MXP or LIN?

Soon FF seats will open up for our cruise next fall. We plan on flying into Milan and traveling by train to one of the Cinque Terre villages yet to be decided to spend several days there rather than a rushed day trip from our cruise stop in La Spezia. We should have the option to fly into either Milan airport.

Which airport provides the easiest connection to Milan Centrale where we would board the train to Cinque Terre?

Thanks!

I think taking the Malpensa Express train from Malpensa directly to Milano Centrale is pretty paniless. Though Linate is closer to Milan, you will have to take either a bus or a taxi to the station.

Soon FF seats will open up for our cruise next fall. We plan on flying into Milan and traveling by train to one of the Cinque Terre villages yet to be decided to spend several days there rather than a rushed day trip from our cruise stop in La Spezia. We should have the option to fly into either Milan airport.

 

Which airport provides the easiest connection to Milan Centrale where we would board the train to Cinque Terre?

 

Thanks!

I would agree MXP would be the best choice, unless you're planning to spend a night in Milan. We looped Lake Como into our last trip and choose to fly out of LIN, just because we were spending a night in Milan before flight and our Milan hotel location would have meant a taxi ride to either Centrale or LIN.

Note, I originally had booked cruise line air for return out of LIN, but I kept watching to see if FF low mile tickets would open up at either airport. They eventually did for LIN, so I took the air credit from the cruise line. I never saw a low mile flight out of MXP.

MXP is a great airport . Train to Milano Centrale . Then fast train Milano Centrale - Firenze S.M.N. - Pisa Centrale - La Spezia .

For accommodation best stay in La Spezia at Hotel Firenze & Continental opposite station . Frequent trains from La Spezia to the five villages of the Cinque Terre in order Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso . Also worth visiting from La Spezia is Portovenere by Bus P from Stop P in Via Garabaldi near Corso Cavour. Departs 25 & 55 minutes past hour for 30 minute trip to Portovenere. Bus tickets from tobacco kiosk in station .

CT Passes (1 day or 2 Days) from CT Tourist Office on main platform at La Spezia station. CT Passes give unlimited daily train travel between La Spezia and the 5 villages of the CT, use of shuttle bus between Corniglia station and village above (avoiding 350 stairs), and access to the walking paths of the CT .

Thanks, Langoustine, Buggins & kuldalai for your feedback on the advantages of flying into MXP!

We are planning on staying in Monterosso and then taking the train from there to Civitavechhia to catch our cruise. Now I've a new dilemma.....

We could catch the train departing Monterosso @7:30 am, transferring at LaSpezia and arriving at Civi @11:30 am, but if there is any delay we could miss our ship. The other option would be to depart Monterosso the afternoon prior to embarkation and stay the night in Civi.

Thougts, input?

BTW kuldalai we plan on visiting Portovenere on our port day in LaSpezia!

Absolutely MXP. As others said, excellent airport with rail transport to Milan Centrale and onward.

Another reason.....we have found that flights in and our of MXP can be less expensive. We saved a considerable amount on our South Africa trip by flying from MXP.

I see the OP is from the US. A question: I have not seen any flights non-stop USA-LIN, only flights from within Europe. I've only seen MXP as an option. Am I missing something?

I see the OP is from the US. A question: I have not seen any flights non-stop USA-LIN, only flights from within Europe. I've only seen MXP as an option. Am I missing something?

Nothing is ever nonstop for us! If we are lucky we only have one stop, but sometimes using ff miles we end up with 3 stops!

Here is a dummy search example to end in LIN for 9/20/17 using AA ff miles at the 30k level:

30K

Departure Flight 1393 selected.

1393

7:00 PM

CLE

8:47 PM

DFW

80

10:20 PM

DFW

1:15 PM

LHR

BA 568THU SEP 21

Flight Details

3:15 PM

LHR

6:20 PM

LIN

Overnight flight or connection

Terminal change

Notice alternate area airport(s)

If we use 47.5 miles, we can fly to MXP from CLE-JFK-MXP, but not sure I want to spend that many miles.

Nothing is ever nonstop for us! If we are lucky we only have one stop, but sometimes using ff miles we end up with 3 stops!

Here is a dummy search example to end in LIN for 9/20/17 using AA ff miles at the 30k level:

30K

Departure Flight 1393 selected.

1393

7:00 PM

CLE

8:47 PM

DFW

 

80

10:20 PM

DFW

1:15 PM

LHR

 

BA 568THU SEP 21

Flight Details

3:15 PM

LHR

6:20 PM

LIN

Overnight flight or connection

Terminal change

Notice alternate area airport(s)

 

If we use 47.5 miles, we can fly to MXP from CLE-JFK-MXP, but not sure I want to spend that many miles.

Doesn't going through LHR on AA FF add a slew of taxes...almost negating their value?

Nothing is ever nonstop for us! If we are lucky we only have one stop, but sometimes using ff miles we end up with 3 stops!

Here is a dummy search example to end in LIN for 9/20/17 using AA ff miles at the 30k level:

30K

Departure Flight 1393 selected.

