Air to Venice from Canada

[Adventures ahead]

Hi,

 

I also posted these questions on the Ruby Princess roll call but maybe they belong here.

 

We are booked on the Greek Isles cruise on June 9.

 

I know that passengers will overnight on the ship the day before sailing. Has anyone booked Princess Air if flying to Venice and staying in a hotel a day sooner than that? (I know about deviations.)

 

If other Canadians are booked for this cruise, when do you plan to look for flights if not buying Princess Air?

 

We live in Halifax and our quote from Princess lists Montreal as the departure city and will probably use AirMiles to get there.

[Twickenham]

First of all, I find it a bit ridiculous to have Montreal as your departure city for Princess Air when you're in Halifax... To me, one of the points of cruise air is convenience, and this seems to negate that advantage!

 

I would do some major league shopping around before I booked cruise line air. It's entirely possible that it will end up being the best deal, but I would want to make sure.

 

I don't have any personal experience flying to Venice, but I would check available flights on a major travel booking site, to give you a general idea of who flies the route and of pricing. Be flexible in routing and departure/arrival cities - try flying to Rome, for instance, and price either a cheap flight or the train to Venice. Look also at going through the US - I did this on my most recent flight to London, and I saved over $200 compared to flying straight from Mtl or TO.

[DanJ]

I agree that having to get to Montreal for cruise air is ridiculous. I would look at flying to London, and you can get almost anywhere from there. Even if it costs more than the cruise air plus the cost to get to Montreal, convenience is still worth a lot. It might take a bit of research since the main airlines to look at (Air Canada, Lufthansa and Alitalia) don't make it easy to get from Halifax to Venice. Their online booking engines all want to send you to Montreal or Toronto first. But Air Canada flies non-stop from Halifax to London, and I'm sure that you should be able to get to Venice from there on an alliance partner. Greatam and Flyertalker can probably really help out with this.

 

You should also be aware you will be spending a night on the plane. So if you want to spend a night in Venice prior to boarding the cruise on the 8th, you would be leaving Halifax on the 6th for an arrival in Venice on the 7th. If it turns out that going direct to Europe from Halifax isn't going to work out, I would look at a US airline, with a connection in New York. It will almost surely be cheaper than Air Canada through Montreal or Toronto. I know Continental flies from Halifax, but I would bet that Delta or United does as well.

[LHT28]

You could look at the Delta flights YHZ-JFK-VCE but long layover in JFK

Or AC from YHZ-LHR-VCE (short connection)

You don't have many choices.

another option is to fly in a few days early to LHR, Zurich or another city & spend some time there then fly on to VCE

I would fly in a day or more earlier to enjoy Venice & get over the jet lag

We are flying KLM from Toronto via AMS but better offerings out of YYZ

[Twickenham]

I just did some roaming on the gnome site. Did a dummy booking for your cruise. The rate they gave for Princess air from Montreal was $1733 per person. Booking air independantly on the same site from Halifax costs under $1200.

Definitely research more before you book.

[Adventures ahead]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

Princess had quoted $1659 Cdn from Montreal, before they adjusted their quotes on the cruise to the higher Cdn dollar from when we booked the cruise. My TA hasn't contacted Princess yet (she's on a cruise!) but I expect that the air has increased as well to reflect the drop in our dollar.

 

Since the cruise returns from Rome, it may be a good idea to get a round-trip Rome flight and take a train to Venice as I hadn't thought of that. We did a land tour that included Rome and Venice several years ago so planned just to go to Venice one day sooner than embarkation to be safe and sound (jet lag).

 

Twickenham,

What airline/route did you find?

[LHT28]

You could also check some of the charter flights like Air Transat & Skyservice

You can fly into VCE & out of FCO

[Twickenham]

Twickenham,

What airline/route did you find?

 

I think the other day, the cheapest I was getting was with Swiss, going through Mtl and Zurich. Today the cheapest I'm getting - $1159 - is with Air Canada to Toronto and Air France to Paris and Venice; however, that routing used 2 of my most detested airports, Pearson and Charles-de-Gaulle, so I would personally pay slightly more (today coming up at $1236) for the Swiss option.

Also consider the flying to a gateway city (London or Paris) and taking a discount airline option.

[Adventures ahead]

Has anyone else investigated this lately?

[paulred]

By far the cheapest way to Venice is through London. The question is price vs convenience.

 

Air Transat flies direct from Halifax to London Gatwick for about $350CDN each way. The bad news is it only has Tuesday and Thursday flights, so you would have to leave early. Mind you, the savings could pay for a day in London or Venice.

 

London to Venice can be done on a number of European airlines. Even BA is competitive when they have to be. You can just transit through Gatwick, or, if staying in London, book a cheap flight from any other London area airport.

 

On the other hand, Cruise air includes transfer, so It may be a decent deal

 

Paul

[mehartys]

Hi,

Just booked with Alba Tours direct from Toronto to Rome and return for July 09 with Skyservice. Adult fare $1049, Youth 15 years and under 919.00 + tax. After January 6, 09 the fare increases by $300.00 per person. You can check out Porter Air for a flight from Halifax to Toronto Island Airport, they are pretty reasonable. Hope this helps. You can book online via Alba Tours and pay the fare in full now, or over the phone and put down a deposit with the rest due about 7 weeks prior to departure. Hope this helps

[DanJ]

Any potential savings by booking Porter from Halifax to Toronto City Center would be more than offset by the cost of having to get from downtown out to Pearson. Not to mention the need to checkin again at Pearson, and the large amount of time one would need to allow between arriving at TCCA and departing YYZ.

[iancal]

If you live in Halifax and Princess air want to route you thru Montreal then my recommendation is that it is high time to make your own reservations. Don't depend on these dunderheads. The reason that you are being routed this way is very straightforward. Princess, and other cruise lines, buy what are called consolidator tickets...the cheapest tickets going with very little or no flexibility. They are trying to route you at the LEAST cost to them but your cost will remain the same. Do it yourself. Heathow is an awful airport and the taxes that they include in the ticket price are high. I would try for a direct flight for Boston Logan or some other US city that is linked directly to Halifax.