket that brings you back to
the originating city in the middle?
(e.g., CHI-Ist-nbo-CHI-tokyo-delhi-CHI)

You wouldn't need one ticket for that. You could do it in multiple
tickets. Some airlines even let you do that, although you might have
trouble with some websites. The last time I did that was
LHR-LCA-LHR-AMS-LHR on BA. The fare was about $150 cheaper than booking
it as 2 tickets.