Got summer 07 flights with miles! But now to get from Budapest to Rome ...

[travelingmcmahans]

After hours of work on Delta's site, and plugging in every concievable combination of flights into everywhere they fly in Europe from my hometown for our June 11 Med cruise departing from Rome next summer, and numerous lengthy phone calls I finally got two tix on Delta with miles.:)

 

The only catch is we're flying to Budapest not Rome. I don't mind returning to Budapest and we have several options for getting to Rome. We land the day before the cruise departs.

 

Here are our options for getting from Budapest to Rome:

 

In no particular order ...

 

Fly out the morning of the cruise

with Lufthsana (sp?).

 

06:55 Budapest to 08:15 Munich

09:25 Munich to 11:00 Rome

 

Cost: $468.82 for two

 

Pros

- can spend the night in Budapest at free (with points) Marriott and enjoy one day soakign in the mineral baths after 18 hours of travel.

 

Cons

- Two flights = two chances for a flight to be delayed or luggage lost. Is 11:00 cutting it to close to get to the port in time?

 

 

Take an overnight train

:

 

Leave Budapest at 3:50 pm the day we land in Budapest. Change trains twice. Arrive in Rome 9:05 am on day of cruise.

 

Cost

:$464.00 for two (Though I'd probably get rail passes (which we'd use also later in the trip) if we take the train.

 

Pros

- arrive early enough in Rome to have plenty of cushion for arrival at port in time.

 

Cons

- Can't stay overnight in Budapest

Two train changes with luggage in the middle of summer.

I've never done a night train - don't know if I could sleep.

 

 

Rent a car

 

It's 13 hours of driving which we could do at least 8 of on the first day. We'vedriven previously in Italy, as well as SLovakia, Poland, Germany and several others, so we're comfortable with driving over there.

 

cost

- ?? Drop off fees can be high. But probably no more than flying or train. It's possible 3 traveling companions could share the cost if they book on the same flight.

 

Pros

- No worries about delayed flights or trains. It would be an adventure to drive across Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia.

Cons - It's very tiring. Traffic around Rome is a nightmare (we've driven into Rome before)

 

This looks like a lot of work but to have 2 free tix high season (when all the tickets I found were minimum $1300 *each*) I'm ok with it.

 

Which of these would you choose and why?

Is there an advantage to arriving at Termini train station rather than FCO airport in terms of getting more quickly to the port?

If we choose to drive, any ideas on the nearest drop off location to the port and suggestion on continuing on to the port from there? Last time we drove a rental car to Rome we dropped off at Ciampino airport as we felt the traffic wuld be "less bad" there.

 

Thanks for any and all input.

[CruisinGerman]

I think you should keep calling the airlines, ask for different agents, and eventually you'll come across someone who will find you better flights.

 

Do not drive by yourselves 13 hours after you've landed in Europe from the United States. You will be placing both yourselves and others in danger -- that's not really fair to others.

 

I think your plan would be okay if you were getting here a few days early, and not just one day before your cruise. Then I would say see Budapest for a few days, and take a flight the day before your cruise.

 

If there are non-stop flights available from Budapest to Rome, it would be safe to take that flight the morning of your cruise departure. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking connecting flights the same day as your cruise departure.

 

I would also consider purchasing tourist class tickets to Rome, and using miles to upgrade to Business Class (in which case you would also be earning miles).

 

Your plans just seem like too much of an adventure, and cutting it too close to the departure of the ship.

 

Also, unless you are going to be taking trains within a relatively short distance (Vienna, Budapest, Prague), I wouldn't bother with the Eurail pass -- that was more popular in the 80's. Nowadays, it's so dirt cheap to fly from city to city in Europe that sometimes the cab from city center to the airport costs more than the flight.

 

Good luck in making your plans.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[travelingmcmahans]

Thanks for the thoughts Gunther. Buying tourist tickets and upgrading would certainly be my first choice ;) but one I cannot afford.

 

I don't mind an adventure - in fact, I actively seek them.

 

I looked for direct flights, but couldn't find any, even on the budget carriers, that arrive anywhere close to the time we need.

 

And I wouldn't do the Eurail Pass, but rather the Selectpass Saverpass which we would use later in the trip to take the TGV from Avignon to Paris.

