Transatlantic OneWay/OpenJaw Fares... OMG!!!!

[stoneybeach1]

OK, folks. I know I'm over the 330 day window for airlines to post airfares, but while checking airfares for Sept '09 (one month before our cruise, as a ballpark price) I'm finding one way fares from Phila to Venice and Barcelona to Phila for $1800/pp... ONE WAY!!!!! OMG:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

Please, someone tell me it ain't so! I know a good window to buy is 4 to 6 months out, but are they going to drop significantly? At $1800/pp one way, the airfare will be 50% more than the 14 day cruise.

 

I don't want to have to sell my blood or ask my wife to be a surrogate mother for a wealthy childless couple.... OK, ya got me. I'd never sell my blood.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Does your cruise line offer a price for the air? Sometimes they can be fairly reasonable. I can't imagine this fare would stand up--have you looked at fares closer in, within the 330 days? What are they like?

[stoneybeach1]

Celebrity offers r/t air at $1600/pp, which is better but I hope the rate thru the airline drops lower than that. Almost always, the air thru the cruiseline is more than booking it yourself.

 

I checked other various dates in '09 and got similar $1800/pp one way rates.

 

I was just hoping that one of you wonderful folks out there had run across the same thing on a previous trip and could give me any insight as to when and if they may drop... say, 6 months before or what not.

 

Let me thank anyone and everyone who may have some input.

 

Molto Grazie!

[cujosmom]

I have always found it is much cheaper to use the cruise air for one way flights to Europe. Ex: On our upcoming TransAtlantic, $649 one way San Antonio to Barcelona. We used custom air and was able to pick the exact airline and flights we wanted for no extra charge.

[Fblack]

Open Jaw fares are way too expensive from an airline. So I get the air from the cruise ,and as a bonus they give you transfers. This can save a lot if you sail into or out of Europe.

[corkpopr]

we are going in two weeks 550 each to rome. check with 1800flyeurope, kayak, and bt-travelstore. Also, if you buy a RT to venice you can get cheap air on ryan air from barcelona to venice

[6rugrats]

No one here has a crystal ball, but I don't know where you are getting such high airfares. They should be lower in Oct than Sept.

 

I did a quick search on itasoftware.com and randomly chose departure date of 10 Sept from PHL-VCE and return 17 Sept BCN-PHL. On BA the roundtrip price was $1016 pp.

 

Of course, these aren't your dates, but I feel certain you can do better than $1800 pp, especially if you are willing to be a little creative in your routing.

[wrp96]

Also, if you buy a RT to venice you can get cheap air on ryan air from barcelona to venice

 

If you do this option, be aware that once you start in adding all the extra fees on Ryan Air (especially baggage fees, also extra transportation costs as Ryan Air does not use main airports), that you might end up spending MORE than if you had just purchased the one way tickets.

[LHT28]

OK, folks. I know I'm over the 330 day window for airlines to post airfares, but while checking airfares for Sept '09 (one month before our cruise, as a ballpark price) I'm finding one way fares from Phila to Venice and Barcelona to Phila for $1800/pp... ONE WAY!!!!! OMG:eek: :eek: :eek:

.

 

Have you tried the "Multi trip" tab on the search feature

I found BA early Sept 09 for $1356 pp

PHL to VCE

BCN to PHL

with 1 stop in each direction

[stoneybeach1]

Wow, you guys are good!!!!

 

I was just searching one-way fares, not thinking of other options...

 

LHT28: Which search site had the "multi-trip" tab?

 

We live in Baltimore, but there is no chance of a non-stop from BWI and Dulles... well, Dulles is usually a nightmare. Used PHL before and it was wonderful.

 

Thanks for being patient with me, this is the first time I've ever had to do an 'open-jaw' flight so I'm in unfamilliar territory.

 

Thanks again...

[LHT28]

Wow, you guys are good!!!!

 

I was just searching one-way fares, not thinking of other options...

 

LHT28: Which search site had the "multi-trip" tab?

 

 

Thanks again...

They all have that option

I use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

http://www.Kayak.com

 

You can check out the option then go to the airline website

Prices may come down but who knows

[hunterafri]

Hi;

 

We always book roundtrip which is much cheaper than one-way.

