Breaking Up Flight After Cruise

Our cruise last year ended in Lisbon. The cruise line suggested we not book flights earlier than noon. Our flight home to NC would require three connections and did not seem feasible to do all in the same day with such a late first flight time. So, we stayed overnight and flew out early the next morning. This also required a very early departure to the airport for the first flight of the day and still was a very long day. We were all ready to get home after our two week cruise and didn't have much energy for sightseeing that afternoon.

My question: Is there a better way to schedule our flights? Is it possible (and would you recommend) we fly partway after disembarking the ship and then finish the flight(s) home the next day. For example, should we have flown Lisbon to London that first afternoon and then the next morning fly London to NC?

I'm not sure if this is a layover or a stopover-I have seen both of those terms before. I am interested in learning how to book our flights in a "smarter" way.

Thanks,

cruiserobin

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

I have done overnight connections several times, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes out of choice. In general, I find them much more relaxing than having multiple connections on the same day. For instance, coming home from our Med cruise 2 years ago, we scheduled a 3:30 pm flight FCO-LHR, the flew LHR-YUL the next afternoon at 3. Gave us a relaxing evening in London, ith a bit of shopping time the next morning before catching the train back to LHR for our afternoon flight.

One great advantage to connecting in Europe: you will almost certainly be able to check your luggage through, thus will not have to pick it up at your connecting airport.

My question: Is there a better way to schedule our flights? Is it possible (and would you recommend) we fly partway after disembarking the ship and then finish the flight(s) home the next day. For example, should we have flown Lisbon to London that first afternoon and then the next morning fly London to NC?

Technical terms like layover and stopover are frequently misused (often by people who think it's cool to use a technical term even if they don't know what it means) and therefore they can be confusing when you see them elsewhere.

If you spend less than 24 hours in London and your travel is booked on a single ticket, it would almost certainly not count as a stopover for ticketing purposes, so the fare should be the same as if you had completed the journey with no overnight breaks. This should apply to any connecting point. In addition, on a UK-specific point, the government's air travel tax would also not be charged as you would have less than 24 hours in London between two international flights.

However, you would have to pay for the overnight hotel accommodation.

Whether or not it's a good idea really depends on the alternatives. But it's difficult to advise in the abstract without knowing where you're flying to.

We recently broke up our flight home from Vienna. If we were to do it same day we would have had to be at the airport at around 4:00 am. Not fun [emoji22]. We were instead able to pick a flight that had about 24 hours in Amsterdam. We loved it. It just seemed a very relaxing way to get home. And Amsterdam is an easy in and out of the city.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I sometimes do break up my flights, though always for under 24 hours. As such, it usually is a layover, not a stopover. For example, I once had a morning meeting in Hamburg and was able to make it to Chicago via London for the evening, before continuing home to Kansas City some 13 hours later (after an overnight stay at the O'Hare Hilton). My wife and I just booked flights from Sydney to Kansas City via Honolulu and a 13 hour overnight stop in Seattle (joys of using miles). It's sometimes nice to break up longer trips with a few hours of real sleep. Though sometimes I prefer just to get to my destination as quickly as possible. It's really all personal preference.

Thanks for all your responses. It definitely sounds less stressful to stay overnight to break up the flights. I am so glad to hear about everyone's experiences planning their flights this way.

Our 2015 cruise will not have complicated flights since it is a transatlantic crossing. It departs from Amsterdam which will just required 1-1/2 hr drive from home to Charlotte (CLT), connection in Atlanta (normally), and then direct flight to Amsterdam (if we fly Delta.) The return flight will be easy since the cruise ends in NYC; we would just have the flight to CLT.

Our 2016 cruise flights will be more complicated. We are cruising Monte Carlo to Athens (4/10-4/24/16.) We will be flying Charlotte to Monte Carlo/Nice for the start of the cruise. Our return flights will be Athens to Charlotte (and then the drive home.)

Regarding our 2016 cruise-Any suggestions on which airline and how to split these flights so we can overnight somewhere? We do fly business class and my husband prefers (insists!) on lie-flat beds.

Thanks again!

Robin

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

Robin,

If you are considering Delta please go to their web site to get a clear explanation of their new stopover policy. It changed with the new year. It's definitely not as user friendly as it once was. Class of service will have no bearing on this change.

 

Our 2016 cruise flights will be more complicated. We are cruising Monte Carlo to Athens (4/10-4/24/16.) We will be flying Charlotte to Monte Carlo/Nice for the start of the cruise. Our return flights will be Athens to Charlotte (and then the drive home.)

 

Regarding our 2016 cruise-Any suggestions on which airline and how to split these flights so we can overnight somewhere? We do fly business class and my husband prefers (insists!) on lie-flat beds.

