Anyone have ideas on Reasonable Flights to Athens?

[veryseasonedtraveler]

Our cruise starts out of Athens and flights are expensive. Has anyone flown to another city in Europe and then taken a short hop to Athens? Any experience using Cheap O Air? We are flexible.

Edited March 29, 2016 by veryseasonedtraveler

[CruiserBruce]

Define "reasonable". What you define as "reasonable" may not be in contact with the real costs.

 

Give us a home airport, and at minimum, a month you are looking at flying, so we can do some research for you.

 

Cheap O Air is a consolidator. There are MANY threads here about the pluses and minuses of consolidators.

 

Have you checked with the air department of your cruise line?

[fbgd]

I like to think there's a sense of amusement in someone called "veryseasonedtraveller" asking about using CheapoAir :D

[veryseasonedtraveler]

I like to think there's a sense of amusement in someone called "veryseasonedtraveller" asking about using CheapoAir :D

 

:) We travel a lot, but try to travel wisely. Always looking for bargains so we can afford to keep going:)

[veryseasonedtraveler]

Define "reasonable". What you define as "reasonable" may not be in contact with the real costs.

 

Give us a home airport, and at minimum, a month you are looking at flying, so we can do some research for you.

 

Cheap O Air is a consolidator. There are MANY threads here about the pluses and minuses of consolidators.

 

Have you checked with the air department of your cruise line?

 

RDU in October. Will look at the threads. Our cruise hits many world hot spots.

[waterbug123]

What prices are you seeing, and what ballpark price are you hoping for? Difficult to offer alternatives if we don't know what you consider "reasonable."

[marco]

Have checked out the cruise line's air? For two TA's and 2 European cruises cruise line air was significantly less $$$$$ than anything we could find on our own. Also, it included transfers to/from the ship. If you are sailing out of Athens you probably will actually be sailing out of Piraeus, which you will have to get to from Athens.

[thinfool]

Looks like a wide range of pricing.... $950-$1537. You specify no dates so it impossible to be more specific.

[FlyerTalker]

:) We travel a lot, but try to travel wisely. Always looking for bargains so we can afford to keep going:)

Remember - there's more to a ticket than the price. Your "bargain" may very well come back to bite you.

 

But, if price is the only object....troll the internet for your bargains. Caveat emptor.

[Clay Clayton]

If you are sailing out of Athens you probably will actually be sailing out of Piraeus, which you will have to get to from Athens.

 

Which is (or at least was when we did it) relatively easy using Athen's public transportation.

[iancal]

We have seen numerous complaints about Cheapo.

 

Having said that we have used them several times to Istanbul. We always have lots of precruise days, we only accept a well known carrier who has multiple daily flights, and we insist on the same carrier sell the way. Past few times it has been BA. The flights were fine, the price was right. No hitches. But, we never used their customer service. We booked and flew.

 

Last fall we flew into Athens and home from Crete via Paris. We got a great fare on Aegean Airlines from Crete-Paris. You might want to check their fares from/to Athens from other NA gateways in Europe. You may get lucky and score some good flights along with a great stopover.

[MNgardens]

Take a look at the different airline vacation packages. Usually one can get a discounted flight for purchasing a nominal amount of hotel nights with it. For example - if you are staying in Athens a couple of nights ahead of the cruise and staying at the final port for a night or two, those could be booked through the airline vacation package.

 

In my experience, American Airlines has some good prices. It is possible to get discounted business class from them too using this scenario.

[Valley Girl of VA]

IMO, traveling wisely usually doesn't involve third party ticket operators. What happens when something goes wrong. I personally find that it is more advantageous to deal directly with the airlines when something happens.

[rockdoctor]

From my experience flying into/out of Athens is that the flights were priced right for the distance, but the flight times were inconvenient.

[pinotlover]

I friend of mine used Turkish Airlines to achieve your trip. They have several gateway cities in the US and are also part of the Star Alliance, but depending upon where you are starting you might first look at them directly Non stop to Istanbul with a short layover to Athens.

[cruisequeen4ever]

We had the same predicament with Athens. Instead, we found mileage availability to Amsterdam, since we wanted to visit there anyway and then paid cash to book a nonstop flight from there to Athens the day before the cruise. I spent hours and days scouring the flight options and city options before finding just the right option. I recommend checking Condor and your cruise line's airfare for potentially cost saving options.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[waterbug123]

I friend of mine used Turkish Airlines to achieve your trip. They have several gateway cities in the US and are also part of the Star Alliance, but depending upon where you are starting you might first look at them directly Non stop to Istanbul with a short layover to Athens.

 

I'd suggest checking Turkish as well. They have been offering very competitive fares. Friends of mine are taking their family of 4 on a Med cruise out of Venice this summer, and found a great deal flying Turkish via Istanbul to Venice.