Air pricing

[llarsen]

Hi there,

 

We booked a cruise out of Rome for June 2018, planning to do a pre-stay in Florence and post-stay in Lake Como.

All hotels and tours are booked, but we have held off purchasing air as the pricing has been outrageous. When we booked the cruise in October of 2016 air was around $800 but of course it was too early to purchase for our 2018 trip. They did start to rapidly climb after October.

 

We have been watching fares since this June and fares have remained in the $1,600 range for our Itinerary.

LAX-FLR and MXP-LAX

 

I am worried that while we play the wait and see game, that some of the best flights will sell out (there are 4 of us traveling together) It was in October of last year when I saw the lower prices for the upcoming June.

 

If anyone has a crystal ball or good advice...I'd like your opinion on whether to wait and see if prices go down in October or grab a flight before seats sell out?

 

Thanks!

[LHT28]

Personal choice

I have in the past gotten good deals in Jan for June flights but sometimes the "what if's" can stress you out

I think you just have to watch the prices & if there is one that you can live with book it & do not look back

jmo

[warburg]

Personal choice

I have in the past gotten good deals in Jan for June flights but sometimes the "what if's" can stress you out

I think you just have to watch the prices & if there is one that you can live with book it & do not look back

jmo

 

I agree with LHT28. Keep looking and buy when you feel like it. At present, all kinds of events can have an impact on air travel. Once you buy, stop looking. This is your vacation, so don't sweat it.

[rallydave]

Hi there,

 

We booked a cruise out of Rome for June 2018, planning to do a pre-stay in Florence and post-stay in Lake Como.

All hotels and tours are booked, but we have held off purchasing air as the pricing has been outrageous. When we booked the cruise in October of 2016 air was around $800 but of course it was too early to purchase for our 2018 trip. They did start to rapidly climb after October.

 

We have been watching fares since this June and fares have remained in the $1,600 range for our Itinerary.

LAX-FLR and MXP-LAX

 

I am worried that while we play the wait and see game, that some of the best flights will sell out (there are 4 of us traveling together) It was in October of last year when I saw the lower prices for the upcoming June.

 

If anyone has a crystal ball or good advice...I'd like your opinion on whether to wait and see if prices go down in October or grab a flight before seats sell out?

 

Thanks!

 

Since the pricing has gone up why don't you simply take Oceania Air and do a deviation. The longer you wait, the less likely you will get your flights with O Air without the upcharge. Costs you nothing to check things out as you don't pay anything until you agree on your flights and then the price is locked in. If you don't like the O Deviation, simply take the air credit and you are back in the same position for zero dollars.

[llarsen]

Rallydave, I was originally hoping to get air in the $800-$900 range, but Yes that's not a bad idea. We do have the option to take the O air. In fact our travel agent said we can get the PE upgrade for $99 since that was the price when we booked the cruise.

We used O air once and paid deviation plus an extra $200 for the flight we wanted. Do you know if we are in the eligible time frame to request a flight and price?

 

Thanks everyone for you input!

[llarsen]

I just looked and we are 269 days before our cruise. I think we can request deviation 270 days out?

I will have to go through our travel agent (who seems very busy with hurricane/cruise cancelation questions) but I think I will give her a call Monday and have her check.

[rallydave]

I just looked and we are 269 days before our cruise. I think we can request deviation 270 days out?

I will have to go through our travel agent (who seems very busy with hurricane/cruise cancelation questions) but I think I will give her a call Monday and have her check.

 

You are right at the right time. It is 270 days Think the days of $800 Open Jaw Trips to Europe are a thing of the past, especially for June which is the beginning of summer when fares go up.

 

Good luck.

[LHT28]

I just looked and we are 269 days before our cruise. I think we can request deviation 270 days out?

I will have to go through our travel agent (who seems very busy with hurricane/cruise cancelation questions) but I think I will give her a call Monday and have her check.

You can start the process at 270 days out if O has their contracts in place

 

I like to pick the flights that suit my needs then my TA will submit them to O

 

If they can get them without an upcharge or one I can live with ..book em

I like to use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ to see the flights that might work for me

[AZjohn]

If anyone has a crystal ball or good advice...

 

My advise is wait as you are trying to book way too far out. Airlines this far out are pricing way too high and they know it hoping some one bites at these ridiculous prices. Likely much better prices 4 months out.

 

If you can't handle waiting this long maybe get a round trip somewhere much cheaper inside Europe and then purchase one way ticket to/from FLR and MXP. Like flying economy LAX-BCN is in the $800 RT.