 

Best Regards,

 

Vic

[BEAV]

OK, folks. I know I'm over the 330 day window for airlines to post airfares, but while checking airfares for Sept '09 (one month before our cruise, as a ballpark price) I'm finding one way fares from Phila to Venice and Barcelona to Phila for $1800/pp... ONE WAY!!!!! OMG:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

Please, someone tell me it ain't so! I know a good window to buy is 4 to 6 months out, but are they going to drop significantly? At $1800/pp one way, the airfare will be 50% more than the 14 day cruise.

 

I don't want to have to sell my blood or ask my wife to be a surrogate mother for a wealthy childless couple.... OK, ya got me. I'd never sell my blood.

 

Check the round trip price for the same time period you priced the one-way fare. Compare the two and see if the round trip is less than the one-way.

[arlenez]

OK, folks. I know I'm over the 330 day window for airlines to post airfares, but while checking airfares for Sept '09 (one month before our cruise, as a ballpark price) I'm finding one way fares from Phila to Venice and Barcelona to Phila for $1800/pp... ONE WAY!!!!! OMG:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

Please, someone tell me it ain't so! I know a good window to buy is 4 to 6 months out, but are they going to drop significantly? At $1800/pp one way, the airfare will be 50% more than the 14 day cruise.

 

I don't want to have to sell my blood or ask my wife to be a surrogate mother for a wealthy childless couple.... OK, ya got me. I'd never sell my blood.

 

Hi:

 

We are booked in May for NY to Venice, and then Barcelona to NY for $1223 each. Did you try a round trip fare rather than one way? It's much cheaper for round trip.

 

Regards,

Arlene

[G'ma]

OK, folks. I know I'm over the 330 day window for airlines to post airfares, but while checking airfares for Sept '09 (one month before our cruise, as a ballpark price) I'm finding one way fares from Phila to Venice and Barcelona to Phila for $1800/pp... ONE WAY!!!!! OMG:eek: :eek: :eek:

 

Please, someone tell me it ain't so! I know a good window to buy is 4 to 6 months out, but are they going to drop significantly? At $1800/pp one way, the airfare will be 50% more than the 14 day cruise.

 

I don't want to have to sell my blood or ask my wife to be a surrogate mother for a wealthy childless couple.... OK, ya got me. I'd never sell my blood.

 

What you are getting at this time is full fares. Much too early to be looking for any discounts.

[6rugrats]

What you are getting at this time is full fares. Much too early to be looking for any discounts.

 

OP can't even get full fares as booking is not available for their dates yet. There is no set date to get a discount fare - could be anytime after dates are available to book.

[Cruise Junky]

What you are getting at this time is full fares. Much too early to be looking for any discounts.

 

That's not necessarily true. We booked last year the day the flights were released for FF miles - 356 days in advance (he was on miles, I was paying) we got Vancouver to London and Paris to Vancouver for $1,160 on Day One. It never got lower.

[Globaliser]

I was just searching one-way fares, not thinking of other options...

 

LHT28: Which search site had the "multi-trip" tab?

If you look for one-way fares on long-haul trips, you will usually only see fully flexible full price one-way fares, because there are very few routes on which discounted one-way fares are available.

 

Sometimes you will see the search page you need labelled as multiple destinations, multi-city or something similar. If you are flying both ways across the Atlantic, you should definitely not be looking for one-way fares.

 

Open jaw trips are, broadly speaking, priced at half of the sum of the applicable round-trip fares from your starting point to each of the destinations.

 

So if the A-B-A fare is $1,000 round-trip, and the A-C-A fare is $1,200 round-trip, the A-B/C-A open jaw fare should (broadly speaking) be $1,100.

[nho9504]

1) You need to search round-trip with an open-jaw instead of 2 one-ways, as Globaliser explained.

 

2) Sometimes flying to gateway cities in Europe can be quite a bit cheaper than flying to non-gateway cities. You may want to do a bit creative routing, such as buying a round trip ticket for cross Atlantic, and a separate ticket from the arrival Euopean city to your embarkation city.

 

We bought ClickAir BCN/VCE one-way, 30 euro for the air, 10 euro for 1 piece of checked luggage, and some tax and fees. All translated to $128xx USD for 2 tickets. ClickAir leaves at the same terminal Iberia uses and flies into the Marco Polo airport at VCE. From VCE the piblic transportation to Venice proper is a piece of cake, either by Public Bus (dirt cheap at 1xx Euro) or Airport Express Bus by a private company at 3xx Euro, or Waterbus by a private company at 12 to 16 Euro. Watertaxi would set you back over 100 euro though.

