Air to Heathrow, pre- and post-cruise planning

Okay, here is the deal...

We are right about the time when airlines start posting flights for my July 10-24, 2010 Baltic cruise......out of Southampton...

Most start 330 days ahead, but British Airways is a little ahead of that...

Celebrity wants $1775 per person for flights including taxes and transfers (of course, the transfers may do me little good since I plan to go early and come home late as usual).

We are looking at flying in approximately a week ahead of the cruise--July 2/3, spending a week somewhere in England, but not London, then going on the cruise and spending one or two nights in London (we've been many times) and flying home on the 25th or 26th...

BA has nonstop flights LAX to Heathrow and return for $1221.50 or $1251.50 pp, depending on the date (the Monday return is slightly less thanthe Sunday return).

At this point I am wondering if we should:

1. Just book the flights thus insuring our getting on the nonstop flights. Work out all the details of what to see and do those extra days in England later.

2. Wait and see if airfares might go down.

3. Look for some sort of package than might include airfare and some tie-in deal (like rental car and/or hotel and/or tour).

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Option 2 or 3. $1200pp is an outrageous coach fare, even for summer.

I am going on a Med cruise in May 2010. It starts in Barcelona and ends in Venice. There is no easy way to go direct to Europe from Washington DC. My friends who have tons of cruises behind their belt said to make my own flights - it's the only way to make sure I get exactly what I want. For example - my May trip it was suggested that I fly nonstop from Washington DC to Heathrow and spend the night there and either later the next day or one after that take another 2 hour nonstop flight to Barcelona. Otherwise, my flight options are to fly to Philly or NY and have a long 5 or 6 hour layover before I get on a plane for an overnight 8 hour flight onto Barcelona. That makes for a 16 hour day when you add in the necesary time before your first flight. layover time and an overnight flight of 8 more hours. On her last European trip, a freind said those flying the cruise flights were in a similar situation that I describe (an overall 15 or 16 hours) and she said they all looked like zombies. I think I'd rather do the nonstop options and have total control over my flights to allow my body to catch up and be much more ready to begin our cruise.

I am going on a Med cruise in May 2010. It starts in Barcelona and ends in Venice. There is no easy way to go direct to Europe from Washington DC...

financialgrl,

We just did a Barcelona to Istanbul cruise...and we've done cruises that end in Venice as well...There are no nonstops from LAX to either place...(I think Alitalia has a nonstop from LAX to Rome, but that is as close as it gets...so we've done these trips different ways in the past...

Our best arrangements to Barcelona were on our recent trip--we took a nonstop from LA to Heathrow and then a quick 2 hour flight from there to Barcelona on British Airways...

Our last trip home from Venice, we did a very short leg from Venice to Frankfurt and a nonstop home from Frankfurt on Lufthansa...

My preference in those situations is to do the Europe to home as the long leg...Coming home by way of anywhere (JFK, Miami, etc.) typically means passing through customs--and a major hassle...

Our flight home from our last trip--from Istanbul--unfortunately required us to take three legs (we couldn't get the nonstop from Heathrow to LAX)...We had to fly Istanbul to Heathrow, Heathrow to Vancouver and Vancouver to LAX...Little to we know, believe it or not, that you have to go through US Customs in Vancouver (Did British Columbia secede from Canada and join the US?)...

In any event, they made us collect our luggage and go through customs before catching the last leg home...Unfortunately our flight was delayed from Heathrow and it did not leave us enough time to wait for the luggage and take it through customs--and we missed the flight...The only way they could get us home that day was to wait for a later flight to Portland to connect to yet another flight from Portland to LAX...absolutely horrendous...and the best reason NOT to connect in North America if you can help it...

One way or another this time, we're going to be on one of those nonstops...

I am just wondering if there's a better way to book it...or some sort of package deal that might make the cost less oppressive...

We had to fly Istanbul to Heathrow, Heathrow to Vancouver and Vancouver to LAX...Little to we know, believe it or not, that you have to go through US Customs in Vancouver (Did British Columbia secede from Canada and join the US?)...

