Airfare to Barcelona Spain and Med cruise price

[HELPDESKGUY]

Airfare around $1200 RT to Barcelona right now...

1. Anyone have advice on what a good RT ticket would cost from Northeast to Barcelona.

2. Did DCL run any cruise specials last time they went to the MED?

 

[Alexander]

Airfare to Barcelona is really high. The best I could find for us was $1,000 out of Toronto (about 4 hours away) and that was $250 less per person than flying from closer airports.

Last year the offered VGT bookings. I could have cruised for 10 nights for about $800 more than it would have cost to fly r/t. The cruise pricing was great, it was the flights that killed the deal.

 

[HELPDESKGUY]

Airfare to Barcelona is really high. The best I could find for us was $1,000 out of Toronto (about 4 hours away) and that was $250 less per person than flying from closer airports.

Last year the offered VGT bookings. I could have cruised for 10 nights for about $800 more than it would have cost to fly r/t. The cruise pricing was great, it was the flights that killed the deal.

The killer for us is the airfare for a family of 4 cost the same amount of a 7 day Caribbean cruise. We have time to think about it I guess considering it is not until next year. I'll keep an eye out on airfare.

Did they offer VGT after the 75 day booking period or was it well before?

 

[Warren W]

I agree with the above comments.

 

[mommy2tati]

The airfare priced us out of the Med cruises last year. It was costing us more to fly roundtrip than the actual cost of the cruise. We weren't even flying into Barcelona but into Paris a few days before the cruise.

 

[jel0511]

We did the Med in 2010, and paid about 1,000 per person for the airfare. I'm hoping for it to be around that again for next summer!

 

[designertravels]

We paid around 1,400.00 each last summer on Delta from Austin. I'm expecting the same for 2013. I hope the cruise prices decrease!

Jill

 

[Kewz1]

Have you checked kayak.com? We just bought RT tix for the UK and paid under $900.

Kristen

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

I watched the airfare for MONTHS last year and it did a slight dip at around 3 months out from $1200 to $1100 from Chicago to BCN. We jumped on it and I only saw it cheaper once. I checked every major city within a days drive of us and Chicago was by far the cheapest. This included Baltimore, DC, Atlanta, Philly etc. JFK would usually have a better deal as it was a direct flight, but not always. There were 7 of us, so $100 each added up quickly.

Use Kayak.com.

We ended up paying more for the airfare than the cruise b/c we got a military discount the week after final payment was due. So if they are going to offer any deals, I think it will be after final payments are due, which I think is 150 days out for 2013...is that right I read it was for the Alaska cruises so was thinking it would be the same for the Med. I'd like to know that.

Good luck!

 

[wilderness_gal]

Two years ago when we did the Med, we were able to snag $750 from Syracuse (small airport usually with higher prices than its larger counterparts in the area). Airfare seems much higher this summer, perhaps because of the Summer Olympics, perhaps not?

 

[Anal Annie]

Airfare around $1200 RT to Barcelona right now...

1. Anyone have advice on what a good RT ticket would cost from Northeast to Barcelona.

2. Did DCL run any cruise specials last time they went to the MED?

Realistically you can't judge pricing for 2013 based on 2012 pricing but you can use the ballpark numbers to budget. Airfare the past 12-18 months has gone sky high and I would say you're looking at the average you can expect to pay for summer flights. I heard of a couple people last summer who went direct to BCN from Philly on US Air for somewhere between $950-1,000 with no other cities tacked on. Did not hear good reviews on the US Air staff in Europe tho.

We went to Paris first for 4 nights before moving to Barcelona the day before our cruise. I priced it every which way (using Kayak.com, airfarewatchdog.com and farecompare.com). I priced it using Iceland Air with a 1 night stop in Iceland. I checked leaving from every major city on the east coast. I found booking a "multi city" itinerary was much cheaper than trying to book open jaw for what we wanted to do. After watching for months & months I finally decided if I found a price point of $1,200 I'd better grab it. One Saturday morning I got up & our itinerary had hit $1,173 so I booked it on the spot. Of course it was for the crappier flight times but....it was the price point I'd set. After a couple days it went back up about $50 then up to around $1,400 and eventually up to about $1,600!! I looked at first class for grins one time & it was running around $40,000!!!

 

[kcashner]

Last year DCL did not sell out their Med cruises. THey offered 20% off on onboard rebookings and Kids free on some dates.

Airfare in 2011 was almost double what I paid in 2010. Holding breath for 2013!

 

[NancyIL]

Realistically you can't judge pricing for 2013 based on 2012 pricing but you can use the ballpark numbers to budget. Airfare the past 12-18 months has gone sky high and I would say you're looking at the average you can expect to pay for summer flights. I heard of a couple people last summer who went direct to BCN from Philly on US Air for somewhere between $950-1,000 with no other cities tacked on. Did not hear good reviews on the US Air staff in Europe tho.

