Airline ticket tips

[shelly11]

I'm planning a family cruise for 2015 in Europe. I've never flown overseas before. Do any of you have tips for getting a good price on flights? Anything else I should consider?

 

We haven't decided on the exact cruise but the one we are looking at right now embarks in Venice Italy. Any flight tips specific to that area? And finally what about booking with NCL?

 

Thanks!

[S&S Cruisers 1983]

I'm planning a family cruise for 2015 in Europe. I've never flown overseas before. Do any of you have tips for getting a good price on flights? Anything else I should consider?

 

We haven't decided on the exact cruise but the one we are looking at right now embarks in Venice Italy. Any flight tips specific to that area? And finally what about booking with NCL?

 

Thanks!

 

I would not book air through NCL. We did that once and our flights got all messed up. It was very difficult to get any flight information or make changes also (after our flights were messed up). Our flights arrival time was after our connecting flight left!

Edited December 11, 2013 by Steve and Sharon

[bugeater2]

I am going to assume the summer of 2015. It is hard to talk about specific deals 18-20 months out as those fares wont even be published until +- 330 days out.

 

Since you do have time on your side, you could sign up for an airline credit card (or 2) and use the bonus miles and your spend through to get at least one round trip for free and maybe 2. I would look at a United and American Credit Card to start as they allow one way mileage awards to be booked.

 

Also look at lower cost carriers and alternate airports. I was able to book a $450 one way fare from Denver-Iceland-Amsterdam for my trip next summer on Iceland Air and their schedule went out a little over 12 months in advance.

 

Another lower cost option is Norwegian Air (totally separate from NCL) who are increasing their flights from the US to Europe with connections through Stockholm and Copenhagen all on new Boeing 787's. Keep in mind that they are like a long haul version of Ryan Air (charge for a meal, seat reservation, bag fees) but they do have wifi for free. On the East coast they only fly from FLL or JFK but you could always take a cheap Delta Flight from ATL to connect.

 

Also don't just look for flights to VCE (Venice). Also look at FCO (Rome), FLR (Florence) or MXP (Milan). There are plenty of cheap train tickets to Venice and they are only 2-3 hours away.

[bugeater2]

I would not book air through NCL. We did that once and our flights got all messed up. It was very difficult to get any flight information or make changes also (after our flights were messed up). Our flights arrival time was after our connecting flight left!

 

Ditto.

 

I would never book my air through the cruise line. There are too many resources out there for you to use. You can book your own flights based on what best works for you as opposed to what works best (see cheapest) for them.

[pieshops]

Also when you do decide to book a ticket take a week and check the fares every day a few times a day. It is amazing how much tickets can vary from day to day and from hour to hour.

[shelly11]

Thanks to those who posted about ncl booking, I was leery of doing that anyway.

 

Thanks for the train tip, didn't think of that!

 

Anymore tips are welcome!

[Ilovesailing]

There is a website that is a word for a floating device that when it tips it rights itself its not a canoe but.... then add dotcom

 

You can use this site to track flight s putting in 2 or 3 or more different dates and departure airports and for arrival airports. For Europe you may want to look at nearby airports and possibly take train if the savings is big as the cities are no that far apart when it comes to the train system in Europe. The website is free.

We use it all the time for flights out off Toronto and are currently tracking flights for Panama cruise for 2015.

Lastly a good rule of thumb is to start looking closely three months out.

[valleyvillage]

There is a website that is a word for a floating device that when it tips it rights itself its not a canoe but.... then add dotcom

 

You can use this site to track flight s putting in 2 or 3 or more different dates and departure airports and for arrival airports. For Europe you may want to look at nearby airports and possibly take train if the savings is big as the cities are no that far apart when it comes to the train system in Europe. The website is free.

We use it all the time for flights out off Toronto and are currently tracking flights for Panama cruise for 2015.

Lastly a good rule of thumb is to start looking closely three months out.

 

Pontoon? Inner tube?

[Fishbait17]

Depending on exactly where you are cruising and whether you want to visit other areas of Italy, it may be worth your while to look into flights to Rome and Milan, both of which can cost significantly less than Venice. If your cruise doesn't go to Rome, you may want to fly in there, spend a couple of days touring, and then take a train to Venice. Milan is closer to Venice, but not many people put Milan at the top of their "must visit" list (one of my favorite cities!). With either option, you could always do an open jaw, flying into one airport and leaving from Venice. Venice is a very expensive city to stay in, compared to other Italian cities...

 

Robin

Edited December 12, 2013 by Fishbait17

[Sauer-kraut]

Milan is a great city, close to Verona as well so you can see a Coliseum there as well as the Romeo and Juliet "Balcony".

 

If you live by a major international hub booking air through the cruise line is actually very good. I live close to ORD so booking cruise/air works for me when going to Europe. I also got a better airfare doing it through them as well as ground transfers included in the price (from London Heathrow to Dover Docks). So you might want to check around and ask how much it would be to do flight deviation so you can fly there a few days early and leave a day or two later.

[UPGrandma]

We will be flying to Alaska in Aug '14 and I had been tracking flight prices. We're running about $1200, last weekend found for $800. I had enough mileage points to make total $1100 for both of us.

[sunbird21]

Momondo.com. I swear by it after getting good flights to Australia,London and Italy.

 

Stacey

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ilovesailing]

Pontoon? Inner tube?

Try kyak

[Sparkygirl]

Also, consider flying into an airport not in Italy. The EU makes travel between EU counties a breeze. Italy's airports are incredibly expensive, sometimes a better fare combination can be found by flying into another european hub city and catching a "local" flight (within the EU) or traveling by train to the port city.