 

BTW, public transports between airports to town in Europe generally are much better, and CHEAPER than cruiseline transfers. I would go for the public transports anyday. People have to understand, Europeans are largely travelling by public transports, not private cars. Therefore, their public transportation systems are far superior than those in US.

 

Beware of Ryann Air which flies into a different airport at Venice and the transportation to town is not as convenient as VCE.

[Globaliser]

Beware of Ryann Air which flies into a different airport at Venice and the transportation to town is not as convenient as VCE.

I think that it is not unfair to say that Ryanair only pretends to fly to Venice; it only pretends to fly to Barcelona; it only pretends to fly to Milan; it only pretends to fly to Frankfurt. And it's even given up pretending to fly to Copenhagen, given that the airport it flew to was in another country, on the other side of a large stretch of water.

[vacationhappy]

I would sit tight for a bit, I paid $1200 per ticket, same open jaw from Boston for next July, the height of the season. My guess is that you will be able to get tickets for $1000 ea or less....

[bz]

We too are looking ahead to next Sept - almost at the 330-day mark and I'm quite surprised by the prices I'm seeing judging by the week before. Also agree you s/b looking at "multi-destination" routes, not 1-ways. I'm getting cheaper fares looking at Kayak than on Orbitz or Travelocity, unfortunately on Iberia - but some flights are actually on AA. I guess I'd fly them if I had to! I'm just going to keep monitoring & when I see one that works at around $700 I'll grab it. Iberia at this point looks like the best bet at $743. Our cruise is (Azamara) leaving Venice on Wed. 9/16, ends in Barcelona on a Sat., may save money & get a day in Barcelona by flying home on Sunday. Also planned a few days precruise in Venice, best price is flying in the Sat. before, but as I said will continue to monitor. Make sure you check all your options!

[snaebyllej]

I think that it is not unfair to say that Ryanair only pretends to fly to Venice; it only pretends to fly to Barcelona; it only pretends to fly to Milan...

 

I guess that means that all of those major airlines only pretend to fly to Tokyo, since NRT is farther from Tokyo than Treviso is from Venice or Bergamo is from Milan.

 

Anyway, there are many discount airlines in Europe, and many of them use the major airports. We flew ClickAir out of BCN after our cruise, and they fly to Venice.

[Globaliser]

But they have no choice. NRT is the designated Tokyo airport for them.

 

Venice, though, has in VCE a perfectly good airport which FR could fly to; ditto Milan which has both LIN and MXP. Therefore, if FR were being honest, it would simply say that it flies to Treviso or Bergamo respectively, instead of pretending that they are "Venice" and "Milan" airports.

[AZjohn]

1) You need to search round-trip with an open-jaw instead of 2 one-ways, as Globaliser explained.

 

2) Sometimes flying to gateway cities in Europe can be quite a bit cheaper than flying to non-gateway cities. You may want to do a bit creative routing, such as buying a round trip ticket for cross Atlantic, and a separate ticket from the arrival Euopean city to your embarkation city.

 

We bought ClickAir BCN/VCE one-way, 30 euro for the air, 10 euro for 1 piece of checked luggage, and some tax and fees. All translated to $128xx USD for 2 tickets. ClickAir leaves at the same terminal Iberia uses and flies into the Marco Polo airport at VCE. From VCE the piblic transportation to Venice proper is a piece of cake, either by Public Bus (dirt cheap at 1xx Euro) or Airport Express Bus by a private company at 3xx Euro, or Waterbus by a private company at 12 to 16 Euro. Watertaxi would set you back over 100 euro though.

This is basically what plan we came up with for next August. We wanted to do a pre-cruise stay in Barcelona then catch our ship in Venice. After many hours on the above web links the best plan for us was:

Purchase roundtrip to/from Frankfort from Tucson on United (using miles to upgrade).

Book Lufthansa open jaw from FRA to BCN

Clickair from BCN to VCE

Return open jaw on Lufthansa from VCE to FRA

I know it might sound complicated, but doing it this way saved a lot of money compared with booking all those flights with one airline. One side note, I purchased travel insurance as soon as I purchased these flights (excluding Clickair because routes not posted yet).

All in all, I kind of had both fun and frustration figuring everything out, but well worth the savings;)

Good luck!

John