Flying into Barcelona from western US

[Lance&Jen]

What has been peoples experience with Oceania provided air from say LA or Seattle gateways to Barcelona?  Do they keep it simple with say a non or one stopper or go for absolute cheapest and maybe two stops?  If they get crazy, like LAX to Chicago to Rome to Barcelona, we'll do our own air.

Thanks

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 minute ago, Lance&Jen said:

What has been peoples experience with Oceania provided air from say LA or Seattle gateways to Barcelona?  Do they keep it simple with say a non or one stopper or go for absolute cheapest and maybe two stops?  If they get crazy, like LAX to Chicago to Rome to Barcelona, we'll do our own air.

Thanks

Whatever you do, don’t use O air for bizclass.

And if you do bizclass from California, I can tell you from multiple experiences that a reasonably good price is available from United (SFO-FRA and codeshare on Lufthansa FRA-BCN).

[LHT28]

If you want  to know the routing I would pay the deviation fee &n choose the flights you want  otherwise  you take your chances

[jackdeb]

We have flown twice to Barcelona, once with BA through LHR, once with Air France through CDG. Both times on our own dime, several days earlier than the cruise, because the flight times and departure days suited us better than what O was offering. Btw from Vancouver. Try to weigh all your options.

[sunlover12]

Something you might want to consider is United’s new route nonstop Chicago-O’Hare to Barcelona, starting in May.  It would be a simple connection from LAX. 

We always book our own air. We don’t want the uncertainty of whatever O’s air would do. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, sunlover12 said:

Something you might want to consider is United’s new route nonstop Chicago-O’Hare to Barcelona, starting in May.  It would be a simple connection from LAX. 

We always book our own air. We don’t want the uncertainty of whatever O’s air would do. 

It would be interesting to see how O’s Air Dept. would treat that. Usually, their PE seat deals are intercontinental legs only. So a deviation fee and/or price differential might be required.

 

And IMO, if I’m doing a flight to Europe from California, I’d prefer one long haul bizclass and a puddle jump (SFO or LAX to FRA or other major hub and then connect to BCN).

 

It all comes down to price vs comfort & convenience.

[MEFIowa]

We're flying out of Barcelona back to the Midwest via Zurich in November. (Flying into Venice from Brussels. On Riviera B2B (Trieste to Athens and Athens to Barcelona).)

 

We did our own airfare. Do cruise only. Wife loves to follow Hopper. She recently jumped on a $1012 PP fare roundtrip (taxes and fees included). Of course, it is economy. But we did select our seats. The 767 flying back is 2-3-2 seating. So, we have 2 seats together by ourselves in the back!

[JoePDX]

18 hours ago, Lance&Jen said:

What has been peoples experience with Oceania provided air from say LA or Seattle gateways to Barcelona?  Do they keep it simple with say a non or one stopper or go for absolute cheapest and maybe two stops?  If they get crazy, like LAX to Chicago to Rome to Barcelona, we'll do our own air.

Thanks

Have you priced it out doing it yourself and comparing to the Air Credit?   We fly from Portland which is not a gateway city for Oceania.  So we pay $199 extra plus we always fly in early or leave late so add the deviation fee and I can always do better on my own.   And I am in control.   We typically fly Delta non stop PDX-AMS and then onward.

 

No sure of your dates, but I just priced a nonstop on Iberia from LAX to BCN (October/November) for $522 a person in economy and $976 in Premium Economy.   Seattle your best options in my opinion are British Airways or Delta both with one stop options, nothing direct to BCN.

 

Joe

Edited March 10, 2023 by JoePDX

[ColoradoGem]

We are leaving from Denver.  We found best route and best rates with British Air to Barcelona.....plus a few hours delay in Heathrow.  Arrive in Barcelona the next day, 8am.

[JoePDX]

2 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

The 767 flying back is 2-3-2 seating. So, we have 2 seats together by ourselves in the back!

 

The Boeing 767 or the Airbus A330 each have 2-x-2 seating.   So much better to have just your partner in the row and that is all.     

 

The first row of Delta Comfort (extra legroom, but still economy) is the best on the 767 or the A330.  These are bulkhead seats.    I am 6'2" and can easily stretch out and no one reclining in front of you.

 

Joe

[LuAnn]

8 hours ago, sunlover12 said:

Something you might want to consider is United’s new route nonstop Chicago-O’Hare to Barcelona, starting in May.  It would be a simple connection from LAX. 

We always book our own air. We don’t want the uncertainty of whatever O’s air would do. 

Do you know when in May this route starts? Thanks!

