Airfare advice please: Houston to Stockholm

We will be cruising next July on the Serenade of the Seas. It is a Baltic cruise, leaving out of the Stockholm port. The price for airfare from Houston to Stockholm (one stop) is around $1500 pp. I have heard people mention that it is inexpensive to fly between countries in Europe, so I am thinking I should look at other options for flying to Europe from Houston at a cheaper price. I would greatly appreciate any advice you seasoned European travelers can share! Thank you!

Another option could be to fly to one of the American cities that Norwegian flys to Stockholm from

Norwegian is a low cost carrier but they fly with modern Boeing 787 dreamliners on their intercontinental routes.

They could either fly you directly to Stockholm Arlanda airport or connect via London Gatwick, Copenhagen or Oslo Gardermoen.

Destinations in USA is Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Boston (from may 2016) and JFK.

If you don't mind backtracking then you can fly from LAX, Las Vegas and Oakland as well.

We will be cruising next July on the Serenade of the Seas. It is a Baltic cruise, leaving out of the Stockholm port. The price for airfare from Houston to Stockholm (one stop) is around $1500 pp. I have heard people mention that it is inexpensive to fly between countries in Europe, so I am thinking I should look at other options for flying to Europe from Houston at a cheaper price. I would greatly appreciate any advice you seasoned European travelers can share! Thank you!

It can be inexpensive to fly between countries, but it's not always inexpensive. Flight prices still go up on popular days and at popular times.

There are a lot of low-cost carriers in Europe that offer more cheap flight options, and they can be a great deal as long as you know what you're getting into. In addition to baggage fees, many of them have very restrictive carry-on policies and/or additional charges if you don't print your own boarding pass ahead of time. Also, some of the low-cost airlines operate out of secondary airports, so you would need to plan accordingly if you flew into the main airport on a long-haul flight.

Also, re: Norwegian, remember that even though it's long-haul, it's still a low-cost airline. If you don't book one of the upgraded tickets, be prepared that food, blankets, etc all come at an additional cost. Not a big deal if you're prepared for it (e.g. pack some snacks, bring your own entertainment & amenities, etc).

$1500 for a Houston-Scandinavia flight is still a bit high even for the summer. I'd set up a fare watch for the dates you want to travel, and keep tabs on it for a month or so. Summer flights never fall terribly low, but from my experience flying Oslo-Houston, I'd expect to find something for around $1250 in July. The European carriers also tend to have fare sales in September & October that could net you a discount.

We will be cruising next July on the Serenade of the Seas. It is a Baltic cruise, leaving out of the Stockholm port. The price for airfare from Houston to Stockholm (one stop) is around $1500 pp. I have heard people mention that it is inexpensive to fly between countries in Europe, so I am thinking I should look at other options for flying to Europe from Houston at a cheaper price. I would greatly appreciate any advice you seasoned European travelers can share! Thank you!

You might want to try the Cruise Air forum here as the folks on that board can provide some excellent advice if you put in your actual dates of travel. Link below.

Cruise Air

Also next year, SAS is starting three new routes to/from USA to Scandinavia. ARN-LAX is the only one that starts before your cruise.

For one stopper with SAS, they also fly to New York (EWR) and Chicago from Stockholm.

http://www.sasgroup.net/en/sas-expands-with-new-direct-routes-to-usa-2/

I see right now $250 flights from JFK to Stockholm on Norwegian air for next June.

I see right now $250 flights from JFK to Stockholm on Norwegian air for next June.

(Clarification that it's $250 one way! ;) Presumably the $1500 was a quote for a roundtrip fare)

While I would expect prices to go up slightly in July, since that's summer holidays in Scandinavia, it will still be a lot less than the mainstream airlines.

Wow..... Thanks to everyone for your invaluable advice!! So much to look into, so much to learn! Better start saving pennies now lol! The airfare is going to cost as much for our 8 day cruise because I lucked out and purchased the cruise during RCCL's BOGO! I have put price alerts on Yapta so I am hopeful I will get lucky there also. Guess I am being greedy :)

We are in the same boat (no pun intended!!) as you, traveling on a river cruise next June and seeing frightfully high airfares. We traveled to Europe two months ago (roundtrip Copenhanen) and last fall and both times paid around $1,200 per person. Was looking at roundtrip Amsterdam fares for next June and they are $1,700 per person, yikes!!

I am keeping my eye on fares, and hoping they come down. And we hate to make more than one flight connection!

When all of these US airlines started merging, I said that the lack of competition would eventually translate into higher fares. Think I may be right!

Another one to check is Icelandair. If they fly into your home airport, it's a quick hop to Reykjavik (with an option to stay 7 nights without additional airfare costs), then on to your city (Non-stop to Denver, don't know about others). We did this coming back from a World Cruise in May (Gatwick to Denver, 1 week in Iceland). I'm going to check Norwegian for this summer, too.

Do check out Norwegian Air. I took a RT LAX to Oslo flight with them in May, and paid a total of $685 including meals and checked baggage fees. I booked 6 months ahead of time to get that price. Nice planes too.