Venice flight - would you do this?

[lhall85917]

As most of you know, flights to Venice this summer remain very high in price. I've looked at so many options that my eyes are about to start bleeding!:eek: I've found an airfare from our home airport, Dayton to Venice for $1223/pp. We go to Newark, Lisbon then Venice - total flight duration is 21 hours. The return flight is just the reverse except with an overnight layover of 18 hrs in Lisbon. The overseas portion is on TAP Portugal which I'm not familiar with. If we don't go with an overnight layover fares are closer to $1800/pp.

 

I'd welcome any thoughts or hearing from others that have done something similar. It almost seems like a no-brainer but I'd like to make sure I'm not making a mistake if I do it!

 

btw - the prices are through Orbitz

[stephsamps]

Do you have any time after your cruise? You may find it easier and fun to take the train to another part of Italy, enjoy the scenery there and fly out of say Milan or Rome? We are taking a Med cruise in May and will be flying into Rome and out of Milan (instead of Venice where we port).

[UKBayern]

Try playing around with the date. Sometimes an extra day somewhere makes such a difference in airfare that you can pay for a hotel and expenses out of it and have a great day to relax and go sightseeing. It gave us an extra day in Venice!

Venice is always slightly more expensive to fly to than to other cities in the area, so the other posters suggestions could be a good idea.

 

Try what happens if you don't fly out of Dayton, but one of the more international airports. Even if you add the additional gas and parking fees it might still be cheaper.

 

The option you have lined up now:

-If you have never been to Lisbon, I would suggest more than 18 hours there. It is such a nice place, enjoy it!

-There is no need to worry about TAP, all airlines in the EU have to adhere to the same safety standards. The staff gets the same training as for example staff from British Airways, KLM or Lufthansa. I always find airline preference is a personal thing. I worked for KLM and subsidiaries for 11 years, but I don't like KLM-style when flying myself as a passenger. I only get on American Airlines if I really have to. All a matter of personal opion, I am sure other posters will disagree.

[lhall85917]

Try playing around with the date. Sometimes an extra day somewhere makes such a difference in airfare that you can pay for a hotel and expenses out of it and have a great day to relax and go sightseeing. It gave us an extra day in Venice!

Venice is always slightly more expensive to fly to than to other cities in the area, so the other posters suggestions could be a good idea.

 

Try what happens if you don't fly out of Dayton, but one of the more international airports. Even if you add the additional gas and parking fees it might still be cheaper.

 

The option you have lined up now:

-If you have never been to Lisbon, I would suggest more than 18 hours there. It is such a nice place, enjoy it!

-There is no need to worry about TAP, all airlines in the EU have to adhere to the same safety standards. The staff gets the same training as for example staff from British Airways, KLM or Lufthansa. I always find airline preference is a personal thing. I worked for KLM and subsidiaries for 11 years, but I don't like KLM-style when flying myself as a passenger. I only get on American Airlines if I really have to. All a matter of personal opion, I am sure other posters will disagree.

 

Thanks, playing around with the date is a good suggestion. We are actually from Ohio, not Florida but I have tried to check as many other cities as I can think of. We were in Lisbon last year for one of our cruise stops - I agree it is a very nice place!

[UKBayern]

We are actually from Ohio, not Florida

 

I realised I got your home town mixed up with that of the other poster (who is from FL), so I changed that within 4 minutes after posting. My goodness, you were quick that you still caught the original post!

[lhall85917]

I realised I got your home town mixed up with that of the other poster (who is from FL), so I changed that within 4 minutes after posting. My goodness, you were quick that you still caught the original post!

 

LOL, it was in my email when I got a reply, I didn't notice that you caught it later! Thanks for helping.

[mek]

Have you considered driving to Chicago? It's only about 5 hours for us from Cincinnati. I pulled up some dates in June for $1,300 + change with only one stop in Madrid.

[alcpa1]

We did the Venice to Milan train bit several years ago. Malpensa airport is about 45 minutes by bus from the Milan central station. At that time there was no direct flight from Venice to our destination. In hindsight we would have been better off avoiding the pleasant train ride, bus ride, and overnight hotel in Milan and just booked a flight with connections.

I am sure you have probably checked Kayak too. And flying out of Cinci which is almost always more or Columbus or Indy. Any extended drive home after an overseas flight is no fun. I sure wouldn't even consider driving from Chicago.

Good luck.

[5waldos]

Sometimes it is possible to take domestic flights separately- for example, what are the fares out of NYC? Check those and then add the best fares you can from home to NYC. Fare out of NY are often significantly cheaper and if you keep track of it there are often great sales you can take advantage of. You still have a lot of time- I'd concentrate on finding the best overseas fares then start back on the domestic leg.

[lhall85917]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We looked into many, many options and finally made a decision. Our flight leaves from Cincinnati and flies into Rome. We'll spend the day there and take the train from there to Venice the following day, which we hear is a beautiful trip. Returning we will go from Venice to Cincinnati with one layover on the way back. It was slightly more than we expected to pay ($1500/pp) but not as high as I had seen for Cinci to Venice ($1800+/pp). This ended up being a good option for us - only 1 layover each way, a day to rest in Rome and then on to Venice!