First time booking overseas flight...need help please

[Tina0922]

Hello all,

 

My family is booked on a land & cruise the end of June, 2011 on RCI and have a few questions.

 

1- When should we be actually booking the flight? Have been checking weekly for 2 months and the price is exactly the same. Hoping it would drop but it's not.

 

2- When checking flights, looks like Delta & change in JFK or USAir & change in Philly. Been hearing horrible things about both airports. Anybody suggest anything reference this. Layover in both cities is only 1hr 30 min

 

3- Once we get in to Venice, RCI states meet tour rep at hotel. Does anybody have any suggestions on how we get there? Is it better/worth doing transfers through RCI?

 

Thanks in advance for any information.

 

Tina

[paul929207]

Going to Europe 90 minutes at JFL or Philly is enough time.

 

To get to the hotel in Venice can be expensive. Water taxis are very high. Check with the hotel for their suggestion. Also, find out how much RCI want for their transfer.

[PennyAgain]

Buying the RCI transfer depends on your comfort level on doing it yourself. Remember that about anything you do in Venice is expensive by US standards.

[FlyerTalker]

Note that DL and US are the only carriers that currently have non-stop service from the USA to VCE. However, you could very easily take many other carriers to Europe, connect there, and continue on to VCE. So please do not limit yourself to just DL and US, UNLESS having a non-stop from JFK or PHL is very important.

 

You could easily find better pricing, aircraft, service on some other combination.

 

What are your specific cities?

[zoncom]

Assuming you fly out of FL consider Luftansa or Swiss out of MIA. You will have a better experience

These two usually have lowest prices also.

[wrp96]

Note that DL and US are the only carriers that currently have non-stop service from the USA to VCE. However, you could very easily take many other carriers to Europe, connect there, and continue on to VCE. So please do not limit yourself to just DL and US, UNLESS having a non-stop from JFK or PHL is very important.

 

You could easily find better pricing, aircraft, service on some other combination.

 

What are your specific cities?

 

 

To add to this, since they have to connect, my preference would be to connect in Europe versus in the US. WhY? Because if there is a problem with your connection, you have a lot more options to get to Venice from various points in Europe than from the US. You are more likely to have another flight a couple hours later from Europe rather than a day later from a US airport.

[rajaniblue]

I travel to Europe fairly frequently now as my husband has family there. Some things I have observed in booking my own flights:

 

At this point, you have plenty of time still to book a flight before a June vacation. If you have already been checking prices for 2 months, you have time to check for a month or two more. This should give you a good idea of what airfares run over a period of time and a fair idea of what a flight should cost. My personal preference is to book between 4 and 2 months ahead of my planned departure time, but I begin checking prices as soon as I know I'm going so that when a fair but cheaper price appears, I can jump on it. It is sometimes hard to read the market. If you have been checking prices, and feel you have booked at a fair price, book and forget about it. Yes, there will sometimes be price drops after you book, but the longer after the "2 month before" window that you wait, the less likely you are to get a cheaper price and then sometimes much higher prices, availability and seat choice becomes an issue (I am claustrophobic, and absolutely must have aisle seats on a transatlantic flight).

 

Direct flights are nice but are often much more expensive than connecting segments. If you choose connecting segments, I would avoid any flight that has you connect through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. I fly Delta regularly and they always want to connect you through this airport and there is not ONE time I have been in this airport that our bags have not been lost or we have missed our connection due to airport problems. Last Christmas, a snow storm which would not have fazed our local airport in the least caused us to be bumped from 3 different cancellations before they shut the airport down. We did not get out of there until the next day after enduring more cancellations the following morning. On another trip, the airport shuttle driver, whose business it is to get passengers between connecting flights, got lost between the debarkation terminal and the connecting terminal, causing us to be bumped down to 2 flights later (a 7 hour wait over the normal wait time). Every time we connect through there and arrive in Vienna, our bags are missing or damaged. CdeG is confusing to navigate, and has terrible signage which is very difficult to see. In my opinion this place is the airport armpit of the world.

 

My last trip from the US to Vienna cost us about $920. I have spent up to $1400 for a similar flight and similar fare class, so you can see that prices run all over the place depending on what the market is doing (the fuel surcharge era got very expensive). I generally book on Orbitz, Expedia or similar and compare each service with similar departure times to see where the best prices are. Also, if you are flexible, you can almost always find a cheaper deal by altering your departure time from end of week to midweek and seeing what you get. We always leave on a Tues or Wed and it seems to drop the price a couple hundred dollars from departures closer to the weekend. I usually run scenarios for every day of the week just to see what prices run, find departure times with cheaper fares, then we plan our trip accordingly. If you are going into Venice on a Tues or Wed and your ship doesn't leave til the weekend, your airfare savings might be enough to let you very inexpensively enjoy seeing Venice (a fascinating, lovely city with tremendous history) for those extra couple of days.

