Airfare to Europe Yikes!

[emilymad]

We were thinking of booking one of the VGT rates on Barcelona cruises this summer. I looked up the airfare and am shocked at the prices of the airfare. It is over $3K for 2 people in economy. Airfare is almost the same price as the cruise! Any hope of rates dropping? Not sure if we should just forget the whole thing this year.

 

[SnappySerape]

I don't have an answer for whether it'll get better but I feel your pain. I paid 2.8K each for 2 people flying into London in Premium Economy. Even normal economy was 1.7k each. I definitely feel fortunate to be able to take the vacation but you're right about the flights hitting the pocket hard!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We were thinking of booking one of the VGT rates on Barcelona cruises this summer. I looked up the airfare and am shocked at the prices of the airfare. It is over $3K for 2 people in economy. Airfare is almost the same price as the cruise! Any hope of rates dropping? Not sure if we should just forget the whole thing this year.

Yeah when we booked last year for this July to Venice (via Air France) and home from Athens (via British Airways) I want to say thinking about it now it was cash value of $3-$4K for 2 people economy without selecting seats. We used a combo of Chase points and cash which softened the blow a good amount.

Europe is not a cheap airfare destination since travel really kicked up.

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

When we went in 2018, the airfare was over $2,400 for 2 adults on a direct flight and that was after using a bunch of CC points to lower the cost of one of the tickets.

I could have lowered the cost even more if we didn't fly direct, but I didn't want to turn a 10 hour flight into a 28 hour adventure by adding stops.

Psy

 

[bcwife76]

Yep, it's pretty painful right now. Four of us are flying into Gatwick in August for $5200 Canadian (round trip) and that is in cattle class Still need to add on a commuter flight with Norwegian for another $600CDN (total) to get to Copenhagen.

 

[soniam]

Our flight to Rome was pretty expensive. First class is usually 2-3 times the price of economy, but it wasn't even twice as much for our flight. I guess with base prices being so high, people aren't willing to upgrade to an even higher price.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

We were thinking of booking one of the VGT rates on Barcelona cruises this summer. I looked up the airfare and am shocked at the prices of the airfare. It is over $3K for 2 people in economy. Airfare is almost the same price as the cruise! Any hope of rates dropping? Not sure if we should just forget the whole thing this year.

We paid around that in 2019 (flew to Rome), before the gas prices are what they are. So personally, I would not expect it to go down much.

 

[kathi]

Yep - last month we booked flights to Iceland then to London for our cruise and then home to Philly from London. I think it was about $5,000 for 3 adults. We used some rewards points to reduce the cash outlay.

 

[daisydog1201]

Back in October, we were looking at $800/each to fly in and out of Barcelona. I waited on my son to decide if he wanted to make other plans while in Europe ( visit college friends) by the time he finally gave me an answer in January, prices were up to $1800 each. Bit the bullet as I don't think they will come down. But yikes!!! In the end I think we are paying the same for our airfare as we are the cruise

 

[PattiPB]

Cruising out of Barcelona this summer (not Disney), and paid $1600 per person basic economy flying into Barcelona and out of London to/from Vegas. Frustrating, but part of the deal~

 

[MomOTwins]

After months of monitoring airfare hoping it would drop, we sadly gave up our Med DCL cruise yesterday. Airfare for basic economy with 2 stops or less was a going to be over $2,000 per person so over $10K for a family of 5. I rebooked us on a bermuda DCL cruise for fall break instead and will save up the difference to try for Europe next year or the year after. It is such a shame because we booked the med cruise opening day and have been looking forward to it and planning it for literally years—since before Covid. Such a bummer.

Maybe next year will be better. We will see.

 

[braysmommy]

We were looking at VGT rates but have decided to wait and see if airfare comes down. We can fly out of Boston or NY and even with that flexibility rates are crazy!

 

[Geomom]

Yeah, we're still waiting to buy tix for our August cruise from England. Not happy with prices. In 2018 we had a 1 stop to Copenhagen for $617 roundtrip/person. April is PIF... we'll see if prices drop at all before then.

 

[FastPasser.]

am shocked at the prices of the airfare.

I feel your pain, just booked direct flights from Atlanta to Barcelona a couple of days ago, yikes!!!!!!

 

[anricat]

Booked from Austin to London and then Copenhagen to Austin (via London) for our France/Iceland/Norway cruise in July and paid $6300 for three people. I think in one direction I sprung for the economy plus or something like that but it wasn't business or first class. That does include 2 bags per person, so that helps a little. I also paid to reserve seats, which is bonkers. I thought I found a good deal until I added in all those stupid fees and it came up to $6300! We did go VGT so that helped a lot.

 

[emilymad]

We are looking out of NY which is usually more reasonable but it is just crazy. We aren’t even considering out of Philly as it is even worse.

 

[anjuan]

I had a similar experience booking flights for Europe. We're in Chicago so I can usually get direct flights almost everywhere but a direct flight was something like $14,000 per person from London. I ended up booking Delta comfort+ for $3,000 for two people. We are going Chicago-Detroit-Reykjavík and London-Detroit-Chicago home.

 

[tidefan]

Booked 2 in Delta Main Cabin (BHM-LHR) for our May British Isles cruise (on Princess) for around $750 per person back in the late fall. Glad I did that!

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Sounds pretty normal for summer. We're headed to Croatia later this year, just a bit over $6k for 4 ppl. Have family from overseas and flights have been about $1300-$1600 pp the last three or so years. If you can, plan your travel outside of peak times like summer, you might find better prices.

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

We need to fly to London from Atlanta this fall and it is looking like $1500-1900/pp. Absolutely wild.