Booking Air for Transatlantic crossing

[Winch]

Hoping for advice on booking air for transatlantic crossing from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale......I need to fly out of, and into El Paso. The best price I can get is to book two complete roundtrips: ELP to Barcelona/Barcelona to ELP and Ft Lauderdale to ELP/ELP to Ft Lauderdale. I would have to throw away two tickets (one from each round trip). I am wondering if this is a common booking practice among veteran TA cruisers? Are there airline policies against throw-away ticket bookings? My savings would be $600-$700.

[LHT28]

Have you tried looking under the "multi destination" when looking for flights

EG:

El paso to BCN then FLL to El Paso

 

also check the cruise line price sometimes they are cheaper on the TA

[greatam]

Hoping for advice on booking air for transatlantic crossing from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale......I need to fly out of, and into El Paso. The best price I can get is to book two complete roundtrips: ELP to Barcelona/Barcelona to ELP and Ft Lauderdale to ELP/ELP to Ft Lauderdale. I would have to throw away two tickets (one from each round trip). I am wondering if this is a common booking practice among veteran TA cruisers? Are there airline policies against throw-away ticket bookings? My savings would be $600-$700.

 

Throw away tickets are prohibited by all airline policies. However, IF you OCCASIONALLY use a throwaway, on an airline that you do not have a FF account or affinity credit card, you are generally OK.

 

Have you looked at an open jaw-ELP/JFK and then FLL/ELP??? Pair that up with a one way ticket to BCN from JFK on Aer Lingus. I can see prices for Fall 2009 using the above combination for a total price of about $750.00pp.

 

Post your exact dates for further help.

[Winch]

In response to poster questions:

 

1) Multi-city on Kayak.com: lowest price $1700-$1800.

 

2) Cruise air: HAL does not use ELP as gateway airport. Closest HAL gateway airport is ABQ, $1260 plus $75 custom air, plus add'l flight charge plus too many flight changes.

 

3) I want to fly from ELP to Barcelona Thurs., Oct 15, 2009 to board Oosterdam on Oct.17. After Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale TA, I would need to fly from FLL to ELP on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2009

 

4) Two complete round trips: ELP to BAR and FLL to ELP with two throw-away tickets would cost about $1000 according to my calculations.

[greatam]

In response to poster questions:

 

1) Multi-city on Kayak.com: lowest price $1700-$1800.

 

You are not getting true open jaw pricing with your routing. The non flown leg (BCN to FLL) is LONGER than either of the flown legs. You are getting one way pricing.

 

 

2) Cruise air: HAL does not use ELP as gateway airport. Closest HAL gateway airport is ABQ, $1260 plus $75 custom air, plus add'l flight charge plus too many flight changes.

 

3) I want to fly from ELP to Barcelona Thurs., Oct 15, 2009 to board Oosterdam on Oct.17. After Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale TA, I would need to fly from FLL to ELP on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2009

 

4) Two complete round trips: ELP to BAR and FLL to ELP with two throw-away tickets would cost about $1000 according to my calculations.

 

Your return date is too far in the future to get accurate pricing. But using a combination of carriers-AA for domestic USA and AerLingus across the pond to BCN, the total price is about $775.00pp. Change planes in Chicago and Dublin outbound, change planes in either Chicago or DFW inbound.

[Winch]

You are not getting true open jaw pricing with your routing. The non flown leg (BCN to FLL) is LONGER than either of the flown legs. You are getting one way pricing.

 

 

 

 

Your return date is too far in the future to get accurate pricing. But using a combination of carriers-AA for domestic USA and AerLingus across the pond to BCN, the total price is about $775.00pp. Change planes in Chicago and Dublin outbound, change planes in either Chicago or DFW inbound.

 

Wow!!!! $775 is EXCELLENT pricing if I can get it. Perhaps I need to depend on my travel agent for this one.

[scottbee]

Wow!!!! $775 is EXCELLENT pricing if I can get it. Perhaps I need to depend on my travel agent for this one.

 

The real trick here is that few airlines offer real 'one way' pricing across the atlantic on the tickets they sell to the general public. The one exception (from the USA) is Aer Lingus (the national airline of Ireland) to DUB/Dublin. The other airlines to try are those that have 5th freedom rights on through flights through London (such as Air India JFK-LHR)

 

...So what you would need to do is fly to an Aer Lingus gateway city like New York/JFK ( or IAD/Washington, or BOS/Boston or ORD/Chicago), and then buy an Aer Lingus ticket for the JFK-DUB-BCN portion of the flight.

[Winch]

Scottbee. Thanks! Sounds like you are a TA. I have a TA who has been in business 30 years. I hope she is as knowledgeable as you. Perhaps this is something I can book myself. You think?

[scottbee]

Scottbee. Thanks! Sounds like you are a TA. I have a TA who has been in business 30 years. I hope she is as knowledgeable as you. Perhaps this is something I can book myself. You think?

 

You could book it yourself, or you could take the info to your TA. Either way, online booking sites of the various airlines to play around with dates/times etc doesn't cost anything, and will give you some ideas.