 

Just a couple of thoughts. Hope it helps.

[alcpa1]

June is prime time for European vacations. I would be very surprised if your fares come down.

I would personally not be comfortable with 1 1/2 at JFK or Philly. I booked a 2 3/4 hr layover for our June flight to Europe and we almost missed the connection.

When you are booking your return leave at least three hours between flights.

Absolutely avoid CDG if at all possible. Amsterdam is a much more pleasant experience.

Venice is very expensive and confusing for the first time visitor. It's challenging to use the water taxis and cross the bridges with luggage, but it is worth it.

Have a wonderful cruise, and don't forget to join the Roll Call for your sailing.

[Gardyloo]

From south Florida I'd look at British Airways from Miami to London, connecting to Venice, or AA or Iberia to Madrid, connecting on Iberia to Venice, or Delta to JFK connecting to their Venice nonstop.

 

Venice is a very expensive destination owing to huge but temporary demands arising from the cruise industry. I would not expect much of a price drop; in particular I would not expect any drop at all on Delta's nonstop. It will only get more expensive.

 

You might want to book the airport transfers (but not the airfare) through the cruise line, just to make it relatively easy. You will be pooped and jet-lagged on arrival, not the best time to navigate a complicated watery city in a foreign language.

[Tina0922]

WOW, thank you everybody. To start off my family must get to Venice with as little stops as possible. I will be traveling with my parents and they do not like flying too much. If there was a flight direct from Ft Lauderdale or MIA into Venice I would be all over it. Looks like no matter what airline we choose, the outbound we must change somewhere. The return we could get direct from Rome into MIA. RIght now prices are about $1600 per person for coach & over $3000 for business class. I was really hoping prices would drop for business class since I am 6 ft & my father is 6'5" and figured the extra room for such a long flight....but not for $3000 per person.

 

I have looked into some international flights out of MIA but prices are pretty much the same....& I dont know those lines & feel ify not knowing what to expect. Are the iternational carriers really better than Delta or USAir?

 

Our travel day for flights are pretty much that day. With my work schedule I cant take anotherday off since I am already taking 3 weeks.... We need to fly out Wed June 22 so we get to Venice on Thurs to start our land tour and then return on Mon July 11 out of Rome.

 

I will look into a couple of other carriers...thanks again for everyones assitance. This is huge help. :)

[Sabi-chan]

A cheaper option for more legroom would be trying to reserve the seats at the bulkheads. Some airlines charge extra to reserve the "premium" seats, but the cost is MUCH less when compared to upgrading to business.

[parody]

My personal preference is to book between 4 and 2 months ahead of my planned departure time

 

Good to read that you have a strategy for buying tickets for international travel. Many would say the sooner the better. But, it is useful to note that Rick Seaney the CEO for farecompare.com suggests in a recent post that "airlines don’t start releasing cheaper seats until ... 4-5 months before international travel." I would imagine that he would be the first to agree that this "average" advice varies by market, season, and destination. But, it's a start.

[wcook]

Right now the cheapest flights to Europe out of Miami are on Air Berlin. Note that Air Berlin don't show up on many travel sites, including Expedia, but does show up on Orbitz and Kayak. Be sure you are looking at a site that includes them.

 

In terms of airline, they are very much the same for passengers "in the back of the plane." Reputations for one airline to be significantly better than another are usually based on how they treat frequent fliers and business/first class customers.

[wcook]

Many would say the sooner the better. But, it is useful to note that Rick Seaney the CEO for farecompare.com suggests in a recent post that "airlines don’t start releasing cheaper seats until ... 4-5 months before international travel."

The worry is that for the most popular flights, there may never be any cheap seats to release. It's all a gamble. I'm a big believer in picking a price you are willing to pay, then booking as soon as you see it.

[Tina0922]

Went online again today to check prices since family will probably book airfare by the end of the year and was beside myself!! Unless we fly on International carrier, out of MIA, websites showing 2 change overs!!! Delta, USAir, United all showing a change over in the U.S. then again in Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Rome. What happened to my JFK and/or Philly change over then into Venice outbound & the same cities on my inbound flight from Rome before coming back into West Palm Beach/Ft Lauderdale/Miami area?

 

Looks like we will have to 'treck' down to Miami even though parents want to leave out of Palm Beach which is so much closer for them.....So many decisions and don't know what to book. Anybody else with insight PLEASE HELP.

 

Thanks in advance. Tina