Need some help for booking air on Med Cruise next year

[H2Otstr]

I am taking a Med cruise next year, May 27 to June 8, 2010; Barcelona round trip. I want to go to Barcelona a couple days early and depart the day after the cruise. There are at least 12 from our neighborhood going. So any info I can pass to them would be helpful.

 

I can leave from Wilmington, NC, Myrle Beach, SC, or I can drive from 3 to 6 hours to Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, or Dulles.

 

Is there a site where I can watch airfares to get a good deal w/o looking every day? I talked to a TA and she indicated that around $800 round trip would be a good deal.

 

Thanks,

Sharon

[quanmama]

I am taking a Med cruise next year, May 27 to June 8, 2010; Barcelona round trip. I want to go to Barcelona a couple days early and depart the day after the cruise. There are at least 12 from our neighborhood going. So any info I can pass to them would be helpful.

 

I can leave from Wilmington, NC, Myrle Beach, SC, or I can drive from 3 to 6 hours to Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, or Dulles.

 

Is there a site where I can watch airfares to get a good deal w/o looking every day? I talked to a TA and she indicated that around $800 round trip would be a good deal.

 

Thanks,

Sharon

 

My friend and I have another thread for the same concern. Our Med cruise will be from June 8 thru June 20. Which ship are you going to be on? Ours is Brilliance of the

Seas. Since your trip is right before summer vacation starts, it will likely be a bit cheaper. I know Delta flies nonstop from Atlanta to Barcelona and now the fare is around $1125 if you fly out on May 24 and return on June 8. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the fare will drop!

[H2Otstr]

We are also on BOTS, same ship.

[parody]

Is there a site where I can watch airfares to get a good deal w/o looking every day?

 

Yes. Yapta.com will track fares on SPECIFIC flights and let you know by email if fares decrease to a level that you pre-specify. They will do this for all domestic flights and most (but not all) international flights. Start by reading about their free service at http://www.yapta.com/faq/content/5/10/en/airlines-tracked-by-yapta.html

[vivian02]

Sharon,

Sounds like the travel agent is in the correct ball park figure. I would start monitoring flights on Kayak Travel and see what price drops occure before October. Usually you will see price drops between the first of September and October for flight in May or June of 2010. That June 8th day can be tricky since that is within the time frame of "European Summer travel". Also consider what stop overs will occure when traveling to Barcelona. Direct flights into Barcelona are nice but are limited. Stop overs in Paris or London can be touchy if you don't have enough time between flights. Those one hour lay overs can be stressful. Also consider the type of plane you are flying on. 757's over the atlantic can be really tight quarters. 767's are OK, 777's or 747's are much better. 330 and 340 AirBus's are alright. I hate to say this but avoid Iberia Air if possible. This airline is famos for "No Customer Service". If you should find a deal flying through Frankfurt with an hour and a half layover that would work. Flying through Munich would even work better. This is my advice and I hope you find that $800 flight. Just keep looking over the next six weeks. Tim

[SAN]

Great information for us that are flying to Europe next year for our Med. cruises. Our cruise begins and ends in Venice and I'm finding it more difficult to fly in and out of that city than Milan or Rome. After the cruise I may take the train to Milan and fly out of that city. We will all just wait and see when the fares go down.

[FlyerTalker]

Fewer flights in/out of VCE when compared with Rome (FCO) or Milan (MXP). Supply/demand at work....less supply, especially when coupled with high demand on "cruise day"

 

One thing to consider: Non-stops from the USA to VCE are in high demand, as many people don't want to make a connection in Europe (which makes little sense to me, but so be it). Be sure to be checking various routings and not just those that are non-stop TATL into VCE.

[55J5-5]

I will be looking for flights for Aug 2010 from Boston to Rome then Venice back to Boston. Are there other airports I might want to consider in Europe that is near either city? What would a good ballpark be for price?

 

I am seeing flights going through London and Amsterdam. Do either of these require going through customs again? I'm thinking a 3hr layover would be enough. non-stop would be wonderful but probably out of my price range.

 

Thanks for all your help.

[twoputt.plusone]

I will be looking for flights for Aug 2010 from Boston to Rome then Venice back to Boston. Are there other airports I might want to consider in Europe that is near either city? What would a good ballpark be for price?

 

I am seeing flights going through London and Amsterdam. Do either of these require going through customs again? I'm thinking a 3hr layover would be enough. non-stop would be wonderful but probably out of my price range.

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

I don't know about London but if you're connecting through AMS and not changing airlines, you'll only need to go through passport control and security - not customs. Even so, the lines can be very long. Make sure you allow lots of time to make your connecting flight. Other than that, it's an easy but large airport to navigate. Be prepared to walk.

 

2P.P1

[scottbee]

I will be looking for flights for Aug 2010 from Boston to Rome then Venice back to Boston. Are there other airports I might want to consider in Europe that is near either city? What would a good ballpark be for price?

 

I am seeing flights going through London and Amsterdam. Do either of these require going through customs again? I'm thinking a 3hr layover would be enough. non-stop would be wonderful but probably out of my price range.

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

Take the flights through Amsterdam, it's an easy airport to navigate through, and is just one (enourmous) terminal, rather than LHR's five.

 

As for alternate airports;

 

MXP/Milan is 250km west of Venice, fairly quick by train.

 

PSA/Pisa is about 200km north of Civitavecchia (cruises don't go from land-locked Rome...), about 2hrs by train (vs 1hr from Rome anyway).

[Globaliser]

I am seeing flights going through London and Amsterdam. Do either of these require going through customs again? I'm thinking a 3hr layover would be enough.

At London Heathrow, you don't even need to clear immigration for your connections; only security. Three hours would definitely be enough for any connection within Heathrow.

Take the flights through Amsterdam, it's an easy airport to navigate through, and is just one (enourmous) terminal, rather than LHR's five.

I think that one would need to be more specific about navigating through Heathrow. It depends on the connection that you're thinking about.

 

For example, most British Airways-British Airways connections at Heathrow are entirely inside Terminal 5, which is no more difficult to deal with than Amsterdam and where the baggage performance is definitely better (although Amsterdam seems to have improved a bit recently).

 

The bigger problem is thin schedules between Venice and Heathrow, which can make connections difficult. And if you can't get a workable Venice-Heathrow flight, it's a bit of pain trying to connect in London if you have to change airports from Gatwick to Heathrow.