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Connections to and from European River cruise


Kenster
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We are cruising out of Zurich/Basel to Vienna. Our inbound flight from Houston gives us an hour and 45 minutes to connect in Frankfort, then on to Basel to meet the ship.

 

At the end of the tour we are flying out of Vienna with a 50 minute connection in Budapest then nonstop to Chicago.

 

My questions: Based on your experience and assuming that the inbound flight is on time, shouldn't 1:45 in Frankfort be plenty of time to connect?

 

Going home...The inbound flight into Budapest, and the outbound flight are both in the same terminal. I'm told the gates are fairly close together. Not sure if there will be a security check between flights. Maybe just immigration/passport control? Anyone else had a quick connection in BUD?

 

One last question. Anyone have experience flying LOT. We splurged on Biz Class seats on the way home. I hope it's worth it.

 

Thanks!

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I've flown LOT business class twice now (including last month), and loved it both times. However, surprised you're connecting through BUD - wouldn't you need to connect through Warsaw if flying LOT?

 

I checked it out...LOT does have a non-stop BUD-ORD.

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I reworked the entire flight itinerary last night because more flights became available to purchase with miles.

We will now fly directly into Zurich from the US, arriving mid morning on sailing day. We will depart Vienna to Istanbul (instead of Budapest) and will have three hours connection time there before flying nonstop to Boston and then home to Houston.

Takes a lot of pressure off of us on both ends of the trip.

As a bonus, because of the difference in fees and taxes, even though there was a $100 change fee, we are getting a $135 refund!

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I checked it out...LOT does have a non-stop BUD-ORD.

LOT noticed that they may be able to fill a lack of Budapest to US nonstop flights, so they're starting JFK and ORD this summer. Not sure if it's seasonal or not. I'm super excited to see it, and I hope LOT can pull it off where Delta and Malev (RIP) couldn't.

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I reworked the entire flight itinerary last night because more flights became available to purchase with miles.

We will now fly directly into Zurich from the US, arriving mid morning on sailing day. We will depart Vienna to Istanbul (instead of Budapest) and will have three hours connection time there before flying nonstop to Boston and then home to Houston.

Takes a lot of pressure off of us on both ends of the trip.

As a bonus, because of the difference in fees and taxes, even though there was a $100 change fee, we are getting a $135 refund!

 

Hope all goes well with the same day flying in for the cruise. I'm new, with taking a River cruise in October. Budapest to Munich. I'm coming in early. I missed a cruise last year - arriving the same day.

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Kenster, are you flying back in Turkish business class? Their lounge at IST is unbelievable (in a good way!). The only downside is that this routing could somewhat likely subject you to the "SSSS" secondary security screening which is an invasive nuisance.

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Kenster, are you flying back in Turkish business class? Their lounge at IST is unbelievable (in a good way!). The only downside is that this routing could somewhat likely subject you to the "SSSS" secondary security screening which is an invasive nuisance.

The vast majority of people coming from Turkey don't get SSSS...I'd say the odds are fairly low.

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^^ A one-way increases the odds, would you not agree? I certainly wouldn't change my plans because of the possibility but just letting the op know so it doesn't come as a shock should it unfortunately happen.

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