Europe flights are finally booked!

[brian1]

1 hour ago, waterbug123 said:

 

 

 

Correct.  For intra-European flights on KLM, you will be unable to select coach class seats until the time of check-in.

 

 

 

Because there is no reason to have to pick up something the TA can email to you.  As for a hard copy of the actual e-ticket, if you have the airline app, all of that information can be accessed from within the app, generally speaking.

 

 

But you insisted that this all had to be done through a travel agent, and from where I sit, it seems that this particular TA is trying very hard to make herself seem more necessary than she really is.  Did she offer your mom the option to just print an email?  Because if she didn't, and instead said "you will need to come pick up your tickets" she is being very irresponsible, in that she's making your mom think there are things that only SHE (the agent) can do, and that is simply untrue.  And if she actually called the paperwork in question a "ticket" she is really feeding the false idea of your mom NEEDING an agent.

 

 

Or even just from the app on a phone....

 

 

 

A round trip itinerary with one connection in each direction is still a very simple itinerary.

 

I was just defending the OP by assuming her mum may not be tech savvy,but it seems she is.I give up now cos I've read the OP other thread,lol.By the way,I have a Ryanair app,but still carry a printout,belt and braces I know but don't always trust phones with batteries and things to go wrong.

[terry&mike]

7 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

The travel agent said only economy tickets are available through the cruise line.

This is not correct. Without going back and re-reading this thread, I seem to recall you are sailing AMA. AMA definitely offers Business Class tickets through their air department, and usually has very good rates on them.

[CruisingSince2012]

10 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

Because there is no reason to have to pick up something the TA can email to you.  As for a hard copy of the actual e-ticket, if you have the airline app, all of that information can be accessed from within the app, generally speaking.

 

That is one reason Mom needs a hard copy: She does not have Delta's app. It is always better to have a hard copy even if you are knowedgable about using an appb to get an eticket anyway, so you should not have an issue with the fact we have one.

 

10 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

But you insisted that this all had to be done through a travel agent, and from where I sit, it seems that this particular TA is trying very hard to make herself seem more necessary than she really is.  Did she offer your mom the option to just print an email? Because if she didn't, and instead said "you will need to come pick up your tickets" she is being very irresponsible, in that she's making your mom think there are things that only SHE (the agent) can do, and that is simply untrue. And if she actually called the paperwork in question a "ticket" she is really feeding the false idea of your mom NEEDING an agent.

 

It absolutely is true we need to go through a travelr agent for booking airfare. That is just the way we are personally based on the trip itinerary and our comfort level. Picking up a hard copy of the eticket is just one small detail other people know more about by having a lot more experience with flying internationally.

[waterbug123]

14 minutes ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

That is one reason Mom needs a hard copy: She does not have Delta's app. It is always better to have a hard copy even if you are knowedgable about using an appb to get an eticket anyway, so you should not have an issue with the fact we have one.

 

 

It absolutely is true we need to go through a travelr agent for booking airfare. That is just the way we are personally based on the trip itinerary and our comfort level. Picking up a hard copy of the eticket is just one small detail other people know more about by having a lot more experience with flying internationally.

 

You said your mother has a printer so not having the app doesn't matter; she can print whatever she wants.   Or she can also take a screenshot of the emailed itinerary.  She may enjoy going to the TA's office to pick up a hard copy, but she doesn't actually NEED to.   That's all I'm saying.  If the TA implied that there was no other option, the TA was not doing a very good job of presenting all the options, and has possibly made you and your mother overly dependent on her.

 

As for international flying experience, I assure you I have plenty.  And again- I'm not saying it's a BAD idea to keep a hard copy of the itinerary when traveling, but it isn't absolutely necessary as you implied, and certainly isn't necessary to drive to someone's office to get said printed copy.  She can print it at home, and there are "plan B" options that don't involve having the app your mom doesn't have, such as saving a screen shot of it, or keeping it in your email inbox to reference as needed.

 

 

 

 

[Globaliser]

1 hour ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

Picking up a hard copy of the eticket is just one small detail other people know more about by having a lot more experience with flying internationally.

