airfare to Spain?

[woody73]

The last time we went to Spain, we flew Air France nonstop from Los Angeles to Charles de Gaulle, then had a connecting flight on Iberia Airlines (a Skyteam Alliance partner along with Delta?) to Spain. It was in May, and the airfare was in the neighborhood of $800 - 900. We were very pleased with the service on both carriers.

Woody

 

[kellib36]

I accidently came across cheapoair.com

Sorry, but I just MUST say....would you REALLY fly Cheapo Air?!?!? To Europe?!?!? Good luck with that........

 

[Serena6010]

Sorry, but I just MUST say....would you REALLY fly Cheapo Air?!?!? To Europe?!?!? Good luck with that........

CheapoAir is not an airline. I believe it is a site that will give you discount tickets on various airline...just like expedia, orbitz, travelocity...ect.

 

[SueEllen]

Sandy,
If you can fly out of Dulles there are specials from time to time. I had a price come through the other day on British Airways for $270 per person roundtrip (to Barcelona) It all depends on the time of year and what the airline offers. That same flight is now in the $660 range, but I have seen some good summer rates. Just keep watching and when you find a great rate jump on it.
This was a flight that connected through Heathrow then to Barcelona.
Sue Ellen

Went to the expedia site as suggested. May I suggest to all of you that are considering this venture to do this BEFORE booking Med. cruise tomorrow. You just might get your pants shocked off.

Hours in Air = 13 to 16 hours, depending on which flight I chose

Cost of Flight = ranged from $1250 to $1600 per person.

It would cost a family of four over $5,000 for airfare alone.

My hat is off to any of you that have that to spare next summer, in addition to the cost of the cruise.

Another important factor is to look up the summer climates there. Not pleasant.

After reviewing the costs involved, there will be one more cabin available for the rest of you.

 

[MrsJobba1]

Just thought I'd mention

Schools in UK and on the continent tend to break up for summer vacation around 20th July

After this date I know prices in the uk go up ALOT - SOMETIMES EVEN DOUBLE.

Earlier than this should be cheaper.

 

[jonesing]

Well we were going to consider the Europe itinerary but then decided that we can still "get away" and save a bit by taking one of the transatlantic crossings. I figured since we've seen the sendoff from Port Canaveral, it would be kinda cool to see how they throw a sendoff party in Spain

That means we only need OW tix which are still going to be $1100-$1200/person. But luckily the little stinker would still qualify for a discounted ticket since many international carriers offer discounts for 2 year olds. :

 

[aan1701]

I know someone who works for DCL and the lastest she heard, on Mon. was anywere from 1300-1600 a person. Even with the gaurentees that Disney gives if you miss flights or are late to the ship when you book the air through them, they will have one less cabin filled on this one. How can anyone justify paying that much per person and pay another 4000 for the cruise. For my wife and I to go on the west repo it would about 7000. Thanks but no thanks, I will stick to the caribeain.

 

[disneyholic family]

I haven't found any daytime flights however to BCN. We are not interested in flying overnight with a 4 year old. So, it is frustrating.

Night flights are great with little kids. We're americans located overseas and have had to fly back and forth across the Atlantic since before the kids were born. We also have a very long flight (just the part of the trip getting us to NYC is over 12 hours non-stop). We always fly that segment of the trip at night. When the kids were little, they slept at least half of the time. Much easier than trying to entertain them for 12 hours straight.

On our usual flight (the midnight flight), lots of people bring their kids on board in pajamas. Since they turn all the lights off in the plane right after serving dinner, everyone on the plane goes to sleep (they also close all the window shades, so that when the sun comes up during flight, people won't be woken by the light).

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Usually as the sun goes East to West, and so the timezones a lot of flights are daytime to USA from Europe and overnight coming back.

My kids usually convert to USA time as soon as they are on a flight, making a 23 hour day to Las Vegas last year, but are ok, but coming back they have difficulty in sleeping on the plane so suffer jet lag on the way to the UK.

 

[kellib36]

CheapoAir is not an airline. I believe it is a site that will give you discount tickets on various airline...just like expedia, orbitz, travelocity...ect.

I know that.

 

[poconoboatniks]

I checked Alitalia from Newark, NJ. It's around $730 pp round trip. There's a 3 hour layover in Milan. I didn't think that the airfare was that bad.

Poconoboatniks

 

[crzy4magic]

When flying from the US to Europe and back there can be very large differences in the flight times flying east (to Europe) versus flying west (to US).

For example, I have flown from Boston to Paris in as little as 5 3/4 hours. That same trip, the flight home took over 8 hours. There was a strong jet stream blowing across the Atlantic - it sped us up one way, but the next week it slowed us down coming home.

Your departure airport in the US and your European gateway airport can make a big difference in price. I have been pricing the airfare for weeks on comparable dates this year for 3 different options. Consistantly anything that includes Boston-Paris has been $400-$750 per person higher than Boston-London. My DW has conceded the point and, if we go, we will spend time in London before the cruise - not Paris. (Note - for the 5 of us I have budgeted $5000 for airfare - OUCH).

There seem to be airlines with morning departures from the US to London from Boston, NYC and Chicago - there may be others. I can never deal with the jet lag issue going from Boston to Europe, so I don't expect the kids to deal with it well on their first European trip. I would pay a couple of hundred dollars extra for the jet lag lowering flights. Given that the best you can get on a Boston to London flight is 3 or 4 hours sleep anyway before you land at 6 or 7 in the morning, flying all day and landing in the evening is a much better option.

Personally, I expect airfares to keep rising with fuel costs. I just hope I can get the airfares I am seeing for this summer as an early booking for next summer. If the airfare goes much over $1100 per person we will probably have to cancel later.

To reduce our per person costs, we got creative - we recruited additional family to share connecting lower class cabins and they will pay their own airfare. The extra family is paying the adult price in the second cabin, we are paying the child portion.

Good luck to everyone in making your choices!