Flight Prices

[mandmcruise]

Really want to do  a European cruise, however I am finding flight prices to be more than the cruise.  Am I really being that naïve or am I missing something when looking for flights.

 

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance

[Rsparis]

Where are you flying from and dates?

I bought  openjaw tickets Indianapolis to Rome Oct 19, Paris to Indianapolis Nov 2 with checked bags and seat selection on United for $600 each, total $1200 for 2 people.

[dogs4fun]

I currently find flights to europe at a 10 year low. When/where are you flying and from which city?

[Sauer-kraut]

Price out what the cruise line will offer for air in the cruise, you won't be paying for a one way ticket.  Another way is to book a round trip and just not use the second leg.

[cruisemom42]

20 hours ago, dogs4fun said:

I currently find flights to europe at a 10 year low. When/where are you flying and from which city?

 

I wish that were true for me. My only reasonable airport choice is ATL and flights to Europe this summer are through the roof. Delta has so little competition here -- almost all the other int'l lines are partners and the flights never compare with what's offered from many other East coast cities....  

[CruiserBruce]

I would start on the Cruise Air board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/

 

Some reading there would reveal there is absolutely no correlation between air fare and cruise fare, for a variety of reasons.

 

You would also see much discussion on the pluses and minuses of cruise airfare, and the budget airlines, like Norwiegian.

 

Lastly, as others have mentioned, details of your flight needs are important. While you might find a few sales in the next month or so, most of the really cheap fares were booked months ago.

[mandmcruise]

Thanks you to all who responded.  cruise is not until Aug 31 o 2020, so I know air fares are not out this far in advance.  I realize they could jump in the next several months.  Sorry guess I shuld have included details  We would be flying into Copenhagen and our cruise ends at Southhampton.  Liek i said it is a ways away and we do have the cruise on hold.  I did stop and talk to a TA here in town also she gave me some suggestions also.  We were seing 1200-1500 each way.  We live in NW Ohio so even if we have to take a connecting flight to New York, or drive to Indy or Detroit  that is also an option

[Twickenham]

4 hours ago, mandmcruise said:

We were seing 1200-1500 each way.  We live in NW Ohio so even if we have to take a connecting flight to New York, or drive to Indy or Detroit  that is also an option

 

Your mention of each way makes me think you might be searching for 2 one-way flights, which is the worst think you can do in terms of cost. You will almost always be better searching for a round-trip ticket, even if you have different arrival and departure cities; in that case, search for open-jaw itineraries.

 

In terms of general advice regarding searching for flights, the more flexible you are the easier it will be to find a good price. Using ITA Matrix, you can search using different airport combinations. Also, considering that your cruise is over a year out, you can also look at what frequent-flyer mile options you can have (I once acquired 125,000 miles in 4 months - all through credit card sign-up bonuses).

Edited February 3, 2019 by Twickenham

[triplemom3]

We booked our Venice cruise while onboard Oasis of the Seas in November for August 2019, and have been watching the fares closely.  We finally ended up getting a well known hotel vacation package with round trip flights for $1000 each.  This includes flights and 2 nights hotel in Venice pre cruise. The flights alone were $900 or so pp on their own. So it was actually cheaper getting a vacation package with the flights, rather than just the flights. Just a thought that you may want to consider.  We did that before on our trip to Munich and again, the package was better than just the price of flights. 

[kpauley]

8 hours ago, mandmcruise said:

Thanks you to all who responded.  cruise is not until Aug 31 o 2020, so I know air fares are not out this far in advance.  I realize they could jump in the next several months.  Sorry guess I shuld have included details  We would be flying into Copenhagen and our cruise ends at Southhampton.  Liek i said it is a ways away and we do have the cruise on hold.  I did stop and talk to a TA here in town also she gave me some suggestions also.  We were seing 1200-1500 each way.  We live in NW Ohio so even if we have to take a connecting flight to New York, or drive to Indy or Detroit  that is also an option

You may want to look at flights from Toronto (YYZ).  I live in central OH and flying from Columbus to Barcelona in 2015 was $1200.  The flights from Toronto to BCN were just over $600.  It was a 7 hour drive for us to Toronto.  With 4 people we saved over $2000 by making the drive.  You are probably a couple of hours closer to Toronto than we are. 

 

I'm looking at flights this fall from CMH to AMS and BCN to CMH on the return. The cost is between $1400-1500 from CMH.  From Toronto it is $800 RT.

