Critique my flight plans for Athens and Rome

[tscoffey]

We have booked a 10-day cruise out of Athens, starting April 5th, 2024. We really want to take the opportunity to visit Rome as well (and what better time to do so - it's only a few hours away by plane!).

 

Here is the plan I have currently swirling around my head (and on my Travelocity search page):

 

April 1 (Monday): Fly from home (Ohio) to Rome

April 2: Morning - Arrive in Rome.

            Afternoon - Take 2-hour flight to Athens

            Afternoon/Evening - Arrive in Athens, go to hotel.

April 3,4: Sights in Athens

April 5 (Friday): Morning - Shuttle/train/winged-horse to Piraeus cruise port

            Afternoon - Board cruise ship

April 6-14: Cruise

April 15 (Monday): Early morning - Disembark in Piraeus

              Mid/late morning to early afternoon - shuttle from Piraeus to Athens airport

              Afternoon - Flight back to Rome

              Late afternoon/early afternoon - Arrive in Rome, go to hotel

April 16,17,18,19 - Sights in Rome

April 20 (Saturday) - Flight back to Ohio.

 

This gives us 2 full days to see Athens, and 4 full days to see Rome (plus Pompeii or Florence).

 

This would involve roundtrip flights both from Ohio to Rome, and from Rome to Athens. 

 

Is this doable? What problems might I have?

 

The only problem I see is missing a flight between Rome and Athens. But there are many of those per day, so we could catch a subsequent one. And, I have buffer days before both the cruise embarkation, and return back to Ohio.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by tscoffey

[CruiserBruce]

I don't see any issues. As there are multiple flights daily between Athens and Rome, that would be the least of my worries. There aren't many flights from Ohio to Rome, so an issue there could cause much upset and rebuilding of your itinerary. But you have extra days built in, so I think you are looking good.

[tscoffey]

Is there any possibility of skipping that initial hop to Rome first, which I do so that Ohio<-->Rome is a roundtrip, and go straight to Athens, then return to Ohio from Rome? Whenever I price that as 2 one-way flights it is almost double.

 

Can a TA get me a better deal on those 2 one-way trips? 

[LHT28]

Why fly to Rome  on day 1  can you not get  a flight  to Athens from Ohio?

[tscoffey]

1 minute ago, LHT28 said:

Why fly to Rome  on day 1  can you not get  a flight  to Athens from Ohio?

That makes Ohio to Rome and back a roundtrip. If I try to price out going to Athens first, then it is 2 one-way flights, and costs almost double.

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, tscoffey said:

That makes Ohio to Rome and back a roundtrip. If I try to price out going to Athens first, then it is 2 one-way flights, and costs almost double.

Use  the multi  city tab

[tscoffey]

10 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Use  the multi  city tab

I did. It doesn't improve the costs on Travelocity. Still prices it like 2 one-way flights.

 

Correction: I had been pricing a multi-city of Ohio-Athens, Athens-Rome, ROme-Ohio. That comes out to over $1400.  If I price a multi-city of just Ohio-Athens and Rome-Ohio, without adding in the (very short and cheap) flight from Athens-Rome, it comes out like a roundtrip - around $750. (The one-way Athens-Rome is less than $60!)

 

So the answer is to book the Ohio-Athens-Rome-Ohio separately, then book a one-way Athens-Rome.

 

Thanks for the advice!

Edited April 22, 2023 by tscoffey

[LHT28]

Do not use Travlocity  go to the airline website

 

try https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search

 

I did a random search for May 

CMH -ATH     then FCO to CMH

 $1689  on DL

of course this is for May 2023  so by next year  it will be different

[em-sk]

3 hours ago, tscoffey said:

I did. It doesn't improve the costs on Travelocity. Still prices it like 2 one-way flights.

 

Correction: I had been pricing a multi-city of Ohio-Athens, Athens-Rome, ROme-Ohio. That comes out to over $1400.  If I price a multi-city of just Ohio-Athens and Rome-Ohio, without adding in the (very short and cheap) flight from Athens-Rome, it comes out like a roundtrip - around $750. (The one-way Athens-Rome is less than $60!)

 

So the answer is to book the Ohio-Athens-Rome-Ohio separately, then book a one-way Athens-Rome.

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

You don't want to do that.  If the Athens-Rome flight is on a separate ticket then your responsible if something if something is late.

 

As LTH28 said you want to go Ohio.-Athens  and Rome-Ohio.  

 

The other thing I would do is wait about a month or so.  Most airlines release flights for booking around 300-356 day out.  You will have more choice and options.   

 

Also you should look at some of the non-US airlines.  Air Canada for just over $1,000 return, however they have only published fares up to around April 10th.  You would need to come back in a week for your dates.

 

 

[tscoffey]

27 minutes ago, em-sk said:

 

Also you should look at some of the non-US airlines.  Air Canada for just over $1,000 return, however they have only published fares up to around April 10th.  You would need to come back in a week for your dates.

 

 

Thanks - Air Canada is almost 20% cheaper on similar days of the week in Jan/Feb 2024.

[waterbug123]

14 hours ago, tscoffey said:

I did. It doesn't improve the costs on Travelocity. Still prices it like 2 one-way flights.

 

Correction: I had been pricing a multi-city of Ohio-Athens, Athens-Rome, ROme-Ohio. That comes out to over $1400.  If I price a multi-city of just Ohio-Athens and Rome-Ohio, without adding in the (very short and cheap) flight from Athens-Rome, it comes out like a roundtrip - around $750. (The one-way Athens-Rome is less than $60!)

