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Thanks for the replies!  I guess I am just not going to try and overthink it and just hope for the best in my preferred month.

@Canal archive - totally agree on the skills of the ship’s navigation crew to “thread the needle” at times!

We liked our first river cruise so much that we would like to book another for next year.  One thing we learned this year is that river water levels can effect river cruises and require passengers to switch ships and/or get bussed to certain destinations.  How much of an issue are water levels on the Seine and Saone Rivers?  Are there months that you would avoid and/or recommend?  Thanks in advance for any input.

You could also consider AeroMexico for this flight.  They have some competitive business class prices from time to time.  The flight from Mexico Pity to Buenos Aires would be on a wide body 787 rather a 737.

Good luck!

Since there were so many different options, we decided to try several of them since they are all clustered together: 

1) Cathay Pacific- first class lounge is small but nice.  We had breakfast there consisting of wonton soup and dumplings.  Everything we ate was tasty and western options are available.   The first class and business sides have decent views of the tarmac for those interested. While the lounge could possibly use a light refresh of furniture, the service was really good and the seating comfortable.

2) Qantas - we caught them at a bad moment as the Perth flight was just about to leave the gate and the lounge had just emptied.  The lounge wasn’t offering too much food t next hour and it was really dirty.  We probably caught it at the lounge’s worst moment.  The plane viewing options aren’t that good as the lounge doesn’t have too many windows.  The agent at the front desk did indicate that their gin bar was good but the moment wasn’t right.

3) BA first - very clean and quiet.  It is somewhat like the Terminal 5 lounge is design but a bit older.  My highlight was the availability of Don Julio

Anejo at the self service bar.  Good seats as well for watching the planes.  A nice buffet was available and this along with bright ambiance was the nicest for sitting and relaxing.  The BA lounge has an open feel compared to the Cathay lounge and is a very solid Terminal 3 option.

4) AA first - I wanted to like this more than I did.  The entry is definitely very new and modern but the lounge itself is kind of small.  The sit down restaurant was serving lunch but we didn’t really try any food as we had already eaten in the Cathay lounge.  The lounge was clean and quiet we had a seat by the window although the views weren’t the best other than a Virgin Atlantic 787.

While everyday is different, our two favorites for today were Cathay Pacific and British Airways.  

8 hours ago, 6rugrats said:

You've received an answer, but when asking this type of question, it's helpful to add how you would have lounge access.  Class of service?  Status?

  Business class with emerald status 

@Gardyloo That was a great video you posted!  I will try a couple as we have a longish connection although I think the Cathay lounge is at the top of my list.

Tomorrow we have our journey home following our river cruise.  We are flying home on AA which I assume departs from Terminal 3.  What is the preferred OW lounge available to me?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and advice!

Just now, CruiserBruce said:

It's a matter of customer service for a flight your employer doesn't own.

I have never had an issue in this regard.  For me, AA will answer my call much faster than other OW airlines as they recognize my status.  In this respect I get better customer service.

9 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

…Not sure if I would trust an alliance member who has no actual part in the flight.

Why?  Do you really think BA or IB is going to not honor AA issued tickets? 

Our recent cruise docked overnight as well and at least some passengers took a river cruise to see the lights.  However, the departed the following evening and we saw the lights from the ship as well.  I would check with your cruise director when on board to get a better idea of the departure time and whether it will be dark

The included city tour is worthwhile and provides a good background of the city for a few hours as described by @Daisi above.  One decision that we made that I was happy with was to get a 24 hour transit pass to get around the city easily.  The trolley, bus and metro service in Budapest is really good.

We really liked Budapest and would like to return sometime.

Ensenada really doesn’t cater to this type of activity as the weather is pretty much the same as San Diego and October isn’t usually all that warm along the coast.

Your best bet is in Cabo.

49 minutes ago, em-sk said:

 

In this example Iberia is an airline. Likely this was a booking that involved AA and Iberia on the same ticket.

 Yes, Iberia is an airline and part of the OneWorld Alliance. The OW members sell code shared tickets on each other’s aircraft all the time.  
 

I have flown on trips where all the flights were on BA and IB aircraft yet the ticket was issued by AA.  Why?  As noted above by another poster, there was a fare advantage for doing so.  I also am used to dealing with AA.

The comparison I tried to make in my post was to some of the online travel agencies where customer service is almost nonexistent. 

@Daisi - you are correct, our cruise was with Avalon.  We did not take an of the active tours as we felt it would be better to have the local guides rather than the ship’s activities manager lead the tour.  
 

Overall, we were very impressed with the whole Avalon experience and would recommend the company’s cruises.

Well, we finished our first ever river cruise this morning which of course included a city tour from the ship to our overnight hotel.

All in all the included tours were mostly worthwhile but the pace at times was a bit slow for our preferences. I guess my lesson learned is to try as best you can to mix them up as best you can - city vs countryside vs activities…  We didn’t really do any research before the trip and probably could have done better with more planning.  
 

Included tours or not, the bottom line is that we really enjoyed the intimate experience afforded by river cruises and look forward to finding another itinerary to try in the future.
 

Good luck to all on their future river cruises and tours!  