 

Although CLT is a hub for US Air, it doesn't look like they offer a nonstop from Athens to CLT, which is unlucky for you. If they did, that would be the obvious choice and I would see no need to overnight anywhere.

Since they don't, I'd try to schedule a nonstop from Athens to PHL then spend the night there if you like. The next day, take one of the many daily flights from PHL to CLT, and drive home.

Personally, I understand the desire for lie-flat beds on the way TO Europe, as those are typically overnight flights and one wants to sleep. Your flight home will be during the daytime, so as long as you're in business, does hubby still require lie-flat seats? Usually we are awake sitting up (albeit reclining) and watching movies, not sleeping on that flight.

To the best of my knowledge US Air does not fly non-stop from PHL to Athens either. It looks like you are going to need to connect somewhere in Europe. It would depend on whether you wanted to get a big chunk of the flying over Europe done or whether you want a short Europe flight so you could maximize your international business class experience. Most Europe based airlines (Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa) mostly fly single cabin planes within Europe. A few have the convertible seats where they block the middle seat and with a few flips of the arm rests it converts to two seats. But it has bad leg room and no additional recline than a regular economy seat. US air business class is quite nice, though you will still have to deal with the surly US based flight attendants. I always remind myself that when flying on US based airlines that they just aren't good at customer service and I am only here for the seat.

You could do connections easily through any of the following cities, you would just have to decide which one interests you the most.

AMS, CDG, LHR, FRA, MUC

Sometimes a "forced" layover (under 24h) will be the same price as a more direct connection, and sometimes the specific tariff rules will jack the price. It's all a matter of specific situations.

What I'd do is use ITA and look for prices for flights within the current year, specifying departure times from your origin. (For example, if you want to leave Athens at 2 PM or later, see what the prices look like when you are "forced" to spend the night somewhere else.) Of course next year's fares will likely be different, but the differential between faster and slower (overnight) connections will probably still be quite comparable.

We were thinking about breaking up the flight with a short European flight, spend the night in Europe (AMS, for example), and then fly back to the US the next morning.

Hopefully this would allow us to catch our first flight right after disembarking the ship (afternoon flight.) Then we would have just two flights (Europe to ATL, ATL to CLT) the next day. We still would have the 1-1/2 hour drive home from Charlotte.

Last year's flight from Lisbon required waking up at 4:00am (Lisbon time), Lisbon to Madrid flight, a horrible connection in Madrid, Madrid to Atlanta flight, Atlanta to Charlotte flight, and then finally arriving home at 8:45pm (EST). I'm not sure how many hours that was in total (maybe 20?) but I know it was a lot!

I am so glad you have all confirmed there is an alternative way to get back home to the US!

Thanks again,

Robin

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

To the best of my knowledge US Air does not fly non-stop from PHL to Athens either.

A quick check of flight schedules for this summers shows a US nonstop ATH-PHL. Could change by '16 but for now it is offered.

We were thinking about breaking up the flight with a short European flight, spend the night in Europe (AMS, for example), and then fly back to the US the next morning.

 

Hopefully this would allow us to catch our first flight right after disembarking the ship (afternoon flight.) Then we would have just two flights (Europe to ATL, ATL to CLT) the next day. We still would have the 1-1/2 hour drive home from Charlotte.

 

So it appears that you are set on staying within the Sky Team alliance (Delta and partners)? Otherwise it would seem fairly easy to get a short European flight on disembarkation day to somewhere in Europe, and then ONE flight instead of two the next day, going nonstop from XXX in Europe to CLT.

 

Our 2016 cruise flights will be more complicated. We are cruising Monte Carlo to Athens (4/10-4/24/16.) We will be flying Charlotte to Monte Carlo/Nice for the start of the cruise. Our return flights will be Athens to Charlotte (and then the drive home.)

A quick check of flight schedules for this summers shows a US nonstop ATH-PHL. Could change by '16 but for now it is offered.

Even if the seasonal service were offered in April it would challenging to make an 11:30 international departure since the airport is over an hour away.

So it appears that you are set on staying within the Sky Team alliance (Delta and partners)? Otherwise it would seem fairly easy to get a short European flight on disembarkation day to somewhere in Europe, and then ONE flight instead of two the next day, going nonstop from XXX in Europe to CLT.

That is seasonal summer service. If you look at the OP's post she is traveling in early April which is really too early for many of the seasonal summer flights.

 

Even if the seasonal service were offered in April it would challenging to make an 11:30 international departure since the airport is over an hour away.

Does not appear to be season summer service, as they show a nonstop ATH-PHL for this April. :)

And the OP already mentioned that on a past trip they stayed overnight and flew out the next day, in which case one could easily make such a flight. She seems to believe she cannot get home from Europe with less than 2 connections; I have simply tried to show her that she can do it with one connection, as her home airport is a major airline hub.