Airfare for transatlantic cruise

[okwMomOf4]

For anyone who has done the transatlantic cruise, how did you book your airfare? One way airfare to/from Barcelona is more than the cost of the cruise and seems to be almost double the price of round trip. Is it possible to book round trip, but just fly one way? Is there a better way to get a lower price?

 

[NancyIL]

If you book a roundtrip with the intention of "throwing away" the other half, the airlines warn against doing this. Whether you'll get caught is probably unlikely, but I don't think I would do it. Instead try checking multi-city fares from your home to FL and Barcelona to your home (or the reverse).

 

[gismo1554]

Also if you are doing a return and only using one leg you have to make sure the first leg is the leg that you intend to use.

I managed to get a good deal using flying club miles, which is a good option if you have any!

 

[kcashner]

What I did....booked the cruise with DCL air, knowing that I could cancel the air if I found a better deal on my own. For 2010, I found a better deal; saved several hundred dollars. I've done the same thing for 2011, although interestingly the DCL rates were lower for 2011 than for 2010!

 

[rocknspots]

I booked our airfare this way. Being from California ended up being the best deal I could find: round trip from Orlando/Sacramento was $600. I booked our one way from Orlando to Barcelona with wholesale-flights.com and got it for $1200 Total for 2 was around $1800! That's less than I was quoted for 2 one way tix to Barcelona! Hope this helps.

 

[MissMet]

I booked one way with air france to Dublin $400 (it's really delta, but it was cheaper going through air france than delta & it's the same flight!) then booked dublin to barcelona with aer lingus, another $200. So $600 each. That's what we paid to get to hawaii a few years ago so I was fine with that price.

 

[stlkeeler]

What I did....booked the cruise with DCL air, knowing that I could cancel the air if I found a better deal on my own. For 2010, I found a better deal; saved several hundred dollars. I've done the same thing for 2011, although interestingly the DCL rates were lower for 2011 than for 2010![/QUOTE]

Kathryn, which one are you doing for 2011? Or are you going on both again? DCL airfare for the EBTA is almost $900 cheaper than the WBTA (for me, at least). This years and next years EB airfare are about the same. I am booked on the 2011 WBTA and I passed on DCL air this time. I sure hope I can find something cheaper than $1800 by the time PIF date comes around or I might have to cancel. Since DU doesn't do air anymore, I'll be SOL!

 

[okwMomOf4]

I was afraid there might be a problem with booking round trip and just flying back.

I will try wholesale-flights.com and air france when the dates open up.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[HallsofVA]

For the WBTA, in 2007 someone posted that fares were lowest 8 months out. For the WBTA this year, I started tracking fares when they were first released, with the intention of buying around the 8 month mark, which was January. Sure enough, US Air held a short fare sale with one way fares around $400 (ours was $401 each including tax, from DC - Philly - BCN). Much cheaper than we'd been seeing, and even cheaper than the consolidators.

 

[Dizneyholic]

We booked in Jan as well and got a one way flight from LAX-BCN for $535!!
Which is a great deal!
I used kayak.com and flycheapabroad.com to check prices every week until I decided to buy in Jan.

 

[kcashner]

What I did....booked the cruise with DCL air, knowing that I could cancel the air if I found a better deal on my own. For 2010, I found a better deal; saved several hundred dollars. I've done the same thing for 2011, although interestingly the DCL rates were lower for 2011 than for 2010![/QUOTE]

Kathryn, which one are you doing for 2011? Or are you going on both again? DCL airfare for the EBTA is almost $900 cheaper than the WBTA (for me, at least). This years and next years EB airfare are about the same. I am booked on the 2011 WBTA and I passed on DCL air this time. I sure hope I can find something cheaper than $1800 by the time PIF date comes around or I might have to cancel. Since DU doesn't do air anymore, I'll be SOL!

I'm doing the EBTA in 2011 with DD. The air thru DCL (including the trip to MCO and transfers) was $930. In 2010, it was over $1000. I might still find a better deal, but I'm not flying from an A level airport, so....maybe not.

And I use a travel agent who does book air--she got me a better deal for 2010 than the best I found on line. Not my much, but she did beat the best I could do on my own. I don't really like giving DCL control of my air, but for 2011 we don't have time to do WDW in advance, etc. so it's probably OK. My biggest issue is that they won't let me fly in the night before and do a DVC stay; have to do a hotel booked thru them or pay for the air deviation. I'll look when the time comes.....

 

[TChrist05]

My DW and I are sailing on the WB Transatlantic cruise in September. We are using DCL air. It is the first time we have done this. We will be flying out of JFK on Friday night on the red eye. We have called DCL to find out when we will be assigned our flights and they that we will probably be assigned sometime in July. Their is a Delta flight that is non-stop and leaves at 5:40 in the evening. We are hoping that we get that flight since it is non-stop and we will get into Barcelona at about 8 in the morning. When I questioned the DCL rep she said that they generally use Delta out of NY so we are so hoping we get that flight....and now we have to wonder what our return flight back to NY from MCO will be.

 

[Candy Apple]

My DW and I are sailing on the WB Transatlantic cruise in September. We are using DCL air. It is the first time we have done this. We will be flying out of JFK on Friday night on the red eye. We have called DCL to find out when we will be assigned our flights and they that we will probably be assigned sometime in July. Their is a Delta flight that is non-stop and leaves at 5:40 in the evening. We are hoping that we get that flight since it is non-stop and we will get into Barcelona at about 8 in the morning. When I questioned the DCL rep she said that they generally use Delta out of NY so we are so hoping we get that flight....and now we have to wonder what our return flight back to NY from MCO will be.

Thanks for this info. We are using DCL air and have been wondering about our flight info. We live in Indiana, so no non-stop for us, but Delta does have a flight out of Indy connecting to that 5:40 flight, so maybe we'll be on that with you! I've just been worried about them giving us 3 flight segments . We went with DCL air because we got a good deal and we don't have to worry about making transatlantic flight re-arrangements if anything goes wrong. We'll just let DCL deal with it. When we've done our PC cruises, we make our own flight plans to Orlando.

 

[TChrist05]

Us too...we have never sailed out of any other port but Port Canaveral....it is going to be quite an experience...and my DW and I will be working the day we fly.....I work about 10 minutes from the airport so it will work out very well....just like I said before....hoping to get that 5:40 flight...and if we dont will probably try and change it to that one....it would be worth the $50 pp to change....well see....from what I understand their are a couple of families flying on this flight to Barcelona.
Tom

 

[Subi WRX]

Sure the airlines don't really want you to book r/t but just use one way. That's the official policy. The unofficial policy is that they really don't care. I have lots of friends in the airline industry, and when I needed to book for a TA cruise they advised me not to worry about it, and sure enough, it wasn't a problem. Just follow these rules:

• Obviously don't announce your plan to any airline employee.
• Make sure the half of the ticket you intend to use is the first leg of your flight (if you don't use the first leg of your flight, that cancels all remaining legs of your flight).
• Don't do anything dumb like try to claim airline miles for the portion of your flight you didn't use.
• Airlines don't really track who missed their flight v. who booked a r/t and just didn't show up. They don't have the resources anymore to investigate something like this. So go ahead, do it. Just keep your head down and mouth shut, and you're fine.

If you're still worried about following strict policy, try these sites for cheap one-way fares: http://www.airfare.com and http://www.cheapoair.com.

Just watch the restrictions; they are generally consolidator tickets.