 

So the answer is to book the Ohio-Athens-Rome-Ohio separately, then book a one-way Athens-Rome.

 

Thanks for the advice!

Thats what i wouldve suggested.  book multi city into Athens and home from Rome.  then book a separate trip on Aegean from Athens to Rome

[waterbug123]

11 hours ago, em-sk said:

 

You don't want to do that.  If the Athens-Rome flight is on a separate ticket then your responsible if something if something is late.

 

As LTH28 said you want to go Ohio.-Athens  and Rome-Ohio.  

 

 

 

 

Theyre talking about doing that ATH-FCO flight at the end of the cruise, not right after they land in Athens.  Its fine

[LHT28]

9 minutes ago, waterbug123 said:

Theyre talking about doing that ATH-FCO flight at the end of the cruise, not right after they land in Athens.  Its fine

Actually they were also talking about the  beginning of the trip

April 1 (Monday): Fly from home (Ohio) to Rome

April 2: Morning - Arrive in Rome.       

    Afternoon - Take 2-hour flight to Athens

 

 

[waterbug123]

37 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Actually they were also talking about the  beginning of the trip

April 1 (Monday): Fly from home (Ohio) to Rome

April 2: Morning - Arrive in Rome.       

    Afternoon - Take 2-hour flight to Athens

 

 

No, read the post again. (not the first post where the idea was to fly to ATH via FCO)  They're now talking about a multi city ticket Ohio to Athens and then Rome to Ohio.  In between, after arriving in ATH. they'd take the cruise and then fly ATH-FCO to position themselves for a few days in Rome

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, waterbug123 said:

No, read the post again. (not the first post where the idea was to fly to ATH via FCO)  They're now talking about a multi city ticket Ohio to Athens and then Rome to Ohio.  In between, after arriving in ATH. they'd take the cruise and then fly ATH-FCO to position themselves for a few days in Rome

yes  I understood  the post

 

[waterbug123]

35 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

yes  I understood  the post

 

ok then, where is the risk you were warning about regarding booking separate tickets? The OP will have lots of cushion on either side of the separately booked ATH-FCO ticket. 

[LHT28]

49 minutes ago, waterbug123 said:

ok then, where is the risk you were warning about regarding booking separate tickets? The OP will have lots of cushion on either side of the separately booked ATH-FCO ticket. 

you might be confusing me with  some one else 🍷

[LHT28]

14 hours ago, tscoffey said:

Thanks - Air Canada is almost 20% cheaper on similar days of the week in Jan/Feb 2024.

I would  check when the flight schedules  come out for your actual dates of travel

 

They will be much different that Jan/Feb prices 

Just saying

[FlyerTalker]

11 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

you might be confusing me with  some one else 🍷

 

It seems to be em-sk that was concerned about the separate tickets.

 

 

[waterbug123]

56 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

you might be confusing me with  some one else 🍷

i was originally responding to someone else, yes. So correct- you were not specifically warning about risks of delay when booking two separate tickets.  Although you jumped in and said the OP was talking about ATH-FCO at the beginning of the trip after that idea had been discarded.  So I thought you were agreeing with em-sk.

[LHT28]

8 minutes ago, waterbug123 said:

i was originally responding to someone else, yes. So correct- you were not specifically warning about risks of delay when booking two separate tickets.  Although you jumped in and said the OP was talking about ATH-FCO at the beginning of the trip after that idea had been discarded.  So I thought you were agreeing with em-sk.

Sorry

see post #12

 

[6rugrats]

This thread is like watching a presidential debate.

[em-sk]

10 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

It seems to be em-sk that was concerned about the separate tickets.

 

 

 

Yes. The OP indicated they were planning a cruise form Athens to Rome with a round trip flight into Rome. 

 

If they are doing something else, then they are doing something else.

 

[Globaliser]

3 hours ago, em-sk said:

The OP indicated they were planning a cruise from Athens to Rome with a round trip flight into Rome. 

 

If they are doing something else, then they are doing something else.

 

No, the OP's cruise was always going to be Athens-Athens. The options for flying were:

• USA-Athens-Rome-USA on one ticket, which was proving to be too expensive.
• USA-Rome-USA with a separate Rome-Athens-Rome nested inside.
• USA-Athens//Rome-USA on one ticket, with an additional Athens-Rome on a separate ticket.

 

There is no "separate ticket" problem with an additional Athens-Rome ticket, because the OP has the cruise interposed between the USA-Athens and Athens-Rome flights, and a multi-day stop in Rome interposed between the Athens-Rome and Rome-USA flights.

[scottbee]

On 4/21/2023 at 5:19 PM, tscoffey said:

That makes Ohio to Rome and back a roundtrip. If I try to price out going to Athens first, then it is 2 one-way flights, and costs almost double.

You want to book it as 'open jaw'. On almost all airline search engines you'd want to search 'multi-city'

 

and put in

CMH-ATH/Athens

and FCO/Rome-CMH

as your flights.  You won't run into the prohibitively prices one ways  that you would by trying to book them separately (assuming above you were flying from CMH/Columbus)

 

Also you're looking a month too early.  A lot of airlines will only price tickets for 11 months out, so wait until the end of next month.

 

Example result though for March 2024/

CMH-BOS-AMS-ATH

FCO-JFK-CMH

is under US$1000