[mandmcruise]

5 hours ago, Twickenham said:

 

Your mention of each way makes me think you might be searching for 2 one-way flights, which is the worst think you can do in terms of cost. You will almost always be better searching for a round-trip ticket, even if you have different arrival and departure cities; in that case, search for open-jaw itineraries.

 

In terms of general advice regarding searching for flights, the more flexible you are the easier it will be to find a good price. Using ITA Matrix, you can search using different airport combinations. Also, considering that your cruise is over a year out, you can also look at what frequent-flyer mile options you can have (I once acquired 125,000 miles in 4 months - all through credit card sign-up bonuses).

Yes that is what we were doing, have since found out we can do a round trip-thank you so much

[mandmcruise]

1 hour ago, kpauley said:

You may want to look at flights from Toronto (YYZ).  I live in central OH and flying from Columbus to Barcelona in 2015 was $1200.  The flights from Toronto to BCN were just over $600.  It was a 7 hour drive for us to Toronto.  With 4 people we saved over $2000 by making the drive.  You are probably a couple of hours closer to Toronto than we are. 

 

I'm looking at flights this fall from CMH to AMS and BCN to CMH on the return. The cost is between $1400-1500 from CMH.  From Toronto it is $800 RT.

Thank you so much- yes we are closer 5 hours and 46 minutes is wht google maps tell me, another plus I have a nephew that lives in Toronto.  We will definitely look into this, because no matter what we are 2 hours from Columbus, 2.5 hours from Detroit, so what is a little bit more time to drive to save money!!

[erby2283]

We are going to Barcelona in August of this year - then post cruise going to Portugal. We fly from Charlotte thru Toronto then to Barcelona, post cruise Barcelona to Portugal, and then home from Portugal thru Germany back to Charlotte. Including selecting our seats we paid around $1100 - which was close to what I was expecting. Just wanted to help out with ball-parking a figure.

[thetaro]

There are lots of flight deals from NYC. I actually booked Emirates to Milan for 400pp without checking what cruise I want to get on. I ended up booking MSC for $700pp 7nt inside. So cruising is pretty much cheaper than a hotel.

 

Barcelona should be the cheapest and I always see deals for around $300 from NYC. ATL - NYC is like $200 extra.

Edited February 5, 2019 by thetaro

[Voelfgar]

I just did a search on kayak from Detroit to Copenhagen and from London to Detroit on the same days(Aug 29 and Sep 7) your cruise next year, and total airfare cost per person is roughly between $1250 and $1300.

[KKB]

We have booked a Med cruise for May 2020. I priced air this year for the same date out of the various ports we could sail from. Some were definitely pricier than others to fly into (and domestically out of). We live in Nebraska but it will be much cheaper to fly to Chicago & get a Europe flight out of there (I will price KC as well as we can drive there). Barcelona was one of the cheapest to fly into so we chose a cruise out of there (which was a deal at $1200pp OV for 12 days on a newly refurbished ship). I expect around $200 to Chicago (and have a friend we can stay with if we need to go in the day before), probably $700 RT from Chicago to Barcelona. We shall see...

[Alaskanb]

Don't forget to look at Icelandair, They fly between Cleveland and Copenhagen. Did not check for London back to Cleveland. 

We have used Icelandair a few times and once used their stopover program to stay 2 nights in Iceland. It's a fascinating place. 

[lamchops]

On 2/3/2019 at 7:35 PM, mandmcruise said:

Thank you so much- yes we are closer 5 hours and 46 minutes is wht google maps tell me, another plus I have a nephew that lives in Toronto.  We will definitely look into this, because no matter what we are 2 hours from Columbus, 2.5 hours from Detroit, so what is a little bit more time to drive to save money!!

Spend some time with the nephew and save some big bucks, win win situation. In Canada you can find a lot of one way tickets that are cheap If the dates match up. For instance I’m flying to London and coming home from Paris for $677cdn $507us with Air transat from Vancouver BC. You could buy a return trip from Toronto to London at a similar price and fly London to Copenhagen one way for about less than $100us with easyjet, Ryanair or any of the Gatwick airlines. I’m flying London Gatwick to Barcelona and Barcelona to Paris with paid luggage and reserved seats for $169us per person with easy jet.

 

sign up for air transat promo notices and start checking their website after next Christmas for sales. They usually do a boxing week sale from December 26 till the second week of January.

Edited February 12, 2019 by lamchops

[mandmcruise]

Thank you so much!!! I will do so.  We were looking at hotels last night. I know it’s a bit soon however we booked out NYC hotel a year in advance for our upcoming New England/Canada cruise and the price has risen considerably since booking