 

It depends. I do a lot of international flying where I'm carrying no paperwork other than my passport. Sometimes I literally have just my passport and the clothes that I'm wearing.

 

IME, it actually tends to be less experienced and less secure passengers who feel a greater need to have hard copy paperwork with them. As waterbug123 says, this is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly as such passengers may not be as good at working out when there is a greater need to do this, so it's safer always to have it with them. But equally, it doesn't need to be physically given by the travel agent to the passenger.

[CruisingSince2012]

Inexperiencei certainly is part of it. The Italy trip in November 2016 was my first to another continent. We have visited Canada on both land and cruise vacations, but that is nothing like crossing.the Atlantic Ocean twice.

[Zach1213]

9 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

Inexperiencei certainly is part of it. The Italy trip in November 2016 was my first to another continent. We have visited Canada on both land and cruise vacations, but that is nothing like crossing.the Atlantic Ocean twice.

 

Don't overthink it. I think that stands in a lot of people's way and makes them unnecessarily nervous. From a flying standpoint, it's honestly not that different. You're looking for a ticket from one city to another, via some third/intermediary airport. The same could be said whether you're flying from Florida to Budapest or from Buffalo to Los Angeles. The ocean distance isn't that much different, it's just that there's an ocean and a language in between. But I think a lot of people stress themselves out thinking that flying to another country is so much different, when in reality it's not...especially somewhere like Europe which is very similar to the US and English is extremely common. You'll do great.

[fbgd]

27 minutes ago, Zach1213 said:

You'll do great.

 

Until there's IRROPS when they're away and they need to fly to Florida to get a printout of their new flights from the TA. 😉

[CruisingSince2012]

On 10/30/2018 at 8:59 AM, Zach1213 said:

 

Don't overthink it. I think that stands in a lot of people's way and makes them unnecessarily nervous. From a flying standpoint, it's honestly not that different. You're looking for a ticket from one city to another, via some third/intermediary airport. The same could be said whether you're flying from Florida to Budapest or from Buffalo to Los Angeles. The ocean distance isn't that much different, it's just that there's an ocean and a language in between. But I think a lot of people stress themselves out thinking that flying to another country is so much different, when in reality it's not...especially somewhere like Europe which is very similar to the US and English is extremely common. You'll do great.

 

You are totally wrong. It takes at least 9 hours to fly from Atlanta to central Europe. My flight from Atlanta to Rome was 9 hours. I flew into a tradewind between Paris and Atlanta, sob that flight took 9.5 hours.

 

We stress ourselves out because there are huge differences between domestic and international vacations except in Canada.

[FlyerTalker]

See below

Edited November 1, 2018 by FlyerTalker

[FlyerTalker]

On 10/30/2018 at 5:59 AM, Zach1213 said:

 

Don't overthink it. I think that stands in a lot of people's way and makes them unnecessarily nervous. From a flying standpoint, it's honestly not that different. You're looking for a ticket from one city to another, via some third/intermediary airport. The same could be said whether you're flying from Florida to Budapest or from Buffalo to Los Angeles. The ocean distance isn't that much different, it's just that there's an ocean and a language in between. But I think a lot of people stress themselves out thinking that flying to another country is so much different, when in reality it's not...especially somewhere like Europe which is very similar to the US and English is extremely common. You'll do great.

 

3 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

You are totally wrong. It takes at least 9 hours to fly from Atlanta to central Europe. My flight from Atlanta to Rome was 9 hours. I flew into a tradewind between Paris and Atlanta, sob that flight took 9.5 hours.

 

We stress ourselves out because there are huge differences between domestic and international vacations except in Canada.

 

So few comets....

 

[Globaliser]

6 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

You are totally wrong. It takes at least 9 hours to fly from Atlanta to central Europe. My flight from Atlanta to Rome was 9 hours. I flew into a tradewind between Paris and Atlanta, sob that flight took 9.5 hours.

 

We stress ourselves out because there are huge differences between domestic and international vacations except in Canada.

 

Well, if you are stressing out, you are simply doing this to yourself without any objective basis or reason.

 

There are some domestic flights that take 11½ hours, non-stop, which shows you that 9½ hours isn't a big deal. I routinely do 11-14 hour flights each way for weekend breaks, and almost routinely flying for 22 hours each way on another of my regular routes. There are plenty of people who fly 8-ish hours from London to New York on day trips (although they now have to fly back overnight).

