Flying to Budapest and out of Prague in June 2019

My next cruise itinerary begins in Budapest and ends in Prague (including AMA Waterways land tours at both ends). Now it is time to start looking at airfare for the trip. Mom has never booked a first-claso ticket before, but is thinking about doing it this time for the transatantic flights. I need to know what we would get with each type of airplane seat above economy and if it makes a difference depending on the airline. The only two airlines at my home aiport are American and Delta.

My next cruise itinerary begins in Budapest and ends in Prague (including AMA Waterways land tours at both ends). Now it is time to start looking at airfare for the trip. Mom has never booked a first-claso ticket before, but is thinking about doing it this time for the transatantic flights. I need to know what we would get with each type of airplane seat above economy and if it makes a difference depending on the airline. The only two airlines at my home aiport are American and Delta.

 

Wow! Where to start :). Keep in mind that many airlines do not even offer "First Class" but do have "Business Class." The first thing would be to ask AMA if they have any discounted Business Class fares which could save your Mom thousands of dollars. As to the airlines, we are not big fans of either DELTA or AA on International as many of their seats (and service) are not up to the standards of some of the European Airlines. But you can simply look for flight options on any search engine such as Expedia, Orbitz or Kayak (a personal favorite). Once you identify some flight that you think might work....get the "details" of the flight right on that booking engine. You want to know the type aircraft You can then go to Seatguru.com and look up that specific type aircraft (for your airline) to read about the seat information. On International you would be looking for "lay flat" seats.

 

You do not mention your "home airport" which does make it difficult to give you help :). There are times with International flights when it can make sense to drive to a major airport to get a better deal. For example, although we live in Central PA and our nearest airport is Harrisburg we will often fly out of Baltimore, Phildadelphia or even New York (Newark or JFK) to get far lower fares. But on some trips it actually works out better to use Harrisburg. That is why most frequent flyers will spend some online time looking at all the various options. But as I said at the beginning of this post, your first step would be to call AMA....get their prices for air...and then do some price comparison shopping online.

 

Hank

My next cruise itinerary begins in Budapest and ends in Prague (including AMA Waterways land tours at both ends). Now it is time to start looking at airfare for the trip. Mom has never booked a first-claso ticket before, but is thinking about doing it this time for the transatantic flights. I need to know what we would get with each type of airplane seat above economy and if it makes a difference depending on the airline. The only two airlines at my home aiport are American and Delta.

 

 

 

When you make your decision, also consider which hub you will fly into for your connection. Some hubs are difficult to maneuver. I can recommend Vienna. A beautiful airport, not too crowded and the connection to Budhapest was painless. If you have choices run them by the frequent flyers here first for input.

I can't answer much about AA, but fly Delta most of the time. Above economy, you will have either Comfort+ or Premium Economy, and then you will also have business class, which Delta calls Delta One.

 

 

Comfort+ is an economy seat, in the front of the economy cabin. It is no wider than a regular economy seat, but has a few extra inches of legroom. That's the only significant advantage of it. They advertise it as have up to 50% additional recline, but that only amounts to about another inch or two of recline, which in my opinion isn't really noticeable. They advertise free cocktails, but on transatlantic flights even regular economy gets that as well so it's not really an added feature. Your meal will be a regular economy meal.

 

 

Premium Economy, called Premium Select on Delta, is being rolled out gradually on additional aircraft, but isn't terribly widespread yet on aircraft to Europe. If I'm not mistaken, if an aircraft has premium select, it will not have comfort+, so it's one or the other. If you have this as an option, you get a wider seat with more legroom and more recline, a better blanket and pillow than economy, a better meal, and I believe a slightly larger IFE screen. You get an amenity kit, but it's not quite as nice as the business class one.

 

 

 

Delta One: Widest seats, and on Delta I believe all business class seats have direct aisle access. Lay flat seats that will go to either 170 or 180 degrees. Larger IFE screens, best meal options, Westin Heavenly bedding and full size pillow, noise reducing headphones and a Tumi amenity kit.

 

 

Here's a Delta page with links to full details of all of the above:

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard-experience.html

I don’t believe AA is flying direct to Budapest. So a connection in London will be necessary. AA dies fly nonstop Prague to Philadelphia.

 

Business Class seats on almost all European Airlines is a regular economy seat , in a 3-3 configuration, with the center seat empty. Minimizing the time spent on those intra Europe flights should be a high consideration issue on selection of flights and airlines.

Mom has never booked a first-claso ticket before, but is thinking about doing it this time for the transatantic flights.

To pick up on what others have said, does she actually want first class, or would business class do? There are airlines which still have first class - so if first class is what she wants, then that will narrow the choices.

My home airport is GNV (Gainesville, Florida). The closest international airport is JAX (Jacksonville), but I have only flown domestically at that one so far. The problem is arriving at night two hours away from home if we don't fly out of GNV. That alone scares the crap out of my mom - the only person who can drive. So when choosing a return flight from Prague, we need to land either iat GNV or in the afternoon.