 

I'll certainly keep trying for a more direct routing, but I'm not at all optimistic that I'll get two free tickets directly to a popular desitination like Rome.

 

I've been to Budapest before so I'm OK with not spending several days there. I'm already taking nearly a motnh of work so I can't arrive any earlier.

 

I agree, driving is not a good idea after an overnight flight. We've done it before and did not like it. Im' just weighing all my options here.

[CruisinGerman]

I see you live in Louisville. I assume the $1300 means flying out of Louisville.

 

I think if you get yourselves to Chicago or Indianapolis, the fare goes down to $1000.

 

Also, did you check major U.S. gateways such as JFK, Newark, Atlanta, Miami, etc. Maybe if you maneuver yourself around the U.S. first you can find a more direct way to Rome.

 

You can also try the tour companies who might have a good deal on airfare in combination with a pre-cruise night or two in Rome.

 

I'm sorry, but your original plans just make me very nervous.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[CruisinGerman]

Here's an article from last Sunday's New York Times that is right on point -- good luck in planning your trip. Gunther and Uta.

 

LIKE most travelers, I love the feeling of building up frequent-flier miles by accruing points for flights and opening new credit card accounts that offer miles for purchases. However, while miles seem easier to earn than ever before, many airlines have made it harder and more expensive actually to redeem them for airline seats or upgrades. “My first word of advice is to use up your miles,” said Tim Jarrell, publisher of Fodor’s Travel Publications. “Don’t hoard them — they’re not bank accounts that earn interest.”

 

“As airlines try to cut costs,” he said, “it’s becoming more difficult to find available free seats, and the miles required for many trips are increasing as well.”

 

One way to redeem miles successfully is to educate yourself on all the possible flight alternatives when the initial request for a free ticket comes up negative. “Arm yourself with ways you know you can connect,” said Bob Jones, a travel expert for BookingWiz.com, which compares deals from travel Web sites. “Agents may not always think about all the different routes, so you may have to suggest different options.”

 

John Spear, a hotel manager in San Francisco and avid user of frequent-flier miles agrees. “You’ll have the best shot,” he said, “if you have a good knowledge of the airline hubs, the frequency of the flights and the flight capacities. Then you can call the airline and suggest alternative routings for them to check.”

 

For example, Mr. Spear was able to use this approach to help a friend who wanted to fly from San Francisco to Milan in April using frequent-flier points on Continental. Unfortunately, there were no standard award seats left, and if his friend wanted to take the trip, he would have to redeem double miles for a 100,000-mile normal award.

 

“They were routing him through Newark direct to Milan, but I knew that Continental had flights available from Newark to Gatwick and that Alitalia would have flights from Gatwick,” said Mr. Spear. “Simply suggesting the alternative routing enabled the agent to see the seat availability and book a ticket at the standard award level.”

 

An indispensable source of up-to-date information on airlines and frequent-flier programs is specialized Web sites like http://www.flyertalk.com, which provide community bulletin boards for asking questions about individual programs, such as whether you can use Delta SkyMiles on a Virgin Atlantic flight. These sites can be great places to research alternative routes and airline-specific information that can help identify potential mileage redemption opportunities.

 

Such sites can also help you build your trip backwards and find alternatives to suggest to the airline representative. For instance, Mr. Jones of BookingWiz.com notes that if you want to fly to Asia on Northwest and there are no seats available, ask the agent to try routing you through Amsterdam — it’s a viable route, but not one the agent may normally consider. Or if you want to fly to Budapest, start by finding out what airlines fly there and then identifying code-share airlines that partner with the one you already have miles on.

 

It helps to identify all of an airline’s partners — both ones that are in alliances, like oneworld (http://www.oneworld.com) or SkyTeam (http://www.skyteam.com), as well as individual partners. “Sometimes airlines like Malaysia Airlines are not part of an alliance like SkyTeam, but they may still be a Northwest partner,” said Mr. Jones.

 

Although frequent-flier programs were originally created as a way to reward customers who flew a lot, today most programs have turned into lucrative marketing programs for airlines that may — or may not — make it easy for customers to fly free.

