Cruising still a great Value - Airfare is another story

[snoozycruisee]

Wow - After viewing the new "Latitude Insiders Cruise" Specials today, I was all set to book a TA on the Spirit departing 04-15-2012. Seriously, a 13 Night cruise starting at $ 429.00 + Tax ? Talk about Value.........not to mention the double Sailing points !

 

The downside is the Airfare....Yowzaa - Best Fare found for one way (return) from Barcelona to Chicago is $ 965.00 - Over twice the price of the 13 Night Cruise. Go figure. :mad:

 

Although the price of Cruising overall has climbed a bit, it's still a great value (and) there are bargains still to be found. Hoping that someday, the Airlines will again follow suit......;)

[Sauer-kraut]

Have a look at NCL's cruise/air prices. You might actually save money that way. I know when we took our TA in Oct '10 it was cheaper to fly on NCL's air program and they included the ground transport from Heathrow to Dover as well as from Port Canavaral to MCO.

[mitsugirly]

I completely agree. The air flight has always cost us about 1 1/2 times the amount of the cruise. This time around, it's more than double and I refuse to pay for it. We are (sadly) driving this time and we are not happy about it. It's a 20 hour drive for us (which of course doesn't account for potty stops, stretching legs, meal stops, traffic congestion and of course the dreaded road construction that we might run in to). :cool:

 

The things we are willing to do in order to cruise. It's dedication I tell ya! :D

[SuiteCruiser]

Wow - After viewing the new "Latitude Insiders Cruise" Specials today, I was all set to book a TA on the Spirit departing 04-15-2012. Seriously, a 13 Night cruise starting at $ 429.00 + Tax ? Talk about Value.........not to mention the double Sailing points !

 

The downside is the Airfare....Yowzaa - Best Fare found for one way (return) from Barcelona to Chicago is $ 965.00 - Over twice the price of the 13 Night Cruise. Go figure. :mad:

 

Although the price of Cruising overall has climbed a bit, it's still a great value (and) there are bargains still to be found. Hoping that someday, the Airlines will again follow suit......;)

 

I hear you. I charge every possible expense I have to my credit card and then book my flights on points. I always pay off the card, I have to, it's an Amex, but the points seem to accumulate just in time.

 

I'm doing the Epic TA in October and my airfare and hotel the night before in Barcelona are both "free".

 

Keep a good eye out for seat sales, sometimes you can get a deal. It is crazy to me to think that a 7 hour flight is the same price as a 13 day trip, same as a couple of days in a European hotel is more expensive.

 

Good luck!

[sdmike]

I'm with you guys. That's why I was so disappointed at NCL pulling out of the SoCal market. I can drive to Long Beach in 90 minutes. I just cashed in airline miles to fly 6 of us from San Diego to Seattle. All west coast and cheap, right? Nope. Over $400 per person, so using the miles saved me $2,500

[russianmom]

It is disgusting. My cousin just did CCL Victory out of San Juan. They invited us to join them but with airfare $300/pp more than the cost of the cruise :eek:we skipped it.

 

We are driving to NY next month for our cruise.

[planktin]

Is it the Spirit out of NOLA? My husband and I will be taking this cruise and the one after it. We are taking the train from Venice to Paris after the cruise. Airfare was pretty high, but we found roundtrip tickets to be cheaper. And by having the trip originate from Paris we have the option of going back in the fall (using our return portion) if there are any good deals sailing back from Europe. :D Just a thought. We found RT from Paris- NY then NY- Austin much cheaper, booking "legs" of the trip ourselves rather than having Kayak or Cheap Tickets do it for us. Good luck! :)

[Pikaia]

You're comparing apples and oranges. Planes go really fast and burn a lot of fuel to keep themselves up in the air.

But yeah, it does suck that the cost of airfare can be the limiting factor. :(

[halos]

Wow - After viewing the new "Latitude Insiders Cruise" Specials today, I was all set to book a TA on the Spirit departing 04-15-2012. Seriously, a 13 Night cruise starting at $ 429.00 + Tax ? Talk about Value.........not to mention the double Sailing points !

 

The downside is the Airfare....Yowzaa - Best Fare found for one way (return) from Barcelona to Chicago is $ 965.00 - Over twice the price of the 13 Night Cruise. Go figure. :mad:

 

Although the price of Cruising overall has climbed a bit, it's still a great value (and) there are bargains still to be found. Hoping that someday, the Airlines will again follow suit......;)

 

 

Air is awful but I don't see fares dropping any time soon.