 

But again, I personally would hold off until after the first of the year.

[arlmac]

Take the flight to Milan and then take the train to Florence....very fast and a great reside.

 

Also look for a flight that hops...either air lingus or Icelandic air....takes quite a bit of the price. I'm not sure if. WOW or norweigan air have found their way to LAX. But they fly out of Boston and are quite inexpensive.

[Reading54]

I agree with several of the posts earlier. It is too far out to purchase air tickets for June 2018. I'd wait till January of 2018 to look for air tickets.

 

Even though you want LAX-FLR, but you may also consider air fare for LAX-FCO or LAX-PSA to see if the price difference is worth the added time for the train ride at the end of the journey. Roma Termini to Florence is only 90-min by high speed train, and Pisa airport to Florence is only 60~90 minutes by regional train.

 

During January of this year (2017) there were wide range airfare sales to Europe offered by several airlines. I purchased BOS-FRA, AMS-BOS for flying May/June of 2017 and paid only $440/pp on Lufthansa.

 

Good luck.

[llarsen]

Thanks for the ideas...

In looking at LAX to other airports I actually found a Norwegian flight LAX to London Gatwick LGW for only ($290 bare bones) or $379 with a meal and seat assignment and checked bag.

These are both separate "One way" flights

LAX 6:45pm arrives LGW 1:15pm $349

LGW 4:40pm arrives FLR 7:50 $57

Do you think this would allow enough time? I imagine we would have to pick up our bag in baggage claim and go through security again for the second flight?

If it is possible to get by with just a carry on each, do you know if we still have to go back through security for second flight?

Either way, is it enough time between flights?

 

Thanks so much for all your input. This is looking affordable!

[Reading54]

I would not do two separate tickets. The flights need to be on one ticket so that if the first flight were delayed you are protected for your 2nd flight.

 

Just the stress and worrying alone make 2 separate tickets a bad deal.

[LHT28]

Thanks for the ideas...

In looking at LAX to other airports I actually found a Norwegian flight LAX to London Gatwick LGW for only ($290 bare bones) or $379 with a meal and seat assignment and checked bag.

These are both separate "One way" flights

LAX 6:45pm arrives LGW 1:15pm $349

LGW 4:40pm arrives FLR 7:50 $57

Do you think this would allow enough time? I imagine we would have to pick up our bag in baggage claim and go through security again for the second flight?

If it is possible to get by with just a carry on each, do you know if we still have to go back through security for second flight?

Either way, is it enough time between flights?

 

Thanks so much for all your input. This is looking affordable!

are they on different airlines ?

Two tickets or one?

We did this once with two different airlines

 

on return flight

 

1st flight was delayed at the original airport someone did not report for boarding but their luggage was loaded ..so they had to offload their bags then wait for a take off slot

 

arrived at LGW late then had to claim bags go recheck in for 2nd flight ...desk was closed then had to go to special services desk got checked in then security then had to RUN to the gate as they were loading the plane

 

got to the gate ready to collapse only to find out they were now delayed ..good news for us but

 

NEVER again will I book on 2 tickets for the same day

 

I would weigh the options & pricing sometime paying a bit more for convenience is worth it

I will always do non stop where possible

Just saying

[pinotlover]

Air Canada is having a fare sale through 10/2. Check their prices. Use ita matrix to watch air fares.

[llarsen]

Yes...it would have to be 2 different tickets and 2 different airlines. It would save about $400pp but I see what you're saying with it not being a "connecting" flight.

 

I also just realized we would also have to go through customs coming off our nonstop from USA in addition to going through security for the one way flight to Florence, since it would be treated like a new flight.

 

Oh well, looks like we wait and see or bite the bullet and pay the price.

 

Pinotlover, Thanks! I will check their pricing.

 

:-)

[LHT28]

Yes...it would have to be 2 different tickets and 2 different airlines. It would save about $400pp but I see what you're saying with it not being a "connecting" flight.

 

I also just realized we would also have to go through customs coming off our nonstop from USA in addition to going through security for the one way flight to Florence, since it would be treated like a new flight.

do not forget you also need to go to the check in counter for the 2nd flight

 

Should you decide to pursue that avenue

 

leave yourself plenty of time as flight to London seem to be delayed more often than not ....well in my experience

[buggins0402]

Another negative...Norwegian doesn't have many daily flights. If your flight gets cancelled, there are not as many options as compared to the major carriers with their air groups (Skyteam, One world, Star Alliance).