 

“Frequent-flier programs have turned into trading stamp programs without the stamps,” said Terry Trippler, spokesman for CheapSeats.com. “Instead of opening up more seats for travelers, most programs are now offering magazine subscriptions, gift certificates or merchandise such as TV’s instead. I sometimes wonder if the TV sets they’re offering will last longer than the airlines themselves.”

 

Airline viability (and frequent-flier miles longevity) certainly worries some travelers, especially given the economic health of airlines like Northwest and Delta, which are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

 

Although Mr. Trippler suggests using your frequent-flier miles as soon as possible, he’s not overly concerned about programs or miles evaporating. “As long as the airline is in business,” he said, “they’ll have a frequent-flier program, since they actually make money on the program by selling the miles to banks, stores and other providers.”

 

Of course, to have the best shot at an award seat, the basics apply — plan your trips as early as possible. Most airlines open up frequent-flier seats about 330 days in advance, but even those can be difficult to obtain for resort destinations like Hawaii, the Caribbean or Europe. Check frequently for updated availability, since free seats can be opened up at any time. It’s also a good idea to check the airline’s Web site and sign up for their e-mail newsletter since they may run unannounced specials for certain routes or short-term promotions with reduced miles to particular destinations.

 

Alternatively, if you simply can’t book the flight to Hawaii or Europe in the summer, do what Mr. Jarrell did for a recent vacation to Latin America. “I often pick a time that I want to travel,” he said, “and then call the airline or use their frequent-flier Web sites to find out what’s open during that time and make a decision from there.”

 

Upgrades are another option. “I like to use my miles to obtain upgrades on international flights,” Mr. Jarrell said.

 

“If you look at the price difference between a business-class and economy ticket,” he said, “the value quotient is significant, so it’s a great use of miles.” For example, on United, an upgrade from a full-fare economy ticket to the next class of service on a flight to Europe costs just 15,000 miles. If you have lots of miles, another option is to use “rule buster” awards (typically they require double the number of miles) to book the flights you want and then keep checking back as you get closer to departure to see if regular award seats open up.

 

“Airlines do release award seats from inventory closer to departure,” Mr. Jones said. “For example, I almost guarantee that you can find a last-minute award seat to Europe tomorrow. So get the booking with a rule buster award, and then even if you have to pay a fee to cancel it and redeposit the miles into your account if a regular award opens up, you’ll be way ahead of the game.”

 

Of course, if you simply can’t make the time to take a trip or find a suitable destination, it might be worth it to investigate the redemption alternatives, like hotel vouchers or home electronics.

 

“Now is not the time to hoard miles on any airline,” said Mr. Trippler.

[travelingmcmahans]

Good article, thanks for posting it - I had read that the other day. I definitely take heed of their advice not to hoard miles! :) We keep using up our miles but seem to keep accumulating more (my husband travels a lot for work).

 

Yes, the price from L'ville was $1300, as from Cinci, the next closest airport.

 

I've looked at *so* many possible options, and if I had 100k miles each to spend, we could get much better flights. Unfortunately we only have 100k total, so we're stuck with SkySaver. This is the 4th time we've used miles in the last couple years, so we're getting used to the tricks and manuevering you have to do to get across the pond.

 

We actually kind of like looking at it as an adventure and a challenge. :) On our first crusie two years ago we redeemed miles for biz class and wanted to go in and out of Copenhagen. The best Delta could get us was into Frankfurt and out of Paris. We so we went by train (taking a couple days) to Copenhagen, seeing a bit of Germany along the way, and then spent 3 fabulous days in Paris after.

[Andym]

try http://www.whichbudget.com

[travelingmcmahans]

Thanks Andym - that was the first place I went - that's *such* a useful site!

 

Good news - and bless you cruisingerman, I called Delta again and literally just today they loaded seats on Alitalia from JFK to Rome and I got switched! :D

 

Now I just need to get waitlisted for my squirrely flights back ...

[Cruise Junky]

If you ever find yourself stuck in Budapest again ;) Easyjet flies out of there. You could get to Rome connecting through Geneva.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

The train sounds like the most attractive option to me, the least fatiguing, at least if you have a sleeper. The car the worst, because you will be tired and jetlagged. When does the ship leave? That makes a big difference--you seem to be implying that departure is quite early in the day??

