Toronto/Chicago/Detroit to Europe - Sampling of sub-$500 round trip fares

This post is a compilation of good airfare prices from airports within a 5 hour drive of Grand Rapids MI:  Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Detroit (DTW), Toronto (YYZ), Pittsburgh (PIT), Cleveland (CLE).

This post shows how plentiful that sub-$500 roundtrip airfares to Europe are, at various times of the year.

European cities with sub-$500 fares include:

• Munich (MUC)
• Dublin (DUB)
• Frankfurt (FRA)
• London Heathrow (LHR)
• Amsterdam (AMS)
• Lisbon (LIS)
• Porto (OPO)
• Faro (FAO)
• Barcelona (BCN)
• Madrid (MAD)
• Rome (FCO)
• Milan (MXP)
• Reykjavik (KEF)
• Oslo (OSL)
• Paris (CDG)
• Cork, Ireland (ORK)

None of these current airfares are part of any advertised 'sale.'  Prices are just very competitive to Europe and these are just examples.

Portugal:  TAP Portugal is a Portuguese airline that flies nonstop from Toronto (YYZ) to Lisbon (LIS) and 1-stop to Porto (OPO) and Faro (FAO).  TAP has very good prices to Portugal for many different times of year.

Iceland:  Air Canada and Delta are offering very cheap fares to Reykjavik (KEF), in apparent response to WOW Air and Icelandair offering consistently cheap fares to KEF from DTW/ORD/PIT.

Fall 2018:  Sun Oct 7 - Mon Oct 15.  Detroit to Barcelona $445+  1-stop
Star Alliance airlines (United, Lufthansa, Air Canada, etc) (also $328 roundtrip Chicago to BCN on WOW Air)

Late Fall 2018:  Sun Nov 11 - Tues Nov 20.  Various cities < $450
Many of the cheapest flights here are on Icelandair or WOW Air, with 1-stop connections in KEF.

• ORD-DUB $309 (WOW Air) $373 (Icelandair)
• ORD-AMS $380 (WOW Air)
• YYZ-AMS $406 (WOWAir)
• ORD-MUC $407 (Icelandair) 
• ORD-LHR $424 (Icelandair)
• DTW-BCN $448 (Air Canada) $472 (Lufthansa)
• DTW-DUB $450 (United) $480 (Lufthansa)
• YYZ-CDG $406 (WOW Air) $411 (Icelandair)

Late Fall 2018:  Tues Nov 13 - Weds Nov 21.  Various cities < $450

• ORD-CPH $332 (Icelandair) $439 (Swiss) $444 (United/Lufthansa) $453 (Austrian)
• ORD-OSL $349 (Icelandair)
• YYZ-AMS $383 (WOW Air)
• ORD-HEL $357 (Icelandair)
• ORD-AMS $361 (Icelandair)

Year-end Fri Dec 7 - Sun Dec 16.  $356-$400 various cities
YYZ-KEF $356 (Icelandair) nonstop $472 (Delta) 1-stop
DTW-KEF $360 (WOW Air) nonstop

PIT-KEF $399 (Delta) 1-stop

ORD-CPH $412 (Icelandair) $466 (Swiss) $471 (Lufthansa)

ORD-LHR $420 (Icelandair)

Spring Break 2019:  Sat Mar 30 - Sun Apr 7. Nonstop Toronto to Lisbon $502. 1-stop Porto $501
A couple of flights from Detroit in the $550 range sprinkled in here also

School's out 2019:  Fri May 31 - Mon Jun 10.  Toronto to Faro or Porto $448 1-stop
Also $490 nonstop to Porto

Summer 2019 Portugal:  Mon Jun 3 - Tues Jun 11.  Toronto to Porto $418 nonstop, Faro/Porto $443 1-stop

Summer 2019 Iceland  Sun Jun 9 - Sat Jun 22.  $311+ round trip to KEF.

Summer Milan/Rome/Paris/Barcelona Fri Jun 7 - Sun Jun 16 $510-539

[Expired] Detroit to Europe $400+ Round Trip May/early June

This fare sale has expired

Excellent price on United and other Star Alliance carriers (e.g. Air Canada) from Detroit to Europe with departures in May thru early June.  As low as $400 per person round trip.

More details here:  https://www.theflightdeal.com/2018/03/27/united-starting-457-fort-lauderdale-miami-boston-philadelphia-atlanta-charlotte… 

NOTE:  fares are pricing out cheaper on Google Flights as of 4pm Eastern than reported on The Flight Deal's article (link above)

Most of the cheap fares look to be to Amsterdam, but some availability to Paris and other cities is also sprinkled in.

Sample searches on Google Flights:

May 5 - May 19 - $400 and up

June 4 - June 15 - $407 and up

Detroit to Iceland $200 Roundtrip! Amsterdam/Berlin/Copenhagen/Dublin/Paris from $300 RT

WOW air begins service to Europe from Detroit (DTW) in 2018.  WOW air already flies from several other large US cities to Europe, and their fares are VERY low.

Flights from DTW to Europe have been bookable for several weeks now, and the prices on certain dates are VERY cheap.

As a low-cost carrier, WOW charges extra for a lot of 'regular' stuff such as a 2nd cabin bag, seat selection, checked bags, etc.

WOW air flights between US and Europe all connect in Reykjavik (KEF).

If you can pack light - or even if you can't - their prices can be tough to beat.

Sept/Oct 2018 flights to Reykjavik (KEF) from $200 round trip on certain dates.

Examples

• DTW-KEF $200 round trip Sept 8-19 (Google Flights link)
• DTW-DUB $300 round trip Sept 17-28 (Google Flights link)

• DTW-CDG (Paris) $300 round trip Oct 8-19 (Google Flights link)

• DTW-London Stansted (STN) $340, Amsterdam (AMS) $300, Paris (CDG) $300 Oct 15-26 (Google Flights link)

Details about fare sale on WOW air's website - https://wowair.us/flights/best-fares/?selected_airport=DTW

Highly recommend registering to receive Travelzoo email updates.  They find and post some good deals and also some good travel content in general.  That's how I heard about this particular WOW air sale from Detroit to Europe.