Suggestions for International Airfare Bargains

I just booked a 7 day Med cruise on NCL Epic for $589 (studio cabin). That is the best price for a cruise I have ever seen. However, when I went to book airfare I was amazed that a RT ticket from DFW - Barcelona is $1282. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that. I then thought I would call the company that NCL uses for airfare thinking I could get a deal. Well think again; the lady quoted me $1800 for RT and when I told her that I was looking at AA website and it said $1282 she couldn't tell me why theirs was so much higher. Then she made a comment that "special requests" (like favorite airlines) were more money so I said no thank you.

 

I am hoping that there will be some kind of sale for the spring and or summer as my cruise is May 10 - 17. Since I still have 80 something days to go I have set an alert on Kayak and look three times a day on AA.com. I also tried to use my FF miles but since I waited too long all the flights were gone. This is so frustrating but hey I got a 7 day Med cruise for $589 (lol).

Perhaps you should have checked the air fares before you booked the cruise. The American fare sounds about right. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anything cheaper. Fares this summer from Houston to London are approaching $1800 if you want one of the non-stops on UA or BA.

I just booked a 7 day Med cruise on NCL Epic for $589 (studio cabin). That is the best price for a cruise I have ever seen. However, when I went to book airfare I was amazed that a RT ticket from DFW - Barcelona is $1282. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that.

So we bought the cruise and then researched air pricing? May I ask...just what did you think the air was going to cost, and why did you think that?

I am hoping that there will be some kind of sale for the spring and or summer as my cruise is May 10 - 17.

What leads you to believe that flights for YOUR specific dates and route will go down in price? Should not your experience regarding using FF miles tend to indicate that the "cheap seats" are long gone? Remember that several thousand people will be wanting for fly to/from BCN for your cruise and that most have already booked their air.

Since I still have 80 something days to go I have set an alert on Kayak and look three times a day on AA.com. I also tried to use my FF miles but since I waited too long all the flights were gone. This is so frustrating but hey I got a 7 day Med cruise for $589 (lol).

Those 80 days are not as far out in the future as you might suspect. At least you are at the early part of the high season but let me pose a thought problem.

 

How much are you expecting the price to drop in your waiting period? How willing are you to pay the current price? Now....will you be able to pay for your air if the price goes up $100? $200? $400? How happy will you be if there's a rise and you can't get the current price again?

 

Let's say you are expecting a $200 price drop (which I believe is unrealistic). You are wagering a $200 gain vs a much more significant downside loss. Do you think a $200 savings is worth wagering against a $200 rise? Do you think those outcomes are about equally likely? I don't.

 

You don't ask for specific advice, but here it is anyway. Buy your tickets now. Your price is reasonable, given all the factors. If you insist on waiting, set some kind of "stop loss" number at which point you'll stop waiting and buy - though even that may not help you if prices radically rise.

 

But hey...you got such a deal. ;)

robin13 - ~$1200 is actually a pretty good price for your dates and routing. You aren't going to find a "bargain". Tickets to Europe have been expensive the last few years. I've been watching flights for July since they opened, and for my routing, they've never gone much below $1700. I finally gave up and booked award tickets.

 

Were you trying to book AA award tickets? There is lots of availability, departure 09 May, return 17 May for 50,000 miles RT. Do you not see that? If you don't have quite enough miles, look at what it would cost to purchase the extra miles you need. May be cheaper than purchasing tickets for cash.

 

Likelihood of a sale is really small. You are booking airfare late. Go back and look at award availability.

Edited February 12, 2015 by 6rugrats

I just played around with Ita Matrix, and the cheapest I can find is $1282 for your route, at your dates. And it is a non-stop too!

 

All the flights with transits in Europe are more expensive, and I can tell you exactly why: the weekend you are returning is a long weekend in Europe. I know Ascension Day does not mean very much to Americans, but here in Europe, everybody has 4 days off. It is like Labor Day or Thanksgiving weekend in the US. Some schools have the whole week off, and since the working week is only Mon-Wed, a lot of people take 3 days vacation to have a whole week off. It is a popular time of year for a citytrip, and which city features in the Top 5 of all citytrips? Right...Barcelona..... All flights to London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Stockholm, etc will have been sold out months ago, thus blocking possibilities to fly from there to the States.

