Holy cow! Airfare prices!

[Sherry H]

Flying to Fort Lauderdale.....transatlantic cruise to Barcelona......flying home from Barcelona. Shocked at the prices I see when going to the airline websites!

Do you think Holland America would have better or special rates for their cruisers?

[mountainmare]

Your holy cow is probably the one way return from BCN. Although we generally book our own air we find that HAL air for these TA cruises is usually the best we can do.

[HokiePoq]

Don't know about HAL but our upcoming cruise out of Barcelona was priced air inclusive. I prefer bookings like that. We booked our own air to and from San Diego for our upcoming HAL cruise so I can't give you a comparison on that.

[jhannah]

Only once have I found a better rate with a cruise line. That was for an open-jaw flight to Europe.

 

Prices now are ridiculous. I fear they will only get worse.

[lizziebargain]

I would suggest comparing HAL's price, to on line prices but also checking with a travel agent as sometimes they have access to special fares. As well do you or somebody you know have enough airmiles for the one way trip home from Barcelona? You are not supposed to sell airmiles but perhaps you have a family member with tons of airmiles who would like a special gift in return for booking you! We are flying home one way from Sydney at the end of Nov and a large ,on line U.S. cruise agency was able to get me the best one way fare( booked in conjunction with our cruise) as compared to HAL and other on line travel booking sites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flying to Fort Lauderdale.....transatlantic cruise to Barcelona......flying home from Barcelona. Shocked at the prices I see when going to the airline websites!

Do you think Holland America would have better or special rates for their cruisers?

[Sherry H]

Yes, I was looking at the one way return from Barcelona.

Barcelona to Las Vegas........low of $1600 to $2,200 on my prefered airline.

This is as much as my 17 day cruise.

[trophy_23]

Airfare is one of the reasons we will not be cruising this holiday season. Just over the top this late in the game.

[LynnTTT]

You need to do some research. Check out the many discount sites on the internet. CheapO air, etc. I found Las Vegas to barcelona for $ 540 + taxes , depending on the date.

[Mary Ellen]

I'd suggest also checking alternate dates for your flights. We did a trans-Atl a few years ago. By flying into Rome a day earlier than we'd planned, our one-way air from Denver dropped from about $2200/pp to about $450/pp. We spent a few days at WDW post cruise so we just bought a seperate o/w flight home from Orlando. That the least $ way to do our flights. Good luck.

[Himself]

I'd suggest also checking alternate dates for your flights. We did a trans-Atl a few years ago. By flying into Rome a day earlier than we'd planned, our one-way air from Denver dropped from about $2200/pp to about $450/pp. We spent a few days at WDW post cruise so we just bought a seperate o/w flight home from Orlando. That the least $ way to do our flights. Good luck.

 

 

This is a good suggestion but Air Fares have gone sky high. They are even going up on lines like South West. And then many charge you for luggage.

[LADYLAYLA]

Don't forget to price it also as a round trip with the first leg being barcelona to your home town. You don't have to ever show for the return flight

[RevNeal]

I'm using Air miles for Business Class to Rome this month prior to my cruise on the Noordam. The cost for one-way tickets to Rome from DFW was ridiculous ... it was more than the cost of the cruise! So, I used some of my much-accumilated air miles.

 

You can try to find a cheaper flight with an airline consolidator or you can go with HAL Air. They DO have the ability to obtain cheaper rates for open-jaw arrangements like Trans-atlantics.

 

A year or so ago I researched a TA on the QM2: Southampton to NYC. The rates for a 1 way flight from DFW to LHR and then return to DFW from JFK were so horrible that I decided not to do it. But, then, I got curious and checked the price for a round trip flight from DFW to LHR. Eureka! The resulting price for air was so low that I could have booked the QM2 as a ROUND trip -- Southampton to NYC to Southampton -- and would have SAVED money (not counting onboard expenses for the return cruise). I wanted to do it, but couldn't afford the time.

[travelnap]

Flying to Fort Lauderdale.....transatlantic cruise to Barcelona......flying home from Barcelona. Shocked at the prices I see when going to the airline websites!

Do you think Holland America would have better or special rates for their cruisers?

