Air to Sea to Europe

[sailing sue]

Firt time going to the Med and I am condidering using the Air to Sea Program. I would love to hear about your experiences good and bad with this service. Thank you 

[Biker19]

22 minutes ago, sailing sue said:

I would love to hear about your experiences good and bad with this service.

It's like just about any other TA. For round trips, it may not be the least costly. The usual advantage for A2S is one way flights in conjunction with a repo sailing.

[TwinMamainMN]

From what I understand, A2S allows a deviation of up to 2 days from your sailing date and you have zero say in the flight times, numbers of connections, layover times, etc. We have always booked our own airfare and will when we do a Med cruise next summer too. We plan on spending 4-5 days precruise in Rome and another 4-5 days post cruise in another city. Maybe Florence.

[smokeybandit]

3 minutes ago, TwinMamainMN said:

A2S allows a deviation of up to 2 days from your sailing date and you have zero say in the flight times, numbers of connections, layover times, etc

That's not true at all. Each time I've used it I've picked exactly the flight I wanted.

[TwinMamainMN]

1 minute ago, smokeybandit said:

That's not true at all. Each time I've used it I've picked exactly the flight I wanted.

That's why I said "as I understand it..." 🙂 I'm glad it worked for you.

[Tlbecker1]

3 minutes ago, TwinMamainMN said:

From what I understand, A2S allows a deviation of up to 2 days from your sailing date and you have zero say in the flight times, numbers of connections, layover times, etc. We have always booked our own airfare and will when we do a Med cruise next summer too. We plan on spending 4-5 days precruise in Rome and another 4-5 days post cruise in another city. Maybe Florence.

This has never been our experience.  They give you many choices of flights/layovers and you pick one.  For international flights I always use them(we used them 4 times last year).  The part that I don’t like is that you aren’t able to choose your seats when you book.  The best part is that they work behind the scenes to make sure that you make it to the cruise when your flights have been delayed and you can book it and pay for it when your final cruise payment is due.  You can call them and change it before final payment, cancel, etc.

[TwinMamainMN]

@Tlbecker1 - Thanks for the explanation. I stand corrected.

[Tlbecker1]

58 minutes ago, sailing sue said:

Firt time going to the Med and I am condidering using the Air to Sea Program. I would love to hear about your experiences good and bad with this service. Thank you 

I personally recommend booking with Air2Sea for your international flights.  It is great to be able to booking early and not paying for it until you make your final cruise  If you make changes to your plans after booking, you can call them and rebook with a different flight.  Their customer service has always been great also.  
 

If you have any additional questions, I am more than happy to help.  I have used them several times.

[Tlbecker1]

1 minute ago, TwinMamainMN said:

@Tlbecker1 - Thanks for the explanation. I stand corrected.

They have saved me more than once.  We were stuck in Portland last year due to a snowstorm and they rearranged all of our flights for us around midnight.  We had an additional layover with the changes and made it to the ship by 11 the same day, but I was so thankful that they were able to make it happen.

 

We had some bad weather this year when we left in January for our cruise(we were only going to Port Canaveral) and we had to pay an additional $1,000 to get there on time.

[smokeybandit]

AIr2Sea can be good for International flights because they often have subsidized flights.

Domestic flights don't get subsidized as much.

 

On the flip side the cost of A2S flights compared to booking direct can be more expensive.

[Tlbecker1]

25 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

AIr2Sea can be good for International flights because they often have subsidized flights.

Domestic flights don't get subsidized as much.

 

On the flip side the cost of A2S flights compared to booking direct can be more expensive.

I agree, but including the amount in my final payment and having flexibility to make changes is worth it to me.

[Tlbecker1]

Another point about Air2Sea that I forgot to mention is if your cruise gets cancelled, you officially don’t have a flight.  When you book on your own you are usually out of luck.  We have had this happen more than once and I was thankful that I didn’t have to eat the airfare.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

AIr2Sea can be good for International flights because they often have subsidized flights.

Domestic flights don't get subsidized as much.

 

On the flip side the cost of A2S flights compared to booking direct can be more expensive.

I was wondering how much you save. You say can be more expensive. 

[smokeybandit]

10 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I was wondering how much you save. You say can be more expensive. 

For an economy seat, I've seen it $200 cheaper and $50 more expensive.

