Exorbitant summer airfare to Rome!

[tally10]

There can be many more problems with consolidator ticket other than just having a reservation and seat selection. The BIGGEST problem is the NON ENDORSABLE, non reroutable feature. IF you have a glitch (doesn't matter what it is-airline, airport or other cause) and the flight is canceled or delayed, you are STUCK with the originating airline. You CANNOT use a consolidator ticket to board another airline. AND you are at the bottom of the barrel for rebooking. Consolidators have also been known to tell customers-"your flight changed by XXX hours. Either get on the flight or loose your ticket. Flight YYY is still flying and that is what you booked"

 

IF you are willing to take the risk, you can save some money. But if things go bottoms up, hope you have good travel insurance and a large credit limit. Those last minute walk up tickets are NOT cheap!!!

 

You may want to read through the first few pages of this thread. CLEARLY explains how consolidator tickets are bought and sold and all the pitfalls. Cruise Air, Choice Air and tickets bought from consolidators are all NON ENDORSABLE tickets-the true mark of a consolidator ticket. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

 

The only problem we had with them was that the airline (British Air) contacted us about upgrading our ticket to the next class for just a few more dollars and we did that. Then after they had our money, we were told that we could not upgrade as these were purchased through a "travel agent," the consolidator. The times on the non-stop did change a bit, but we were promptly notified by Best Travel Store and since it WAS a non-stop, it was not a problem. My anger was toward the airline since they could see what type of ticket it was before they took our money. They had even walked us through the process.

Now, we had a problem with the ones we purchased directly through the airline for this coming May. They changed all of the flight times and left us no time to change planes and get to the international terminal in Houston for the connection. They did not notify us. DH was just rechecking the flights/seats and saw it. We were able to change to an earlier flight, so I think there are pitfalls with all of them.

[sunny girl]

Dear labeachcomber - check out Celebrity's Choice Air. I just bought round trip tickets from LAX to FCO for $1083 for our June cruise. The tickets are for Air Canada so we'll be stopping in Toronto both ways.

[labeachcomber]

Ooops! I meant to address the OP, LAbeachcomber!

 

Oh well, I'm glad you found flights. ;)

 

Smartcookie, thanks for the offer! We're on the July 16th Equinox out of Rome. Probably looking to fly from LAX on July 12th to spend some time in Italy. And coming back on the 26th.

 

sunnygirl, glad you found tickets! $1083 would be a steal at this point! I checked Choice Air, the lowest flights have a base of about $1000, but then with taxes and everything, they're all bumped up to about $1400.... Sigh....

[Smartcookie]

Well LA, I tried and the best I'm getting is $1400 and change. :(

[zeppysky]

I see you were on the Homeric back in 1987 but in April. That was our families first cruise of many but we are also going on the Equinox Med cruise on June 4! In 1987 I was pregnant with our third child whose college graduation we are celebrating on the Equinox cruise. Small world. We will have to share stories.

[D4]

Yikes! I'm flying Alitalia (business class) to Rome and my carry on weighs about 30 pounds! Can I take a carry on, a purse, and a computer case?

 

Not according to their website - 1 carryon @ 11 pounds. That was one reason why I avoided them last year for our trip to Rome. My carryon sounds like yours.

[MJonTravel]

It's been a few years since I've traveled extensively to/from and within Europe. But when I did travel more, all European airlines tended to be far more restrictive as to what qualified to be a carry on vs. our US airlines.

[footer6]

I see you were on the Homeric back in 1987 but in April. That was our families first cruise of many but we are also going on the Equinox Med cruise on June 4! In 1987 I was pregnant with our third child whose college graduation we are celebrating on the Equinox cruise. Small world. We will have to share stories.

 

It is a small world. Our first cruise also was on the Homeric (2/28/87). We also are on the June 4 Equinox sailing, and we have a daughter graduating from college in May.

[zeppysky]

Make your Celebrity Air and Custom Air reservations ASAP!!

 

here is a link to the Celebrity Air general info page which describes Custom Air towards the bottom: http://www.celebritycruises.com/plancruise/transportation/heroSingleTxtSub.do;jsessionid=0000byZGPl-1Dy-GqSIjO0hfrTo:12hdbcuh7?pagename=air

 

Custom air is an extra $50/pp, waived if you are a Captains Club (prior cruise) member. Here is how it worked for me:

 

I found a couple flights I wanted which arrived a day or three before our cruise as we wanted to do a short pre-cruise stay at the port city. I emailed the request to our Travel Agent who I had talked to about this and who told me to do that. In one case the travel agent sent me back about 4 choices - some of them had a fare up-charge, including one of the flights we had picked, and at least one was no additional charge other than the $50 custom air fee and we picked that one as the flights were very good. The second time they had one of the exact flights I asked about available at no up-charge and we took that.