Sorry, the US doesn't give Canada much choice.. They'd rather have US pre-clearance at the larger Canadian airports (YVR,YYC,YEG,YWG,YYZ,YOW,YUL,YHZ) than put in place US Customs & Immigration at all of the US airports (>50) served from Canada. You get cleared into a USA only wing of the airport, and cannot leave again (it also means that unlike 'normal' checkin, you don't drop your bags at the checkin counter, you have to go through US C&I 1st. On a transit from Europe, you can bypass entering Canada via a special exit pre-Canadian C&I, that takes you to the US C&I area.

You could also put in a Kayak.com "fare alert". This will keep an eye out for the best upcoming fares and email you as and when they occur.

At this point I have pretty much decided that I want to take a 9am United flight from DC to Heathrow nonstop and that gets in at 9:55pm. I will spend the night at a Heathrow AP hotel and probably later the next day or early the second day take the 2 hour hop to Barcelona. I want to have 2 or 3 days precruise in Barcelona, another 3 days post cruise in Venice and then flying back to DC via Heathrow. I've decided to add a few days in London, before doing the 7 hour flight back to Dulles AP. I'd guess that means Customs would be at Dulles AP but I am not too upset over that, as long as it is not Reagan AP. I hate Reagan.

I am expecting this will surely be an expensive flight sequence but I am taking my 19 y/o niece with me and she's never been to Europe. Years ago she said she always wanted to do this but figured she'd never be able to afford it and I told her if she did well in HS, I'd take her once she graduated. That happened in June and she graduated third in her class of 467 with a GPA of 4.185 so I can't say she didn't hold up her end of the bargain, plus she's a great kid and very appreciative of anything someone does for her. To tie this in with another thread somewhere on these boards, since BF hates to travel and won't, cruising as a single traveler I'd have to pay for double occupancy whether she goes or not so . . . I told her if she pays for her flights I'd pick up the rest. It's a win win all the way around because she is such a great kid plus she gets to see things she would otherwise never get to experience. I am so excited even tho it is 9 months away yet!

We're doing a 12 day Oceania sailing starting 06/30/2010. We plan to fly out of LA into Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic, which is a non stop flight. The return is still up in the air (no pun intended)! Would dearly like to fly back into Las Vegas, but that would entail flying out of Gatwick. Going to try and work it out.

We're doing a 12 day Oceania sailing starting 06/30/2010. We plan to fly out of LA into Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic, which is a non stop flight. The return is still up in the air (no pun intended)! Would dearly like to fly back into Las Vegas, but that would entail flying out of Gatwick. Going to try and work it out.

FYI, British Airways now has a non-stop between LHR and LAS.

Would dearly like to fly back into Las Vegas, but that would entail flying out of Gatwick.

What's wrong with flying out of Gatwick?

Originally Posted by Leonid

Would dearly like to fly back into Las Vegas, but that would entail flying out of Gatwick.

What's wrong with flying out of Gatwick?

Nothing is wrong with flying out of Gatwick, as from Southampton there is a direct train (hourly) from Southampton Central to Gatwick Airport (something which still doesn't exist for LHR). Given my choice for Southampton, Gatwick is the easiest (not requiring a tedous bus ride), followed by BHX/Birmingham (also direct rail to Southampton), and then LHR

Have you tried BestTravelstore dot com? Many folks on our Nov 29 Voyager transatlantic are using this site for air.

Steve,

I was faced with a similar situation. I'm booked on a Baltic cruise end of June to early July. Let me tell you that BA still charges a fuel surcharge and that is why their fares are so high! I didn't know whether to take a chance and book later, but since I have miles on BA (not enough for 2), I decided to use them up as best I could. One premium economy ticket (100K miles) costs $626 in taxes and two economy tickets costs $700 in taxses. I wasn't expecting that as my friend used miles on United for 2 economy tickets and paid $199 in taxes.

Just be aware that Wimbledon runs from end of June to early July and seats may be hard to get. Hotels in London will be higher than they already are. School will be out and summer travel will begin. Those factors led me to book and not think about the possibility of cheaper fares next year. One less thing to think about now. If you can get non-stop flights now, that's a big plus in my book.

Virgin Atlantic has flight from LAX to LHR. If you have miles on AmEx, you can transfer them to VA.

Good luck.

Can Celebrity deduct the transfer if you aren't going to use it?

