Flights out of Athens

[mike35]

We're booked on the April 15 Istanbul to Athens Insignia cruise, and just got our air schedule out of Athens. Oceania has us leaving at 8:15 a.m. (part of their "free air" package). We're not familiar with Athens, and we wonder how far the cruise terminal is from the airport, and what time we should plan on leaving the ship to make this ungodly early flight.:eek:

Many thanks for any info.

Mike

[DBSDSS]

Mike -

Don't know if this will make you feel any better but - we're on the same cruise with the same "free air"; our flight out of Athens is at either 5:30AM or 6:15AM. We do have transfers - so Oceana will get us to the airport. We're not even sure if we'll go to sleep that night.

David

[jasl]

Was there last September and as far as I can remember it is at least one hour drive from port to airport. The security line was long and one should allow about two hours for check in. Just read where Athens is becoming popular with North Europeans and traffic is expected to increase considerably. Maybe it would pay you to ask for a deviation and have a more suitable departure time. Good luck.

[aoco]

Good Morning,

I think we lucked out. Our flight out of Athens to Frankfort is at 2:10pm. We arrive back in Boston at 8:05pm. I did pay the extra for air deviation. Mike you must of paid extra too as you are arriving a few days early. We also bought the airport transfers. Today is the 12th so we leave one month from today yipeeeeee.

Connie

[mike35]

We paid air deviation for the flight to Istanbul, but we're going with Oceania's planned Athens departure:( See ya in a month!!

[merryecho]

Mike- we have an 8:15 departure too (same cruise), we were limited as there is only one direct flight from europe to Oregon- out of Frankfort. We decided to use the Oceania transfer, as I think they then take responsibilty for getting you there on time. I am not looking forward to a 5am wake up call, but it sounds like there is no avoiding it (other than not going to bed).

[aaannnthony]

We're concluding our b-2-b in Istanbul on 4/15.

When I questioned our 9AM flight to Paris, I was assured by "O" that almost all flights leave Istanbul very early to meet European connections, which all leave no later than 2PM in Europe. "O" expects to dock shortly after midnight in Istanbul and begin disembarkment about 5AM!

Here's hoping!

[mike35]

Well - shucks, folks - I guess we'll geaux with the fleaux (learned that when we lived in New Orleans:D and rise and shine around 5. We'll commiserate (sp?) together, Merryecho!

Mike

[Andee]

When we paid the $50 deviation fee, we could select flights in both directions. Is there a better flight you could request?

[shoshona2]

Hi Mike,

We are taking the July 22nd Athens to Athens cruise. After reading your post, I went to look at our e-tickets for our flight out of Athens in August. We are booked on Lufthansa for a 6:15 a.m. flight out of Athens arriving in Frankfurt at 8:15 a.m. to get our non-stop flight home to Los Angeles at 10:10 a.m. We did our own airfare, but chose to stay over at the Marriott for a day before trying to get home. I guess we will all have to bit the bullet and wake up early. Hopefully, everyone will get some sleep on the airplane.

Sheila

[mike35]

Andee,

There is a later flight, but checking prices on Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz, the cost of this flight more than double that of the earlier flight. I'm sure that Oceania would want to add a significant differential to the $50 deviation, so I guess we'll have to stick with the early morning flight.

Shohanna - the flight you are on is the only "cheap" flight listed on the above 3 travel sites.

Mike

[drwong]

When we did a similar cruise on the Insignia last April, she pulled into Athens just after midnight. It was the strangest sensation - we were in the Horizons Lounge, enjoying our last "night" aboard the ship before heading back to the stateroom to turn in, and suddenly the bright lights of Piraeus loomed over the bow!!!! So if you expect a good night's rest, catch an early dinner and head to your stateroom. Otherwise, you might as well stay up and catch an early cab to the airport and sleep on the return flight (if you were lucky enough to catch Delta's nonstop into JFK - otherwise, you'll have to switch planes somewhere in Europe and then catch some shut-eye).