Choice Air Or Directly Through The Airline??

[Dave4120]

My wife and I don't fly much but had a wonderful experience on Delta this past May, on our first ever, European Cruise. It was non-stop from JFK to Barcelona and back on an Airbus 3330-333. We even flew in Business/Elite class as Delta had an upgrade to that class for an additional $375 per person that was crazy according to everyone here. That will probably never happen again.

 

Anyway, we are doing a Transatlantic cruise next April and need a one way fare back home from Rome, Italy (FCO), to Syracuse, NY (SYR).

 

A one way ticket back through Choice Air, and a round trip ticket directly through the airline are the same price.

 

I've read positive and negative reviews about Choice Air.

 

My question is:

 

What would you do? Buy the one way ticket through Choice Air, or, buy the round trip ticket through the airline, and not use the full roundtrip that comes with it? Again, both the one way and roundtrip tickets are the same price.

 

Thanks for any comments, opinions, and information.

 

Dave

[CruiserBruce]

If you do some reading on the board, you will see this is the one situation where Choice Air and the other cruise air programs get a good recommendation- one way airfares to or from Europe.

[LHT28]

What is the cost with choice air?

Have you looked at one way fare with the airline booking directly?

 

Sometimes you can find a good fare

 

How are you getting to the departure port?

Edited July 24, 2015 by LHT28

[alcpa1]

Something isn't right here. A one way via Cruise Air should not be the same price as a round trip via the airline.

Are the classes of fare the same?

But in any case booking directly with the airline if the price is acceptable is your best option for control.

[CruiserBruce]

Most airlines don't sell one way fares USA to Europe, or vice versa. When they do, it is the same, or very close to round trip airfare. However the Cruise Air programs do. Discussed here regularly, as mentioned, about the only recommended uses for cruise air.

Edited July 24, 2015 by CruiserBruce

[Dave4120]

Hello...the one way price in Economy purchased on Cruise Air from FCO to SYR is $714.00 on Delta. This same one way booked directly on Delta with same Economy class and flight numbers is just over $2,200 each.

 

A round trip from FCO to SYR on May 16th which we would use, and the return trip from SYR that we would not use in May 26th on American Airlines is $661.00 for the round trip to $687 each depending upon where we want our layover before heading back to Syracuse.

 

The layover for the one way is in Chicago, and the layover on the round trip ticket for $661 each is Chicago and the layover for the $687 ticket is Philadelphia.

 

We are set on a one way from SYR to FLL on April 27th to begin our cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Rome, Italy.

[Dave4120]

Just an update...my round trip airfare as of this morning has gone up to $759 for the round trip, so, the one way ticket for $714 is now a bit cheaper on Cruise Air.

[Twickenham]

After having read numerous posts and information regarding Choice Air and other cruise line-based air programs, I long ago decided that they would never be an option for me, at any price.

 

Buying a R/T ticket and only using one portion is technically against most airlines' contract of carriage. They could, in theory, reprice your ticket at the O/W rate and charge you retroactively. The chances of this happening are probably very slim, but being a confirmed Miss Goody-Two-Shoes this would make it out for me.

 

So... what would I do? Well, playing around with ITA Matrix, while I'm not getting anything cheap to SYR, I am getting a price of 370 euros (converts to $404.22) on Turkish Airlines via IST to either JFK or BOS. You of course then would have to purchase a separate SYR ticket; the JFK flight arrives too late to do a same-day connection, but you could possibly do one via BOS, as that flight arrives at 5 pm and there's an AA flight to SYR leaving at 7:30 - a bit tight, but in theory doable. The cost of that flight is $155, which gives you a total of $559.22/person for both flights. You could also book a flight that gave you an overnight in Istanbul - something we did last summer, and loved.

 

Now, this might be a bit fiddly/complicated/roundabout for an inexperienced flyer. But you did ask what I would do... :D;)

[floatplan]

Just an update...my round trip airfare as of this morning has gone up to $759 for the round trip, so, the one way ticket for $714 is now a bit cheaper on Cruise Air.

 

When I run a May 13 FCO SYR one way ChoiceAir says

$426 AA one stop 14.5 hours

$465 Delta two stops 16.5 hours

I picked Jewel April 28 then one way. Premium econ $1051.

 

This is what I have seem in the past on ChoiceAir that one way is about half round-trip, not equal.

 

Going to IST is 2.5 hours in the wrong direction, it could add 4 to 5 hours to your trip.