 

There will be no bargain. Once the direct flight to DFW has filled up, that's it, I'm afraid. Book this rate, or cancel your cruise.

You could try getting a cheap fare flying to London & taking a budget airline down to Barcelona. Easyjet from Gatwick have about 6 a day & quite cheap - I use them all the time and they are very good.

You could try getting a cheap fare flying to London & taking a budget airline down to Barcelona. Easyjet from Gatwick have about 6 a day & quite cheap - I use them all the time and they are very good.

 

Have you actually done your homework and checked the rates before posting this? Especially on long weekends like Ascension Day, Whitsun, Corpus Christi, Easter, budget airlines are not so budget. The cheapest I can find at a sensible time is around 200 Pounds, without luggage, booking costs, etc. And the cheapest flight to LHR from DFW is $1197, then you still have to get across town to LGW, LTN or STN, and have this "cheap" ticket to BCN. The cheapest flight to LGW is $1297, on Air Europe via Madrid :D OP is better off with the $ 1282 direct ....

 

There is no interline agreement between budget airlines and legacy airlines, there is no safety net in case of delays because the flights are not in one ticket, and on these budget airlines you have to pay extra for your luggage. All in all, a really bad deal.

Edited February 13, 2015 by UKBayern

I just booked a 7 day Med cruise on NCL Epic for $589 (studio cabin). That is the best price for a cruise I have ever seen. However, when I went to book airfare I was amazed that a RT ticket from DFW - Barcelona is $1282. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that. I then thought I would call the company that NCL uses for airfare thinking I could get a deal. Well think again; the lady quoted me $1800 for RT and when I told her that I was looking at AA website and it said $1282 she couldn't tell me why theirs was so much higher. Then she made a comment that "special requests" (like favorite airlines) were more money so I said no thank you.

 

I am hoping that there will be some kind of sale for the spring and or summer as my cruise is May 10 - 17. Since I still have 80 something days to go I have set an alert on Kayak and look three times a day on AA.com. I also tried to use my FF miles but since I waited too long all the flights were gone. This is so frustrating but hey I got a 7 day Med cruise for $589 (lol).

 

1200 is quite reasonable actually from the states to Europe - and quite typical.

 

We were looking just these past two weeks at direct to Rome in July at $2200 each. Finally found one at $1400 each that we were holding and had settled on. Last night, Lufthansa ran a special and we got RT Rome for about 1050 each. Very rare pricing. 1200.00 isn't all that bad.

 

Are you still outside of final payment? If so, you have time to cancel if you don't find airfare you can stomach.

Edited February 13, 2015 by mickeysgal

when I went to book airfare I was amazed that a RT ticket from DFW - Barcelona is $1282. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that.

 

What were you expecting? $1282 seems extremely reasonable to me, as round trip flights to Europe can often be $1400-1800.

However, when I went to book airfare I was amazed that a RT ticket from DFW - Barcelona is $1282. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that.

Just how much did you think it was going to cost you to fly a third of the way around the planet?

 

If $1,282 is a problem, then you might want to work out by exactly when you must cancel the cruise in order not to be in for big cancellation charges. Next time you start planning a trip, you might want to remember that the price of any single part of your travel plans isn't as important as the total cost of travel, and it sounds like you completely failed to look into that question.

Maybe another way to look at it is a week long Mediterranean vacation for under $2000!

The $1282 sounds like a good average of my last 4 or 5 transatlantic flights. It's amazing how stable pricing has been.

Check our Norwegian Airline. I booked our flights for about $500 per person to Barcelona for our 7 day Med Cruise in June! :)

 

We also booked with them to come back from London for about the same price.

Check our Norwegian Airline. I booked our flights for about $500 per person to Barcelona for our 7 day Med Cruise in June! :)

 

We also booked with them to come back from London for about the same price.

 

 

Where were you flying from?