[Winch]

...So what you would need to do is fly to an Aer Lingus gateway city like New York/JFK ( or IAD/Washington, or BOS/Boston or ORD/Chicago), and then buy an Aer Lingus ticket for the JFK-DUB-BCN portion of the flight.

 

Let me see if I understand this correctly, I would purchase a one-way to Barcelona as stated above. And purchase another one-way for the Transatlantic crossing return from Ft Lauderdale. Right?

[scottbee]

Let me see if I understand this correctly, I would purchase a one-way to Barcelona as stated above. And purchase another one-way for the Transatlantic crossing return from Ft Lauderdale. Right?

 

2 or 3 tickets;

#1) JFK-DUB-BCN on EI/AerLingus

#2/#3) ELP-JFK FLL-ELP

 

Assuming JFK is your gateway to EI/Aer Lingus (they also serve BOS, ORD and IAD in the eastern half of the country). I would recommend talking directly an Aer Lingus person to book the ticket as you want to ensure that JFK-DUB-BCN is on ONE ticket as otherwise you wont have the Transatlantic baggage allowance on the DUB-BCN portion of the flight.

 

You could book #2/3 as an open jaw on the same airline, or as two separate tickets, just a matter of preference and price.

[MightyQuinn]

The real trick here is that few airlines offer real 'one way' pricing across the atlantic on the tickets they sell to the general public.

Scottbee - thanks for your great advice here. We're planning a transatlantic cruise Rome-FLL in Oct/Nov 09. We hope to get FF flights with AC/Star Alliance but you just never know. If we need to purchase flights, any advice on options for Victoria-Rome (Oct/09) then FLL-Victoria (Nov 09)? What would be the best gateway? Many thanks. ;);)

[scottbee]

Scottbee - thanks for your great advice here. We're planning a transatlantic cruise Rome-FLL in Oct/Nov 09. We hope to get FF flights with AC/Star Alliance but you just never know. If we need to purchase flights, any advice on options for Victoria-Rome (Oct/09) then FLL-Victoria (Nov 09)? What would be the best gateway? Many thanks. ;);)

 

The problem is that you cant get flights on AC/Errorplan one way anymore (in the past on way was 1/2 return + 5000), so we paid 35000 for a YVR-LHR, but now youd need to book it in Aeroplan Plus, and the one way will ve 80000+ vs 60000 for a one way.

 

trust me, you'rebetter off flying YYJ-YYC-JFK outbound and a FLL-YYZ-YVR-YYJ inbound as an openjaw on AC w/ aeroplan and buy an Aer Lingus ticket for JFK-DUB-BCN

[ldb2]

Scottbee: I too have been following your helpful excellent advice here - thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. We are also doing a TA next October beginning in Rome; I am torn between flying rountrip YYC to JFK with Aeroplan (we are on the Carnival Dream which ends in New York)and flying one way with Aer Lingus, or doing a multi-city trip with Aeroplan into either Toronto or Montreal, and using Air Transat to fly one way to one of their Italy destinations (they are flying into Rome, Venice and Milan next year, it appears). Do you have any wise advise on this plan? The advantages to using Air Transat are that their flights are direct to these cities, vs. Aer Lingus change of flights in Dublin, and we would avoid having to go through the customs immigration hassle one way by departing from Toronto or Montreal.

 

Thanks for any input you might have on this!

 

Laurie

PS We would prefer to start in either Venice or Milan, and spend 10 or so days seeing Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence and end up with 3 days or so in Rome before our cruise.

[MightyQuinn]

AC/Errorplan

Love it! :D:D

[scottbee]

Scottbee: I too have been following your helpful excellent advice here - thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. We are also doing a TA next October beginning in Rome; I am torn between flying rountrip YYC to JFK with Aeroplan (we are on the Carnival Dream which ends in New York)and flying one way with Aer Lingus, or doing a multi-city trip with Aeroplan into either Toronto or Montreal, and using Air Transat to fly one way to one of their Italy destinations (they are flying into Rome, Venice and Milan next year, it appears). Do you have any wise advise on this plan? The advantages to using Air Transat are that their flights are direct to these cities, vs. Aer Lingus change of flights in Dublin, and we would avoid having to go through the customs immigration hassle one way by departing from Toronto or Montreal.

 

Either would work.

 

You may be able to save a bundle on your Errorplan ticket by flying on UA/United airlines, as their fuel surcharge is CONSIDERABLY less than AC's complete rip-off fuel surcharge (AC's fuel surcharge is now up to about 80% of their cost of fuel). You'll need to phone an AP agent rather than booking it on their website to get UA, but the savings could be considerable. Also ORD/Chicago is also an AE/Air Lingus gateway city, so you could also fly YYC-ORD (on UA) as your outbound leg.

 

If you're flying Air Transat, give yourself a couple of days of wiggle room. Unlike a larger carrier like AC or AE, they don't have the flexibility if things go wrong. On the plus side, as you mentioned, they do fly into FCO/MXP/VCE now (only FCO from YVR)