flights

[Belfast Castle]

can you tell me is it a possibility to bok own flights from United Kingdon to Sydney to join the Royal Caribbean cruise from Sydney in November 2008.

Has anyone arranged own flights= how easy/hard was it please

[vozzie]

Many, if not most, cruise passengers arrange their own flights.

 

It is easy. There are really 2 ways to go about it:

 

1. Ask your local Travel Agent to book your flights

2. Book it yourself on the internet, through one of the many facilities

 

My feeling is that you are probably new to this, so my advice would be to see your local travel agent.

[MMDown Under]

If the cruise starts and finishes in Sydney, it is easy to do it yourself via the internet, either through one of the many airlines or through an on-line travel agent.

 

If you are not familiar with making internet bookings, you can go into various airline sites and practice. You need to know whether you want direct flights or a stopover en route. Direct would be a return ticket, whilst for a stopover you would hit multi, rather than return (price is the same).

 

If the cruise starts in Sydney and finishes somewhere else, it would be easier for you to arrange flights through a TA, as Vozzie has recommended.

[Belfast Castle]

thanks for the advice folks - have decided to bok own flights via internet - we have travelled quite a bit but not as far as Australia (we live in Northern Ireland) -

[mmcipdn]

thanks for the advice folks - have decided to bok own flights via internet - we have travelled quite a bit but not as far as Australia (we live in Northern Ireland) -

 

this is a great site for searching airfares..

 

http://www.itasoftware.com/

 

What ship are you on? we are on thr Rhaposdy .,leaving sydney on Nov 11th.

[Aquarians]

thanks for the advice folks - have decided to bok own flights via internet - we have travelled quite a bit but not as far as Australia (we live in Northern Ireland) -

Kia ora i AotearoaNZ (=greetings from NZ)

Travel to/from Europe usually involves 24+ hours flying , plus airport times. You can fly through with only one stopover unless you have a particular reason to make more stops. We fly via the east and my suggestion would be to travel that way, breaking the journey either in Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific), Bangkok (Thai), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysian) or Singapore (Singapore Air) so you can do it in two (aprox) 12 hour flights with a rest between. Qantas & Air NZ are also possibilities. If you are a frequent flyer one of the above should be in your alliance for air points.

Aquarians.

[Belfast Castle]

We are also on this cruise - loking forward to it very much.

Are you staying in Sydney before the cruise?

[Globaliser]

this is a great site for searching airfares..

 

http://www.itasoftware.com/

A word of caution for those who are starting their journeys from the UK.

 

ITA Software is very good as an initial search tool, to get an idea of fares and to see schedules. And often it is very accurate at showing the availability of published fares.

 

However, for UK customers it is not always reliable about the availability of particular fares on particular flights. This is because ITA's data comes from US market availability, and airlines sometimes offer different availability to different markets. So, for example, if your cheap economy fare requires a seat in booking class Q, and a Q class seat is available to the US market but not to the UK market, you may see that low price on ITA but be unable to get it in the UK.

 

In addition, in the UK there are many good, reliable consolidators who can offer fares below published fare levels. Obviously, these will not show up in a published fare search such as that done by ITA.

 

Finally, a particular irritation for me: As premium economy was Not Invented Here, ITA usually can't show you premium economy fares.

[SelectSys]

... ITA Software is very good as an initial search tool, to get an idea of fares and to see schedules. ...

 

Finally, a particular irritation for me: As premium economy was Not Invented Here, ITA usually can't show you premium economy fares.

 

I personally think that what ITA Software puts up on its web site is more of a marketing demo for commercial customers rather than being a specific tool for end users.

 

The real customers of ITA Software are airlines like Alaska, Continental, and (yikes!) Alitalia. They also provide the software to drive sites like Kayak.

[Globaliser]

I personally think that what ITA Software puts up on its web site is more of a marketing demo for commercial customers rather than being a specific tool for end users.

That's absolutely right, but the company is well aware that it's also used by countless thousands of travellers to make searches for themselves. The benefit for the company is that the latest version of the software is therefore in constant beta test, as it were. (In fact, the URL that I have long had stored for the interface is beta.itasoftware.com, although it just goes to the same place as the more commonly used URLs.)

 

And I'm well aware that my personal irritation is just that: very personal! :D