Delaying Part of a Return Flight

I am going to a wedding in Greece at the end of August. My plan is to spend a couple of days in Athens to do standard tourist things. Then go to the island ( Kefalonia ) for a few days for the wedding and then return home. I'm not a big beach person, so I'll only want to relax on the beach for a day or two after the actual wedding.

What I'm thinking of doing is taking a connecting flight through Paris, and on the way back delay the 2nd half of the connection for a few days and see Paris. I've never been there. But when I try to look at prices it ends up costing a lot more to do this. When I went to Sochi I was able to delay the 2nd half of my return and stay in Moscow for a few days. It only cost me a hundred $ or so. I didn't pay for the full trip, NBC did, but the delay was cheap.

Is this normal to pay so much to delay the 2nd leg of a trip?

Is 3 days enough for Paris or should I just make that another trip in the future?

 

Depends on the airline. I know with BA I have done stop overs with no extra charge on connecting lights in the past

 

Something like this, you may want to get in touch with a travel agent or the airline directly and see what they can do for you in regards to the airfare. They may be able to work out a better deal with a "long layover" over the phone or in person versus searching online for prices.

As for 3 days in Paris, I think you could do a week there and still have a lot you could see of do. If it was me and the price was right, I'd sneak in the 3 days then think about making a return trip down the road too.

 

I originally thought you were changing an existing ticket. Now I see you have not purchased a ticket yet. What you are asking is a stopover, not a delay of a leg. Make sure you use that term if you talk to anyone. A good online search tool is flights.google.

Some airlines allow a stopover, but it is not common.

You might look at buying an open jaw. I did not see where you are starting your trip from, but I will assume it is the states.

Fly from states to Greece, and then Paris to states on one ticket. Buy a separate ticket for Greece to Paris.

Avoid flying from London as taxes, etc are crazy.

 

Threads like this one make me miss the old, pre-internet days of air travel.
Used to be you would just tell your travel agent that you wanted as long of a layover as possible in a city, and you'd get it.
Then, the "trick" was simply to reschedule your connection flight by phone with the airline, requesting a later flight - even on a different day. You'd have to fly stand-by sometimes, but there was rarely any extra fee associated with it. If I'm remembering correctly, you could extend your connection time by as much as 24 hours.
About the only time it would cost you is when you wanted a confirmed seat on the later connecting flight and the fare difference for that leg was higher than your original fare.

Now, instead, what they do is hit you with a change fee ($150, typically) plus any fare difference.
So - if it were me, I'd book the trip, and as soon as everything was confirmed, I'd call the airline and ask if they'd let you reschedule your Paris connection to a different day, pay the $150 and any fare difference.
Then, your only problem will be luggage (which you will have to carry-on).
OF course, I know little about international travel - only US when it comes to changing itineraries. But I would think a call to the airline would be your best bet.

 

Doubt this will work. When you call to "change" your flights, you will pay the CURRENT fare, plus the change fee. Much easier to just pay it upfront.

And, if you did do this, you would still be able to check bags.

As to calling the airline - there might me a dozen or more to call. I did not see what city the OP was flying from.

 

I think it all depends on what you want to see and do while in Paris. For some people 3 days is enough, for others a week isn't enough. Plus there are things to do outside of Paris, like visiting Versailles.

I took my European trip in 2013, went on a tour of Europe but at the end I spent an extra 2 days in Paris to soak up the city. It was great in Paris with the tour, they drove us around in a bus to the major tourist attractions and got us into many venues (Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees, boat ride on the Seine, passed by Moulin Rogue) by bypassing the regular lines to get in. On my extra days I just walked and took the train around the city. Visiting the Louvre, Sacre Coeur, Grand Palais, etc. I did a lot of walking but the train system is excellent (try to do it before the rush hour though). Paris at night is also excellent, I was lucky as my tour drove us around at night. For the tour I stayed in a part of town called La Defense, the business district with lots of great "new age" architecture. There is a big shopping center (Les Quatre temps) that isn't overpriced like the other shopping areas in Paris. The center also has the Grand Arche, the big rectangular arch building you see in the lexus commercials.

The other 2 nights I moved to a hostel in the Gare Du Nord area. Was interesting, I never stayed in a hostel that had mixed dorm rooms. I had 2 females and 1 other male in my room. I also had a great chat with one of the girls, in fact one evening we went out for dinner together and walked around the town. (too bad, age difference was big, she was in her 20's and I was in my 50's so she just needed a friend to do the sights of the town).

Do your homework and plan your stay so you can maximize your hours there. While I enjoyed visiting the city I wasn't that impressed with the place. Because of smog the city was hazy most of the time, Parisians let their dogs poop on the sidewalks and don't pick them up and many of the (male) Parisians were downright rude to foreign males (females they liked but not the males). One guy gave me the wrong directions and I'm sure he did it on purpose because he directed me to a train that was going to areas that wasn't even close to where I wanted to go. Many of the locals and store people don't speak English that well or don't want to understand English so you could be at a disadvantage if you are male (female tourists they seem to go out of their way for but not us males). BTW, unless you like artwork I think the Louvre is overrated, most people that visit congregated around the Mona Lisa but didn't really visit the rest of the museum. The Mona Lisa is also not that great, the glass reflects all the light in the area so your picture usually has shadows and you have to contend with the people crowding it (not to mention the pickpockets casing the tourists).


Like I said, you should do your homework to see how long will be enough on your visit to Paris. I knew I probably wasn't going to go back so I tried to take in as much of the city as I could.

 

Thanks to all! I'm going to look into a stopover. If it starts to get expensive, then I go to plan B. Enjoy Greece and the wedding, no rushing back. Then start to plan a trip to Paris for a week or so for next year.

Also, I need to plan a nice Wynncore trip for later this year!

 

If you include the city you would be flying from, it might help with some ideas. In any event, if you are going in August, you should be researching and booking very soon.