Whats the strangest layover you had going to a cruise?

The cruise I'm looking at ends in Amsterdam and the RCL one I want to take next leaves the same day from Hamburg so I'm searching for flights. Can it be done etc...some flights take 1 hour 5mins so it seems possible.

The cheapest one though goes Amsterdam-Istanbul-Hamburg. According to google I would be going 2589miles vs direct flight is 235. :eek:

If your unfamiliar it would be like going Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando but through New York.

You should be able to easily get a direct flight on KLM or Lufthansa - but otherwise perhaps consider taking the train? Train travel is convenient and inexpensive in Europe, from what I remember.

KLM is the one with a 1hour flight but it's at 9pm which wouldn't work. We arrive 8am and I have to be on the next ship by 5pm so it's a tight window. Checked one train, not sure if there are other options and it's 5 hours 10min trip. Only 29 euro though would be great price.

Will be nervous going via Istanbul which is far from Hamburg in case of delays.

Have you checked into renting a car?

KLM has a daily 737 service at 10:45 AM for a 1 hour scheduled flight. Most of that will be on the ground with about 20 minutes in air.

KLM are not one of the airlines of Europe that offer good one-way fares. You need to check for a round-trip and just not use the return. Just do a booking where you try to find the best return fare.

The train at 09:01 and 11:01 each takes just over 5 hours with one train change and would be best purchased at http://www.bahn.de or any rail reseller.

I have Turkish through IST for connections, but would not do it for a same day flight where I had to make a cruise. If it was next day sure as Turkish allows 1 day stopovers each way. Turkish is sometimes good for one-way fares to meet transatlantic cruises from the US (Houston,Washington,Chicago,LAX)

The cruise I'm looking at ends in Amsterdam and the RCL one I want to take next leaves the same day from Hamburg so I'm searching for flights. Can it be done etc...some flights take 1 hour 5mins so it seems possible.

 

The cheapest one though goes Amsterdam-Istanbul-Hamburg. According to google I would be going 2589miles vs direct flight is 235. :eek:

 

If your unfamiliar it would be like going Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando but through New York.

Try Skyscanner.

Its showing KLM and Germanwings has having direct flights.

I dont know when you are flying as that could make a difference but KLM is showing around 260 , Germanwings (part of Lufthansa) is around 60 or 80 depending on which flight (one at 08.15) but you may have to pay extra for bags.

KLM is the one with a 1hour flight but it's at 9pm which wouldn't work. We arrive 8am and I have to be on the next ship by 5pm so it's a tight window. Checked one train, not sure if there are other options and it's 5 hours 10min trip. Only 29 euro though would be great price.

BTW....Google has it as a 465km journey taking 4hrs 15 Mins!!

If the train is 5 hours and you can get a suitable time - Do it. Amsterdam Central station is next to the water so I guess not far from the cruise terminal.

Found a flight with KLM that didn't come up when I searched on a regular travel site. When you book in Dutch its cheaper than if you switch to US lol.

Appreciate everyone's help BUT... the purpose of this post was to discuss strange layovers you have had. Did you go NJ to NY through Quebec? I've have heard of layover flights being canceled and rerouting you through your original departure city again. Sometimes I purposefully pick 48 hour layovers if it's a city that's new to me to check it out.

Found a flight with KLM that didn't come up when I searched on a regular travel site. When you book in Dutch its cheaper than if you switch to US lol.

 

Appreciate everyone's help BUT... the purpose of this post was to discuss strange layovers you have had. Did you go NJ to NY through Quebec? I've have heard of layover flights being canceled and rerouting you through your original departure city again. Sometimes I purposefully pick 48 hour layovers if it's a city that's new to me to check it out.

I've seen Orlando to Houston via Minneapolis. Didn't take it

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Weirdest flight I took was SF to MSP to ATW to GRB. SanFran to Minneapolis made sense. ATW is Appleton, Wisconsin. GRB is Green Bay, Wisconsin -- you can literally drive from the airport in Appleton to Austin Straubel in GB in about 30 minutes or less (34 miles by land, less than 30 as the crow flies).

You are on the ground for more time and probably even physical distance than you are in the air. It used to be a regularly scheduled flight between ATW and GRB -- needless to say it was done away with years ago. But I had flown out of GRB so my car was there and this was my best option for a flight back after my original return flight had been cancelled.

Winnipeg - Toronto - San Francisco

I still shake my head...