[Sthrngary]

It seems your question is not really being answered.  There are lots of post/treads that talk about Cruise Line Air.  This includes Oceania Air.  I studied them most likely for the same reason  you are asking the question.  I will be flying into Athens and out of Barcelona. If you book it yourself as far out as you can, you can book for the same prices as what Oceania will give you back instead of doing their airfare.  For me it was $1,000.00 each and I got two coach fully refundable tickets for $1,150.00 each.  

 

On to your specific question.  The feed back was not great and average at the best situation.  There was not many direct flights and more then one connections.  The general consensus was very stressful. Folks complained about having to pay $100 per piece of luggage even when their status with the airline was high.  They did not get their airline points and the list goes on.  Then others contradicted those claims. It is very hard to know who to trust so I figured, trust myself and book with Delta.  

 

Remember Cruise brands do cruise and Airlines do air.  When you think a cruise line will do anything other then what cost them the least, we usually get disappointed.  Hope that assist is some way.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[sunlover12]

2 hours ago, LuAnn said:

Do you know when in May this route starts? Thanks!

I don't know the exact date but it's closer to the end of the month, Memorial Day weekend.

It's nice that we don't have to go through Newark anymore. 

[DENIE]

We always book our own air for the reasons discussed here.  Just prefer to have control over everything.  For international we book directly with the airline, hoping that if issues happen we will be assisted by that airline and not rely on a 3rd party.

[susiesan]

Even if you do your own air with award tickets you can still only get crazy routings. For our cruise from Barcelona on Sirena in September I used UA points for biz class tickets. Our routing is MCI-ORD on UA, ORD-ZHR on Swiss, ZRH-BCN on Swiss.. We overfly Barcelona to Zurich and then backtrack. UA has a new ORD-BCN flight starting in May but you can't get decent award rates on that flight.

[jennybenny]

Depending on the time of year, flights from the west coast can change. There are non stops during tourist season to one to two stops throughout the year. I personally like the flights that arrive BCN in the morning but usually need a 2 hour nap midday. I have found if I arrive around 4-5 in the afternoon it’s easier to stay up and adjust to the time change. I never have jet lag with that later arrival flight. 
 

I would want to book my own flights to control connection and airlines. 

[DrHemlock]

19 hours ago, susiesan said:

We overfly Barcelona to Zurich and then backtrack.

A simple web search for "flight path Chicago to Zurich" reveals that you do not "overfly Barcelona" or anywhere else in Spain.  The route from Chicago takes you over eastern Canada, the North Atlantic, Ireland, southwestern England and northeastern France to Switzerland.  (Sorry...I'm just a geography nut. 😎)

Edited March 12, 2023 by DrHemlock

[Sthrngary]

Allow me to give what I did.  Let me say, my approach is not perfect.  It does come from four decades of flights domestic and international.  Hear was my approach:

 

• I booked my Oceania Cruise Labor Day 2022.  My cruise will depart November 9, 2023.  Over a year later.
• We fly into Athens, and out of Barcelona. 
• I went to my favorite Air Brand, Delta and looked at what was available.  The answer was "NOTHING".  Delta does not post their flights until 8 or 9 months prior to the flight.  Live and learn. 
• I then looked at all the other air brands to see when their flight schedule opened up.  Seemed to be similar.  This got me to my next approach.
• What would it cost me in money or points/air miles to book the flights as far out as I can go.  I wanted to see: a) What if I flew from my home base vs. driving to Atlanta, GA; b) What was the flight schedules from a stand point of connections and wait time at the connected airports; c) Where their weird ways of booking the flights to save money even if I had to wait longer on a lay over or take another connection; d) How many points/airline miles would I need and did I have enough; e) If I booked fully refundable coach, how did that compare to the $1,000.00 discount I get from Oceania if I choose to do my own flights. 
• I did the same approach as above for other brands.  Please remember, I am retired, have time on my hands and this approach was part of my life prior to retirement.  I know this seems like over kill.
• Before it is brought up, I also look at Oceania Cruise only fares however it was six of one, half a dozen of the other for my situation.
• I went on YouTube.com and watched reviews of Different International Coach, Coach Premium Plus and Business Class.  I must admit I also watched some of the better brands First Class just because we all have to have goals.  It was fun.
• I realized, Delta was my brand, not perfect but my brand.  It helps that Delta's largest hub was two hour drive time from my home.  I also realized that I could us "ALL" my miles saved for years and transfer some from my American Express Rewards Program to get a Delta ONE Business Class ticket round trip for my wife and I.  The second set of tickets was for the same itinerary for the friends joining us which was a fully refundable coach ticket incase they bugged out on use for this cruise. 
• I booked both sets of tickets at 12:01 AM the moment they became available.  For anyone that wants to approach things this way please remember.  You can only book the flight when your return becomes available.  Just the way it works.  
• I was pleasantly surprised we could all fly out of my home base rather then Atlanta for less money and points/miles.  Shocked me and glad I looked.  
• To get the lowest cost on both we fly in the day before arriving in the morning, 08:00 AM and Fly out the day after the cruise comes back.  An extra day in Athens and one in Spain.  
• The Very Best Itinerary was Birmingham, AL to Atlanta with an over two hour layover.  Atlanta to JFK with a four hour lay over.  JFK to Athens Direct.  Any flights late or delayed have flight after them so I felt the decisions were good.  On the way back we have a Direct Flight back to Atlanta and a connection to Birmingham.  Much better and less time.  Delta had no direct flights from Atlanta to Athens. 
• Since booking these flights I have check on how much it would cost me now.  The Fully Refundable fare would cost $500.00 per person more now.  The Business Class fare would cost over a half a million more miles/points.  Now you know why I planned it the way I did. 

