How much was your air for your August cruise?

[tclowe]

Hope everyone doesn't think this is too personal. Trying to figure out how much to budget for our August 2006 air flight to Copenhagen from the West Coast. The major travel booking engines only go up to August 14 or so. Can't get an idea what it would cost roundtrip on 8/8 to 8/23.

 

Reluctant to do Princess air because we will travel with 2 small children and want flexibility with stopovers. Plus, I think I would have to pay extra (deviation fee?) if we wanted to go days earlier before our cruise embarking day. I did a search for July 2006 and the air was approximately $1,200 to $1,300 per person, would this be about right for August travel as well?

 

Thanks.

[sunprincess]

If I remember correctly the Princess Air cost was $1069. I stuck with that.

My flights were not that bad this cruise. But I can understand travelling with small children you want to get decent flights.

I did look around at pricing & your's seems about what it would be.

 

Good Luck :)

[dougnewmanatsea]

Fares should be roughly the same in July as in August.

 

Generally speaking, flights open up 330 days before departure... So within a week or so, you should be able to get flights for your dates.

[Juliadlf]

Fares should be roughly the same in July as in August.

 

Generally speaking, flights open up 330 days before departure... So within a week or so, you should be able to get flights for your dates.

 

I've been told that the best time to find fares for the summer will be in the March - April timeframe. Your thoughts?

We are looking at a late August sailing Copenhagen to Copenhagen. I would hope the fares would be around $800 rt. Maybe I have wishful thinking....

[booper8]

We booked in March for late August flight to Copenhagen from the west coast. Best price we found was $999 + $150 taxes/surcharges per person for direct flight.

[tclowe]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Seems weird that air fare alone would be the cost of 3/4 of our per person cruise cost for a 10 day vacation on the Star Princess (which includes cabin, entertainment, and food).

[ekp]

We flew from Las Vegas to Copenhagen on United on August 26 and SAS with a return flight stopover in London and the fare was about $1,500 per person. Other people on the ship mentioned that they flew Icelandic Air from San Francisco to get to Copenhagen and that it was less expensive. I guess you need to price all the possible routes. By the way, the cruise was terrific.

[dougnewmanatsea]

I've been told that the best time to find fares for the summer will be in the March - April timeframe. Your thoughts?

Airfares are quite unpredictable. Generally, the best time to find fares for the summer will be as soon as those flights open up. It seems to me quite rare to see fares reduced for summer transatlantic travel. Instead, the cheap seats (lowest fare bucket) go first, and then fare levels rise and rise as each consecutive fare bucket is sold out until they get to the highest fares right before the date of departure.

 

This is how things are supposed to work, notwithstanding things like sales which can happen at any time depending on how well seats on a given flight are selling. That said it is very rare to find fare sales for summer travel to Europe and when one does it usually just amounts to rolling back fares which have gone up back down to the fares they began at.

 

Basically, if you are looking for a bargain on summer transatlantic airfare, good luck. Such bargains are, for all intents and purposes, nonexistant.

 

As for what your airfare should cost, this is very much dependant on where you're flying from. I can say that Copenhagen is not an easy city to get airfares to simply because there are very few nonstop flights from the US to Copenhagen in comparison with the major hubs - London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich. These cities have flights from many airports in the US, often many times a day. Copenhagen only has nonstop service from Newark, Washington Dulles, Chicago, and Seattle. Thus, unless you live within reach of one of those four cities you will almost certainly wind up connecting either in one of those cities or somewhere in Europe (probably one of the big five hubs mentioned above). A connecting flight usually costs more than a nonstop - that is, usually (though not always) it costs more to fly from, say, Los Angeles to Amsterdam to Copenhagen than it would to just fly from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. And the nonstop flights need not be cheap, either, since there are only four a day and they are all on one airline (SAS).

 

I don't think your $800 figure is impossible, but you will probably wind up spending more.

 

You do not indicate what city you're from, but just as an example, I've taken San Francisco, where the original poster lives. I've taken the arbitrary dates of a July 10 departure and July 20 return. The cheapest fare I've found is $1,099 ($930 before taxes) on Icelandair connecting through Rekjavik. (Icelandair is very often the cheapest airline to Europe; it's a sort of transatlantic low-cost carrier.)

