Flights to BCN....how do you find the cheap flights?

[ken_nyc]

Is Air2Sea/Choiceair only available to Royal Caribbean passengers?

 

Azamara & Celebrity

[rockdoctor]

We use the cruise line's ticketing service.

 

Checked again this morning, cruise line air is about $300 lower than airline air, for me anyway. With all the different categories of air tickets, I'd be afraid of a consolidator.

[Twickenham]

Checked again this morning, cruise line air is about $300 lower than airline air, for me anyway. With all the different categories of air tickets, I'd be afraid of a consolidator.

 

If there's a $300 difference in the price of cruise air vs. airline air, most likely those cruise air tickets are consolidator tickets.

 

A great sticky in the Cruise Air forum:http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

Edited February 20, 2016 by Twickenham

[NMLady]

Airfare of course depends partly on what airport in US you are using. Some are significantly cheaper. We are cruising on NCL so choiceair is not an option.

We are not using NCL air because we are staying 3 days after the cruise and the air deviation fee plus difference in airfare plus cost of getting to their airport, not our nearest, makes it significantly more expensive.

 

In exploring airfares from Barcelona to El Paso TX I found that, unless I wanted to connect in Istanbul, a roundtrip ticket was significantly cheaper than one way, almost half as much. So I purchased roundtrip. We'll use the return to take the return ta next October. With the airfare paid, the cruise cost is nominal for the ta.

[cruisinlawn]

Cruisinlawn -

 

I've done a somewhat similar exercise. In 10/2015 we began monitoring PNS/BCN RT for 5/2016 travel in business class. From Oct. thru early Jan. the fare was ~$2670 each on AA(best connections from/to PNS via CLT). Just after Jan. 8 the fare jumped to over $4000 even though the seat maps indicated plenty of availability. Now fare is over $5000, still with plenty of seat choices.

 

This was a simulation because we're not really travelling until May 2017. But, it was a one data point learning experience. You can book 330 days out. TA says we'll look at options 270 days in advance. In any case if there is a pattern one should not wait past 4-5 months prior to May cruise departure from BCN to book air on AA.

 

What fare watch sites do you suggest?

 

DW primarily watched over this and states she had bout as good of luck with Delta site as any. Initially we did book the flex air with Carnival as we knew we could cancel w/out penalty. We were happily pleased when able to book direct with airline and regain direct control rather then having to go thru cruiseline and/or travel agent. Enjoy :)

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

DW primarily watched over this and states she had bout as good of luck with Delta site as any. Initially we did book the flex air with Carnival as we knew we could cancel w/out penalty. We were happily pleased when able to book direct with airline and regain direct control rather then having to go thru cruiseline and/or travel agent. Enjoy :)

 

Yeah, I'm on RCCL flying from NYC to BCN and found that I got at least the same fare booking Delta on my own - plus I have total control of the reservation. Leaving it in a third party's hands just makes me nervous.

 

And ditto on RT being less than 2 separate legs priced individually.

[hkto]

Checked for LAX-BCN on Air2Sea. Price was ok but Google Flights google.com/flights/ showed slightly lower prices for same flight and way more choices.

[Desert Cruizers]

For International flights, we use the Choice Air through the cruise lines. A couple years ago when we flew to Sydney, Australia, we couldn't find a flight under $1250 PP but through Choice Air we paid $841.91 PP 1 Way since we were cruising back to the states.

[pollux]

check WoW, Icelandic, Air Berlin, Air Canada, Aer Lingus and Noorwegen Air.

Also check with the cruise line some time they are cheaper.

[back-at-it]

I did the 1800flyeurope.com and got business class on American Airlines for $1640 per person one way. But call them, they have different deals than on line.

[krev]

We just bought ours through Air2sea, YVR-BCN $609 CAD pp, it's the same flts we were planning but direct with the airline was over $2000 pp. This certainly doesn't help the OP but something to think about when booking with other cruise lines.

[tammynordan01]

Kayak.com Both flight from Houston totaled $775