We went to Paris first for 4 nights before moving to Barcelona the day before our cruise. I priced it every which way (using Kayak.com, airfarewatchdog.com and farecompare.com). I priced it using Iceland Air with a 1 night stop in Iceland. I checked leaving from every major city on the east coast. I found booking a "multi city" itinerary was much cheaper than trying to book open jaw for what we wanted to do. After watching for months & months I finally decided if I found a price point of $1,200 I'd better grab it. One Saturday morning I got up & our itinerary had hit $1,173 so I booked it on the spot. Of course it was for the crappier flight times but....it was the price point I'd set. After a couple days it went back up about $50 then up to around $1,400 and eventually up to about $1,600!! I looked at first class for grins one time & it was running around $40,000!!!

I think what you mean is that multi-city was much cheaper than booking two one-way flights. Open-jaw flights are booked using the multi-city option on an airline website.

 

[lilpooh108]

Last year DCL did not sell out their Med cruises. THey offered 20% off on onboard rebookings and Kids free on some dates.

Airfare in 2011 was almost double what I paid in 2010. Holding breath for 2013!

Kcashner--I know you're a pro. I have a quick question and was wondering about KSF for the Med.

We have the OBB offer held on the June 1 sailing, 2 kids in the room. If KSF for Med comes out again, I know that the 2 discounts can't combine.

If I call Disney directly to apply the KSF (assuming one comes out), will I:
(1) retain my early booking discount (we booked on day 2); and
(2) retain the same room?

We didn't use a TA and would call DCL directly. I don't feel like putting down an extra deposit for a non OBB room just to anticipate a KSF offer. Thanks!

To the OP--sorry to hijack!

 

[NancyIL]

Kcashner--I know you're a pro. I have a quick question and was wondering about KSF for the Med.

We have the OBB offer held on the June 1 sailing, 2 kids in the room. If KSF for Med comes out again, I know that the 2 discounts can't combine.

If I call Disney directly to apply the KSF (assuming one comes out), will I:
(1) retain my early booking discount (we booked on day 2); and
(2) retain the same room?

We didn't use a TA and would call DCL directly. I don't feel like putting down an extra deposit for a non OBB room just to anticipate a KSF offer. Thanks!

To the OP--sorry to hijack!

I'm not kcashner, but you're right that you can't combine an onboard booking discount with a KSF promotion. The OBB has to remain attached to a specific cruise, so I'm pretty sure you'll need to move it to something else and pay new deposits for the KSF offer.

 

[kcashner]

Kcashner--I know you're a pro. I have a quick question and was wondering about KSF for the Med.

We have the OBB offer held on the June 1 sailing, 2 kids in the room. If KSF for Med comes out again, I know that the 2 discounts can't combine.

If I call Disney directly to apply the KSF (assuming one comes out), will I:
(1) retain my early booking discount (we booked on day 2); and
(2) retain the same room?

We didn't use a TA and would call DCL directly. I don't feel like putting down an extra deposit for a non OBB room just to anticipate a KSF offer. Thanks!

To the OP--sorry to hijack!

Most of the time, KSF is limited to "new bookings only." In that case you would have to rebook based on the prices as of that date--essentially you would lose the advantage of the day 2 booking. You CAN usually retain the same room and dining assignment. And, as you said, you will lose your OBC and discount from onboard booking.

If by some miracle it is not restricted to "new bookings," you would be able to add the kids to your cabin and keep your rate tier (but don't bet on this). We've seen all sorts of restrictions to KSF in the past, including only up to age 12 (this was not popular!), verandahs only, new bookings only, etc. They all end up being a great deal. Sometimes they are released before penalty dates, sometimes after.

 

[JUSTAND]

just a suggestion but would it be more economical to fly in London and then use one of the economy airline - easyject, monarch, bmibaby to fly onto barcelona - the typical are fare is around 100 gbp or 160 dollars return

 

[JUSTAND]

We are encountering a similar problem with a one way ticket to Houston for th galveston Sailing back to barcelona in May 2013 trying to convice my hubby that it makes more sense to do the TA both as and get a retun ticket with is cheaper than a one wa ticket - he is having none of it

 

[HELPDESKGUY]

Well we won't have any concrete idea on airfare for another 6-8 months. Kayak will not let you search into August 2013 yet.

I will say the airfare is very frustrating. I may look into the suggestion of flying into another euro city and taking train budget airline.

it is all a waiting game now.

We booked using a dummy booking we made aboard the Magic in November. I will say our cruise for a cat 5c 2 A 1C is less then 4 RT tickets to BCN!

 

[lilpooh108]

Most of the time, KSF is limited to "new bookings only." In that case you would have to rebook based on the prices as of that date--essentially you would lose the advantage of the day 2 booking. You CAN usually retain the same room and dining assignment. And, as you said, you will lose your OBC and discount from onboard booking.

If by some miracle it is not restricted to "new bookings," you would be able to add the kids to your cabin and keep your rate tier (but don't bet on this). We've seen all sorts of restrictions to KSF in the past, including only up to age 12 (this was not popular!), verandahs only, new bookings only, etc. They all end up being a great deal. Sometimes they are released before penalty dates, sometimes after.

Thanks and thanks to lbgraves for responding to my question.