 

As another example, I've taken New York (including Newark) for the same dates. This is an East Coast city, the biggest in the US, with the most flights to Europe, and a nonstop to Copenhagen. Theoretically then, this should be about the cheapest US departure city to Copenhagen (though it probably isn't). Here the lowest fare is again on Icelandair - this time, it is $992 ($869 before taxes). The nonstop flight from Newark would cost $1233 ($1140) if booked as a United flight, but just to throw a curve, it would be $1640 ($1453) as an SAS flight. SAS probably sold their allocation of cheaper seats while United still have some. And no, it makes no difference what airline's flight number you buy the flight as; if you can get a flight for less money under one airline's name than another, go with the cheaper one. On transatlantic flights you will find a lot of codesharing, especially with US airlines putting their flight numbers on European airlines' flights. If your Lufthansa flight costs less bought as a United flight, or vice versa, go with the cheaper airline. It is the same flight on the same plane and odds are the guy you're sitting next to is flying Lufthansa while you're flying United - never mind that you're both sitting in the same Lufthansa airplane. (Of course, it works the other way too - your Lufthansa flight could actually turn out to be a United one.)

 

Also make sure that you compare fares after taxes and fees, e.g. on this search I came up with a $730 fare on British Airways that would actually cost $1015 while an $869 fare on Icelandair only comes to $992 because of lower taxes and fees.

 

So depending on where you are, you might not wind up that far over $800, but only as an absoulte best-case scenario. Airline fares are completely unpredictable, they can go up or down at any time and while there are some generalizations which can usually be made (e.g., flying from the West Coast to Europe is more expensive than from the East coast, flying from a city with lots of competition is less than flying from one dominated by one airline, etc.), there are no hard and fast rules to airline fares. As an example of how illogical this stuff is, one of our Hosts lives in LA. He just flew from San Diego to LA to Tokyo to Singapore, becuase it cost him $200 less than flying from LA to Tokyo to Singapore, on the same flights, but without the San Diego to LA segment. This makes no sense at all to you or I, but obviously made a lot of sense to some yield-management person at the airline's headquarters when they were setting fares.

 

So the bottom line is, there are no guarantees at all... But my advice would be to buy your airfare as early as you can. With peak-season flights like summer transatlantics, fares do normally go up, not down. Of course, you can't predict for sure whether they will rise or fall - even the airlines don't know today what fares will be a month from now - but market conditions in this case are such that they're likely to rise, so if I were you, I'd book as soon as possible.

[dcl1710]

One thing to consider besides price - COMFORT. This is a long trip. We paid extra on SAS to be in "premium economy". The seats are bigger and the leg room longer than regular economy. It was worth the $200 we paid. We left from the east coast and thought it was money well spent. We were more relaxed than the economy people - had some in our party back there and they were tired.

[Juliadlf]

We live in northeast - small town in upstate NY. We usually book a connection through either Detroit or Philadelphia.

 

I'll check out SAS and see if they fly out of either of those airports.

[dcl1710]

We also live in the northeast and SAS flies a non-stop to Copenhagen from Newark. Departs at 5:50pm and arrives at 7:25am.

[dougnewmanatsea]

I'll check out SAS and see if they fly out of either of those airports.

If you want to fly SAS, you will need to use Newark, Washington Dulles, or Chicago. (They also fly from Seattle).

 

You should be able to fly SAS if you have connections to Dulles or Chicago from your home airport on United (connections to Newark are unlikely within the Star Alliance from non-hub airports).

 

Flying through Detroit you would probably have to fly to Detroit and then on to Amsterdam and then Copenhagen (on Northwest and KLM). Via Philadelphia you'd have to continue on to Frankfurt or Munich and then to Copenhagen (on US Airways and Lufthansa and/or SAS).

[Juliadlf]

From what I'm seeing, we would have to make at least 2 connections which is a real pain and the opportunity for the luggage to get lost on the way over so getting in at least one/two days ahead would be best.

[AlFayNV]

My wife and I just returned two days ago from the Sept. 8-18 Baltic cruise on the Westerdam. The all-inclusive Las Vegas/Copenhagen roundtrip economy fare made through Orbitz about four months prior to the date of departure was $1938.63 total for both of us ($906.09 per tkt, $21.98 service fee, 21.95 paper-tkts processing fees and $82.52 tkt protector fee). The $82.52 tkt insurance was optional. The three "going" flight segments (Las Vegas-O'Hare-Heathrow-Copenhagen) and two "returning" segments (Copenhagen-O'Hare-Las Vegas) were on United and Scandinavian airlines.

 

Especially with children in tow, one would be well-advised to seek routes that avoid Heathrow, if possible, because of the potential labyrinthian pathways of tunnels, stairs, etc. that must be walked to get from the arrival to departure gates. I had to nearly sprint ahead of my wife to get from the United arrival to the SAS departure gate in Heathrow in a seemingly never-ending maze of passageways hoping to hold up the departure for a few minutes - not an easy feat for a senior.

