Getting to Lisbon

[curiousx]

Hi there - all you experienced transatlantic fliers out there, my family would appreciate your advice.

 

We are (tentatively) on a transatlantic crossing in November 2009 leaving from Lisbon and arriving in Fort Lauderdale.

 

In your opinion, what would be our best option for getting to Lisbon from central Canada (Ottawa)?

 

Many thanks

 

p.s. thanks to Stabilizer for alerting me to this board.

 

p.p.s. BTW, Air Canada's website quotes $5-6 per person flying AC Ottawa/Toronto to Frankfurt and then via Lufthansa to Lisbon. Even I can figure out that AC to London and then TAP or BA to Lisbon is a better idea!

[curiousx]

er - that's $5-6K, not $5-6. Sorry

[ab0si]

Take a look at Aer Lingus. They are one of the few airlines selling one way trans-atlantic at half the price of of a round trip. You will need to get to one of their North American portals (most likely Boston for you but perhaps JFK). From the portal in North America you will fly to Dublin and from there to Lisbon.

[ninkb]

From the states, we flew to Newark (New York metropolitan area) where we boarded TAP and had wonderful service to Lisbon.

 

The price was good, the plane was only 1/2 full, and the staff was great. I was concerned when we couldn't select seats until check-in (and that even meant that we had to wait until Newark and not our first airport check in) but it all worked out beautifully.

 

Our transatlantic back to FLL was awesome. Hoping you can work it out and enjoy the cruise and ports as much as we did.

 

:):):) ninkb

[curiousx]

Great Information folks.

 

Dublin is a place my partner has always wanted to go to and Newark is an easy hop for us.

 

I'll check these out.

[iancal]

I am not certain how independent of a traveller you are but with 4 people this might work. Luggage may be an issue..ok for us as we a light travellers. First of all, you can get one way fares to Gatwick, Manchester etc from Ottawa/Montreal fairly easily. And prices should be very good in November. Probably 400-700 max each per ticket including taxes. Exitnow (transat), redtagdotca, etc will list options for you. From London, consider booking a cheap flight on Easyjet or Ryanair. The big gotcha on this is luggage allowances. If you book well in advance, this part of the trip will be inexepensive. You could save enough money to enjoy a few days in London. Other option is travel from the US as discussed above. You may also want to try cruise line air. I understand that they are well priced on open jaw transatlantic flights.

[curiousx]

Thanks iancal, I'll check this out.

 

1. Do you know what airport(s) Ryan Air/Easy Jet use for departures to Lisbon? I understand that Ryan Air's terminals, in particular, can be difficult to get to?

 

2. We are very independent travellers but - as our cruise is with Seabourn - we will probably need the full luggage allowance. Sigh.

 

3. So far, I haven't had much luck using airline websites or travel search engines to find reasonably priced one way fares to London out of Ottawa. We might have to leave this up to the TA. In fact the one way prices quoted are higher than the RT. Go figger!

 

4. Likewise, the airline websites are giving me crazy prices for open jaws (Ottawa-Lisbon/Fort Lauderdale-Ottawa), even when I use the multi-cities option. Another job for the TA.

 

5. It's early days yet but the best options so far appear to be:

 

a) Aer Lingus from New York to Dublin and then Aer Lingus to Lisbon. I understand that International luggage allowances will be respected provide we book both flights on the same ticket.

 

b) TAP from Newark to Lisbon direct

 

6. A consideration for us would be the opportunity to use or earn Aeroplan points. Aer Lingus is a member of Star Alliance so that could be a plus for this option.

 

7. We haven't yet heard what the cruiseair rates are - They can be good but the routing is a crapshoot.

 

Thanks all

[ab0si]

It isn't rally an "open jaw." To qualify for that, consider the three legs (flight out, cruise, flight back) to b the three sides of a triangle. The non-flight leg needs to be the shortest leg.

[curiousx]

It isn't rally an "open jaw." To qualify for that, consider the three legs (flight out, cruise, flight back) to b the three sides of a triangle. The non-flight leg needs to be the shortest leg.

 

lol - how do they come up with this stuff?? Thanks!

[banditcat]

Do try the Seabourn cruise air option. We have gone through them twice and found that there air options are very doable. We are in a 2nd tier city and found that Seabourn air was cheaper than many of the consolidators, etc.

 

Hannah

[iancal]

Easyjet flys out of Stanstead and Gatwick. Probably the same for Ryanair. Gatwick is handy since many transatlantic flights also land there AND there is a direct train service to London -Victoria Station. I am not sure how to get to Stanstead as I have never been there. Air fare should be about 35-45 GBP.

[FlyerTalker]

lol - how do they come up with this stuff?? Thanks!

 

That's the way the fare rules are written. There are a number of tools out there (including Flying Fish mileage calculator) that will give you distances between cities. Open jaw requires that the open segment be the shortest...otherwise you are purchasing two one-way fares.

[curiousx]

Just thought I'd let you know that we got the Seabourn cruiseair quote yesterday. For the North America-Lisbon leg, Seabourn's price is close to three times the rate of the Aer Lingus alternative suggested by ab0si (thanks for this!).

 

We are still looking into an alternative using points...obtaining a return ticket with the 'return' half way off in the future and out of a European hub (say, Paris). For our next trip to Europe, we would buy a one-way charter ticket going over and use the remaining half of the points ticket from Paris for the trip home. Our TA confirms this is doable if the points seats are available.

[curiousx]

Aer Lingus doesn't take one way reservations over the internet. The TA has to phone. The economy fare from NYC to Lisbon with a Dublin stopover is about $400US. The stopover can be up to 14 days but we are staying less than the maximum. The rules on luggage have changed as of July 15 2009. In economy, the luggage allowance is 23kg with extra bags charged at $50US each. The TA was told that the extra bag fee only has to be paid once (in other words, it is good for both legs of the stopover).

 

Thanks to abosi and others for their great advice

[new salt]

Curiousx, I think you are a little off track. I have just booked Dub -NYC one way for April 2010 with Aer Lingus with no problems, albeit from Europe.

 

Rgds

 

New Salt

[curiousx]

Hey New Salt - glad it worked for you. It didn't from my country - I tried and so did the TA. Perhaps your European location makes the difference.