[juanrod]

Last year we book A2S for round trip flight from lax to Amsterdam, no stops.  We had KLM site up at the same time looking at A2S, it was $1000 less booking through A2S then KLM for business class. We were looking at flights the day they opened flights for our cruise.  We paid when we booked so we could then go to KLM site and choose our seats.   We also flew in three days early , no issues     

[HicksRA]

As above, if you pay for the flight when you book (rather than waiting until final payment date), you can choose your seats immediately. 
I’ve used A2S twice for transatlantics and saved quite a bit each time as well as having peace of mind that they’ll be there to help if problems arise.  

[ReRe71]

45 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

As above, if you pay for the flight when you book (rather than waiting until final payment date), you can choose your seats immediately. 
I’ve used A2S twice for transatlantics and saved quite a bit each time as well as having peace of mind that they’ll be there to help if problems arise.  

 

That's what we did, pay for our flights when we booked (well, really paid for them 2 weeks later). I was not comfortable not being able to choose seats until final payment date. Our flights from IAD to BCN was $3400 RT for premium economy (for 2 people), the price on United's site was around $4K per person.

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, HicksRA said:

As above, if you pay for the flight when you book (rather than waiting until final payment date), you can choose your seats immediately. 
I’ve used A2S twice for transatlantics and saved quite a bit each time as well as having peace of mind that they’ll be there to help if problems arise.  

They are very good about fixing last minute flight problems.  We booked LAX to Rome on American Airlines with one stop at JFK.  Day before our flight American canceled the flight due to problems at JFK, Hurricane  Sandy, One phone call to Air2Sea and we were rebooked on Air France from LAX direct to Rome.  We were put up on the second level economy plus, no extra charges and it went as smooth as silk.   Have used Air2Sea six times for oneway to Europe. Round trip fares are not as good and domestic flights are overpriced. 

[patattack]

4 hours ago, Tlbecker1 said:

This has never been our experience.  They give you many choices of flights/layovers and you pick one.  For international flights I always use them(we used them 4 times last year).  The part that I don’t like is that you aren’t able to choose your seats when you book.  The best part is that they work behind the scenes to make sure that you make it to the cruise when your flights have been delayed and you can book it and pay for it when your final cruise payment is due.  You can call them and change it before final payment, cancel, etc.

We were very glad we had booked through them in 2018.  United Airlines could not get us there until the next day and although Delta could have, they do not work with them.  We called Air2Sea and they were able to change us to the Delta flight.  Always book 2 "one way" tickets.

 

Pat

[ck11140]

I have always booked my own international flights but I am using it for the first time this year to go RT Barcelona. They were the same price as booking direct with Delta. They did let me choose my seats already even through the payment is not due till June. We are flying in 2 days early and leaving 3 days post cruise. 

[Cherful59]

I book with air to sea and direct with airlines whichever is cheapest when I go in a day or 2 ahead of time.  If I am going in day of, I usually use air to sea.  Booking seats depends on your airline from what I experienced using Air to sea when holding off on payment.   Some will do it before payment date and some will not.  I do not pay for my flight until a week or to before final payment date, and it was easy to reprice my flights to and from Amsterdam with air to sea twice lowering it each time after checking costs on my own, as well as getting an alert from the Hopper app that flights prices had dropped.  Assistance with flights is always a plus when there are issues.  

[HicksRA]

I should add that right now Royal A2S has a promo with $200 pp additional discount for economy and $500 for first class fares to Europe and $100/$200 off respectively for Alaska fares. 

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, ck11140 said:

I have always booked my own international flights but I am using it for the first time this year to go RT Barcelona. They were the same price as booking direct with Delta. They did let me choose my seats already even through the payment is not due till June. We are flying in 2 days early and leaving 3 days post cruise. 

Just a little FYI to others. Many times it is a much better price booking two one way flights instead of a round trip to Europe on air2Sea. 

[RobInMN]

This is possibly a stupid question, but who does the CC charge show up as? I have a Delta AMEX. Delta purchases have higher rewards. If I use A2S and use my Delta AMEX, is it a Delta Charge? Royal Caribbean, or A2S?

 

[radarcruiser]

Another thing to consider is using miles to Europe if you have enough.  You don’t get penalized for one way.  We’ve done this many times and have also used A2S for some round trips.