[tclowe]

Alfaynv, thank you so much for posting your experience. Like you said, with two small children in tow, I can not deal with 2 or 3 connecting flights to get to Copenhagen. We will definitely take Host Doug's suggestion and book early for the flights that will work best with the kids.

 

We were lured with a "great deal" for Jewel of the Sea and airfare included. But after considering that we would have to embark in England, pay extra for deviation fees, and the port is far from London proper, we are better off doing Copenhagen roundtrip.

[ekp]

Our United flights from Las Vegas to Copenhagen were expensive, close to $1,500 each with a stayover in England for 5 days. It was worth it though because we used our United frequent flyer points to upgrade to Business Class. Unfortunately the Chicago to Vegas leg is on TED and there is no first class on those flights. Business Class is the way to go.

 

Holland America Westerdam August 29, 2005

[Sequim88]

Couple questions I have raised along the way in all the above very valuable info...

 

1. Are there any circumstances where two seperate sets of tickets with an intermediate city makes any sense? Say r/t US-city to Reykjavik with a night there then a seperate r/t flight to Copenhagen (or whatever cruise city). Or could be London or Paris or Geneva, etc.... We did something like this with a large savings over an open-jaw flight with our Alaska cruise (r/t Mpls. - Seattle and one-way Anchorage-Seattle to catch return to Mpls.). I thought there were some tourism subsidized deals for staying in Iceland. How are r/t fares from Reykjavik to Denmark?

 

2. Similar to above but what about an off-season intermediary location - somewhere blazing hot in summer. Madrid?

 

3. Also, what this deal about not being able to extend the stay using cruiseline's air package? We plan to spend an extra 7-10 days in Sweden post-cruise so would that rule out air package right now?

 

4. How much does avoiding popular cruise start/end days factor in? If there are a lot of departures on weekends (say Sunday) would air arrivals that day (or the day before) be more likely to be higher? If you wanted tour the embarkation city and can trade hotel cost for air cost can this work too? Ditto on the return.

 

5. To what extent does the European summer holiday season (July-August) knock down airfares due to lower international business travel?

[dougnewmanatsea]

1. Are there any circumstances where two seperate sets of tickets with an intermediate city makes any sense? Say r/t US-city to Reykjavik with a night there then a seperate r/t flight to Copenhagen (or whatever cruise city). Or could be London or Paris or Geneva, etc....

Probably not. Intra-European flights are extraordinarily expensive, unless you take a low-cost airline like Ryanair which does not fly to major airports (major pain in the neck - I wouldn't bother).

 

It will almost always cost much less to buy your intra-European tickets as part of a round-trip transatlantic fare. We flew JFK-AMS and then CPH-AMS-JFK on KLM and the CPH-AMS segment cost maybe $100pp, much less than it would have if bought separately.

 

I thought there were some tourism subsidized deals for staying in Iceland. How are r/t fares from Reykjavik to Denmark?

I suspect that buying a round-trip US-Iceland-Copenhagen is cheaper. As I recall, Icelandair allow stopovers on US-Iceland-Europe itineraries as a way of encouraging tourism in Iceland, so if you want to stay a few days there, the only extra cost should be hotel, food, etc... It shouldn't boost your ticket price at all.

 

3. Also, what this deal about not being able to extend the stay using cruiseline's air package? We plan to spend an extra 7-10 days in Sweden post-cruise so would that rule out air package right now?

The only way you could do this while using cruise line air would be to pay for an air deviation and choose your own flights. Usually costs something like $50pp on top of usual cruise line air costs.

 

4. How much does avoiding popular cruise start/end days factor in? If there are a lot of departures on weekends (say Sunday) would air arrivals that day (or the day before) be more likely to be higher?

Weekends may be more expensive, but it has nothing to do with cruises... Just that people like to travel on weekends.

 

Because most Baltic itineraries are 10 to 12 days, they start and end on all different days of the week, unlike typical 7-day cruises which leave the same day every week. So your cruise may be, say, a Thursday departure arriving the following Monday or something wacky like that.

 

5. To what extent does the European summer holiday season (July-August) knock down airfares due to lower international business travel?

It doesn't. All the tourism coming in from North America to Europe - and, for that matter, tourism coming in from Europe to other places like North America - easily offsets the drop in business travel. July and August are the absolute most expensive months for travel to/from Europe, with fare levels that are usually not reached at any other time of year.