1393

7:00 PM

CLE

8:47 PM

DFW

 

80

10:20 PM

DFW

1:15 PM

LHR

 

BA 568THU SEP 21

Flight Details

3:15 PM

LHR

6:20 PM

LIN

Overnight flight or connection

Terminal change

Notice alternate area airport(s)

 

If we use 47.5 miles, we can fly to MXP from CLE-JFK-MXP, but not sure I want to spend that many miles.

Ok, so it DOES have a connection in Europe to end at LIN. I was thinking you found a flight nonstop from somewhere in the US to LIN. Sometimes, I shop strictly by "price", and end up biting the bullet and having 3 stops and long connection times. Sometimes, I take the "express" route and take the quickest route. I do have 2 choices of non-stops to 2 places in Europe, but they are always at a much higher redemption than a 1 or 2 stop. So, I feel your pain..

Doesn't going through LHR on AA FF add a slew of taxes...almost negating their value?

Yes, if you use AA miles for BA transatlantic flights connecting at LHR the fee is $347:eek:. Interestingly, flying AA metal over the pond, even with a connection at LHR via BA to Milan, the fee is just $91:). I was very surprised to see this difference when I did dummy reservations for those different possibilities.

For our cruise this past August we thought outside the box as to how to avoid those fees, which equated to $1500 for the 2 of us for r/t ff tix. Ended up flying airberlin to Berlin (never again will we fly ab, but that is for another thread:mad:), spending 3 nights there, training to Prague for 2 nights and then flying Easyjet to Amsterdam, where we boarded the Silhouette. For our return we flew Finnair via Helsinki. In essence by not going the LHR route, we bought an extra weeks lodging and transit:D!

We do the same just about every year. We will go to great lengths to avoid changing planes in LHR. Terrible place. For us,it is worse than CDG.

We do the same just about every year. We will go to great lengths to avoid changing planes in LHR. Terrible place. For us,it is worse than CDG.

We only consider LHR when our destination is London.

We do the same just about every year. We will go to great lengths to avoid changing planes in LHR. Terrible place. For us,it is worse than CDG.

I am the odd duck here - I do not mind transiting through CDG at all. But, I fly SkyTeam alliance 99% of the time, so I only have the T3E/F portion of CDG to work with. And, I can spend time in the AF lounges there ;)

I did LHR on my trip to/from Kenya. It was not all that difficult, but more acreage to traverse to get from one flight to another. Saw quite a few people that could not figure out how to follow those "transit" signs. That trip, I did have to use AA from/to the US and Kenya Airways to/from Kenya, so I did the T3-T4 shuffle...

I am the odd duck here - I do not mind transiting through CDG at all. But, I fly SkyTeam alliance 99% of the time, so I only have the T3E/F portion of CDG to work with. And, I can spend time in the AF lounges there ;)

I did LHR on my trip to/from Kenya. It was not all that difficult, but more acreage to traverse to get from one flight to another. Saw quite a few people that could not figure out how to follow those "transit" signs. That trip, I did have to use AA from/to the US and Kenya Airways to/from Kenya, so I did the T3-T4 shuffle...

Same here, we fly SkyTeam when we're paying and I don't mind CDG. We much prefer it to a US domestic connection (such as JFK) to the ultimate destination. Also like the bread they serve on Air France...if the rest of the meal is inedible, one can at least count on a decent baguette.

Thanks, Langoustine, Buggins & kuldalai for your feedback on the advantages of flying into MXP!

 

We are planning on staying in Monterosso and then taking the train from there to Civitavechhia to catch our cruise. Now I've a new dilemma.....

 

We could catch the train departing Monterosso @7:30 am, transferring at LaSpezia and arriving at Civi @11:30 am, but if there is any delay we could miss our ship. The other option would be to depart Monterosso the afternoon prior to embarkation and stay the night in Civi.

 

Thougts, input?

 

BTW kuldalai we plan on visiting Portovenere on our port day in LaSpezia!

Take the tarin from Monterosso via La Spezia to Civitavecchia the day before your ship departs to be safe . We stay at family run Hotel Miramare in Civitavecchia close to station on waterfront . restaurants nearby and short walk along waterfront into heart of town . Hotel will book flat price cab to take you to your Cruise boat next day . Book hotel direct on line via hotel website to avoid paying middleman commissions .

Another way fly direct into Roma FCO, then fly domestic to Pisa . Then train Pisa - La Spezia - Monterosso .

Great idea to spend a few days in Cinque Terre. This is what we did on a land trip. There is no way one could fully enjoy this area on a short, hurried one day excursion from a cruise ship. We feel the same way about Florence.

Enjoy.

Bit the bullet and spent 47.5k AA miles each for CLE-JFK-MXP for next October. The connections offered at the 30k level were ridiculous. Hopefully we will be returning home via the Eclipse TA, so don't have to panic that we've depleted our miles for the return flight back to the US.

I also took your advice to stay in Civi the night before the cruise, but ended up booking this: http://www.lacasasulmare.net/

Now to find our "pied a terre" in the Cinque Terre!