Zach1213

They finna get frisky

A friend of mine is currently dealing with this. He ignored my advice and thought he could arrive in Europe the day of his cruise. He's now on Day 3 of re-routing to meet his cruise before it starts making its way back across the Atlantic. And his bags haven't made it. He's having a blast...

"Frontier Airlines - We Make Spirit Look Gooooood"

To be fair, it's not even "return journey", it's "getting the hell outta here" journey. Portugal won't care if you're going back home, to Tokyo, or to Timbuktu...they'll just care that you're getting out of Schengen on time. So I'll say that as a thirty-something black man...I am almost always asked for proof of onward ticket at immigration in Europe, whether it be UK or Schengen. Not always, but almost always. So, it's a bit...inconsistent. Because my white, thirty-something wife is almost never asked. (Not even remotely playing the race card, I'm just saying that it's a rarity when I am NOT asked to show proof of onward travel at immigration, whether it be on my phone or printed, so it helps to be preprared).

I have to imagine it's a low-yielding destination, no?

Do be careful using the word "always" in relation to air travel. There is no such thing as an "always". Special events, holidays, or just excessive demand can definitely result in mid-week being the most expensive.

How do you know there are too many seats available? The seating chart isn't an accurate indicator of that. The economics of air travel in July 2020 are as different as possible from today's economics of air travel.

I'm aware. My wife is Moroccan. I am in Morocco several times each year. My joke was that the thread I responded to make it sound like there was a distance between Morocco and North Africa...when in fact Morocco is North Africa.

Just keep in mind it's very much a tip, not a rule. Sometimes 330 days out is cheapest. Sometimes 21 days out is cheapest. Some days 194.6 days out is cheapest. You're just never really going to know.

I fly Qantas fairly frequently and always have good experiences. They're a very solid airline and I have no complaints. Do be aware that Qantas and AA codeshare on each other, so keep an eye on the operating airline. I have no overwhelming complaints about AA, but I would rather be on Qantas.

The distance between Morocco and North Africa is, indeed, quite short 😉

Wouldn't Guadeloupe be in the same boat (ahem) as Martinique? I believe Guadeloupe and Martinique have the same status as French overseas departments.

Tristan da Cunha, got it 🙂

I've done Quick Shuttle a couple of times between the two cities...no complaints.

Morocco to Israel is almost exactly the same distance as New York to Los Angeles, or New York to Bogota (Colombia), or Los Angeles to Honolulu. They're worlds apart. Have there been some public demonstrations? Yes. But they're not really dangerous, and would be incredibly unlikely to impact you in any way. My wife, a Moroccan, just came back from Morocco and said things are perfectly normal.

I think this is pretty much the default these days. AA prompts people to gate check for free on pretty much every flight these days.

I have. Once. It was frustrating as hell, because I knew where they probably were...but had no proof. I flew AA DFW-MAD and was scheduled to connect on to IB MAD-RAK, but misconnected. IB put my wife and I up at a MAD airport hotel for some rest before an evening Royal Air Maroc MAD-RAK flight. Upon arriving at RAK, only one of our three checked bags were there. It was very obvious our bag was probably in Madrid. American Airlines said they had no idea, Iberia said they had no idea, and Royal Air Maroc said they have no idea. Even my wife's uncle, who works in logistics and has people in both Spain and Morocco, couldn't get an official answer. Four days later, they showed up out of the blue in Marrakech. Bag tags were faded as hell, and I only assume they had sat outside somewhere in Madrid for the entire time (in August).

I would take this connection. FRA is quite efficient.

I'm curious what Rome has to do with Israel at all. Hell, I am going to Amman next week and I'm not even remotely concerned.

Damn I feel like this is such a perfect synopsis of air travel as a whole. Like how the people who fly Allegiant to Punta Gorda or Ryanair to Reus once a year are more vocally angry about the smallest things than the person who flies hundreds of thousands of miles a year.

Even as an aerospace engineer who is obviously a big fan of planes, I'll ask it...why fly? If you're purely going between Singapore and KL, and especially if you're going city centre to city centre, there are several companies offering really, really nice buses between the two cities for even less than those prices, and you don't need to deal with getting to/from airports, dealing with security, etc. I think it takes 4-5 hours or so, including immigration. I have taken Transtar and had good experiences.

Not even in the slightest

I change time zones as much as many people change underwear 🙂 I personally find that, while the time change can definitely mess up your body, you can struggle a lot from a lack of sleep on the plane. Economy seats + short-ish overnight flight (even from Atlanta, let alone New York, you're only in the air like seven-and-a-half hours, and you're unlikely to sleep even most of that time) mean you're likely to arrive exhausted and cranky. Can't imagine immediately getting on a cruise ship and trying to enjoy yourself.

Ah well then it definitely makes sense to take Delta for at least those three! From what I can tell, prices do look fairly consistent whether you leave on June 13 or June 12. It does look like JetBlue ATL-JFK-LHR would save a couple of hundred dollars per person. Over the six remaining people, that's $1200 savings versus the nonstop, so maybe that would help justify going a day early and grabbing a hotel. Keep in mind that the hotel can just bet at Heathrow, where there's a good variety of pricing...not exciting, but it will get you there with plenty of time, less stress, and allow you to get a good nights sleep before starting your cruise well rested.

Are most flights reliable? Yes...the majority of flights arrive on time. But some don't, and if it's the one you're on, it doesn't matter that every other flight around you arrived on time. Also note that BA flies this route, and it might also be worth looking at connecting flights the day before versus nonstop flights the day of. Keep your options open, and also remember that not all nine of you need to fly on the same flight as that can raise prices because they'll lump all nine of you in to the same fare rate, which might result in a higher fare than breaking them up. I assume you have done the math of the flights + hotel + meals the day before and compared it to the day of? Without exact dates, we can't provide much advice beyond that.