One-way flight from USA to London

For a one-way flight from USA to London, and a transatlantic cruise back to NYC,

it seems better just to book the flight through the cruise line(NCL) since it's cheaper.

Any thoughts?

This is commonly discussed here as one of the few truly good times to book through the cruise line, as buying one way airfares to/from Europe can be shockingly expensive.

Yes, booking your one-way air to/from Europe through the cruise line has, at least for me, given me the best pricing I could find. This was true for both Economy as well as Business Class.

Sometimes airlines have sales on purchased frequent flyer miles. For example, American Airlines conducts sales or bonus offers a couple of times per year that can result in miles costing under 2c apiece. A one-way business class award from North America to Europe "costs" 57,500 miles, so if you can get the miles cheaply enough, you can get the flat bed experience for $1200 or so, not a bad deal.

In the summer economy seats require 30,000 miles one way, so you can do the math on that too. Also note that some deep-discount airlines, like Norwegian, have entered the transatlantic market and may offer a premium-economy (or equivalent to domestic first class) experience much more cheaply than the legacy airlines. Shop aggressively.

Try Iceland Air

Sometimes airlines have sales on purchased frequent flyer miles. For example, American Airlines conducts sales or bonus offers a couple of times per year that can result in miles costing under 2c apiece. A one-way business class award from North America to Europe "costs" 57,500 miles, so if you can get the miles cheaply enough, you can get the flat bed experience for $1200 or so, not a bad deal.

 

In the summer economy seats require 30,000 miles one way, so you can do the math on that too. Also note that some deep-discount airlines, like Norwegian, have entered the transatlantic market and may offer a premium-economy (or equivalent to domestic first class) experience much more cheaply than the legacy airlines. Shop aggressively.

Agree here.

In fact, AA's best "sale" on awards miles/points just ended yesterday.

The lowest cost is for "more" points, but they have a max of [i think it is 150k, but for some reason I thought it just went up to 200k] points per year that can be purchased per person. But with the bonus (that's the "sale" part), it can go up to to significantly more than that.

But even if not on "sale", if used for international travel, especially premium (and "most especially, first class) it's a great way to get that quality transportation at much less money that the cash price.

It's a bargain. AND each direction is separate, so there is no penalty for one-way travel.

Gardyloo - did AA change the max number of awards points one can purchase per year (or did I have an optimistic dream)?

Thanks!

Award Miles / Points

Thanks for adding the suggestion, of using your Airline points.

We don't think we have enough, and are building up points for something next year.

As far as Iceland Air, for our time sensitive connection to the cruise ship,

I keep looking at their flight schedule, and think I'll pass.

Thanks for adding the suggestion, of using your Airline points.

We don't think we have enough, and are building up points for something next year.

You're missing the point that's being made. If you don't have enough, or don't have any, you buy the miles needed for your ticket, preferably when there's a promotion on (AA has them frequently).

You're missing the point that's being made. If you don't have enough, or don't have any, you buy the miles needed for your ticket, preferably when there's a promotion on (AA has them frequently).

Thank you .

Since our best cruise choices are over a year away, I'll be looking at AA's promos

You might have another issue to deal with, proof of return travel.

When you go through immigration in London they might require proof that you plan to return home. Normally this would be proven with a round trip plane ticket. You might not even be allowed onto the plane without this proof.

- Need to find out if travel to UK requires proof of return travel.

- If so, need to find out what cruise documentation you can use as proof of return travel.

 

- Need to find out if travel to UK requires proof of return travel.

 

This is no guarantee of course, but I've never been asked to show proof of return travel when entering the UK.

You might have another issue to deal with, proof of return travel.

 

When you go through immigration in London they might require proof that you plan to return home. Normally this would be proven with a round trip plane ticket. You might not even be allowed onto the plane without this proof.

 

- Need to find out if travel to UK requires proof of return travel.

 

- If so, need to find out what cruise documentation you can use as proof of return travel.

This is no guarantee of course, but I've never been asked to show proof of return travel when entering the UK.

Me neither, over more occasions than I can count, including numerous times traveling on one-way tickets.

You might have another issue to deal with, proof of return travel.

 

When you go through immigration in London they might require proof that you plan to return home. Normally this would be proven with a round trip plane ticket. You might not even be allowed onto the plane without this proof.

 

- Need to find out if travel to UK requires proof of return travel.

 

- If so, need to find out what cruise documentation you can use as proof of return travel.

Regardless of whether this is indeed required for entry into the UK, the OP already stated that this was a flight so they could take their one-way cruise *back* to the USA.

Presumably they'd already have that arranged by the time they were flying to board the ship.

Why would cruise documentation be any less "valid" than airline documentation?

After all, this isn't such an uncommon situation, flying overseas to pick up a cruise.

Check out Aer Lingus. Their one way flights have been competitively priced in the past. That is assuming they have a flight schedule that suits, they often require a stop in Dublin en route.