Tips on flight to Europe

[verygfy]

A Mediterranean cruise has been high on DH bucket list, but looking at flights to Barcelona make me gasp!! Any experienced cruisers have good tips on getting cheaper fare? We have had the Delta Skymiles debit card for the last few years, but with their changes it doesn't seem like we are making headway... Thanks for any tips

 

[Transit]

Norwegian had decent prices but their customer service reviews are awful. Haven't flown them yet myself, but their info on lounge access when buying a business class seat is really misleading.

I liked icelandair, they had good rates and we had a good experience with them.

For both of these, you may need to go directly to their website and check prices from a place you know they fly out of. For example, if I tried checking flights from rdu to bcn, nothing would come up. I had to check JFK to bcn and the look at a another carrier for the rdu to JFK leg.

 

[JAM113]

We booked Aer Lingus, approx $750 each from JFK. Not as cheap as Norwegian or Icelandair, but much cheaper than some of the other big name airlines and without the negative reviews that seemed to come with the discounted airlines. We booked a separate Southwest flight to get to JFK.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

flights from LAX via Moscow are a lot cheaper than flying from the east coast.

 

[Capt_BJ]

just back from an EU vacation where we flew LOT to get over there (Polish national airline). Very good experience service and price wise. They flew a brand new 787. Connected thru Warsaw which was a breeze.

And wrt price. A few days b4 we were scheduled to go, got an e-mail offering upgrades at a price that did not interest us so declined. Then came a e-mail asking "what would you pay" and we made an offer which was accepted so we were upgraded for a fraction of the regular cost. Bigger seats, better food, free booze ..... we liked it. Never saw this b4 . . . They called it 'premium'; I think US would call it business class . . .

 

[HookedonMagic]

A Mediterranean cruise has been high on DH bucket list, but looking at flights to Barcelona make me gasp!! Any experienced cruisers have good tips on getting cheaper fare? We have had the Delta Skymiles debit card for the last few years, but with their changes it doesn't seem like we are making headway... Thanks for any tips

We've mostly flown American (using miles for upgrades), but have also flown Aer Lingus, Norwegian (most recently), Virgin and Air Canada to Europe. Norwegian flies the new Dream Liner and provides a comfortable and relatively inexpensive ($800 pp Florida-Copenhagen) experience. Both Aer Lingus and Virgin fly decent planes and provide very friendly service. Pricing is mid range. American's planes are oldest and service varies. We flew first class to Rome last summer and enjoyed the upgrade, but the plane was a relic! As far as getting a deal...I tend to check a few times per week using search engines like Kayak and going directly to company sites. The best fares tend to appear midweek. As a general rule, booking early gives you the best price, but I've also booked low fares thirty days out. I set a price that seems decent and when it pops up, I book. If there is a significant drop in price after booking, most airlines will refund you the price difference (if you call them! They don't do it automatically!). It's a game, but one you have to play to get the best deal. It will be worth the effort once you're on board enjoying your MAGICal 12 nights in the Med!

 

[Peggytc]

Check out the website flight network - I was looking St close to $1000 to BCN everywhere else, and ended up finding it for just under $600 through them. It's SATA, and goes through Lisbon first, but for the price I don't mind a little stopover

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

Look into flying into other cities. Flying from the states to London or Frankfurt, and then getting a discount airfare flight on say EasyJet from there to Barcelona. That was what we ended up doing and it was much cheaper.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

First, use Kayak to compare airlines. I always check cities within a five-hour driving distance from me because frankly when I'm going I'm buying five tickets and sometimes driving to a larger hub can save a ton of $$! We flew with Icelandair last year and they still have, hands down, the best fares. Bonus is you get to stop in Iceland on your way I also read (and used) the buy and fly on Tuesday rule and it seemed true, but who really knows about that. A trick that I know works is to clear your cookies and then search again, the prices will almost always be a little less than they were. Sneaky websites.

