Calif to Barcelona prices

[Dorothy]

Airfare through the cruiseline is $1286pp, which I thought was high until I got other prices coming in at $1400pp. We are traveling next June. Does anyone know if airfare will come down or am I stuck paying these really steep prices?

[kyriecat]

It's really hard to tell. I noticed many airfares are higher than normal right now - presumably due to higher than normal gasoline prices.

 

I flew from Houston to Barcelona the past October. I started looking at airfare the previous November to get an idea of the trends. It started around $800 pp for the flights that I wanted, was stable for a couple of months, then started climbing to around $1000 pp by February. I ended up booking at that price since I was afraid it would go higher. The flights continued to climb to around $1400 pp until July when they dropped down to $700 pp.

 

The only explanation I can come up with for the dropping was the unrest starting up in France and the bombings in England were making people reconsider trips to Europe.

 

Gas prices are dropping right now so I would probably wait another month just to see what happens. Since the cruiseline air is less than you can get it elsewhere, why not go ahead and add it. That way you have a cost locked in while you search for a better fare privately. If you find one before final payment is due, you can cancel the cruiseline air normally without a penalty. I would confirm with your TA/cruiseline that there isn't a penalty before you add the air. I've only used Royal Caribbean, but just because RC doesn't charge a penalty doesn't mean the other cruselines follow.

[wrp96]

What you can do is keep the cruise air until you find a better fare and then cancel. You just have to make sure to cancel the cruiseair before final payment. If fares stay higher than cruise air, then what you can do to get decent flights is pay the custom air fee and choose your own flights.

[hobo1937]

Dorothy,

 

We live in the Las Vegas area and just did a Med cruise from Barcelona in Oct. I booked our airfare in early Jan. We flew Virgin nonstop from Vegas to Gatwick London and then British Airways to Barcelona. The Virgin flight was about 800pp and the BA 159pp. Since we were not booked thru on the same ticket we only had a 50 lb luggage allowance pp on BA but I have read where some of the American based airlines have gone from the 70lb pp to 50 on overseas flights. One thing to consider if you fly either BA or Virgin from California is that those flights go to Heathrow and you have to take a bus to Gatwick to get a flight to Barcelona. The Vegas Virgin flight goes into Gatwick and you just take have to change terminals which is very easy to do.

 

I highly recommend adding at least one and preferably 2 days in the port city you are sailing out of onto the beginning and end of your European cruise. One for the sightseeing aspect and the other just in case the ship doesn't make it back to port on time. This happened to us on this cruise due to a fishermen's stike in Spain that blockaded all the ports. And definitely get trip insurance! The Med was wonderful and I know you will have a great time.

[Dorothy]

Thank you for all the responses. My TA has booked the airfare with NCL and there are no penalties for cancelling, so we are keeping our eyes open for something better. I just emailed her asking if it would be better to fly into another airport like London or Paris and then flying to Barcelona from there. We'll see how that goes. We already planned a few extra pre & post cruise days. I wouldn't mind trading a pre-cruise day for one of those other stops.

[PaperSniper4]

Airfare through the cruiseline is $1286pp, which I thought was high until I got other prices coming in at $1400pp. We are traveling next June. Does anyone know if airfare will come down or am I stuck paying these really steep prices?

 

You might check with http://www.1800flyeurope.com/index.cfm

[greatam]

Thank you for all the responses. My TA has booked the airfare with NCL and there are no penalties for cancelling, so we are keeping our eyes open for something better. I just emailed her asking if it would be better to fly into another airport like London or Paris and then flying to Barcelona from there. We'll see how that goes. We already planned a few extra pre & post cruise days. I wouldn't mind trading a pre-cruise day for one of those other stops.

 

It is almost always cheaper to fly from the US to London and then on to final destination on two separate tickets. Barcelona and Rome are pretty darn high when you try to book one ticket from the US.

 

I see you are from California. American Airlines has some really decent fares to Dublin and Shannon from LAX. Easy to get from Dublin to Barcelona, London, or Rome. We are flying LAX to Dublin Dec. 3 for $383.00pp RT. Then onto Amsterdam on a combination of RyanAir and BA for $126.00. Not a bad trip for slightly over $500.00pp.

 

June will definitely be higher than now, but I think you can probably do the trip for about $800-850. I really would look into flying into London or Dublin and then fly to final destination from there.

[Globaliser]

We live in the Las Vegas area and just did a Med cruise from Barcelona in Oct. I booked our airfare in early Jan. We flew Virgin nonstop from Vegas to Gatwick London and then British Airways to Barcelona. The Virgin flight was about 800pp and the BA 159pp. Since we were not booked thru on the same ticket we only had a 50 lb luggage allowance pp on BA but I have read where some of the American based airlines have gone from the 70lb pp to 50 on overseas flights. One thing to consider if you fly either BA or Virgin from California is that those flights go to Heathrow and you have to take a bus to Gatwick to get a flight to Barcelona. The Vegas Virgin flight goes into Gatwick and you just take have to change terminals which is very easy to do.

If anyone's thinking of this sort of route, there are actually BA flights from Heathrow to Barcelona as well as from Gatwick - if you've arrived at Heathrow, you don't have to go to Gatwick to fly on to Barcelona. But it's also worth remembering that some of the Heathrow flights with BA flight numbers are operated by Iberia and some by BA - Iberia is a different travel experience from BA. You just have to see what the price differences are for the various combinations.

 

To clarify the baggage allowance situation:-

• The current BA and Virgin free baggage allowance trans-Atlantic is 2 pieces per person, each piece not to exceed 32 kg = 70 lbs (and 32 kg is an absolute maximum single piece limit - you cannot pay extra to exceed this).
• The free allowance of most US carriers is now 2 pieces per person, each piece not to exceed 50 lbs. You can pay an excess charge for any bag between 50 and 70 lbs, but that remains an absolute maximum single piece limit.
• If you buy a standalone BA ticket for travel within Europe, the free baggage allowance on that ticket is 23 kg = 50 lbs per person. Excess charges apply if you have more.
• If you buy a through ticket from the US to London and on to Barcelona, then the higher 2 piece/32 kg per piece allowance applies to the whole journey.
• If you buy two separate tickets, you don't benefit from that rule, but there is always a chance that the excess charge will not be applied if you show that you are connecting to a trans-Atlantic flight, especially if you are connecting BA->BA. The less over the 23 kg limit you are, the better the chances of a freebie.