Airfare for 2013 Med cruises

[deanimal]

We're currently planning a Med cruise for summer of 2014 and I'm trying to figure out what to budget for airfare and when would be the best time to book. Has anyone booked their summer 2013 air to Europe yet? What sort of prices are you seeing?

 

[Billybob7]

$1300 round trip per person from JFK to Barcelona in June.

 

[disneyholic family]

look at kayak.com to get an idea

 

[DisneyOHFan]

We ended up using points, but for the past year, the airfare has ranged from $1380 - $1500/pp.

 

[lilpooh108]

It was $850 from LA back in August if you were willing to fly Aeroflot. We weren't

 

[holula]

My friend did July/August 2012 to LHR from LAX and it was around $1300 on Virgin Atlantic

 

[Sox1N04]

I set up an airfare notification at www.kayak.com. The flight had been running about $1100 to $1300 roundtrip Boston to Barcelona. I opened my email one morning in November and had a notification that it had dropped to $785!! I jumped right on it and scored a really good price from American Airlines.

 

[DL1957]

I agree with op suggesting Kayak. We booked in September at got $1,500 from VA via Alanta to Barcelona on Delta. Since we have booked it went as high as $2,500 and when I looked last week it was $2,000. If you don't mind more stops the price is less. You can also check with DCL just to see what they are charging.
Sue

 

[canadakath]

Managed to get $950/person flying Toronto-BCN through Paris (and now I get to add 4 days in Paris to the trip - heaven!) - also by checking kayak.com. Purchased just under 6 months out.

 

[LyndaC]

I'm flying SFO to LHR, spending 3 nights there, then LHR to BCN, cruise, then 3 nights in BCN before flying home BCN, LHR SFO. ended up costing $4000 for the two of us on British Airways. Flying non stop.

Could have done it a bit cheaper, but I certainly didn't want the hassles of hop, skipping and jumping my way there.

Fortunately for me, I had enough BA points to get my pre and post cruise nights for free. Not fancy, but at least free.

 

[scubadiver]

We booked air in Sept 12 for June 13 for $1312 per person on British Air.

 

[kventventx]

We booked British Airways from San Diego to London for a week and then a hop to BCN the day the cruise departs. $1795

 

[WDW Princess 71]

$1366 pp from Philly to BCN this July nonstop USAirways, returning nonstop also on USAir Paris to Philly. Would have only been $1090 pp if we did roundtrip from BCN but we wanted to do Disneyland Paris post cruise. Bought our tickets last September; the price now is about $100 more pp.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We started watching the filght we wanted from before the time we wanted to book and just kept sliding the dates until we were within the booking timeframe - it's mostly 330 days in advance of your return date. We could see how the prices held steady and/or if they dropped any before we could book so we'd know if we were getting a good deal or just not gouged.

Our flight is ATL to BCN direct, and it's held around $1,450. We bought in September and in true bad-ganbling form, I kept watching - but (thankfully for me) the price didn't vary much since then.

While the actual fare is a huge consideration, for us the flight schedules are as important, especially for a big trip like this one. We could fly cheaper if we connected, but we would rather get on one plane and go - minimizes risk of lost luggage, etc.

But fare watching can definitely save you money -watch for patterns in sales, and set up alerts. We went to Salt Lake City last summer from ATL for $167/person while our friends went a week later than us and paid $500 each. We had a connection but good flight times - just happened to check on the day it was low. Best "steal of a deal" we've had.

 

[Corwin]

I just booked our flights for our August 2013 Med cruise.

We're flying from JFK to BCN (arriving the day before the cruise departs), cruising, then flying from BCN to Paris, spending three days there, then flying home.

I checked out Kayak.com last night, and quickly found non-stop flights on Air France at perfect dates/times for us for $1,475/pp, which is within our rough budget.

Our flight would have been about $150/pp cheaper without the Paris stopover, and the flights with multiple stops were about $100-$200/pp cheaper still.