 

One of the great things about the custom air is that, at least in the USA, you can cancel it with no penalty up until the final payment date of the cruise. So you can continue to shop fares now and then and if you find a better fare before final payment date just buy those tickets and cancel the cruise air portion of your ticket. I have read some issues posted on these boards from cruisers who got a package price, or air included, price from their TA and/or their TA had their own cancellation/change fees separate from Celebrity's fees - but in our case the prices were all listed separately. In fact for one of the two cruises we found the same flights available from a consolidator type agency for a few hundred less a week before final payment and cancelled the cruise air with no issues.

 

Cruise air also includes your transfers which are expensive in Rome (arranged car is 130+ Euros to/from the cruise port) , however you might have to travel to the airport or another hotel to use them if you are arrainging your own pre-cruise stay so it might not be worth the hassle.

 

I did notice on the Celebrity site that there is a number to talk to the custom air people directly. I don't know if you can do that if you're booked through a TA or not, but it would be nice to be able to just get on the phone with them directly.

 

 

 

When we went on the Celebrity Cruise Air, there is a fee to cancel airfare $179 and the costs for transfers are additional. Maybe this has changed since you did it?

[labeachcomber]

When we went on the Celebrity Cruise Air, there is a fee to cancel airfare $179 and the costs for transfers are additional. Maybe this has changed since you did it?

 

That was what I found as well. Pretty much any airline if booked on your own will allow you to cancel for $100 and use the remaining airfare value towards a different ticket. I'm not sure how much it would save me going on Cruise Air.

 

I'm getting ready to bite the bullet and shell out $1400 per ticket.... gulp. It's a vacation, don't want to have to stress about hopping to three separate airports and flights to maybe get the price down a few hundred bucks. And then to have to do it all on the way back as well.

[Cruise Junky]

That was what I found as well. Pretty much any airline if booked on your own will allow you to cancel for $100 and use the remaining airfare value towards a different ticket. I'm not sure how much it would save me going on Cruise Air.

 

I'm getting ready to bite the bullet and shell out $1400 per ticket.... gulp. It's a vacation, don't want to have to stress about hopping to three separate airports and flights to maybe get the price down a few hundred bucks. And then to have to do it all on the way back as well.

 

I received a sale e:mail from Air Canada today for the summer, so maybe they're just now starting to put things on sale? Check it out over the next couple of days.

[Seanster]

Last week I was looking at fares to Barcelona from New York and they literally increased on my while I was surfing...from about $1250 to $1400, so I booked immediately for my June 27 - July 9 cruise. I think with the recovering economy that fares to Europe will just keep increasing, not decreasing.

 

Actually, increasing fares have little or nothing to do w/ a "recovering" economy (and we could have a separate, long-winded discussion about whether the economy is truly recovering). Airlines, due to a continually faltering economy, have been reducing capacity (i.e., seat numbers) over the past 12-18 months. As a result, there are significantly fewer seats available on any given route versus 12, 18 or 24 months ago. With fewer seats, prices have gone up, even though the economy remains relatively weak and demand remains modest.

 

Unfortunately, for the poster looking for a lower fare to Rome during the summer, international airfares nowadays tend to hold steady for extended periods of time. Formerly, there was much more variability in pricing on international routes, with the possibility that one could snag a real bargain if one waited to book one or two months before the flight. However, this is generally not the case today, particularly for higher trafficked routes during the summer months.

 

My sense is that the $1500 fare will hold steady up until a week or two before the flight, at which time it will go up significantly. Net-net, there is probably little or no difference in booking today or waiting to book until one to two months before the flight. The poster might be able to find fare to Rome for $100 or $200 cheaper pp. if he/she constantly searches online for the coming weeks, but is such a small savings worth it when the greater probability is that the fare will remain steady or even increase gradually in the coming weeks, and then ultimately shoot up close to departure date?

[Cruizer Bill]

I just can't pay $1400 per ticket. We went to Europe two years ago only because Delta lowered their rates in March and we flew from Seattle to Rome RT for $787. Once we saw that we then booked a cruise. Looks like it won't happen this year so we will be cruising the Panama Canal. It pays to bargain shop!

Bill :)

[labeachcomber]

I sucked it up and bought the tickets for a little under $1500 last night. I agree that it doesn't look like they're going to be coming down. And I don't want to be in the situation of them going up even more in the future. At least I have a little bit more peace of mind.

 

If our vacation dates were more flexible and we didn't really want to do a Mediterranean cruise, we'd probably look elsewhere or at another time. But it's the vacation that we want and have been dreaming of for a while.

 

Prices might go down by a few hundred, but I'm trying to keep the attitude that the tickets are already bought and I'm not going to stress about it anymore. We'll have a great cruise and I can always look to pinch some pennies elsewhere in my life to absorb some of the cost. Thanks for all the advice everyone!

