One way flights - advice needed

[nomad10]

try aerlingus to Ireland good value then Ireland to uk about 20$

[upwarduk]

try aerlingus to Ireland good value then Ireland to uk about 20$

 

 

 

That way you could fly into Manchester, rather than Heathrow, which can be a nightmare, especially if you use 2 different carriers. Our flight from Montreal was via Air Canada into LHR, but I booked BA LHR to MAN using Air Miles. I thought they were the same code share- NO. Air Canada wouldn’t book the cases through to MAN. So, we had to retrieve our cases at terminal 3 LHR and go through security again at Terminal 5 LHR.

Lesson learned.

 

 

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[Glenndale]

We used Virgin Atlantic air miles to purchase Premium Economy seats on a one way flight from Miami to Heathrow.

If you don't have enough air miles you can purchase them at a rate of £15 per 1000 plus a one off £15 transaction charge. Our seats cost 22500 air miles each plus airport taxes.:)

The cost in $ for the one way flight was around $2700, so a considerable saving.

You need to be a member of their frequent flyer program which is free to join.

[Grandma Cruising]

As we can’t use Choice Air in UK, this is the route we have used with both Celebrity and Azamara. If you book ‘Air’ with the cruise line, your booking becomes a package, so you will have transfers and a day hotel added, as most flights returning from the States / Canada leave mid evening. The single fare from both Miami (Infinity T.A 2013) and Montreal ( Quest Repositioning 2016) was £750, but that was not business class.

I believe you can add Air after booking the cruise.

 

 

 

We will probably do this if we book the cruise.

 

 

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[rallydave]

What about cancellation and no show fees?

 

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You don't cancel, just let the reservation and not show up for the flight. Have never heard of a no show fee?? While this method is frowned on by the airlines and they could come back at you if they find that you do this a lot of times, doing this infrequently won't raise any suspicion and you should be fine. People have reported doing this and never hearing from the airline, the airline has bigger fish to fry than a one or two off no show.

 

By the way, there are situations where this might be a situation beyond the control of the passenger. Illness, situation requiring departing at an earlier or later time, inability to fly, etc. The airlines bring this on by having a round trip fare higher than a single one way.

[uktog]

Dropping the final leg on flights has been identified by airlines as being a way to circumvent some air rules. It has been reported on several frequent flyer websites that airlines are now pursuing passengers who do this and in some cases there seems to be some "blacklisting" of frequent offenders going on. There can also be issues with the airport taxes in some countries so whilst dropping a leg is an option it is one you should exercise caution about. Looks like there are some better solutions being proposed on this thread.

[Globehoppers]

Thanks again. I have put my query on the Cruise Air forum and will keep looking. TAP looks a possibility - anyone any recent experience of TAP long haul?

 

 

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Flew TAP last Fall MIA-VCE and return FCO-MIA, both via LIS in Business. Price was about two-thirds of its Star Alliance partners (did watch the price increase closer to departure date). On time and comfortable with good crews/service. Searched travel and pricing options on googledotcomslashflights and booked using CruiseAir.

 

For one-way travel the best prices are usually obtained through the cruise line air travel booking service. They obtain one-way pricing not available directly from airlines. Airlines presume a passenger will need to return to the departure destination and price one-way travel at or above round-trip.

[rallydave]

Dropping the final leg on flights has been identified by airlines as being a way to circumvent some air rules. It has been reported on several frequent flyer websites that airlines are now pursuing passengers who do this and in some cases there seems to be some "blacklisting" of frequent offenders going on. There can also be issues with the airport taxes in some countries so whilst dropping a leg is an option it is one you should exercise caution about. Looks like there are some better solutions being proposed on this thread.

 

 

 

Agree about exercising caution when using this booking strategy. Lately we have been needing to book several one way flights and luckily fort points redemptions one way is the same number of miles as 1/2 the round trip cost. Plus for us domestic flights the fare for one way is 1/2 the round trip fare. Seems only international flights have the one way penalty fares.

 

 

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[jo-b]

Friends have used Norwegian and said it was fine, and seemed a lot cheaper than others.

 

Also an acquaintance mentioned that whilst booking with BA for a long haul flight that if he used their hotel & flight option for a pre cruise couple of nights this became a holiday and he didn't have to pay in full at the time of booking as he would have done just for the flight.

[upwarduk]

Also an acquaintance mentioned that whilst booking with BA for a long haul flight that if he used their hotel & flight option for a pre cruise couple of nights this became a holiday and he didn't have to pay in full at the time of booking as he would have done just for the flight.

Certainly in our experience with both Celebrity and Azamara, we’ve not paid for the flight until we pay for the cruise, as it becomes a package holiday in the UK.

 

Also Norwegian have been allowed to fly into Manchester since the demise of Monach.

My daughter -in -law used them on a flight to New York and said they still had drinks included in the price.

