Homelands / First port Stockholm, Consolidators etc.

[Dark Avenger]

Trying to plan our airfare and total vacation for a Homelands cruise starting in Stockholm next August (have the Viking part nailed down).  I've read somewhere that the Stockholm portion is quite limited time wise - I think the sail out time (day two) is around 2:30 in the afternoon and part of the first day is of course oriented around boarding.   We will be coming from a couple of days in Berlin and I am thinking about adding a day or two in Stockholm - thoughts?  Just time and money right?  

 

On another matter - I'd love to fly business class on vacation one time in my life and wondered what experiences people have had with the ticket broker/consolidators that advertise business class fares?   Prices seem tempting.  On the major long leg we would like to go from Denver (home) to Frankfurt direct, short hop to Berlin (2 days) then Stockholm with the return departing Oslo back to Denver at the end.  Lufthansa is a good option and we've flown it before and liked it.  They co-partner with United out of Denver also.  I'd really like to take the Dreamliner (787) all the way, which United flies.  Prefer to avoid the east coast and Heathrow.  Norwegian Air and Icelandic Air scare me a bit for reliability reasons.  I also like to stick with one carrier all the way.    Maybe all those restrictions will eliminate a T/A, or broker from getting me the best monetary deal. 

 

Any sage advice for us?  

[knoxclone]

If you have the time, definitely give yourself an extra day or two in Stockholm.  You are correct, day one is primarily boarding, I think we sailed out of Stockholm mid late afternoon on day 2. Stockholm is great city, very easy to navigate, very "english speaking" friendly.   Several nonstops daily from Berlin to Stockholm.  

 

Regarding consolidators, in the few times I have used them, I did not earn FF miles ( if that is important to you) and you often are unable to ditch to another airline if you have weather or mechanical delays.  It just depends on the amount of risk you are willing to take with your vacation.  When I used them, I was much younger,  had much more time and less money 🙂

[Mich3554]

We used consolidators for our most recent trips to Europe.  We did get our FF miles for these flights.  Costs were about $1000 pp less than what I could find online, or what I would have gotten through Viking.  The ones I used booked directly with the airline, we did not purchase from them and Delta/Air France were the contact (unlike booking through some place like Expedia) if there was an issue.  You also need to have some flexibility in the dates you fly.  

 

All I can say is that you need to do your research.  My consolidator was not able to beat the business class tickets I bought to Istanbul a few months later.  

[Dauntless]

3 hours ago, Dark Avenger said:

Trying to plan our airfare and total vacation for a Homelands cruise starting in Stockholm next August (have the Viking part nailed down).  I've read somewhere that the Stockholm portion is quite limited time wise - I think the sail out time (day two) is around 2:30 in the afternoon and part of the first day is of course oriented around boarding.   We will be coming from a couple of days in Berlin and I am thinking about adding a day or two in Stockholm - thoughts?  Just time and money right?   

 

Any sage advice for us?  

 

If you can work in the time, give Stockholm it's due.  We spent 3 extra days there before the cruise started. The HOHO bus can get you around and we did the Stockholm Card or Pass, whatever they are calling it now. The HOHO bus was  included in this and the travel pass got you around where the HOHO didn't and ran later. We stayed in a nice hotel in Gamla . Stan  overlooking the Baltic and could see the ship from our window.  W cover almost everything you can do from the ship but saved tons of money.  The money we saved by not using Viking for prestay and air was basically what we used for enhancing our time there.  It was my first time to Europe and to cruise so I figured I better make the most of it   We did not go to Oslo and flew home from there after a couple more nights in Bergen  

[The Other Tom]

On 12/17/2019 at 5:14 PM, Mich3554 said:

We used consolidators for our most recent trips to Europe.  We did get our FF miles for these flights.  Costs were about $1000 pp less than what I could find online, or what I would have gotten through Viking.  The ones I used booked directly with the airline, we did not purchase from them and Delta/Air France were the contact (unlike booking through some place like Expedia) if there was an issue.  You also need to have some flexibility in the dates you fly.  

 

All I can say is that you need to do your research.  My consolidator was not able to beat the business class tickets I bought to Istanbul a few months later.  

Can you give us the name of the consolidator you used?  I believe it's ok to do that on this forum since it's not a cruise TA.  thanks

[Mich3554]

On 12/19/2019 at 2:57 PM, The Other Tom said:

Can you give us the name of the consolidator you used?  I believe it's ok to do that on this forum since it's not a cruise TA.  thanks

I used the web site businessclassconsolidator.com.  
 

Like I said, you need to do your research beforehand.  Sometimes they are good, other times not so much.  I guess about 50% of my flights the last 2 years have been gotten through them, and you need a lot of flexibility.  

[The Other Tom]

20 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

I used the web site businessclassconsolidator.com.  
 

Like I said, you need to do your research beforehand.  Sometimes they are good, other times not so much.  I guess about 50% of my flights the last 2 years have been gotten through them, and you need a lot of flexibility.  

Thanks