I believe the op was flying from The states- Texas.

Big difference in airfare vs flying from within Europe.

Where were you flying from?

I believe the op was flying from The states- Texas.

Big difference in airfare vs flying from within Europe.

 

That poster states they are in CA, but it appears they paid $1000 for the RT. Post is a bit confusing though. I would personally choose the ~$1200 fare on a major carrier.

Where were you flying from?

I believe the op was flying from The states- Texas.

Big difference in airfare vs flying from within Europe.

 

I'm flying from LAX (Los Angeles) to Barcelona and our return flight is London to LAX.

 

RT is about $1100 per person.

 

I know the carrier has had some bad press, but if the OP is like me and is willing to take a risk and hope for the best, then it's up to her/him. Even though they have had some issues, they also have had many more good flights than bad flights.

 

I was just trying to let them know there are more budget friendly airlines out there, even if they aren't the big popular names like British Air, etc.

Edited February 13, 2015 by NewCruiserMPC

even if they aren't the big popular names like British Air, etc.

 

Never heard of them.

Very helpful info from some posters and some very typical non-welcoming comments from some (very typical on the Cruise Air forum).

 

Also, just because one poster on an anonymous forum hasn't heard of a certain airline doesn't really mean much. No one knows everything about commercial airlines!!

No one knows everything about commercial airlines!!

But we're working on it.....:D

I'm flying from LAX (Los Angeles) to Barcelona and our return flight is London to LAX.

 

RT is about $1100 per person.

 

I know the carrier has had some bad press, but if the OP is like me and is willing to take a risk and hope for the best, then it's up to her/him. Even though they have had some issues, they also have had many more good flights than bad flights.

 

I was just trying to let them know there are more budget friendly airlines out there, even if they aren't the big popular names like British Air, etc.

 

Absolutely correct, but the OP still has to get to LAX (or New York, or Orlando) from Dallas to board a Norwegian flight. That is going to eat up the 182 $ difference very quickly. The cheapest flight I could find on Spirit for the OP's travel dates is $187. So no savings in this case. With Norwegian, the OP has another stop in Copenhagen. OP would be paying $5 per person more for flying DFW-LAX-CPH-BCN than DFW-BCN direct. I know what I would do.

Very helpful info from some posters and some very typical non-welcoming comments from some (very typical on the Cruise Air forum).

 

Also, just because one poster on an anonymous forum hasn't heard of a certain airline doesn't really mean much. No one knows everything about commercial airlines!!

 

HA! Tell me about it! I have more people on my ignore list from this board than any other on cruisecritic.

 

Back on topic: I have recently discovered this web site that sends me a daily email. All US cities to mostly international locations. Really good prices, too.

 

For instance, I've seen LAX-HNL for $598 roundtrip come up twice in the last 10 days. I'd subscribe to their newsletter and keep an eye out for local airports:

 

http://www.theflightdeal.com/category/flight-deals/

Another example why distance does not matter --- fares for nonstop flights from PHX to HNL are available for $450 in the next few weeks. So it just shows that on some long flights to a Europe or Asia from the US it pays to keep an open mind about your departure airport and in some cases backtracking can save you quite a bit of money.

HA! Tell me about it! I have more people on my ignore list from this board than any other on cruisecritic.

I really wish that CC had the ability to show who has ignored you....I'd like to know that list.

 

As to the email lists and bargain websites.....suffice to say that it is possible for there to be price changes on any route on any airline at any time. However, don't be lulled into confusing possible with probable. Or possible with "something more likely than hitting the Powerball".

Thus the reason I have yet to book a European itinerary. I would love to but airfare is making it financially prohibitive!:eek:

I really wish that CC had the ability to show who has ignored you....I'd like to know that list.

 

As to the email lists and bargain websites.....suffice to say that it is possible for there to be price changes on any route on any airline at any time. However, don't be lulled into confusing possible with probable. Or possible with "something more likely than hitting the Powerball".

 

No point asking, you and I are both bound to be on the ignore list, the kitten slayers and destroyers of rainbows that we are. :D