When to buy airline tickets for Med cruise....

[cheermom2four]

From those that have sailed out of Barcelona for a cruise, and are from the USA, when did you get your airline tickets or did you see prices drop like 30 days before cruise (which I would never wait that long out of fear) or 6 months out or what? In the next few weeks I"m sure the week of sept 7th (we are heading over a few days before our Sept 9th sailing out of barcelona) will be released and I"m not sure I want to buy that far out as prices can fluctuate. Just trying to see if there is a trend over the years.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

From those that have sailed out of Barcelona for a cruise, and are from the USA, when did you get your airline tickets or did you see prices drop like 30 days before cruise (which I would never wait that long out of fear) or 6 months out or what? In the next few weeks I"m sure the week of sept 7th (we are heading over a few days before our Sept 9th sailing out of barcelona) will be released and I"m not sure I want to buy that far out as prices can fluctuate. Just trying to see if there is a trend over the years.

We bought ours in September 2015 for our June 2016 cruise. I had been checking daily through cheapoair.com since June 2015. Prices from PHX to BCN were about $1200/person. One night while watching TV I checked and the price dropped to $750/person. I jumped on that one in a hurry! The next day it went up to about $900 then went back up to $1200 the following day. We did have a long layover at JFK, (8+ hours), but bought day passes to the the Delta Club and that helped kill the time

I now am using the skyscanner app to track fares for upcoming flights.

 

[cheermom2four]

We bought ours in September 2015 for our June 2016 cruise.

Are these RT prices or each way? First time looking into it and why I'm asking. I saw there were flights out now on Luftansa for our exact dates in 2017 sept and they are $750 EACH way per person.
So about 9months out. Thats actually what my oldest daughter's friends said to do that works for AA

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Are these RT prices or each way? First time looking into it and why I'm asking. I saw there were flights out now on Luftansa for our exact dates in 2017 sept and they are $750 EACH way per person.
So about 9months out. Thats actually what my oldest daughter's friends said to do that works for AA

That was the round trip price per person. I scored a really good deal.

Since you are in Colorado, you may want to look at booking BCN via LAX, we found some really great rates flying out of there. Also I would look on Norwegian Air's website directly. They seem to have great rates via Toronto.

I hope this helps and that I didn't make it more overwhelming.

 

[linetbo]

We bought in September 2013 for May 31, 2014 sailing from Barcelona, but we are going next June to Norway cruise and we bought the airfare in early August because we got a really good price

 

[ldo]

early Sept is not prime time. Unless you get a fantastic deal, would not buy at 11 mths. I would google to see past sale patterns for September. I would guess May might have had sales for the fall?

 

[cheermom2four]

I would google to see past sale patterns for September.

I've tried googling so many ways of searching for past sale patterns and no luck except articles on when to buy etc which is a guess too

 

[ldo]

$750 each way for Sept is high, IMHO. $1500 RT is likely their default pricing. $1500 RT is the rate I might expect to pay in summer, but not for Sept travel. there are websites where you can put in a fare alert. I would put one in for $1100 RT and see if you get any hits before Jan., and, if so, consider lowering to $1K. By May, I would start thinking about getting tickets.
From Jan 2016 USAToday article:
For flights to Europe

• Fly by March 16: Last day to depart to take advantage of cheaper winter rates. As of March 17, prices jump slightly
• Fly by May 16: Last day to take advantage of cheaper spring fares before the most expensive summer season gets underway on May 17.
• Start flying Aug. 23: Fall pricing begins, fares drop for the season.

 

[cheermom2four]

$1500 RT is the rate I might expect to pay in summer, but not for Sept travel

Thats what I was thinking that seemed a little steep for after summer. Ive even searched and seen some on travelocity and expedia for RT less than that in summer months. I will though set up an alert. I have one as most sites dont have Sept 7th 2017 thru 16th out yet.

 

[socababy]

I booked our August 2015 flights in Sept of 2014. I found business class tickets for $2000 rt. San Diego to Heathrow and then Barcelona to San Diego. Once I booked our flights, price sky rocketed to $7000 rt per person. So sometimes booking early is a good thing. I had booked less than 3 months out the previous year flying into Venice and paid $1500 for coach. So I was really happy with my business class price!

 

[AngelDisney]

I booked Toronto to Paris then Barcelona to Toronto for August 2013 when the flights just opened up for booking and USD1150/pp was the lowest Air Transat price for that route. I still checked prices occasionally after booking the flights.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We did an ABD in July 2014 and a Magic B2B in June 2015. For both trips, I booked our airfare in January/February of the same year, so about 6 months prior.

 

[ktscott01]

yapta.com or kayak.com will track prices and send you daily alerts.

 

[izzinmac]

Booked Norwegian Air for Sept 12 from Ft Lauderdale to Barcelona nonstop for $279 per person which includes seat choice, one checked bag each, and meals. Bare bones is $189 each. I know this breaks the prevailing when to book theories, but I figure it can't go down much from $189. Includes taxes

 

[MUN]

From those that have sailed out of Barcelona for a cruise, and are from the USA, when did you get your airline tickets or did you see prices drop like 30 days before cruise (which I would never wait that long out of fear) or 6 months out or what? In the next few weeks I"m sure the week of sept 7th (we are heading over a few days before our Sept 9th sailing out of barcelona) will be released and I"m not sure I want to buy that far out as prices can fluctuate. Just trying to see if there is a trend over the years.

For international flights on popular destinations, I like to buy my tickets as far in advance as I can. My experiences is prices go up as more seats are sold.

MUN

 

[cheermom2four]

Booked Norwegian Air for Sept 12 from Ft Lauderdale to Barcelona nonstop for $279 per person which includes seat choice, one checked bag each, and meals. Bare bones is $189 each. I know this breaks the prevailing when to book theories, but I figure it can't go down much from $189. Includes taxes

I wished I lived near a Norwegian air airport but it would cost just as much to get to one then to use them to fly over to BCN. I would buy the tickets now if they were that cheap!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I wished I lived near a Norwegian air airport but it would cost just as much to get to one then to use them to fly over to BCN. I would buy the tickets now if they were that cheap!

Our closest Norwegian Air location is probably FLL and we are in NC I am seriously considering flying home from our Med cruise in 8/2017 if American Airlines doesn't open up any 30k miles routes so we can get home. I booked us to Europe already at 30k miles but coming home is the hard part. If we do Norwegian, we'd have to stay another night in Barcelona after the cruise, then fly to FLL, then overnight there, then fly to NC. That is still far cheaper than any other airline for one way home

I'm still looking so I wish you good luck too

Heather

 

[ludari]

I've done a few WBTA cruises and I have purchased my airline tickets as soon as they are offered for sale which depending on the airline is about year in advance. I found that doing this allowed me to get the best price possible.