[drwong]

Here's an article from last Sunday's New York Times that is right on point -- good luck in planning your trip. Gunther and Uta.

* * *

An indispensable source of up-to-date information on airlines and frequent-flier programs is specialized Web sites like www.flyertalk.com, which provide community bulletin boards for asking questions about individual programs, such as whether you can use Delta SkyMiles on a Virgin Atlantic flight. These sites can be great places to research alternative routes and airline-specific information that can help identify potential mileage redemption opportunities.

 

I've got a bone to pick with the editor of www.flyertalk.com. In their June 28th newletter, he advised a reader that Delta has one of the best mileage accumulation programs out there (due to their financial arrangement with American Express). While this may be true, this huge unexpended mile liability has resulted in SkyMiles passengers reporting all sorts of problems booking award trips, from capacity constraints on some flights to no SkySaver awards on others, even for flyers trying to book flights 331 days ahead!

 

Regarding FCO vs. Termini, you can take a train from Termini to Civitavecchia, and walk the 1/2 mile to the cruise ship from the station. Otherwise, you'll have to get from FCO to Termini via the Leonardo Express, which could add up to an hour to your ride to the port (since the "Express" runs only every half-hour).

[CruisinGerman]

I'm glad you got that first leg of the journey changed. Keep insisting on the phone with them for the second leg -- they'll find you something.

 

Anyway, I'm not too worried about you getting home, since after the cruise you planned to do a little touring around Europe anyway. You'll get home from someplace.......

 

I was mainly concerned about that excruciating adventure of getting there on the very day of the cruise -- too many airlines, cities, variables involved there which could have made it easier to miss the ship.

 

Keep me posted.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gunther and Uta

[LILynn]

I was just reading this thread and feeling sooooo sorry for you. I used to live in Cincy for 20 years and since that is a HUB for Delta tickets always seemed so high from that city.

 

We booked late for our upcoming trip and after we booked I called to get reservations and when I found out how much the tickets were I almost cancelled the cruise. Fortunately by wonderful brother gave me his points (eventually 100,000 each since there were no FF seats available) so that solved my problem. At first he was only going to give us 50,000 each and we thought maybe we would just pay for one and use the total of 100,000 to get at least one free ticket. Even though it would cost you more it will make your life a lot easier to fly direct to Rome rather than trying to get there from other European cities.

 

I'm not trying to tell you how to spend your money.... just a thought!

 

Lynn

[travelingmcmahans]

The lady I spoke with was very helpful and had lots of suggestions for waitlists for the flight back. Because we're spending a week in Provence after the cruise I figure we'll take the TGV to Paris and spend a night then fly out of CDG.

 

Right now we go CDG-JFK, change airports to LGA, then to Cinci, then finally to L'ville. I'm hopeful that over the next 10 months we can get a better routing than that.

[Queenk2]

Good luck...keep us posted on this saga.. I want to know the end reslt!

karen

[bigmjh]

In Europe ... fly like the locals do with EasyJet or Ryan Air. EXTREMELY cheap fares ... no frills ... and limited luggage allowances. But the locals fly all over Europe ... for holidays and weekend excursions ... most fares (including taxes) are under $100 and some as low as $25!

[redzin]

We had the same problem. I am finally done and booked but it was nerve racking experience. Delta had NOTHING except places like Budapest to fly into. I tried to book several days and stayed up till midnight when seats went on sale. Alitalia is a partner airline. They still have seats on many flights. They fly directly into Rome. We are confirmed on a round trip now for next July. Rona

[travelingmcmahans]

Good luck...keep us posted on this saga.. I want to know the end reslt!

karen

Luckily there is no more saga :) -- another agent got us booked through straight to Rome.

 

Re Ryanair et al ... they're great when you're traveling lightly, and I've bought tickets for a penny (plus tax) before but it's wise to determine whatyour excess luggage cost will be when flying them to a cruise!:eek: While I'm a big proponent of the low cost airlines, you also have to consider whether you can get a direct flight. If not, it's done as two separate tickets and you're in trouble if your first flight is delayed or canceled.