Crazy aifare to FCO for July Equinox

[sharky23]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if anyone is heading for the July 26 Equinox sailing out of Civitivecchia and is also finding airfares to be exorbitantly high (out of the U.S. anyway)?

 

I'm looking at the only direct offered from MIA to FCO (on Alitalia) and they want $1900 pp...economy! :eek: Factor in we're traveling with a three-year-old and I'm at a loss, we just can't do a connecting flight.

 

Is anyone else in my shoes? The airfare is almost as much as the cruise! I have two months before I have to cancel the cruise for a full refund of our deposit (which we don't want to do). :(

 

Should I hold off and wait and see if they come down to something reasonable? Can they really expect people to pay nearly 2 grand pp?

I'm flabbergasted. :confused:

 

Thanks for any and all feedback,

 

S

[hcat]

I feel your pain--last Sept we paid $1100 pp non stop Delta to FCO...the price eventually came down by half & we got a credit (after a $200 per ticket change fee)which w used to Florida.... I bet July will be hard on fares,,,prime time.

.

I think you should check with a TA who may know some secrets-- consider a stop over...some on our cruise did very well with that & did not lose very much time...or see what X can do for you...

 

and also try the "air cruise" board of CC--have you tried that?--the folks posting there have alot of good ideas...

 

good luck hope you don;t have to cancel

[sharky23]

Thanks for the ideas. I have TA trying to see what she can do but so far nada. I'll post this over in the airfare forum as well. Much obliged!

[labeachcomber]

I started a thread about this several weeks ago and got a lot of useful tips for our Summer Med cruise.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1153064&highlight=exorbitant+airfare+rome

 

Unfortunately, prices didn't seem to be coming down. Ended up booking flights from LAX to FCO for about $1500....

[D4]

You might reconsider Alitalia. I checked into them last year because they were the only non-stop flight from Chicago to Rome. A minor thing is that they only allow one carryon per person of a max of 11 pounds. That got me looking at some reviews online. People get mad at every airline, but Alitalia is notorius for having horrible customer service, having damaged seats on planes, having digsusting bathrooms on their overseas flights, etc.

 

I posted a question on the Cruise Air forum last year when I was considering Alitalia. I quickly decided against them.

 

Good luck finding better prices. You're going at peak season which makes it rough. You might check out the prices for flights several days before and after the cruise.

[D4]

I just had another thought. Do you have to cruise in the summer? If you could cruise in the fall, you'll have better cruise and air prices, less crowds, and more comfortable temperatures.

[ocngypz]

Your best bet is to try an alternate gateway. Take a cheapee flight to get there......then do the round trip.

 

Try Atlanta first.

 

I've been using Swissair and Aer Lingus for quite a few of my Northeast gateways clients.

 

I'll be completely honest with you.. better to take a connecting flight on a "legacy" carrier.... even with two connections.. then Alitalia. They're pretty awful.

[Czech Precision Forge]

___.

[Smartcookie]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if anyone is heading for the July 26 Equinox sailing out of Civitivecchia and is also finding airfares to be exorbitantly high (out of the U.S. anyway)?

 

I'm looking at the only direct offered from MIA to FCO (on Alitalia) and they want $1900 pp...economy! :eek: Factor in we're traveling with a three-year-old and I'm at a loss, we just can't do a connecting flight.

 

Is anyone else in my shoes? The airfare is almost as much as the cruise! I have two months before I have to cancel the cruise for a full refund of our deposit (which we don't want to do). :(

 

Should I hold off and wait and see if they come down to something reasonable? Can they really expect people to pay nearly 2 grand pp?

I'm flabbergasted. :confused:

 

Thanks for any and all feedback,

 

S

 

It's crazy, isn't it? I have never seen airfares to Europe as high as they are this summer. :mad:

[citygirl]

Kayak has been notifying me since Dec for PHL to Rome even with a connecting it hasn't gone below 900 pp for MAY and is usually closer to 1000 soooo my dream of spending my 50th in Italy and Greece got turned into a week on the Solstice in the Caribbean, best of luck in ur search

[labeachcomber]

Hi Sharky,

 

Since I booked my airfare about a week ago, the same flight has shot up $150. Would now cost me $1650! Unfortunately I don't think the prices are going to drop from $1500 (from LAX) down to below $1000. Those days are long gone. To save myself the stress of having to watch these prices creep up each week (they were probably about $1200 just six weeks ago), I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

 

I'm guessing all US cities are the same. You could do some creative hopping about Europe but I don't think the price will be significantly lower. Might not be worth the hassle of having to change planes two or three times.

[Fblack]

This is going to hurt. For my last September Equinox cruise, (where I booked airfare 8 months in advance) we paid $805 per person total for a one stop flight from San Diego to FCO and back.

 

Also remember that transfers from FCO to Civitechia are expensive. About 120 Euros for two people one way. If you book airfare with the cruise lines, transfers are included.

[drarill]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if anyone is heading for the July 26 Equinox sailing out of Civitivecchia and is also finding airfares to be exorbitantly high (out of the U.S. anyway)?

 

I'm looking at the only direct offered from MIA to FCO (on Alitalia) and they want $1900 pp...economy! :eek: Factor in we're traveling with a three-year-old and I'm at a loss, we just can't do a connecting flight.

 

Is anyone else in my shoes? The airfare is almost as much as the cruise! I have two months before I have to cancel the cruise for a full refund of our deposit (which we don't want to do). :(

 

Should I hold off and wait and see if they come down to something reasonable? Can they really expect people to pay nearly 2 grand pp?

I'm flabbergasted. :confused:

 

Thanks for any and all feedback,

 

S

I feel your pain too, we just paid $1500 for our June cruise on the Equinox. Did you try Iberia? it will stop in Madrid, but you might get a better deal.

[sharky23]

Thanks all,

 

I've read a lot of bad stories about Alitalia and am very leery of flying them, even though they are the only direct that would work for us. We were hoping to fly direct because of my 3-year-old daughter. But since I'm finding Alitalia to be ridiculously high priced, and not child friendly (no car seats allowed, no safety harness, etc) and terrible user reviews, I'm reconsidering.

 

We also have to go in the summer as a teen is also going and has to go during summer due to school (she's part of our group that is flying over out of JFK. We're the ex-New Yorkers that have to fly out of South Florida) :mad:

 

I'm starting to lean towards Continental out of Ft. Lauderdale connecting in Newark to Rome, or US Airways also out of Lauderdale through Charlotte to Rome. They're less expensive and seem to have better amenities and reviews.

 

But flying direct would be so much easier. I'm really torn. GRRRR...

[Podie]

We are also ex-New Yorkers, flying out of Orlando, but we just bought round trip tickets from JFK to Rome on Are Lingus for $830. We'll watch for good buys on the Orlando to JFK flight; they'll be $200 at most.

 

Also Jet Blue is a "partner" of Aer Lingus so if we fly Jet Blue from Orlando, we'll be able to check our bags all the way.

 

Aer Lingus gets very good reviews.

[sharky23]

We are also ex-New Yorkers, flying out of Orlando, but we just bought round trip tickets from JFK to Rome on Are Lingus for $830. We'll watch for good buys on the Orlando to JFK flight; they'll be $200 at most.

 

Congrats, that's awesome! The Air Lingus out of JFK isn't direct into FCO though, is it?