[Host CMLA]

In late August 2001 I paid $1,000 for roundtrip airfare to Gatwick on British Airways. It was non stop from Denver, CO.

[Sequim88]

Thanks very much Doug. Much appreciated.

 

Also about air deviation:

Usually costs something like $50pp on top of usual cruise line air costs.

$50 I could handle if cruiseline's airfare was even close to lowest I could find elsewhere. I was afraid it was several hundreds more. Past experience has been buying my own would be a lot cheaper but I like to check it as an option incase they bought packages of cheap seats.

[Boo's Mom]

I purchased airfare about a month ago..... for June 06 travel from Texas to Gatwick in London.

 

It was not quite $1100. per person.

 

Besides the price, the big factor I was looking at was the hours involved in the travel. My total air time for this itinerary is only 10.5 hours. One stop in detroit.

 

I was amazed at how many different flights there were...and how many of them were 12, 14, 16, even 18 hours in length. :eek:

 

I suppose that when the 1o hour flights fill up....then the supply/demand will move into the longer flights.

 

So, traveling with children, the flight time involved was a key factor for us.

 

Because we booked so far out.... Aug 05 for Jun 06 travel.... we were not able to pick our seats yet. I believe we can do this when the flight is 90 days out.

 

Seating location is important to us, too.

[dougnewmanatsea]

we were not able to pick our seats yet. I believe we can do this when the flight is 90 days out.

This policy is a Northwest/KLM peculiarity (who I assume you are flying as connecting through DTW). It's left over from the days of paper tickets when you could get boarding passes - and thus choose your seats - only a certain number of days before the flight.

 

Virtually all other airlines have eliminated this and allow you to choose your seat assignments when you book. A few don't allow advance seat assignments at all, assinging seats when you check in (which can often be done online 24 hours departure, allowing you first pick of seats). I don't know of any that still have the rather archaic 90-day rule except for NW/KL.

[Boo's Mom]

Yup. Northwest.

[dbh62ark]

Virtually all other airlines have eliminated this and allow you to choose your seat assignments when you book. A few don't allow advance seat assignments at all, assinging seats when you check in (which can often be done online 24 hours departure, allowing you first pick of seats). I don't know of any that still have the rather archaic 90-day rule except for NW/KL.

That's a huge disadvantage and would likely sway me to another airline. My husband and I had the great misfortune of being squashed into the back row of an Airbus plane several years ago, and the back seats did not recline. Never again! Can you imagine the seats in front of you coming back, and there's nowhere for you to go? We stood in the aisles and next to the bathroom for much of the flight because supposedly there was no place to move us (hmmm, empty seats in business class and first class from what we could see, but whatever). Fortunately, we were on our way home, but that would have been pretty miserable if we had been at the beginning of our trip. We have tried to forget it because I can't even remember which airline to cuss for that occurrence.

 

When we used frequent flyer miles for our Delta flights in August/September this year (into London Gatwick and out of Brussels where we went postcruise), we picked the best seat available at the time. At the airport, we arrived just maybe 1/2 hour earlier than we would have and were able to get bulkhead seats. I almost hate to give this tip up but assume that none of you will be on our flights to beat us to the good seats. With Delta, bulkhead and exit row seats for international flights are assigned about 2-4 hours before the flight. It is a HUGE advantage to be in those seats and is basically like riding in a car for 7-9 hours because you have so much leg room and wonderful space.

 

We've always had better flights and significantly cheaper airfare booking on our own as opposed to going through the cruise lines but would not hesitate to use cruise line air if it is to our advantage. The bargain international airfares (we paid $500 each round trip including all taxes and fees from Little Rock into Venice and then open jaw out of Paris in early October a couple of years ago, which was a great fare for us, so you don't even want to waste FF miles with fares that low) are definitely harder to get, so if you see a low fare after checking around, I suggest that you book it. Several airlines will refund you the difference if the price drops, so you might want to ask about policies on that too.

 

Happy travels to all,

Donna

[sparkers]

Last year at this time I called the travel agent to check on airfares to Rome. She felt they were too high and that I should wait. I contacted American and they said they do compensate if the fare goes down so I went and booked them. The fares never went down and only went up. I would check every so often. Next summer I will be going to Amsterdam and have already purchased my tickets. Guess what? The air for that flight has already gone up too. Even though Celebrity will give you free custom air if you have cruised with them before, it was still cheaper to buy my own even without transfers included. If I had waited for 2 weeks it would have been better to go with their air. Time is money:)