 

[DahliaRW]

Flights within Europe are usually quite cheap (around 100 or less, in general). So find the cheapest airfare to a large airport in Europe and then price flights from there to Barcelona. Might be cheaper than flying straight to Barcelona. Bonus, if you're interested in spending a few days in another country, you could do that on either end of your cruise!

 

[Thnlk]

Just flew Copenhagen to Seattle on Iceland Air $600.00 pp

 

[jeffbear]

We booked Aer Lingus, approx $750 each from JFK. Not as cheap as Norwegian or Icelandair, but much cheaper than some of the other big name airlines and without the negative reviews that seemed to come with the discounted airlines. We booked a separate Southwest flight to get to JFK.

Also note that you should explore flying Aer Lingus into Ireland and THEN booking out of Dublin or Shannon to your actual destination. Flights inside the EU are often much cheaper than you'd expect and you can save some money this way depending on your timing.

 

[jeffbear]

Flights within Europe are usually quite cheap (around 100 or less, in general). So find the cheapest airfare to a large airport in Europe and then price flights from there to Barcelona. Might be cheaper than flying straight to Barcelona. Bonus, if you're interested in spending a few days in another country, you could do that on either end of your cruise!

This is entirely correct. And once again, I recommend looking at Aer Lingus into Ireland as a good gateway filght to the EU. It's predictably cheaper, especially during the summer and holidays. But in concept, yeah ... just get your party to an EU country and then make final connections seperately. At least take a look at it as an option. Last time I flew to Scotland, we saved about $200 per person flying into Dublin first.

 

[verygfy]

These are great tips! Thank you for sharing

 

[LeslieG]

Just flew Copenhagen to Seattle on Iceland Air $600.00 pp

I also flew Iceland Air to Copenhagen for $600.00 from Toronto. The drive to Toronto was 5+ hours, but it saved me literally $1000 pp over flying from any of my four closer airports. Stopover in Iceland on the way home was a bonus. I liked Iceland Air a lot, save for all my pre-selected seat assignments disappearing on all my flights.

 

[DVC-Don]

Last year at this time we flew Aer Lingus to Barcelona. Flew out of Boston and had a change in Dublin. I really liked their crews.

 

[jeffbear]

Last year at this time we flew Aer Lingus to Barcelona. Flew out of Boston and had a change in Dublin. I really liked their crews.

Yeah. I've flown Aer Lingus four or five times and their crews are top shelf, especially for a semi-budget airline. The planes aren't much to write home about ... a bit old fashioned and shabby ... but the level of service is very, very good.

 

[CallumUK]

Thomas Cook Airlines fly into London/Manchester UK from New York, Orlando, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Las Vegas- then you could connect with budget airlines like Ryanair onto Barcelona.

 

[JAM113]

Also note that you should explore flying Aer Lingus into Ireland and THEN booking out of Dublin or Shannon to your actual destination. Flights inside the EU are often much cheaper than you'd expect and you can save some money this way depending on your timing.

We are connecting in Dublin. It's killing me not to spend a couple days there and then fly to Barcelona! Next time (I'm already anticipating!), I'll look into booking the two legs separately. The only thing that would concern me is the luggage limits. I didn't really look too closely, but I recall seeing that the weight/size/number/something is more restrictive on flights between European countries, but our allowance from the overseas trip is allowed since we are just traveling through.

 

[jeffbear]

We are connecting in Dublin. It's killing me not to spend a couple days there and then fly to Barcelona! Next time (I'm already anticipating!), I'll look into booking the two legs separately. The only thing that would concern me is the luggage limits. I didn't really look too closely, but I recall seeing that the weight/size/number/something is more restrictive on flights between European countries, but our allowance from the overseas trip is allowed since we are just traveling through.

Yeah ... Dublin is a fantastic European capital and well worth spending a couple days exploring. It's also not all that big, so a couple of days is plenty to get in a bunch of what you'd want to see. One of my favorites, to be sure.