When planning a trip that visits multiple European cities, you face a fundamental booking decision: should you book a multi-city itinerary through a single airline, or piece together separate one-way tickets? The answer depends on which airlines serve your routes and how their pricing models work.
Legacy carriers (British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France) often offer multi-city fares that are cheaper than the sum of equivalent one-way tickets. Their pricing algorithms treat multi-city bookings similarly to round trips, averaging the fares across legs. Budget carriers (Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air) price every leg independently as a one-way, so there's zero advantage to booking through a multi-city search — separate one-ways give you identical pricing with more flexibility.
The optimal strategy for most European multi-city trips is a hybrid approach: book the long-haul legs (to and from your home country) as an open-jaw round trip on a legacy carrier, then fill in the shorter inter-city hops with budget airline one-way tickets or ground transport.
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Google Flights is the best starting point for multi-city planning. Its multi-city search supports up to 6 legs and shows prices across different dates. The interactive date selector reveals the cheapest options for each leg. One limitation: Google Flights doesn't combine different airlines into a single booking, so you'll see the total price but may need to book each airline separately.
Kiwi.com excels at combining different airlines and transport modes into a single itinerary. It can build a route that uses Ryanair for one leg, a train for another, and easyJet for a third — all in one booking with a single price. Their 'Guarantee' product provides connection protection across different carriers, which is valuable since separate airlines won't protect you if one leg is delayed. The downside is that Kiwi.com sometimes marks up fares, so cross-check individual leg prices directly.
For complex multi-city itineraries on legacy carriers, ITA Matrix (Google's professional fare search tool) offers the most powerful search capabilities. It handles open-jaw, double open-jaw, and multi-city routing with flexible date searches. You can't book directly through ITA Matrix, but it shows you the routing and fare class, which you can then book through the airline's website or a travel agent. Skiplagged is useful for finding hidden-city pricing opportunities on multi-city trips.
Instead of flying city-to-city-to-city, consider a hub-and-spoke approach: base yourself in a well-connected city and take day trips or overnight trips using cheap flights and trains. Cities like London, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, and Rome are excellent hubs with dozens of budget airline routes under €30 each way.
This strategy works particularly well with budget airlines' pricing model. Ryanair from Barcelona has cheap flights to 60+ European cities. Based in Barcelona for a week, you could do day trips to Mallorca, Ibiza, Valencia, or Marseille for under €50 return. The hub hotel provides consistency, and you avoid repacking and checking in/out of multiple accommodations.
Don't overlook positioning flights — cheap short-hop flights that get you to a cheaper departure point. If your route from London to Dubrovnik costs €200, but London to Milan costs €30 and Milan to Dubrovnik costs €40, the positioning strategy saves €130. Secondary airports often have cheaper fares, so check airports near your target city as well.
Book the most constrained legs first. If only one airline flies a particular route, book that leg immediately. Then work outward, booking the legs with the most competition last, as those are most likely to have good availability. For popular routes, booking 4–8 weeks ahead gives the best price-to-availability balance.
Be strategic about connection times when mixing airlines. Since separate airlines won't wait for each other, build in generous buffers — at least 4 hours between connecting flights on different bookings. This protects you from delays and gives time to transfer between terminals or even airports.
Juggling multiple booking confirmations, check-in times, and baggage policies can be overwhelming. Use a trip management app like TripIt (free version handles basic organization) or App in the Air to consolidate all your bookings in one place. Forward your confirmation emails to the app, and it creates a unified itinerary with check-in reminders and gate information.
Keep a spreadsheet or note with each leg's booking reference, airline, terminal, baggage allowance, and check-in window. Budget airlines in particular have strict check-in deadlines — missing Ryanair's online check-in window (2 hours to 48 hours before departure) results in a €55 airport check-in fee. Set calendar reminders for each flight's check-in opening time.
Bookmark this guide and check back before your trip — flights prices and policies change frequently.
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On legacy airlines (BA, Lufthansa, Air France), multi-city bookings are often cheaper as they're priced like round trips. On budget airlines (Ryanair, easyJet), separate one-ways cost exactly the same. The best strategy is usually a hybrid: legacy carrier round trip for the main journey plus budget one-ways for short hops.
Google Flights is the best for comparing prices across dates and routes. Kiwi.com is ideal for combining different airlines and transport modes into a single protected booking. ITA Matrix is the most powerful tool for complex multi-city itineraries on legacy carriers.
At least 4 hours, and preferably 5–6 hours. Since separate airlines won't rebook you if you miss a connection, you need a buffer for delays, baggage collection, terminal transfers, and re-check-in. If flights are at different airports, allow even more time for the transfer.
Instead of flying from city to city in sequence, you base yourself in a well-connected hub (like Barcelona, London, or Berlin) and take cheap day trips or overnight trips on budget airlines. This simplifies logistics, reduces baggage hassle, and takes advantage of cheap one-way fares from major hubs.
Use a trip management app like TripIt or App in the Air to consolidate all bookings. Keep a note with each flight's booking reference, airline, terminal, baggage policy, and check-in window. Set calendar reminders for each check-in opening time to avoid airport check-in fees on budget airlines.
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