Edited July 24, 2015 by floatplan

[Dave4120]

Hi Floatplan & Twickenham, and everyone else;

 

Our flight plan is:

 

April 27th, one way from SYR to FLL. We are OK with one stop for this, not 2.

 

We would be returning May 16th from FCO to SYR, not May 13th. One stop is OK, not 2

 

We do not want to fly to Turkey from Rome, then back to the US with 2 stops, even if the price is lower this way.

 

That low one way back through Choice Air on May 13th is much lower than May 16 for the one stop on Delta that is $714.00.

 

I'm getting a better feel of how this works. I also understand now about the airlines not liking if you buy a roundtrip and only use one leg of that roundtrip. Being inexperienced, I did not know this wasn't allowed, or, a good idea.

 

I'm trying different combinations several times daily to see what's best. At the moment, American Airlines has the most combinations are favorable pricing, and Delta, also has a couple of decent flights and pricing.

 

It does seem like when booking SYR to FLL and FCO back to SYR as one ticket, the price is lower than if booking from SYR to JFK or SYR to PHIL before taking the next flight to FLL.

 

It also seems cheaper to do FCO to SYR as one ticket versus, FCO to JFK, PHIL or ORD, then, buying a separate ticket to SYR after that.

 

Hey, I'm learning and having some fun.

 

Thanks again.

 

Dave

[LHT28]

It does seem like when booking SYR to FLL and FCO back to SYR as one ticket, the price is lower than if booking from SYR to JFK or SYR to PHIL before taking the next flight to FLL.

 

It also seems cheaper to do FCO to SYR as one ticket versus, FCO to JFK, PHIL or ORD, then, buying a separate ticket to SYR after that.

 

Hey, I'm learning and having some fun.

 

Thanks again.

 

Dave

 

Yes do one ticket that way your bags will be through checked to your destination

 

You can always use a site like Yapta to monitor the prices

just put in the perfect flight routes for you & set the price you are will to pay

If the price drops it will notify you & you can buy then or wait

you still have some time & maybe some seat sales will happen

[Dave4120]

Hello LHT...Thanks for the information as I never heard of the Yapta site. I will check it out for sure.

[toberman]

Nothing to do with the cost of airfare for this flight... but - I'm always amazed, and very thankful for the time and effort that people put into answering questions from us in-frequent fliers on this forum. I've learned a lot over the years on how to do it myself, but you can't get past the knowledge of many of you. Thanks for all the efforts you put in to helping all of us.

[BEAV]

A few years ago we took an Eastbound Transatlantic cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Southampton. We needed return trip air home from London to San Francisco. I booked a round trip ticket with Delta starting in London with the plan of not using the return back to London. However, to make it as economical as possible, I booked the ticket LHR-SFO, JFK-LHR, instead of LHR-SFO-LHR. In other words, since I wouldn't be using the return ticket, there was no reason why it had to be booked to return from SFO. So I did a number of price checks and found that booking the return ticket from JFK to LHR was quite a bit cheaper than SFO-LHR. Worked like a charm.

 

So try pricing out a ticket from FCO-SYR with a return from another city, such as JFK, IAD, BOS, CHI, etc, and compare with the cost of round trip FCO-SYR-FCO. To do this exercise, you'll need to use the "Multiple Destination" feature on the airlines website instead of "round trip". On the "dummy" return ticket, you can also price to another European city other than FCO (like LHR, CDG, FRA, for example) if they are cheaper than FCO. Remember since you won't be using the return leg, it doesn't really matter which U.S. city you use for departure or European city for arrival. Be creative! ;)

Edited July 24, 2015 by BEAV

[Dave4120]

Hello Beav....Thanks so much for your educational lesson. I would have never known, or, even thought about checking out multi-city fares. I will input different cities as you suggested and see what differences there are.

 

Thanks again for your time and help.

 

Dave

[BEAV]

Below is an example of a fare breakdown for a flight FCO-SYR with a return from JFK to LHR. This is for FCO-SYR on May 16 on AA via ORD (Chicago) and returning on AA JFK-LHR on May 28. Notice the large price difference between the FCO-SYR leg and JFK-LHR leg.

 

Fare for 1 adult

Fare 1: Carrier AA NKX7S4C1 ROM to SYR (rules)

Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code N

Covers FCO-ORD (Economy), ORD-SYR (Economy)

$338.32

Fare 2: Carrier AA OKW7S4T1 NYC to LON (rules)

Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code O

Covers JFK-LHR (Economy)

$97.29

 

I didn't copy all the various taxes/fees, but the total price came to $717, taxes/fees included.

