best way to book flights

[mtebor]

I am use to booking my own airfare in the states for Caribbean cruise but not sure what to do for a River Cruise from Amerstam to Switzerland (or vis versa)

Just a quick look at airfare from and I see flights in the $1200-1400 range.

So not sure how to proceed from here. I am looking at July thru early september 2018 trip

 

I still haven't decide on what line yet so I am open to options

 

any thoughts

[Roz]

I always book my own domestic flights. When I did a Budapest to Passau cruise, the lowest airfare I could find was around $1,300. I let Uniworld book my flights, and Nashville to Budapest and then Munich to Nashville only cost $851 - quelle bargain!

 

Roz

[JohnKen3]

I find this website useful in working out the cost of flight across most airlines in one search.

https://matrix.itasoftware.com

 

You can look at Amsterdam return or Zurich return with a one way flight in between or a multi-city search flying into one and out of the other and then compare the costs.

 

You cannot book flights on the website; just find out about the various costs, connection cities, etc. You book the flights direct with the airlines.

 

If you are doing a Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Basel, you will want to look at Zurich as an airport. Basel is a relatively small airport so a connecting flight is required. Zurich where all the international flights go to is about 1.5 hours away by train or an hour by car.

 

Also you might consider using a train as an alternative to a one-way European flight. There are direct trains between Amsterdam and Basel train station in less than 7 hour on ICE.

 

In terms of Amsterdam, you can also look at Dusseldorf as an alternative airport as it is an hour away by train. Why not Amsterdam? Dusseldorf is less busy so better options for using miles to redeem tickets.

Edited January 25, 2017 by JohnKen3

[Daisi]

I find this website useful in working out the cost of flight across most airlines in one search.

https://matrix.itasoftware.com

 

Also you might consider using a train as an alternative to a one-way European flight. There are direct trains between Amsterdam and Basel train station in less than 7 hour on ICE.

 

 

This is what we are doing. We are also taking the "scenic" route back, so will be a full day on the train, but hopefully get to see some more scenery. It adds an extra day, but with the flights I am looking at, it also saves us money.

[jpalbny]

Some good advice above from JohnKen3. I have not considered Dusseldorf because I like the KLM direct flights back to JFK. But I might have to look at it for future reference. We often use the trains to complement flights. So convenient!

 

I always book my own flights. I look at several permutations of flights to see what combination of schedules and prices is best.

 

-Albany to/from embarkation/disembarkation city

-New York JFK to/from embarkation/disembarkation city

 

-Albany to/from a major European hub where I can get a train to/from the cruise cities.

-JFK to/from a major European hub.

 

I use Orbitz to look at available flights for these permutations.

 

Obviously there is at least one extra stop flying in and out of Albany but Albany is 10 minutes from our house as opposed to 3h plus traffic to JFK. Albany is usually more expensive but not always remarkably more. So our strategy varies. Adding extra days pre/post in other cities can expand your options even more.

 

For you in Buffalo, you have the option to fly out of Buffalo, but also consider flying out of Toronto, which opens up a bunch of direct flights to Europe. I'd look at those options (my strategy would be analogous to the above: Buffalo like Albany, Toronto like JFK). I don't know if Pittsburgh is somewhere that you ever fly from; that's a bit of a hike and may not be worth it.

 

For example, you could fly from Toronto to Paris, likely direct, stay a night in Paris (or not), and take a 3h train to Basel to get your cruise. You could also fly Toronto to Zurich, and take a 1h train to Basel. Or you could probably fly Toronto-Paris-Basel, likely with only one stop. I'd look at all those options, compare them to flights out of Buffalo, and figure out which one has the best combination of price and least amount of hassle. If you are leaving from Basel, you could take a train to Zurich, or Paris, to catch a direct flight home, or fly home from Basel with stops. Whatever you've decided.

 

 

Amsterdam is a major European hub so there are likely direct flights back to Toronto. Or direct flights from Toronto, should your cruise start in Amsterdam.

 

Or you could fly out of Buffalo, with two stops to/from Basel and one stop to/from Amsterdam. Depending on price and schedule, this may work better than Toronto.

 

Enjoy the fare hunt!

Edited January 25, 2017 by jpalbny

[gnome12]

If you want to see the permutations available, I highly recommend hipmunk.com (not a travel agency I think) which will show you all the routings available on many sites. I use it mostly to see what my options are for using frequent flier miles, because I can see routings that I wouldn't have known about. It gives a graphical representation; you can see at a glance departure and artival tomes and how many connections and how long they are.