Questions for the ever-helpful board regs

[UtterCaro]

I'm trying to find outbound flights for my solo TATL cruise (Venice to Ft. Lauderdale) next October. My local airport is Asheville, NC (AVL), but I often drive about 2 hours to Charlotte (CLT) to get better airfares.

 

Here are the details from ATI's website of one possible flight. Should I be concerned about the connection time of 2-1/4 hours on this one? (I won't consider flights with connection times of less than two hours, especially in huge airports.)

$ 751.62 + $ 29.19 taxes and fees = $ 780.81 Total

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Wed,�OCT�06 Delta Airlines� DL-6444� � Duration 13Hs 05Mn

Departs:��3:00 PM CLT,�Charlotte, NC

Arrives:���5:14 PM JFK,�New York,John F Kennedy, NY on Wed,�OCT�06

Stop(s):0� � | � Cabin: Coach/Economy

Connect

Wed,�OCT�06 Delta Airlines� DL-186� �

 

Connection Time: 2Hs 16Mn

Departs:��7:30 PM JFK,�New York,John F Kennedy, NY

Arrives:���10:05 AM VCE,�Venice (all airports), IT on Thu,�OCT�07

Stop(s):0� � | � Cabin: Coach/Economy

 

Here are details of another flight, this one from AVL. This is my preference (same price, home airport), but note that I'd have to change airports in New York:

 

$ 751.65 + $ 30.69 taxes and fees = $ 782.34 Total

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Wed, OCT 06 Delta Airlines DL-6535 Duration 15Hs 35Mn

Departs: 12:30 PM AVL, Ashville, NC

Arrives: 2:23 PM LGA, New York La Guardia, NY on Wed, OCT 06

Stop(s):0 | Cabin: Coach/Economy

Connect

Wed, OCT 06 Delta Airlines DL-186

 

Connection Time: 5Hs 7Mn

Departs: 7:30 PM JFK, New York,John F Kennedy, NY

Arrives: 10:05 AM VCE, Venice (all airports), IT on Thu, OCT 07

Stop(s):0 | Cabin: Coach/Economy

How bad is it to switch from LGA to JFK for this one? (Plenty of connection time, and there must be a shuttle, right? Anyone know the cost/schedule?)

 

I'm finding a few lower prices, but they're blind fares which probably use Alitalia or connect through Paris, which I know enough to avoid. I'm not overjoyed at the prospect of flying Delta, but the Aer Lingus flight I was looking at would require me spending the night in Dublin. If one of you can find me better/cheaper flights, I'd be thrilled to consider them.

 

Any input? Thanks in advance.

 

Caro

[6rugrats]

Do you mean ITA? I am not seeing these fares on ITA or DL's webpage.

[UtterCaro]

I was using atiflights.com for those flight details.

 

Caro

[Ethel5]

There's a great Roll Call going about this cruise. I'm assuming it's on the Ruby Princess 10/08/2010.

 

Here's the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=967923

[UtterCaro]

There's a great Roll Call going about this cruise.

 

Thanks, Donna -- I'd joined the roll call before posting my air questions here.

 

Caro

[cindep]

Hi Caro!

 

I just looked on Orbitz and for your date, it looks like you could fly out of Charlotte to Venice for $699 via JFK and Dublin. Looks like over 2 hours layover in JFK. You might check into it.

 

We also fly from CLT (GSP our home airport but way too pricey!). The only good thing about it is cheap parking.

 

Good luck and enjoy your flight and cruise!!

[UtterCaro]

I just looked on Orbitz and for your date, it looks like you could fly out of Charlotte to Venice for $699 via JFK and Dublin. Looks like over 2 hours layover in JFK. You might check into it.

 

By the time I saw that it was unavailable. Thanks, though!

 

Caro

[6rugrats]

I was using atiflights.com for those flight details.

 

Caro

 

I have no personal experience with atiflights, but be careful. An interesting new thread on TA about them:

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k3290384-DO_NOT_Book_with_ATI_Flghts-Air_Travel.html

[UtterCaro]

I have no personal experience with atiflights, but be careful. An interesting new thread on TA about them:

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k3290384-DO_NOT_Book_with_ATI_Flghts-Air_Travel.html

 

Whoa! Thanks for the heads-up. I think I'll stick to booking directly with Aer Lingus, and consider the cost of my Dublin hotel an additional insurance fee.

 

I do appreciate the warning. This is why I like this board so much.

 

Caro

[6rugrats]

Whoa! Thanks for the heads-up. I think I'll stick to booking directly with Aer Lingus, and consider the cost of my Dublin hotel an additional insurance fee.

 

I do appreciate the warning. This is why I like this board so much.

 

Caro

 

There's always Priceline!

[FlyerTalker]

A simple rule of thumb....if you find an airline ticket priced significantly below what an airline is selling it themselves, there's a reason why. Those tickets, at one point or another, came from the airline operating the flight. In the process, they may have become a codeshare ticket, part of a package deal, or more likely, a consolidator or bulk ticket of some form.

 

Now, there is nothing inherently "wrong" with a conso ticket. However, recognize that there is a "price" that you pay for the lower financial cost - often it is significant restrictions on the ticket.

 

I personally take ALL travel resellers with a grain of salt -- deserving of my scepticism until proven otherwise. In the pursuit of saving a buck, ask yourself...."why is the price cheaper here than with the company actually flying the airplane?" When you get that answer, you are ahead of the game and can now make intelligent, informed choices.

 

And this doesn't even go into the area of disreputable businesses and shady/illegal practices.

 

There is more to value than price alone.

[UtterCaro]

Update: I booked with Aer Lingus. Thanks so much for your (collective) help.

 

Caro

[Ethel5]

I have no personal experience with atiflights, but be careful. An interesting new thread on TA about them:

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k3290384-DO_NOT_Book_with_ATI_Flghts-Air_Travel.html

 

We bought tix from ATI for last October from TPA to VCE and didn't have not one problem. I guess I got lucky!

[FlyerTalker]

We bought tix from ATI for last October from TPA to VCE and didn't have not one problem. I guess I got lucky!

Just a curiousity question....when you did, were you aware of the restrictions and nature of a consolidator ticket, or was it just "a ticket is a ticket"? Trying to gauge the "audience" here.

[Ethel5]

Just a curiousity question....when you did, were you aware of the restrictions and nature of a consolidator ticket, or was it just "a ticket is a ticket"? Trying to gauge the "audience" here.

 

The way I saw it was "you pay your money and you're stuck with it." I just bought tix through Airfare dot com for next October's TA and used the same philosophy. The price was $464pp MIA to VCE.

[6rugrats]

The way I saw it was "you pay your money and you're stuck with it." I just bought tix through Airfare dot com for next October's TA and used the same philosophy. The price was $464pp MIA to VCE.

 

That would be a very tempting price, and although airfare.com gets some pretty bad online reviews, it sounds as if you are aware of the positives/negatives. What airline did you get and have your tickets been issued?

 

An interesting CC thread about this company:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=481980

[Ethel5]

That would be a very tempting price, and although airfare.com gets some pretty bad online reviews, it sounds as if you are aware of the positives/negatives. What airline did you get and have your tickets been issued?

 

An interesting CC thread about this company:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=481980

 

I knew ahead of time that it was Swiss Air from the Airfare dot com web site. I also got the PNR with the confirmation and called Swiss to get seating assignments.