Airfare? For Mediterranean cruise

[kaseyC]

Keep your eye out for sales. I like to check out Flyer Talk and the Cruise Air board on CC, many post their finds on those boards. Many of us on here and cruise critic took advantage of a British Airways Business class sale last October that also included a stackable AARP discount of $400 off each ticket. For our June Eastern Med cruise, we ended up with business class tickets from Chicago to Barcelona and Athens to Chicago for $1500 pp. It was less than most economy tickets at the time.

 

[abja09]

Keep your eye out for sales. I like to check out Flyer Talk and the Cruise Air board on CC, many post their finds on those boards. Many of us on here and cruise critic took advantage of a British Airways Business class sale last October that also included a stackable AARP discount of $400 off each ticket. For our June Eastern Med cruise, we ended up with business class tickets from Chicago to Barcelona and Athens to Chicago for $1500 pp. It was less than most economy tickets at the time.

Thanks! I have not checked out the cruise air board in CC. I will have a look. Hopefully I will find a good sale!

 

[mmouse37]

I had a hard time finding good fares for a one way to BCN for next month's Transatlantic cruise from BCN to NYC. I was getting one way fares of over $2500.00...it was crazy. Even roundtrip fares were super high as I booked the cruise very late (last month). I finally called DCL and asked about their airfare (which I never take) but their one-way was very reasonable at that late date. I also booked their ridiculously expensive Hilton Diagonal Hotel (sold out trying to book it on my own) but I was looking for complete convenience and the air/hotel includes all my transfers.

MJ

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Frankly, there is a whole science to airfares, but I'll give my 30 second answer...

If you're seeing in the range of $1,800 pp, that's what I've budgeted for BUSINESS class to Europe. There have been many sales run out of NYC both this year and last. For coach, I've even seen sub$500 pp fares lately. Best scenario is to not focus on only flying into BCN if you care more about cost savings vs. convenience. Do note, though, that I have in fact seen BCN included as a destination lately, too (British Air's sale last month comes to mind), so it's not unheard of.

Also, FYI, Google Floghts now let's you set up email alerts for fare changes.

Bottom line - it is WAY too soon to lock in flights for next year, unless you find an incredible fare.

How far in advance do you suggest booking? Also we can use SW points to fly to a larger hub and then purchase our flight to BCN separately. Any cities hat often have less exp Europe flight I should look into? We live in Nashville so I will watch flights out of here as well.

I had a hard time finding good fares for a one way to BCN for next month's Transatlantic cruise from BCN to NYC. I was getting one way fares of over $2500.00...it was crazy. Even roundtrip fares were super high as I booked the cruise very late (last month). I finally called DCL and asked about their airfare (which I never take) but their one-way was very reasonable at that late date. I also booked their ridiculously expensive Hilton Diagonal Hotel (sold out trying to book it on my own) but I was looking for complete convenience and the air/hotel includes all my transfers.

MJ

I was looking at that Hilton for 2017. What did dcl charge for it?

 

[Hubie]

I know it may be a little early but I have started to check airfare for our August 2017 Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona. The prices out of the NJ/NY area are about $600 more per person than I was planning. For budget purposes, when I decided to book the cruise in March, I priced out airfare from Newark or JFK to Barcelona and a direct flight was about $1200pp.
For those of you that have flown to Europe recently, how far in advance did you book your flights? Do I hold out hope that prices will drop?

We're heading back to Copenhagen on June 7, 2017 for the Baltic Cruise from ORD. I purchased tickets from Icelandair for $795 on July 17. The nice thing about it is we get to stop over in Iceland for 1 - 7 days, before or after we continue on to Europe on the same ticket. We chose to stop over for 3 days after our cruise.

 

[sayhello]

How far in advance do you suggest booking? Also we can use SW points to fly to a larger hub and then purchase our flight to BCN separately. Any cities hat often have less exp Europe flight I should look into? We live in Nashville so I will watch flights out of here as well.

The biggest downside with that is, SW does not partner with any airlines. So you'll need to collect your bags at baggage claim at the larger hub airport, and then go through checkin and security again for the flight to BCN. So you'll need to leave yourself a TON of time between flights. Because if you miss your flight because SW is running late, or you're stuck in security, the airline may or may not help you rebook.

We're heading back to Copenhagen on June 7, 2017 for the Baltic Cruise from ORD. I purchased tickets from Icelandair for $795 on July 17. The nice thing about it is we get to stop over in Iceland for 1 - 7 days, before or after we continue on to Europe on the same ticket. We chose to stop over for 3 days after our cruise.

I did the Icelandair stopover on my way back from London last summer. It worked wonderfully, and you will LOVE Iceland!!

Sayhello

 

[cheermom2four]

We booked the Med cruise for this September in June.

I'd be happy with those prices. Wasnt sure if the 2nd week in sept was still considered a prime time to fly over there. We are booked sept 9th 2017 which is the last cruise before the Magic does the TA again and really hoping those dates wont have the "summer" price tag

 

[disneymagicgirl]

The biggest downside with that is, SW does not partner with any airlines. So you'll need to collect your bags at baggage claim at the larger hub airport, and then go through checkin and security again for the flight to BCN. So you'll need to leave yourself a TON of time between flights. Because if you miss your flight because SW is running late, or you're stuck in security, the airline may or may not help you rebook.

Sayhello

Good point. Will make sure to keep in mind when selecting flight days and times.

 

[Hubie]

Prices in Iceland are a shock, but it was well worth stopping there for a short time on our way home. We purchased in advance the Golden Circle Tour with the stop at the Secret Lagoon from Viator. I highly recommend this tour as the secret lagoon is a nice surprise with good facilities. We stayed in the Hotel Centrum which I can highly recommend also. Below is stop at Gullfoss Falls (Gold Falls), the secret lagoon and a picture of the Hotel Centurm.

 

[ksack]

We are going in 2019 for DD's graduation... While there we are spending a few days in Paris at DLP... We are still debating if we want ti fly to Barcelona and then fly home from Paris or do we fly Barcelona to Barcelona with a separate flight to Paris in there... I hope to use sites like Hipmunk and such to price things out..