[quote name=paws10;20838864

Virgin Atlantic has flight from LAX to LHR. If you have miles on AmEx' date=' you can transfer them to VA.[/quote]

Another great flight for LAX-LHR is on NZ/Air New Zealand, a continuation of their AKL-LAX-LHR flight. They have traffic rights over the atlantic, offer a great product, offer real one-way fares, and *A points.

Let me tell you that BA still charges a fuel surcharge and that is why their fares are so high!

If there are no availability issues on any airline on this route, the total you pay will be pretty much the same on all the competing airlines, irrespective of whether they break out a fuel surcharge or not. If BA is more expensive on a particular day, it will only be because they've already sold out of the cheapest fares, and only more expensive fares are still available. It's the same if Virgin or some other airline is more expensive on a particular day.

To take an example on LAX-LHR-LAX on 8 April returning on 25 April (random dates):-

NZ: $1067.70 (fare $680 + $222 fuel etc surcharge + other taxes fees and charges)

AA: $1070.70 (fare $905 + taxes fees and charges)

BA: $1070.70 (fare $683 + $222 fuel etc surcharge + other taxes fees and charges)

VS: $1070.70 (fare $683 + $222 fuel etc surcharge + other taxes fees and charges)

UA: $1125.70 (fare $738 + $222 fuel etc surcharge + other taxes fees and charges)

You see there that NZ's fare is $3 cheaper than the others. And the reason that UA is $55 more than the others is because on the flight out on 8 April, it has sold out of the booking class S and the fare is based on a higher booking class, V.

But on any of the airlines in the middle, you pay the same even though AA does not break out a fuel surcharge but both BA and VS do.

However, if you get a discount on the fare that you pay (up to and including a 100% discount if you redeem frequent flyer miles), then you could be affected by different airlines' fuel surcharging policies. That's one of the reasons why there was a difference between what you paid when redeeming miles for travel on BA, and what your friend paid to redeem miles on UA.

But even then, these weren't directly comparable, as part of the difference is also due to the fact that you had to pay a higher level of tax because you were travelling in a premium cabin - and that has nothing to do with BA's fuel surcharge

Paws10 - I don't know if it is a fuel surcharge or taxes for using miles. I was going to transfer amex miles to Virgin for my trip next summer and I am glad I checked the prices before I did. Virgin charged over $500 per business ticket in addition to 100,000 miles. I checked Continental which code shares with Virgin and was able to book the same flights for only a little over $200 with the same $100,000 miles transfered. I saves over $$300 per ticket. Not sure why the taxes and fees were so much higher.

We just cruised the British Isle trip in June/July and used Orbitz for our flights. We had to connect, JFK going and Atlanta on the return. The cost was about $850 pp. We used bookings@smithsforairports.com Smiths transfers from LHR to Southampton both ways for 92BPS each way for 5 people and many bags. They were excellent. He was waiting at the airport and there when we disembarked the ship.

What's wrong with flying out of Gatwick?

Not a thing! Just had to work out the logistics. In fact recently booked a non-stop on Virgin Atlantic back into Las Vegas. Both departure & arrival times are great, although we will stay over at Gatwick the night before the flight home..Much easier for us to get back to Reno from LV than LA.

DW is mobily challenged....getting from the International Terminal at LAX to the Southwest Airlines terminal can be frustrating, since SWA does not have an agreement with any airline regarding baggage transfer. SWA uses 737 aircraft while the other airlines use CRJ or a turboprop...neither appeal to DW.

In LV it's really easy to get a sky cap to take the luggage from the baggage carousel to the SWA ticket counter.

Just got back and we did our flights out of Gatwick. The only problem we ran into was that when my husband's flight was delayed it was harder to find a flight that would get him to Gatwick than Heathrow. It was only an issue because he went to Poland for a week before the cruise and had a ticket on a "cheapy" airline from Gatwick to Krakow that would not be honored by anyone else. If you are going just to London, though, I think Gatwick is no problem. We used a car service recommended on CC for precruise arrival. We stayed at a hotel near Gatwick after the cruise and planned to take the Gatwick shuttle into London for the day. The ticket salesman instead sold us a day pass for just over 8 pounds that got us roundtrip Gatwick/Victoria and was good on all the busses and tubes for the day.