SherryH, If I were you I would definitely check out the HAL airfare for this trip. I am doing a TA in November that leaves out of Rome and I fly back out of FLL. When I checked the airfare it was like $2,200 with most carriers. I then checked it with Hal and the airfare was less than $900 so a big savings. I got pretty good flights from/to Minneapolis as well. I usually book my own air separate but this was so much cheaper. The price of air has dropped since booking but it would still be like $1300 for the flights. Good Luck

[palomarboy]

I've found some pretty good one-way fares on http://www.skyscanner.com. I flew from San Diego to London one-way for $450 pp. when I took the QM2 transatlantic. Good Luck

[RevNeal]

Don't forget to price it also as a round trip with the first leg being barcelona to your home town. You don't have to ever show for the return flight

 

You have to be very careful about throwing away the return-leg of a round trip flight. Many airlines prohibit the practice and, if they catch you at it, many of them say they'll charge you for the difference between what you paid for a round trip ticket and what you actually flew ... i.e., a one way ticket.

[Skipper's Mom]

We are on the Nieuw Amsterdam from Venice to Fort Lauderdale on 10/27. I tried to do my own air from Tampa to Venice, but the prices were crazy. I researched the flights that I would be happy with and then contacted HAL and told them what flights I desired. They were able to book me for $700 which was about 1/3 of the price I was seeing online. I'm flying from Tampa to Philly and then Philly to Venice, no stops. I'm a happy camper.

[Sherry H]

Will check with HAL tomorrow.

Taking transatlantic.......... leaving on Nieuw Amsterdam from Fort Lauderdale April 1, 2012. Need to return to Las Vegas from Barcelona on or around April 20, 2012.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Prices for open jaw flights are only going to get worse.

 

JMO -- but if we had to fly to Europe we would book our own air.

 

Even if we paid HAL to do an air deviation -- where we live -- there still wouldn't be a lot of choice of flights -- and there is nothing good here.

[Typhoon1]

Fares are rising. Prepare yourselves.

[cnbfrank]

Check the Cruise Air forum here at Cruise Critic. There are a couple of "sticky" notes explaining how Cruise Air works and many current discussions on one-way flights.

 

My take-away is that the cruise line airfare may be your best alternative, but have not tested this for myself.

[ann1bell]

We got a ticket from Amsterdam to Boston for 454 dollars. That was one way. I am just hoping that airline will get us where we need to go! Good luck!

[Storylady]

I'm using Air miles for Business Class to Rome this month prior to my cruise on the Noordam. The cost for one-way tickets to Rome from DFW was ridiculous ... it was more than the cost of the cruise! So, I used some of my much-accumilated air miles.

 

You can try to find a cheaper flight with an airline consolidator or you can go with HAL Air. They DO have the ability to obtain cheaper rates for open-jaw arrangements like Trans-atlantics.

 

A year or so ago I researched a TA on the QM2: Southampton to NYC. The rates for a 1 way flight from DFW to LHR and then return to DFW from JFK were so horrible that I decided not to do it. But, then, I got curious and checked the price for a round trip flight from DFW to LHR. Eureka! The resulting price for air was so low that I could have booked the QM2 as a ROUND trip -- Southampton to NYC to Southampton -- and would have SAVED money (not counting onboard expenses for the return cruise). I wanted to do it, but couldn't afford the time.

 

Using Air Miles is definitely the way to go. If your airline doesn't fly out of Barcelona, fly to a city where you can use the airmiles. Every one way flight that I have checked out almost doubles the price for one way.

 

You might check out low cost carriers such as Aer Lingus. You will have to fly to New York and then get an one way flight to Ft Lauderdale. I think you can get a reasonable priced flight from NY to Ft Lauderdale. I think Air Berlin also flys from Barcelona to NY. There are probably others.

[Himself]

You have to be very careful about throwing away the return-leg of a round trip flight. Many airlines prohibit the practice and, if they catch you at it, many of them say they'll charge you for the difference between what you paid for a round trip ticket and what you actually flew ... i.e., a one way ticket.

 

 

The air lines are getting nasty in this regard. I knew a lot of people that were doing that 20 years ago. But the airlines have become quite nasty. Who would have thought they would be charging for baggage or for meals but they are and what they are selling for meals are quite poor.

[HamOp]

they'll charge you for the difference between what you paid for a round trip ticket and what you actually flew ... i.e., a one way ticket.

 

Well you could always buy your round ticket for cash, if you don't mind stripping down butt naked and being subject to a body cavity search:eek:

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

We have found, as have others, that many times, coach airfare is more than the cost of the cruise itself.