Airfare?

[Twomalamutes]

For those of you that have cruised Antarctica, how did you book your airfare? We will be leaving the United States out of either Detroit or Chicago.

Did you use the Cruise Air option or did you book it independently? And if I might ask, what was the cost? I just looked into booking it independently and the price was outrageous! Any tips would be appreciated!

We are hoping to book for Feb 2010~

Thanks.

[Jade13]

For those of you that have cruised Antarctica, how did you book your airfare? We will be leaving the United States out of either Detroit or Chicago.

Did you use the Cruise Air option or did you book it independently? And if I might ask, what was the cost? I just looked into booking it independently and the price was outrageous! Any tips would be appreciated!

We are hoping to book for Feb 2010~

Thanks.

 

Independant to BA. where are you going?

[Twomalamutes]

It is a roundtrip out of Buenos Aires.

[Nonna and Papa]

We'll be sailing out of Buenos Aires also next February, so we will also be looking to book our own air. Not that it is of any help, but last month, all sorts of price specials were advertized from Miami (I think) to BA for less than $500 RT. As I said, it was too early for us to book for next year, but also too late an offer to take advantage of, if I was traveling this year. But since we've now passed the one year mark, in another month or so, flights will be opening up and I'll keep my eyes open for any advertised specials.

 

Subscribe to the travel search engines such as Sidestep, Gate One, and Travel Zoo, to name a few. You'll receive emails notifying you of the specials.

 

Mary

[Jade13]

It is a roundtrip out of Buenos Aires.

 

We took Delta there as it had the earliest arrival from Atlanta at 7:45am, but we took Continental through houston home. Houston was the easiest airport we have ever been in to navigate through customs and immigration.

[diebroke]

We booked independently, flew United from Denver to BA & return via Dulles airport in December, 2007, and paid about $1,500 each. My choice was based on a plan to upgrade to business class. We were the only 2 people upgraded from Dulles to BA & nobody was upgraded from BA back to Dulles including me. I always get an upgrade because of my frequent flyer status on UA but they told me that business class was selling out with full fare tickets so very few people get upgraded.

Times have changed. I am finding tickets are dropping in price to most places (haven't looked at South America for a while) and upgrades are easier.

I would use one of the fare tracker web services & wait until 6 months or so before my flight. It used to pay to book early. That hasn't been my experience lately.

[thoms42]

Hi,

 

We booked our flights as part of our cruise on Hurtigruten's MV Fram, through CruiseNorway.com in NY. The international portion MIA-BUE-MIA on Lan, was broken out at $1144 pp and the internal Argentine portion, BUE-USH-BUE was included with the cruise price. Our flight left MIA on January 21, 2009. Lan turned out to be a great choice with on-time departures, good service and food and no hassles.

[abbydancer2003]

We booked independently, flew United from Denver to BA & return via Dulles airport in December, 2007, and paid about $1,500 each. My choice was based on a plan to upgrade to business class. We were the only 2 people upgraded from Dulles to BA & nobody was upgraded from BA back to Dulles including me. I always get an upgrade because of my frequent flyer status on UA but they told me that business class was selling out with full fare tickets so very few people get upgraded.

Times have changed. I am finding tickets are dropping in price to most places (haven't looked at South America for a while) and upgrades are easier.

I would use one of the fare tracker web services & wait until 6 months or so before my flight. It used to pay to book early. That hasn't been my experience lately.

 

We're going in February 2010 and just paid a lot, over 2000.00 each, for the same reason - the Business class upgrade on United. (Only select higher fares are eligible for upgrade). We booked the day after the return trip opened up. We were able to secure one business class seat on all legs, but the second is waitlisted (except for Dulles to SF on the return). I put my husband in the guaranteed seat because, as a Premiere member, I'm more likely to get off the waitlist. If I don't we'll split the upgrade - one in the seat each way.

 

If eligible fares go down, we'll get the difference back.

 

How far in advance did you book? I'm hoping they'll release another seat before too many people book.

[diebroke]

How far in advance did you book? I'm hoping they'll release another seat before too many people book.

 

My trip was a bit of a last minute decision. I booked about 3 months in advance & used (or tried to use) system-wide upgrade certificates which allowed me to purchase cheaper tickets & still be eligible for an upgrade.

If the economy is still in the tank when you go, I predict you'll get the upgrade. Based on my recent experience to Australia & Europe, upgrades are easier now than they were a year ago as fewer people are buying business class tickets.