[stargazingjess]

Yikes! I'm flying Alitalia (business class) to Rome and my carry on weighs about 30 pounds! Can I take a carry on, a purse, and a computer case?

 

CruisinNana - I flew Chicago - Rome last year on Alitalia. I had a satchel and a purse (although I made sure to hide my purse behind the satchel when I was checking in/walking thru the gate). They did not weigh my bag at check in (even though I made sure to be under the limit). I did see a couple people with rollerbags that looked like they weighed way more than 11lbs, but I'd say that's the exception, not the rule. I doubt they'd let you have all 3 of your bags aboard.

 

One thing I could not tell on their website - if business class has different hand luggage restrictions than coach. That might be something you could call the airline and ask :)

[CruisinNana]

CruisinNana - I flew Chicago - Rome last year on Alitalia. I had a satchel and a purse (although I made sure to hide my purse behind the satchel when I was checking in/walking thru the gate). They did not weigh my bag at check in (even though I made sure to be under the limit). I did see a couple people with rollerbags that looked like they weighed way more than 11lbs, but I'd say that's the exception, not the rule. I doubt they'd let you have all 3 of your bags aboard.

 

One thing I could not tell on their website - if business class has different hand luggage restrictions than coach. That might be something you could call the airline and ask :)

 

Thank you. I will call the airline because I am traveling business class. Did you notice if the rollerbags other people had were weighed?

 

Do you know if you can pay for an overweight carry on or do they refuse to let you take it on and make you check it? I will be flying out of Chicago when I board Alitalia.

[JFontaine]

Last year my (business class) airfare went down twice before my trip on Continental. I got an airline credit the first time (minus a fee) because it was within 30 days of purchase. I would watch for fare decreases on expensive tickets, and if you see one, call the airline.

[Podie]

Fares on Aer Lingus JFK to Venice finally dropped a few hundred dollars so we jumped on them. $830 round trip economy. I feel relieved!

[OhioDogLover]

The airfares are horrible. We finally just held our breath and booked last weekend. Oh my gosh! We were afraid we wouldn't be able to get on the plane, would have to change dates for flights or that they would get to be even more expensive. $1350 rt to Barcelona. At least that includes all of the taxes.

Ohiodoglover

[zeppysky]

Of course, now after booking a $1200 plus ticket, the rates are come way down for European travel...ahhhhh. I guess we gambled and lost. Good luck for those waiting until the last minute on flights. We watched the rates for 6 months and never were they cheap. Oh well.

[Solstice23]

We booked airfare from Toronto Non stop for 1000.00 per person our flight is May 15th

[Baglady34]

Although by now you probably have booked flights.... try Aer Lingus through Dublin and then jump on a interEurope flight to Rome.

 

We fly out of Boston and are using Swiss Air ($1100) to Rome on 6/10.

That was the best we could do. Also, we booked through Orbitz so if someone does get a lower price on the same route, they refund you the difference.

 

Good luck !

[caripoo]

Un air, it always goes upfortunatly you might be stuck. Thats almost the first thing we do , is book the air. It ALWAYS goes up the closer you get to the summer. As soon as kids are out for the summer they know they can up the fares and they do!! You might try flying into a smaller venue. We are leaving out of Amsterdam in Sept. It was much cheaper to fly into Brussels than Amsterdam, so we are spending 2 days there and taking the train to Amsterdam. Good luck!!!:o

[Jade13]

Several weeks ago, there was a thread here about the ridiculously expensive airfare to the Mediterranean.

 

We're booked on a July Equinox cruise out of Rome. From Los Angeles, the cheapest flight I can find is $1500! That's per person. I tried going through CruiseAir, and maybe the cheapest flight is $80 cheaper. If I use Celebrity Air, I think I can pay a little extra to customize the trip? We want to arrive in Rome three days before departure to do some sightseeing. Would Celebrity Air be that much cheaper? And with custom air, am I allowed to pick certain airlines so I could add to my frequent flier miles?

 

A couple weeks ago, everybody was saying to wait. But my fare watcher websites are actually saying that the price will continue to RISE! The cruise itself is $2600 per person, I feel stupid paying so much for the airfare. Are summer flights to Rome always this expensive?

 

We flew to Rome for a HAL cruise in both July 2007 and July 2008 and $1,500.00 was average. We did use FFmiles for award travel both times. However, that is about what you will find to Rome in July or August. Note that at the time Lufthansa/SWISS had flights in the $1,100.00 to $1,200.00 range both years and are good airlines.

[Cruise Junky]

We booked airfare from Toronto Non stop for 1000.00 per person our flight is May 15th

 

May is always cheaper than summer.