 

Also, Europe's layover rules are very different than the US you are allowed between 12 and 48 hours depending on the country to stay before boarding your continuing flight. I've toured several european cities for 12 hours before returning to the airport to continue my flights to my final destination. Both Amsterdam and Copenhagen have train stations in the airport that take you into city center.

 

I have my eyes on the Iceland air flights that allow 48 hours in Iceland before continuing on to Copenhagen for a Baltic Capital cruise.

[don't-use-real-name]

Noticed you are from Georgia - home state of Delta airlines which has many

many different ways and code share flights to get to Europe. Delta is not cheap

but start looking at what is offered this year for various itineraries - balance

that with United and the now merged American. Things at American will

probably be somewhat settled finally by 2015.

Major HUB cities in Europe are Amsterdam London Frankfurt Paris (watch out

two airports ?) Madrid Rome - it is a zoo out there and you are wise to

research far in advance for the best travel possibilities.

Have a AAA membership - go to one of their locations and check out the

possibilities.

Plan on travel at least one day in advance of the cruise better with two-more ?

Don't know what kind of labor political or other mayhem might pop up

that far in the future - BUT most importantly have a good Plan "B" !

Keep browsing around here at Cruise Critic for more information - ask plenty

and plenty more questions !

Got a tough situation think ground transportation "Eurail Pass" (trains) only

cavet is to purchase the plan "B" before leaving the states.

 

There is ton more information to digest PLAN PLAN and then PLAN so more!

[Demonyte]

Major HUB cities in Europe are Amsterdam London Frankfurt Paris (watch out

two airports ?) Madrid Rome - it is a zoo out there and you are wise to

research far in advance for the best travel possibilities.

 

Paris is also notorious for connection flights in, flying to US we always avoid buying tickets that would have connection in either Madrid or Paris. Best large airports in Europe (in my opinion) are Frankfurt and Amsterdam, Heathrow is quite ok but there are a ton more security checkpoints than on others and that leads to sometimes excessive queueing.

 

Going to Venice one shouldn't forget to check Munich too, it's Germany's second largest hub and at least Lufthansa (Star Alliance) has direct flights from US and there are several connections between Munich and Venice daily (that's probably where we'll be connecting next May since our local airline only has direct flights to Venice during peak summer season starting from late June). There is also a relatively cheap train connection from Munich to Venice through the Alps with several departures a day, but it takes close to 8 hours.

[4774Papa]

I always search for fares weeks before I purchase, unless the price is just too good.

 

Do search on the K (single person boat) site then go to the individual airline site to purchase tickets.

 

I always to a search covering three or more days when buying tickets, since we always fly in days in advance for a precruise visit. If you are flexible and can fly in four day ahead instead of two days ahead, sometimes you can save.

 

We never fly in the same day of the cruise.

[Babyeddiedog]

Milan is a great city, close to Verona as well so you can see a Coliseum there as well as the Romeo and Juliet "Balcony".

 

Don't go to Milan for the Coliseum or you may be disappointed, Rome would be better ;) But Milan is great too.

 

As well as the boat website another good resource if you don't know who flies the route you're after is sky sc**ner. It also pays to visit the airport website, for example Venice, and see who flies there. As others have said, you may be able to put together a flight combination and visit some other cities in Europe. It takes a bit of work but its well worth it. I ended up booking Anchorage to Heathrow with Icelandair/Stansted back to Italy with Ryanair. The added benefit was I got a two day stopover in Iceland for a fantastic price, and that was just by looking at who flew from Anchorage.

 

Have fun with your research

[shelly11]

Thanks for the connecting city tips! I will investigate. I do use the 'k' site. I will be flying out of Atlanta. Thanks everyone!

[gra2172]

You should check the flights you are thinking of booking on this site: http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByRoute.do

 

It gives you the performance history of most flights. Had I known about this site for my last cruise, we would've been much better off. I certainly could've found a flight that had an on time performance rating better than 30%, probably could've avoided the delays that nearly caused us to miss the ship (luckily there were about 50 other cruisers on the plane) and definitely could've avoided sleeping in the terminal at O'Hare.

[Bocadude85]

We usually try and book our flights about 6 months in advance but sometimes we will book 8 months in advance, we always seem to get the best prices that way. Also I usually try and look for direct flights as they are generally cheaper then those that have multiple connections. The direct flights also make it less stressful when traveling overseas since you won't have to worry about missing connections or navigating a unfamiliar airport. Also I would advise you to fly in a day or two before your cruise departs.

Edited December 12, 2013 by Bocadude85

[shelly11]

thanks!

[Kylie]

Seems the cheapest prices for us flying from the midwest are booking EARLY - like the first week prices show up. Flight times may change slightly as the time goes on but not enough to make a huge difference.

[momoftwinteens]

There is a really cool website called yapta that will keep track of your ticket prices for you. It will email you if the prices start to move either up or down, clueing you as to whether or not you should go ahead and purchase the tickets. I have used it before and was notified if the prices moved by so little as $1.00!

[quercus alba]

If you fly regularly at all, get your preferred airline's mileage reward card now. Like the previous poster (noticing you're in GA) the Delta American Express card will pay for itself in baggage fees saved. I only fly 3-4 times a year, but since I'm also near a Delta hub, it makes sense.

 

(We've also booked our cruises via Delta, which adds bonus miles, in addition to the points awarded for the $$$ spent. Was able to shave off major $$$ on our family's cruise airfare by using some of these points.)