 

As Zach1213 says, if you don't build up the differences inside your head, you'll find that flying across the Atlantic is really not that different. It's air travel all the same, and you just happen to be going in a different direction.

[waterbug123]

8 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

You are totally wrong. It takes at least 9 hours to fly from Atlanta to central Europe. My flight from Atlanta to Rome was 9 hours. I flew into a tradewind between Paris and Atlanta, sob that flight took 9.5 hours.

 

We stress ourselves out because there are huge differences between domestic and international vacations except in Canada.

 

So it's 9 hours...so what?   Considering my normal flight from CHS-ATL is about an hour, and a then a flight to LAX is another 5 hours, should I get all freaked out because OMG it's so much longer than flying to ATL?  No, of course not.  It's just TIME.   Whether you spend 2 hours on a plane or 10 hours, the process of air travel is largely the same:   You fly, you arrive at a connection city and change planes, you fly again.  Nothing in that process is so different that it should cause you stress, even when going to Europe.  The only thing different about an international flight is passport checks and customs, which is pretty much a non-event in Europe.  The language is different, but all European airports have signage in English.  Heck, some European airports ONLY have signage in English.  That was something I noticed last month in Amsterdam...no Dutch signage, only English! 

 

You said it your self above:  "We stress ourselves out..."    The process of flying to Europe wouldn't cause undue stress if you didn't let it. 

[FlyerTalker]

I have a sneaking suspicion that 2012 (as I call her) secretly enjoys the stress and the difficulty.

 

Or at least the drama involved.

 

A flight from Honolulu to Atlanta is longer than a flight from ATL to Paris.

 

OMG!!!

[Zach1213]

10 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

You are totally wrong. It takes at least 9 hours to fly from Atlanta to central Europe. My flight from Atlanta to Rome was 9 hours. I flew into a tradewind between Paris and Atlanta, sob that flight took 9.5 hours.

 

We stress ourselves out because there are huge differences between domestic and international vacations except in Canada.

 

Not so sure I agree with you. I was saying the ocean distance...for example, flying from NYC to Dublin isn't really any different than flying NYC to LAX, just that there's water in the middle and it's a different country. Dublin isn't much further from NYC than Los Angeles is, actually.

 

Atlanta to Central Europe? That's different, of course, but you're taking the entirety of the trip. In that extent, it's long, but it's still really close when you think about it. I travel for a living, and fly from Kansas City to Europe at least once every 8 weeks (usually I'm heading the other way to Asia and Australia)...the fact that I can hop on a plane in Kansas City, make one or two changes of planes, and be in Hamburg the next morning for a late breakfast still amazes me. It's close, really close, in the big picture.

 

International and domestic vacations do have huge differences, you won't find me or (likely) too many other people arguing against that. But international and domestic flights...really not so much.

[fbgd]

47 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

I have a sneaking suspicion that 2012 (as I call her) secretly enjoys the stress and the difficulty.

 

Or at least the drama involved.

 

+1

 

I mean we've had 60 odd posts in a thread that confirmed an airline booking was made. This is ignoring the epic thread about booking the flights in the first place that was on here and other fora online that she posted threads about the same issue.

 

I almost dread to think about the stress and drama involved when the OP actually has to do something that isn't entirely routine.

Edited November 1, 2018 by fbgd

[brian1]

You guys rattled the cage by having a pop at her TA.If you just said,yeah well done, it would have been done and dusted in a few posts,lol.

[CruisingSince2012]

17 hours ago, Globaliser said:

Well, if you are stressing out, you are simply doing this to yourself without any objective basis or reason.

 

There are some domestic flights that take 11½ hours, non-stop, which shows you that 9½ hours isn't a big deal. I routinely do 11-14 hour flights each way for weekend breaks, and almost routinely flying for 22 hours each way on another of my regular routes. There are plenty of people who fly 8-ish hours from London to New York on day trips (although they now have to fly back overnight).

 

As Zach1213 says, if you don't build up the differences inside your head, you'll find that flying across the Atlantic is really not that different. It's air travel all the same, and you just happen to be going in a different direction.