18 hours ago, AveSaloon said:

 

Likely the fare arbitrage with the code-shares.

 

 

Better that than some discount travel agent.  The example above is one reason why I always book direct with an airline.

@GabbyRose Congratulations in getting your flight figured out in advance.  
 

It also seems that you might now be routed on BA rather than AA. If you still are on AA, you likely will need to change terminals at LHR and will get another security screening - regardless of airline.

The only reason I mention this is that your trip through the airport will still take some time.  Regardless, you’ll be in Europe with only a short flight to Amsterdam.

@GabbyRose - regardless of the wait time, you need to simply wait for the agent to take your call and get this fixed.  You need to call Iberia rather than AA as they are the airline that issued you the ticket.  Good luck and be persistent with the agent.  If the first agent isn’t helpful hang up and call again to find someone that will help.  This really shouldn’t be a problem as your flight connection time isn’t “legal” from my understanding.

6 hours ago, Roz said:

I took a 31-day South American cruise on HAL, and the cruise was definitely about the ports. I don't think you can generalize that ocean cruises are all about the ship.

Of course ocean cruises can also be port intensive. However, the distances between ports tend to be much farther on ocean cruises.  With that in mind, I would bet you had at least 10-15 “sea days” on that 31 day HAL cruise to simply relax and enjoy the ship’s onboard experience.  A river cruise can sometimes make multiple stops in a single day.  Both types of cruises - ocean and river - are great and there is something available for everyone’s preferences.

11 hours ago, Daisi said:

 

 

I've never Ocean cruised - to big of boat, to many people for my comfort level, but I think that is one of the main differences about river & ocean cruising. Ocean cruises are all about the boat, river cruises are all about the ports. They do tend to wear you out, which is probably why the evening entertainment is low key. Mind you, we do tend to do morning and afternoon tours as we want to see everything.

I think you might be happy on a smaller ship as it could provide a somewhat similar feel and more intimate experience.  A couple people on our current river cruise suggest that the “ship within a ship” experience on lines like MSC and NCL also provide a similar feel.  

I also think that entertainment is a bit “lower key” on river boats due to the economic realities associated with the much lower passenger counts and fewer public spaces.  On our current cruise, the dinner ends at around 9 and is followed by a single event that typically ends around 11.  

My last comment on the included tours is the relentless pace of them on river cruises.  It’s really an “eye opener” for us and represents a significant difference to me between ocean and river cruising.  While the boat is definitely very important, it clearly isn’t the destination as it tends to be these days on some of the mega ships cruising on the oceans and seas.

Going off on your own is certainly doable and we have done this several times on our current cruise.  

Independent touring definitely works better when you are port for at least 8 hours or more and even better on an overnight stop (or at least a late departure.)

I would recommend talking to your cruise director as they will let you know when it’s practical to venture out on your own.

Good luck!

8 hours ago, RobInMN said:

I'm guessing a 4(?) week cruise, nice! I think it would be very cool to do that in one continuous trip. After we do the cruise next spring, we'll have covered basically that same itinerary, but it will have taken us 4/5 different cruises (had some overlap 🙂)…

We are on the “Iconic Rivers of Europe” cruise with Avalon for 23 days.  It’s been a great trip so far and the atmosphere on board has been wonderful.  I would highly recommend this trip to anyone with the time and resources necessary to pull it off.

On 5/18/2024 at 6:10 PM, Gardyloo said:

…

I should ask because I'm a broken record... Do you have any other international travel/cruise plans for the rest of this year (before Japan) or next year following the Japan cruise?  Because if so, you might benefit from a round the world ticket that would let you fly in business class at a more affordable price than individual PE round trips.  

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k7409073-About_round_the_world_RTW_tickets-Air_Travel.html

 

I very much appreciate your repetition of message as it has enabled me to get a really amazing ticket price for travel this coming fall and next winter/spring.

I am on a river cruise right now and did my best to explain your process to a longtime AA Executive Platinum member last night. This person’s eyes lit up when they saw the price differences between starting cities and how with a bit of planning you can organize multiple trips on a single ticket.  

Thanks again!

We are currently on our first ever river cruise and are traveling between Amsterdam and Bucharest.  We picked this cruise as it seemed to have the greatest variety of stops across different areas of an countries within Europe.  
 

We are now past Budapest and into our final week.  One thing that we have really enjoyed- in addition to all the sites - is the much more intimate nature of the river boats.  We now pretty much know lots of the crew and passengers in a way that’s not possible on ocean ships, or at least on lines like RCCL.

As a side note regarding lines - I think the boats with real separate balconies tend to waste cabin space over those that simply have sliding windows or doors to let air inside the cabin.

Good luck with your decision!

31 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

…

Notice on River cruises how the dining hours sometimes alter a bit especially over lunch because of excursion return times.

Yes, today’s lunch time was delayed by 30 minutes or so to accommodate buses.  We could see the hotel manager on the gangway waiting to send word to the dining room as we arrived.

You are correct that there is more of an expectation regarding food times on the river cruise than an ocean vessels.  I guess this is because dining times are a bit more limited even though our ship has an afternoon tea every day for those that get hungry between lunch and dinner.