 

I have used cruise lines promotional airfare before.  It only took once to realize it was indeed a little less expensive and a lot more stressful.  There were surprises for me that I did not like.  No points received and cost for checked luggage.  No seats early and no corrections unless you paid a fee.  When taking everything into consideration, it was a no brainer to do it on my own and do the early due diligence so I have the information I needed to make a good business decision.  

 

I hope this adds to this stream.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[MEFIowa]

39 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

... H[ere] was my approach:

 

• I booked my Oceania Cruise Labor Day 2022.  My cruise will depart November 9, 2023.  Over a year later.
• We fly into Athens, and out of Barcelona. ....

Same cruise for us but part of a B2B that goes Trieste to Athens first. So, we're flying into Venice and out of Barcelona. We booked the cruise originally 4/22 and then did a cabin-upgrade sale in 5/22.

 

Wife loves to use the Hopper and other tools. As she watches like a U-boat commander for that sale sailing above. When she sees it, she knows it. And recently she hit on United at $1012 PP total (economy, with all taxes & fees included). All the way from Des Moines, IA and back!

[sunlover12]

@SthrngaryI'm in a similar situation as you with regard to proximity of a major hub airport. My home airport is a 30 minute flight to ORD and a 2-hour drive.  When we fly internationally we always drive to O'Hare. If there are any weather or air traffic problems, the short flights will be the first to be delayed or cancelled and we don't want to deal with that anxiety. 

 

We are loyal to United. That loyalty has given us business class tickets using reward miles over the past several decades.  We never pay for checked luggage. We're booked on an O cruise in August out of Barcelona. We're paying for this flight so we've been checking the airfare ORD-BCN since last fall. As we all know, fares change constantly. We just booked the tickets a week ago because the fare was the lowest we had ever seen it so we jumped on that. If you're using reward miles, it's a good idea to book as soon as you can but if you're paying with $, we don't book it right away. We've found that the fare 10 months out is not going to be the lowest (on almost all occasions).  Now with United adding the nonstop to BCN makes it so convenient for us.  One 2-hour drive and one flight and we are there. 

 

As I've said before we always book our own air and we never use O's air. If you pick one airline and stick with that one, you will thank yourself later.  Just something we've learned over the past 30+ years. 

Enjoy your cruise in November. 

[LuAnn]

4 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

Allow me to give what I did.  Let me say, my approach is not perfect.  It does come from four decades of flights domestic and international.  Hear was my approach:

 