 

What domestic flight itinerary could take 11 hours? Flying from central Ohioh to southern California takes 4 hours - less htan half the time spent flying from Atlanta to Rome. So no, it is not possible to spend more time flying coast to coast than over an ocean.

 

National differences are in my head all right - in the form of using my eyes and ears to witness them. To not believe there are any differences, you must have never traveled internationally in your life.

[CruisingSince2012]

14 hours ago, brian1 said:

You guys rattled the cage by having a pop at her TA.If you just said, "Yeah well done." it would have been done and dusted in a few posts, LOL.

 

People are too judgmental here. It looks like everyone assumes just because my travel agent does business a different way from many others with at least one of her clients, she sucks.  The truth is.nobody else understands what my mom needs and wants in the process of booking flights better than she does because nobody else has her as a client. So people on message boards don't have a right to judge her in the form of lashing out on a traveling companion of her client without having the same travel agent.

Edited November 2, 2018 by CruisingSince2012

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

What domestic flight itinerary could take 11 hours?

 

Try Newark to Honolulu.  UA does it with a 767 and a scheduled time of 11:12.

 

And as far as distances....

 

EWR-HNL   4962 miles

EWR-AMS   3656 miles

 

Over 1300 miles further.

[brian1]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Try Newark to Honolulu.  UA does it with a 767 and a scheduled time of 11:12.

 

And as far as distances....

 

EWR-HNL   4962 miles

EWR-AMS   3656 miles

 

Over 1300 miles further.

Blimey,you had to dig deep for that one.Not quite some at 11.5 hrs though.Keep digging guys,lol.

[Globaliser]

4 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

What domestic flight itinerary could take 11 hours? Flying from central Ohioh to southern California takes 4 hours - less htan half the time spent flying from Atlanta to Rome.

There is more than one country in the world that has domestic air services, you know. France even has mobile phones and flush toilets now! And flights from Reunion to Paris are scheduled to take anything from 11:30 to 12:05 in the current timetable.

 

4 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

National differences are in my head all right - in the form of using my eyes and ears to witness them. To not believe there are any differences, you must have never traveled internationally in your life.

 

Certainly there are differences between different places, and certainly it is a good idea to experience those yourself. I always encourage people to do so, not least to remind themselves that wherever they come from and whatever others might want them to think when they're at home, they do not come from the greatest country on earth.

 

However, the air travel really doesn't involve any differences. It really doesn't matter whether you're flying 9 hours from Atlanta to Rome, or 11 hours from New York to Honolulu. I think that I can say that with some force, having almost certainly done far more air travel, and having been to (or perhaps even lived in) far more countries, than you have. That is why you do not need to stress yourself about these flights, merely because they cross some water.

[waterbug123]

6 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

 

What domestic flight itinerary could take 11 hours? Flying from central Ohioh to southern California takes 4 hours - less htan half the time spent flying from Atlanta to Rome. So no, it is not possible to spend more time flying coast to coast than over an ocean.

 

 

The point is, what difference does it make if you're flying over land or over water?   None.  The process is still the same, only the actual time in the air varies in length from flight to flight.  But for some reason you are making a bigger deal than it needs to be about it being an international flight.  Are there cultural or language differences once your reach your destination?  Sure, but the process of flying is largely the same.

 

But as an aside, you're definitive statement is actually wrong.  It IS possible to spend more time flying coast to coast than over an ocean.  Examples:

JFK to LAX is around 6:30, give or take a few minutes either way

MIA to SFO is also around 6:30, give or take.

JFK to KEF is only 5:50, which is most certainly less than 6:30

BOS to DUB is only 6:10, also less than 6:30

 

[brian1]

Reunion,you hit bedrock with that one.That's it now,no satellite states or regions left.Even Brize Norton to Stanley is no longer nonstop.Anyway, Waterbug has come up with more sensible routes to quote.

[Globaliser]

1 hour ago, brian1 said:

Reunion, you hit bedrock with that one.

 

I set out exactly what I was earlier referring to.

 

Do you have any useful advice for anyone on this forum, or are you here to just snidely snipe?