 

You might also check flights out of LIN...it's a bit closer than MXP to Milan. However, MXP has train service from downtown, LIN does not.

 

Last year DL and AA did a flash sale in November (shortly after the election), with some incredibly low economy prices (under $500 r/t) to many cities in Europe for prime summer season 2017 flight dates. I don't know if it will happen again though.....

[llarsen]

Good to know about Norwegian not having many flights...didn't think of that and it would be a real bummer if our flight was canceled. It did happen to us one time in the States.

 

Also thanks for the heads up on LIN being closer. We will will have a driver, so the train service doesn't matter. I do remember seeing a good flight home out of LIN but didn't really look into it because I thought MXP would be the airport to use.

 

It was probably November last year that I saw the low air fares. These air prices are killing me on this (already) expensive trip I seem to have planned.

 

LHT28, actually I recall a horrible experience last year on our trip home from Spain which connected in London LHR. We had to go through security at our gate! It took forever...they were asking everyone questions and were so slow at letting anyone through. I'm not sure if that's something that happens there on a regular basis, we had never seen anything like it before.

 

I think I will check with Oceania about air deviation. I found 2 separate flights that I like.

KLM/Delta:-( which gets us into Florence early, and a good AirFrance or Swiss return flight home which allows us enough time to get to Milan.

 

:-)

[Mura]

Speaking of long transits through customs ... a few years ago (2014? 2015?) we were transiting through Charles de Gaulle. After a long hike to customs, they only had two clerks handling EU passengers. Non-EU passengers were just waiting.

 

We were panicking because we had a short transit time to our flight home.

 

Finally they moved one of the EU clerks to the non-Eu line, and just as we were about to get to the head of the line a family of four came through with one of them being in a wheelchair, so she took priority over us. We were getting crazy!

 

Finally got through and raced through the airport to get to our flight as it was on last call.

 

We got on to our flight and were settling in ... and then they announced that they were holding the flight for some late arrivals.

 

Had we known that, we might not have been so panicked!

 

Mura

[LHT28]

have you looked at KLM or Swiss they have good routing ... connecting in AMS or Zurich

I try to avoid connections at LHR or CDG

[SALAMANCA2014]

If you travel a lot you should sign up for your favorite airline credit card and use the sign up bonus to obtain to obtain your tickets. We flew from Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi on KLM one was just under $400.00 one way. Cruise from Abu Dhabi to Rome. Vueling Air Rome to Munich. Munich to Los Angeles on United using miles. Try looking at round trip to Rome the fares may be lower than an open jaw. The European air carrier fares are very low compared to train travel. I was in Europe a couple of years ago and I used Vueling and Ryan Air. I found Ryan Air the best. Vueling charged me a $100.00 for a carryon bag on a flight from Rome to Munich. The bag was a standard size carryon bag.

 

This year my trip from Rome to Munich. After looking at all the available I selected Vueling. This time Vueling service was a lot better and no trouble with my carryon. I printed their carryon specifications for Vueling in case there was a problem. The travel time from Rome to Munich by train is about twelve and less than two hours by plane.

 

 

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[twochromic]

S we were transiting through Charles de Gaulle. After a long hike to customs, they only had two clerks handling EU passengers. Non-EU passengers were just waiting.

Mura

I try NEVER to transit through CDG. It is invariably a mess, and in my opinion the worst airport in the world. Certainly I would not trust a cruise line to book me through there. If there was no choice, I might, but require at least 4 hours transit time there.

[SALAMANCA2014]

We flew from Heathrow to CDG on Ryan Air last year. The lines were long but moved fast. We took Ryan Air Shuttle to Paris for about $5.00 per person prepaid.

 

 

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[buggins0402]

OP, we did something similar in 2016. The cruise was a Barcelona to Rome. Post cruise we took the train to Bologna for a few nights and then went on to Lake Como for more nights.

 

Originally, I had booked O air with a deviation, because I could not find Air prices that were better than O air. When the deviation request came back, we had not only the deviation charge, but an additional cost for the routing. That said, I was very specific on flights because of limited time off for work...so that may have been the reason for the additional charge. Even with the deviation and additional charge, using O air was still cheaper. Prices to buy on our own were in the $1600 range....but I was very inflexible on the flight to BCN (it had to be that last flight out of DTW on DL), so I couldn't price shop other airlines.

 

Later, I found some low mile DL FF tickets out of LIN for the return. I cancelled the O Air return and received an air credit for that portion. We still had to pay the upcharge and full deviation fee.