How I Booked a Last Minute, Direct, Transatlantic Flight from Europe to the US for $401

It’s been a great summer here in Italy, filled with peaceful days on the beach, walks down cobblestone streets, and plenty of gelato and pizza. Due to spotty wifi connections, but mostly because of my unwillingness to admit it’s time to go, I found myself in Italy, without a flight home, and the visa expiration clock was ticking.

Is it really 2 weeks before I legally have to leave Italy, and I haven’t purchased a flight home yet?

This was the suddenly stressful situation I found myself in just days ago. I was in trouble. Flights had become expensive, with direct flights from Italy ranging from $1,200 or more one way back home to the US. I either had to overstay my visa allowance, or shell out a huge amount of cash to fly home.

Luckily—and with timing that would make you believe in fate—I found Flystein.

What’s Flystein?

Flystein is a personalized flight search. Think of it as your personal assistant, working full time to get you the best deal. All I did was ask a Flystein expert to search for me, and continue eating my gelato without a single thought given to planning, searching—or calories.

Eating this is way better than worrying about my flight home.

With Flystein, someone else does all the work of searching for a cheap flight for you. In my experience, getting a decent deal on a flight can take a lot of time—time I needed to pack a year and a half of life abroad. I was so happy to put this work in someone else’s hands, and it worked out wonderfully.

Shortly, my “expert” returned results for me, all hundreds of dollars less than the tickets I had found. At the end of his search, my Flystein expert found me a $401 direct flight! This is a great deal for Europe to the US, but even more amazing was the fact that Flystein got me this flight 2 weeks before departure. I’ve never seen such a cheap last minute flight!

My Flystein expert found me a $401 flight from Italy to the U.S., 2 weeks before departure.

If you want to try Flystein, there’s two options: BeatMyPrice and BuildMyTrip. The latter is simply to ask them to search for flights for you, but I recommend using BeatMyPrice instead. Either option will cost $49, but it’s money well spent if you end up saving hundreds.

Plus, with Flystein’s BeatMyPrice, if they can’t find a flight cheaper than the one you’ve found, you’ll get your money back and 15% discount on the next flight search at Flystein (for flights $500 or more)! It’s truly risk-free in that case, because their research is either free (proving you already found the cheapest flight) or there’s a small fee for the cost of finding you something even cheaper!

When you think about it, the $49 is an investment with the hundreds you can save, and you don’t have to book it if they can’t beat your price!

I love Flystein, because not only do they do the hard work for you, but they truly act like your personal travel assistant. They’re quick to answer any questions you have, making this service very personalized. I can be a bit fussy and full of questions when I am not in control of planning something, but my Flystein expert put me at ease.

On top of that, they’ll even advise you on the best airline and most comfortable option. That’s how I ended up with a $401 flight on Emirates A380 (which has nicer Economy service than some airlines do in Business class!)

If that hasn’t sold you, Flystein will even share with you some great things to check out in the city where you have a layover. In my case, my flight is direct (seriously guys, this flight is awesome) but Vlad at Flystein has already given me some tips for when I am exploring Milan before departure.

Additionally, as my flight arrives in New York, my Flystein expert even helped me with the ground transport back to my home of Washington DC, after I spend some time in the big apple catching up with friends.

Now with all that time and money Flystein has saved me, the only question left is, should I use those savings on a gym membership for all the gelato I've eaten this summer, or should I start planning my next trip? Click here to try Flystein - "Genius Powered Flight Search".

A special thanks goes out to Flystein for allowing me to use their services for free. For more information about my affiliates, see my Disclosure Policy. As always, the content and opinions of this post are entirely my own.

#italy #moneysavingtips #howtogetacheaplastminuteflight #flights