 

You can try various dates and return city pairs to see if/how the total price changes. I just used May 28 for a return as an example.

 

Itinerary

Rome (FCO) to Syracuse (SYR) — Mon, May 16

Long layover

 

Rome (FCO) to Chicago (ORD) — Mon, May 16

American Airlines Inc. 111

Dep: 11:15 am

Arr: 3:10 pm

10h 55m

Boeing 777

Economy (N)

Lunch, Snack or Brunch Movie In-seat Video Player

Layover in ORD

3h 30m

 

Chicago (ORD) to Syracuse (SYR) — Mon, May 16

American Airlines Inc. 3087

Dep: 6:40 pm

Arr: 9:44 pm

2h 4m

Embraer ERJ-145

Economy (N)

OPERATED BY ENVOY AIR AS AMERICAN EAGLE

 

New York (JFK) to London (LHR) — Sat, May 28

Overnight flight

American Airlines Inc. 100

Dep: 6:00 pm

Arr: 6:20 am

7h 20m

Boeing 777

Economy (O)

Dinner, Continental Breakfast Movie In-seat Video Player

[BEAV]

Dave, using the same itinerary FCO-SYR and JFK-LHR with return dates of May 30, 31 or June 1, I'm getting a total price of $687. This is on American one-stop FCO-SYR (via Chicago ORD).

 

You can massage and play with dates, city pairs as much as you want!

 

Good luck.

[Dave4120]

Thanks Beav...where did you price this out because on the American Airlines site, it shows this flight as $719.70 per person, and, not the lower price you show.

 

I did not see the $338 and $97 prices.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Dave4120

[BEAV]

Thanks Beav...where did you price this out because on the American Airlines site, it shows this flight as $719.70 per person, and, not the lower price you show.

 

I did not see the $338 and $97 prices.

 

I was using this website, which is a terrific tool for itineraries such as this (and they show the price breakdown for each leg, etc). However, you cannot book airfare on this website, unfortunately. Just a good resource tool.

 

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

I went to AA.com and got a fare of $688.70 for these flights/dates:

 

AA Flt 111 FCO-ORD May 16 11:15am departure arrive Chicago 3:15pm

AA Flt 3087 ORD-SYR May 16 6:40pm departure arrive Syracuse 9:44pm

 

AA Flt 100 JFK-LHR May 31 6:00pm departure arrive London 6:20am.

[Dave4120]

Thanks Beav...I did find a $631 per person round trip fare ion American if we did:

 

FCO to SYR on May 16

 

JFK to IST on May 26

 

The lowest one way fare has been a Delta flight from

 

FCO to SYR with a connection at ORD for $715 each.

 

That same one way fare with the same flight numbers and fare class on the Delta website is $2,234 EACH!!!

 

That price difference is hard to believe.

[Dave4120]

I forgot to mention the $715 one way fare on Delta was through Choice Air.

[floatplan]

 

I'm getting a better feel of how this works. I also understand now about the airlines not liking if you buy a roundtrip and only use one leg of that roundtrip. Being inexperienced, I did not know this wasn't allowed, or, a good idea.

 

 

IMO the buy RT for one way is only a problem if you are a frequent flier on that airline (with a number accumulating mile) and are doing it regularly. They know who you are and track you. What can happen is they close your account and you lose your miles.

[BEAV]

IMO the buy RT for one way is only a problem if you are a frequent flier on that airline (with a number accumulating mile) and are doing it regularly. They know who you are and track you. What can happen is they close your account and you lose your miles.

 

We've done it twice, once on Delta, once on United. Although we booked with our frequent flier account numbers, there were no negative consequences. But we're not high level frequent fliers doing this repetitively as a "pattern".

[Dave4120]

I've been checking various one way, round trip, and multi-citi fares from different locations compared to one way fares, and gave found the following so far:

 

A regular round trip ticket booked directly through the airline or Choice Air, is about $75-$85 more than a one way ticket booked through Choice Air.

 

A multi-citi round trip ticket is about $55 less than a Choice Air one way ticket and $125 less than a round trip ticket through Choice Air or directly through the airline.

[DanJ]

Don't forget that in addition to playing with the routing for the not to be used return portion, you can play with the dates. They let you book 330 days out in most cases. Find a time for when that return flight is cheaper. Heck, if it's far enough out and they make enough changes, maybe you can demand a refund lol.