Houston to St Johns Newfoundland through Calgary

Cleveland to Chicago to St. Thomas to San Juan

Last year I had to make an unexpected business trip to India the week before our cruise out of Barcelona. I almost had to do India (Hyderabad)-London-Denver-London-Barcelona. This was because we booked the cruise flights on British Airways with miles on a deal where you booked one flight with miles and a companion could come for free. So the six of us going on the cruise were booked on three of these deals. Since I was the one redeeming miles and one of my kids was my companion, if I didn't make the trip from Denver, they would not be able to fly without me. The challenge (other than two straight days of flying) was I'd have to get off the plane in Denver, clear US customs, check back in and get back on the same plane in the time it takes to turn the plane around in Denver.

After lots of pleading and finally some common sense coming over whatever person we were dealing with at British Airways, they finally agreed to allow my kid to fly without me since I flew the business trip to India with BA. So I ended up just doing Hyderabad-London-Barcelona (two week stopover)-London-Denver. I lost a couple hundred dollars in UK taxes for the cruise flight, but it all worked out.

Worst I've seen was SFO to San Diego via DFW. Huh? 8 hours for a 1 hour non-stop itinerary. What were they thinking?:rolleyes:

Used to be, in the days of Northwest Airlines, we would always fly to Ft. Lauderdale, from Phoenix, and back, thru either Minneapolis-St. Paul, or Detroit. That was as direct as they could offer.

Rick

My daughter recently flew from New York to Toulouse in southern France, via Istanbul.

No idea why.

Winnipeg - Toronto - San Francisco

 

I still shake my head...

Ding Ding Ding.....this is really out there :eek: WOW can't even imagine anyone booking this!

Weirdest flight I took was SF to MSP to ATW to GRB. SanFran to Minneapolis made sense. ATW is Appleton, Wisconsin. GRB is Green Bay, Wisconsin -- you can literally drive from the airport in Appleton to Austin Straubel in GB in about 30 minutes or less (34 miles by land, less than 30 as the crow flies).

 

You are on the ground for more time and probably even physical distance than you are in the air. It used to be a regularly scheduled flight between ATW and GRB -- needless to say it was done away with years ago. But I had flown out of GRB so my car was there and this was my best option for a flight back after my original return flight had been cancelled.

Appleton to Green Bay? Just wow :confused:

Last time we flew from Hawaii to LAX they routed us via San Francisco. When we got to the airport we met about ten other people who were routed the same dumb way. So we all went over to the plane that was flying nonstop to LAX and met about a dozen people there that were going to San Francisco via LAX. Grrrrr. A nice man at the counter changed all of our tickets to non stops, thank goodness.

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Needed one way from MIA to VCE for transatlantic cruise. Our otherwise exceptionally helpful PVP offered that we could embark from FLL (closer to home) for actually a lower fare than MIA. Conveniently forgetting that there are no US carriers (or alliance/codeshares) flying from FLL to Europe I said book it.

Thus our 17 hour adventure FLL-ORD-MAD-VCE.

Not to a cruise but I've flown OAK-LAX-SFO. Didn't want to take the BART.

When I worked at AMS airport I once saw a strange alternative flight for an overbooked one. Even after raising the amount offered, they could not find any volunteers : Amsterdam-London via Zurich :D

Before she did as much travel as she does not, my boss was big in to "price over convenience", and ended up booking flights like Orlando to St Louis via Denver, and I think she once did San Diego to San Francisco via Salt Lake City or some such thing. She's better now that she travels a ton and just wants to get there or get home ASAP.

Because I am loyal to American Airlines, I often end up on routes like Kansas City to Seattle via Dallas (especially before Alaska started MCI-SEA nonstop). Also, since American partners with Qantas, and Qantas ended their Auckland to LAX service a few years back, I end up flying Wellington to LA/Dallas via Sydney, or Auckland to LA/Dallas via Sydney, which is quite a bit of a deviation. I'll be doing WLG-SYD-DFW-MCI again in a few weeks.

Found a flight with KLM that didn't come up when I searched on a regular travel site. When you book in Dutch its cheaper than if you switch to US lol.

 

Appreciate everyone's help BUT... the purpose of this post was to discuss strange layovers you have had. Did you go NJ to NY through Quebec? I've have heard of layover flights being canceled and rerouting you through your original departure city again. Sometimes I purposefully pick 48 hour layovers if it's a city that's new to me to check it out.

Just as a "The More You Know" thing - it would be illegal to connect in Canada while traveling between two US cities. For example SFO to Rome via Toronto is fine; SFO to NYC via Toronto is not. The same goes the other way around - Toronto to Mexico City via Chicago is fine; Toronto to Vancouver via Chicago is not.

Los Angeles to Santa Ana's John Wayne airport -- distance of 40 miles, with an interim stop in Fullerton, CA. Golden West Airlines, a commuter airline, no longer in business. (I think I know why.) :eek: