Portland, Oregon to Rome Air questions- inexperienced flyer!

[nini]

Hi All-

We are booked on the Reflection in October. I have been looking

at air fares ( Celebrity site) for the past month and am so surprised at how often

the rates change. This morning it changed in five minutes time.

A few days ago it was $765.00 for round trip, now $860.00.

Five minutes later $1003.00

 

If I do an independent search it is always more. We do Alaska miles

and can get credit for miles through their "partner" program which includes

American, Iceland Air,British Air, Finnair; and a few more but the fares are more

or the connecting flights do not work very well.

 

So, my main question is, does anyone have any idea what would be

a good fare? Also, what are any airline preferences?

 

(we have never been to Europe, can you tell? ;p)

[chemmo]

Would you be willing to drive and then fly from seatac? Just a thought...we flew in from the U.K. to visit Oregon/Washington State a few years ago and found it much cheaper to book from the U.K. to Seatac than to Portland. Also more choices with less down time....

 

Could be the same with Rome...May be worth a browse.

[PRH]

Be sure to clear your browser. When cookies are left behind, that can often trigger higher fares—they want to create panic so you’ll book at the higher fare. Check kayak dot com and other sites to see competing fares, number of connections and total flying time. Look at airports near you to see if fares from there works—given that you would have to drive, take Uber, etc.

 

 

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[Taylor D]

We are on the Reflection in July, we just finished our air plans, We live in Eastern Washington and normally fly out of Seattle but i found a Oakland to Rome non stop 1st class on Norwegian Air for $700 each Coach was only $250 then we are coming back to Seattle from London on Iceland Air and using our Alaska Air miles we are paying $380 each for 1st class.

[Jim_Iain]

If you read some of the other threads on ChoiceAir you will see that there are some strategies to get the best fare.

 

Try looking one way in each direction. You will probably find it cheaper. Problem is ChoiceAir only allows you to book one flight per reservations number. Work around is to either call Choice air or book one on your reservation number and the other way on spouses.

 

I just check and the lowest one way I find is $360 on American and $348 on Iberia PBX to FCO

 

For return I'm seeing a low of $458 on KLM and 503 AA.

 

Having said that I just also tried doing a round trip and came up with the lowest prices of $555 round trip.

 

Other things to play around with are check a day or two before and after. Rates vary by day of week and demand.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that the discounted rate code is capacity controlled by the airlines. The reason you may see differences in prices is there may be limited seats at that price are available and someone else booked it.

[Chefaleslie]

If you fly PDX to LAX on southwest you can get better prices from LAX to Rome. Southwest to LAX can be as cheap as $79 a way.

[bigbenboys]

Over the years I have put on a lot of air miles from Seattle. I do like flying on British Airways non stop to London in 1st or business. Delta does a great job overall in all classes. For Delta the longer flights I would go with Economy Comfort. From Seattle we like flying to Amsterdam (AMS) then down to Rome (FCO). Other option is flying through Detroit (DTW), you might have flights from Portland to Detroit.

My best friend just visited from London and flew Norwegian Air to/from Gatwick/Seattle (LGW/SEA) . He said the cost was cheap. He IM me today asking when our next cruise is. He is thinking of flying back again on Norwegian Air. There are a number of airlines flying from LGW to FCO just not Norwegian Air.

[alcpa1]

nini,

Airline pricing is dynamic, even via Choice Air.

I would suggest you also visit the Cruise Air forum under the Discussion topics. Scroll down the main page and you will easily find the forum dedicated to air travel.

Whatever you do plan wisely. If you have connections make sure you give yourselves sufficient time. When you book your return make sure you allow enough time to get to the airport and check in with extra time allowed for security. Flights from Europe to the US usually require extra or enhanced security.

Do not fly in the day of your cruise. That is really rule number one. Enjoy Rome for a few days and then make the almost hour's transfer to the port.

Rule number two. If you have questions about your flights check back on the Cruise Air forum before you book, or within the 24 hour cancellation period if booking directly with an airline.

There are probably members of your Roll Call who you can link with for transfers too.

[cobeck]

I agree, clear the cookies after each check. We flew to Rome on our Alaska Air Miles from PDX. We had to go to Boston then Paris then Rome. It was a very long day. Sometimes using the miles for one way and paying for the other makes it a bit easier. Google air is another search engine that sometimes offers great fares.

[waterbug123]

 

So, my main question is, does anyone have any idea what would be

a good fare? Also, what are any airline preferences?

 

(we have never been to Europe, can you tell? ;p)

 

The answers to these questions vary from traveler to traveler. One traveler might see a seemingly great price, but not like the flight times, connection times, number of connections, connection airports, seating configuration or whatever, so decide the price is not good considering the perceived trade-offs. Someone else might have no issue with it and think its a great price. Likewise, many will have preferences for different airlines based on factors that are or are not important to someone else. My personal preference is Delta, based on elite level frequent flyer loyalty perks, seating configuration, and flight times &. connection options from my home airport.

[goofysmom99]

Even easier than clearing cookies is always to right click on your browser icon and open "new incognito window" or "in private browsing," etc. You don't have to worry about cookies and always open a "first look." When searching prices on any type of travel site, cookies and tracking do factor into price.

 

Edit: And an added benefit of "in private browsing" is it keeps those pesky pop-up ads based on your search history from popping-up. :cool:

[ROWSE]

We are also cruising on the Reflection on October 1, 2018. Our flights are round trip from Spokane, coming in

day before and staying for four extra nights in Rome afterwards on Choice Air.

 

I played with the booking even over a year out checking on the month we would travel as if I was booking

for 2017. I had a general idea of pricing. It changed daily and sometimes within minutes. They told me

at Choice air that that was the way it worked and if I found a fare I liked book it.

 

I really liked the Delta flights offered so I actually did the pull down menu to Delta only and then that was

when the fare was the very best. We got $600 per person round trip economy class. The airlines itself were asking over $1400 per person so I am one happy camper. After I got my reservation confirmation I went to Delta and booked the

seats. That was when I breathed a sign of relief knowing it was real. LOL

 

I pay more flying Domestic in and out of Spokane sometimes, so that was an incredible deal. Our flight goes Spokane to Minneapolis to Detroit then Rome. Home is to from Rome to Amsterdam to Seattle to Spokane.

 

If you do book Choice Air, check periodically with your reservation number with the airline as we had a flight time changed and I had to change the Seattle to Spokane flight to later as it made it too close. No problem to change after telling Choice Air about it, but they did not let me know about the change, I found it myself. Being proactive is always a good idea!

 

Best of luck on scoring a great fare!