• I booked my Oceania Cruise Labor Day 2022.  My cruise will depart November 9, 2023.  Over a year later.
• We fly into Athens, and out of Barcelona. 
• I went to my favorite Air Brand, Delta and looked at what was available.  The answer was "NOTHING".  Delta does not post their flights until 8 or 9 months prior to the flight.  Live and learn. 
• I then looked at all the other air brands to see when their flight schedule opened up.  Seemed to be similar.  This got me to my next approach.
• What would it cost me in money or points/air miles to book the flights as far out as I can go.  I wanted to see: a) What if I flew from my home base vs. driving to Atlanta, GA; b) What was the flight schedules from a stand point of connections and wait time at the connected airports; c) Where their weird ways of booking the flights to save money even if I had to wait longer on a lay over or take another connection; d) How many points/airline miles would I need and did I have enough; e) If I booked fully refundable coach, how did that compare to the $1,000.00 discount I get from Oceania if I choose to do my own flights. 
• I did the same approach as above for other brands.  Please remember, I am retired, have time on my hands and this approach was part of my life prior to retirement.  I know this seems like over kill.
• Before it is brought up, I also look at Oceania Cruise only fares however it was six of one, half a dozen of the other for my situation.
• I went on YouTube.com and watched reviews of Different International Coach, Coach Premium Plus and Business Class.  I must admit I also watched some of the better brands First Class just because we all have to have goals.  It was fun.
• I realized, Delta was my brand, not perfect but my brand.  It helps that Delta's largest hub was two hour drive time from my home.  I also realized that I could us "ALL" my miles saved for years and transfer some from my American Express Rewards Program to get a Delta ONE Business Class ticket round trip for my wife and I.  The second set of tickets was for the same itinerary for the friends joining us which was a fully refundable coach ticket incase they bugged out on use for this cruise. 
• I booked both sets of tickets at 12:01 AM the moment they became available.  For anyone that wants to approach things this way please remember.  You can only book the flight when your return becomes available.  Just the way it works.  
• I was pleasantly surprised we could all fly out of my home base rather then Atlanta for less money and points/miles.  Shocked me and glad I looked.  
• To get the lowest cost on both we fly in the day before arriving in the morning, 08:00 AM and Fly out the day after the cruise comes back.  An extra day in Athens and one in Spain.  
• The Very Best Itinerary was Birmingham, AL to Atlanta with an over two hour layover.  Atlanta to JFK with a four hour lay over.  JFK to Athens Direct.  Any flights late or delayed have flight after them so I felt the decisions were good.  On the way back we have a Direct Flight back to Atlanta and a connection to Birmingham.  Much better and less time.  Delta had no direct flights from Atlanta to Athens. 
• Since booking these flights I have check on how much it would cost me now.  The Fully Refundable fare would cost $500.00 per person more now.  The Business Class fare would cost over a half a million more miles/points.  Now you know why I planned it the way I did. 

 

I have used cruise lines promotional airfare before.  It only took once to realize it was indeed a little less expensive and a lot more stressful.  There were surprises for me that I did not like.  No points received and cost for checked luggage.  No seats early and no corrections unless you paid a fee.  When taking everything into consideration, it was a no brainer to do it on my own and do the early due diligence so I have the information I needed to make a good business decision.  

 

I hope this adds to this stream.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Thanks for all this info!! When did you book the flight? And do I understand correctly that not only Delta but all the other airlines are not posting flights until 8 or 9 months out...no longer the 330 days? Delta would work best for me BCN to SAN..I could fly to Atlanta and then on to SD. 

[Sthrngary]

14 minutes ago, LuAnn said:

Thanks for all this info!! When did you book the flight? And do I understand correctly that not only Delta but all the other airlines are not posting flights until 8 or 9 months out...no longer the 330 days? Delta would work best for me BCN to SAN..I could fly to Atlanta and then on to SD. 

You are right, 330 days.  I just kept going to the Delta site until I saw the dates would open the next day.  Good luck on your flights.  Keep the faith.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[Sthrngary]

7 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

Same cruise for us but part of a B2B that goes Trieste to Athens first. So, we're flying into Venice and out of Barcelona. We booked the cruise originally 4/22 and then did a cabin-upgrade sale in 5/22.

 

Wife loves to use the Hopper and other tools. As she watches like a U-boat commander for that sale sailing above. When she sees it, she knows it. And recently she hit on United at $1012 PP total (economy, with all taxes & fees included). All the way from Des Moines, IA and back!

My spelling and grammar is completely awful.  Great post on your approach.  

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[txjim09]

10 hours ago, DrHemlock said:

A simple web search for "flight path Chicago to Zurich" reveals that you do not "overfly Barcelona" or anywhere else in Spain.  The route from Chicago takes you over eastern Canada, the North Atlantic, Ireland, southwestern England and northeastern France to Switzerland.  (Sorry...I'm just a geography nut. 😎)

If you don't already know about Great Circle Mapper, you will the next hour playing with it!

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ord-ZRH

[Myrtle Ave. Mayhem]

If you should choose to do your air independently, I recommend the Iberia subsidiary Level. The only(I believe direct flights LAX-BCN). Flew Level in December to sail out of Barcelona for my Viking Neptune trans-Atlantic. The premium economy was very comfortable, food delicious, flights attendants cheerful & attentive. I always do independent air because I don't like cruise line air routing.