[uktog]

Be careful, Norwegian have a reliability problem on their flights up here and papers have had a lot of unhappy folks posting about a lack of care when things went wrong e.g. last minute cancellations

[excitedofharpenden]

Be careful, Norwegian have a reliability problem on their flights up here and papers have had a lot of unhappy folks posting about a lack of care when things went wrong e.g. last minute cancellations

Fleet size.

 

Phil

[uktog]

Fleet size.

 

Phil

 

Probably is, there was also a pilot and crew shortage from what I understood as they have tried to expand very rapidly

[NorthernLite]

Have you thought about a spring 2020 eastward TA to create a closed jaw flight for the largest part of your flying time? We did this one year and you just have to make sure the return trip is within so many days. I believe our airline cited 160 days. If you chose the Rio TA I would probably do a closed jaw using LHR and MIA then add the Rio leg.

[Grandma Cruising]

Have you thought about a spring 2020 eastward TA to create a closed jaw flight for the largest part of your flying time? We did this one year and you just have to make sure the return trip is within so many days. I believe our airline cited 160 days. If you chose the Rio TA I would probably do a closed jaw using LHR and MIA then add the Rio leg.

 

 

 

Thanks for the idea, but we’re a bit reluctant to book 2 TAs when we’ve never done one before. Maybe we ought to think more about this option!

 

 

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[excitedofharpenden]

I did a lot of research before booking them for our flight in April. I used seatguru.com for seat reviews (learned that they have two styles of business class seats and which flights/aircraft used the "good" one) and flyertalk.com for additional information. It looked pretty good so I took the chance. I will try to remember to come back and post our experience when we get home the end of April.

Bob, could you do that? That would be great.

 

Phil

[excitedofharpenden]

I did a lot of research before booking them for our flight in April. I used seatguru.com for seat reviews (learned that they have two styles of business class seats and which flights/aircraft used the "good" one) and flyertalk.com for additional information. It looked pretty good so I took the chance. I will try to remember to come back and post our experience when we get home the end of April.

I did a bit of research too and hopefully you’ll get the retrofitted seat which is fully flat rather than an angled flat (which I did a while ago and couldn’t get on with).

 

To Grandma Cruising, I did a bit of further reading on TAP Business Class and by the time next fall comes around the GIG-LIS should be 100% fully flat seats in business class as more and more aircraft are updated. It looks an interesting alternative to BA and I might give them a go next March for LIS-GIG as they should have completed retrofits by then. This route is a premier route for TAP, so updates will get priority. £1490 one way at the moment on the website for next February as a guide and the price is right.

 

Phil

[Grandma Cruising]

Thanks Phil for that information. That’s good news, so if we don’t manage to get Avios reward flights (tricky as there are few) we will definitely look at TAP - much more attractive with fully flat seats.

 

 

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[excitedofharpenden]

Thanks Phil for that information. That’s good news, so if we don’t manage to get Avios reward flights (tricky as there are few) we will definitely look at TAP - much more attractive with fully flat seats.

 

 

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The reviews I’ve read of them look very good. Direct aisle access for everyone seems to be the way business class is going now. I’m flying the updated Iberia Business Class there and back from Quito via Madrid in August and again back from Buenos Aires in January 2019. They get good reviews too. Heike told me about them and a friend who flies BA Club a lot prefers Iberia. Iberia are part of One World, so if BA reward flights are difficult to grab then that’s an alternative. Often they use less miles too.

 

Phil

[Grandma Cruising]

Thanks

 

 

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[jo-b]

Thanks Phil for that information. That’s good news, so if we don’t manage to get Avios reward flights (tricky as there are few) we will definitely look at TAP - much more attractive with fully flat seats.

 

 

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Although there is a small charge for the privilege of booking on the phone rather than online for Avios flights we found we got flights a lot easier than trying ourselves when it was frequently impossible.

[Grandma Cruising]

Yes, I agree, I always ring. It gets tricky though, especially with flights to/from popular places. You have to ring at a couple of minutes before midnight on the day the flights open to have any chance of ‘scoring’ Avios reward flights - mind you it’s the same with going online.

 

 

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[bob278]

I will try to remember to come back and post our experience when we get home the end of April.

 

Bob, could you do that? That would be great.

 

Phil

Sure thing. The key words being "I will try to remember.". My memory, which was never all that good, seems to get worse every day.

[marchie1053]

We use open jaw flight bookings (Edinburgh-Tokyo & Seattle-Edinburgh booked this week for 2nd May & 29th May respectively). The total cost for Premium Economy both ways (except EDI-LHR & return - not an option) was £1613 for the pair of us.

[Grandma Gilly]

Thanks Phil for that information. That’s good news, so if we don’t manage to get Avios reward flights (tricky as there are few) we will definitely look at TAP - much more attractive with fully flat seats.

 

Don’t forget that although you can use Avios for a one way flight it has to originate in the UK.