My home airport is GNV (Gainesville, Florida). The closest international airport is JAX (Jacksonville), but I have only flown domestically at that one so far. The problem is arriving at night two hours away from home if we don't fly out of GNV. That alone scares the crap out of my mom - the only person who can drive. So when choosing a return flight from Prague, we need to land either iat GNV or in the afternoon.

The fact that JAX is an international airport is practically irrelevant for this trip, as you're almost certainly going to be doing a local (ie purely North American) hop from/to JAX if you choose it. So I think you're basically looking at a choice between two airports, one closer to home than the other. A quick first look looks suggests that while GNV has the advantage of being closer to home, JAX has the advantage of being reachable from PRG with only one connection (rather than two to GNV). But it looks like you can depart PRG at about lunchtime and still reach GNV before midnight the same day despite two connections.

Wow, one stop between PRG and JAX. I would love that. But is that landing before midnight or pulling up my driveway before midnight?

Wow, one stop between PRG and JAX. I would love that. But is that landing before midnight or pulling up my driveway before midnight?

PRG-JAX with one connection can be done with a 2222 arrival (note: arrival, not landing). But that seemed to be too late for you, as would the other alternative involving a 2319 arrival.

 

PRG-GNV could be done via AMS and ATL with a 1420 departure and a 2345 arrival. But other routings are also possible.

Just so you are aware. You will likely end up with a ticket that involves more than one airline. Most major international airlines interline with most other major international airlines. However, most of this large airlines are part of global alliances where they offer the best pricing and connections within their alliance. For Delta that is skyteam where they partner closely with Air France, KLM and a few other. For American that is British Airways etc. For United that is Star Alliance where they partner with Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austrian, etc.

 

From a place like GNV or even JAX your likely to end up flying a US airline to a nearby local US hub. From there overseas on either the US based airline or its European partner to a European hub and then from their to the local airport in Europe again on the European carrier. The one exception is Air Canada serves JAX so in that case you would transit Toronto in Canada.

 

Lots of combinations that are available. As others have explained on overseas flights your basic choices as Economy, Economy+, Premium Economy, and Business Class. The description waterbug had for Delta is close to what other airlines are doing. Premium Economy is offered by most of the European airlines and Air Canada fleet wide. It is a newer offering with US based airlines. Many people once they see the price difference between Premium Economy, and Business find it is a good compromise.

 

The US domestic flights are different than most other parts of the world in they call their domestic business class First Class. International First Class is offered on a very small number of premium routes.

Global, the four-digit numbers are confusing. Would you mind writing all times in the standard 12-hour format? Otherwise, I have no idea what they are. Obviously 2019 is the year I am traveling.

 

There really is nothing too late for me. If I was traveling alone it would not matter at all how late the return flight gets in.

I am aware of airline alliances. For my Italy trip, Air France flew us to Paris.

 

 

GNV offers two destination options: Atlanta and Charlotte. This is because U.S. Airways was the other airline besides Delta before the American Arlines merger.

Business Class is more than adequate you don’t need First Class. Have you contacted Ama air dept? They might be able to get you a good price on business class seats because they buy in bulk.

Global, the four-digit numbers are confusing. Would you mind writing all times in the standard 12-hour format? Otherwise, I have no idea what they are.

 

Take the time. If greater than 1200, subtract the 12 hours and add a PM to the time.

 

Do the math....it's not that hard, and when you are overseas, that's how you will find time displayed in your airports. So get used to it now rather than later.

Global, the four-digit numbers are confusing. Would you mind writing all times in the standard 12-hour format? Otherwise, I have no idea what they are.

I have deliberately given the times in standard format, although you will often see them with a separator (eg as 14:20 rather than 1420).

 

This is the way that times for air travel (along with railways and road transport) are written across the entire world, except in a small handful of countries. So whether you are boarding in Prague or connecting in Amsterdam, you will see times written in the standard way.

 

There really is nothing too late for me. If I was traveling alone it would not matter at all how late the return flight gets in.

But you did say that mother does not want to arrive at night if the arrival airport is JAX.

 

Business Class seats on almost all European Airlines is a regular economy seat , in a 3-3 configuration, with the center seat empty. Minimizing the time spent on those intra Europe flights should be a high consideration issue on selection of flights and airlines.

 

Just to clarify, the "middle seat empty" scenario with European airlines is just on intra-European flights. Their business class for a transatlantic flight would be true business class. I know you mentioned intra-European in the subsequent sentence, but would hate for an infrequent traveler to read the first part and assume ALL business class flights on European airlines are coach seating with middle seat empty.

Global, the four-digit numbers are confusing. Would you mind writing all times in the standard 12-hour format? Otherwise, I have no idea what they are. Obviously 2019 is the year I am traveling.

 

There really is nothing too late for me. If I was traveling alone it would not matter at all how late the return flight gets in.

 

If you struggle with 24hr format God knows how you'll manage with paying in foreign currency...you know there is no acceptance or US Dollars in Hungary and Prague, right?

In reference to the time issue. It’s called military time. On the iPhone it’s called 24 hour time. Go to settings. General settings. Date and time. Turn on the 24 hour time button.