They have what we need and they will keep hiking those prices. Yes, some of this is about fuel cost but most of it is greed on their part.

 

My heart breaks for people with young kids. I can't imagine what a family vacation costs these days.

[DCT61]

One thing in the airlines favor though...If a plane takes off from one point, gets to the destination and then decides not to land and carries you back to your original starting point...you get your money back.

[fergusonvt]

Agreed! I'd much rather cruise out of Florida to add some days at the beginning or the end for more of a vacation but airfair to NY is so much cheaper we chose that option for our next cruise.

[sverigecruiser]

I don't agree that airline tickets normally are expensive. A return ticket from Sweden to the US normally cost around $1000 and that's about the same amount I paid the first time I went to the US in 1993. A returnticket within Europe often costed around $400 in the nineties and for that money now, we normally get a ticket in business class.

 

What's expensive is to buy a oneway ticket since they normally cost as much as a returnticket! Why?

[disfan13]

I don't agree that airline tickets normally are expensive. A return ticket from Sweden to the US normally cost around $1000 and that's about the same amount I paid the first time I went to the US in 1993. A returnticket within Europe often costed around $400 in the nineties and for that money now, we normally get a ticket in business class.

 

What's expensive is to buy a oneway ticket since they normally cost as much as a returnticket! Why?

 

People are comparing fares to recent years where they have really been some great deals out there. I think those days are gone. To the OP - ecen with the air. That's under $110 per person per dayfor a 13 night cruise. Then add in gratuities and taxes - it still is a great deal.

[SuiteCruiser]

Wow - After viewing the new "Latitude Insiders Cruise" Specials today, I was all set to book a TA on the Spirit departing 04-15-2012. Seriously, a 13 Night cruise starting at $ 429.00 + Tax ? Talk about Value.........not to mention the double Sailing points !

 

The downside is the Airfare....Yowzaa - Best Fare found for one way (return) from Barcelona to Chicago is $ 965.00 - Over twice the price of the 13 Night Cruise. Go figure. :mad:

 

Although the price of Cruising overall has climbed a bit, it's still a great value (and) there are bargains still to be found. Hoping that someday, the Airlines will again follow suit......;)

 

I just checked my favourite booking engine for fun and see Luftansa for $692.00 (all in) if it's booked as a return flight. I used April 28th, returning May 17.

[dwjoe]

What's expensive is to buy a oneway ticket since they normally cost as much as a returnticket! Why?

Airline pricing algorithms dictate this for whatever reason.

 

If you need a one way ticket, one way around the high prices can be to use points. I know some US airlines that will let you buy a one way ticket for exactly half the points of a round trip ticket. (Continental, AA... there may be others)

[Sauer-kraut]

I know some US airlines that will let you buy a one way ticket for exactly half the points of a round trip ticket. (Continental, AA... there may be others)

 

Yeah, but today is the last day Continental flies.

[JP4GA]

Airfare is one of the factors that limits our cruisng choices. We only get so many days off work and I hate to use the time to drive to ports, but airfares are so high. For our upcoming cruise we have an 8 hour drive to and from port...

 

I really wish the airlines would drop prices.

[snoozycruisee]

Dummy me - I had not looked at "Round Trip" fares (but) have now. Thanks for the great suggestions and Airfare Tips..........You all ROCK !

 

Based on response information provided, Round Trip Barcelona-Chicago tickets have been found at WAY less then the cost of One Way Tickets.

 

Quick question: The Cruise is scheduled to arrive back in Barcelona on April 28, 2012 at 5:00 AM. The same day Flight out of Barcelona departs at 12:30 PM. Thoughts as to how the timing looks, i.e. Ample time to get to the Airport after the Cruise returns ? Barcelona would be a new port for us.

[palmtreecruzer]

I completely agree. The air flight has always cost us about 1 1/2 times the amount of the cruise. This time around, it's more than double and I refuse to pay for it. We are (sadly) driving this time and we are not happy about it. It's a 20 hour drive for us (which of course doesn't account for potty stops, stretching legs, meal stops, traffic congestion and of course the dreaded road construction that we might run in to). :cool:

 

The things we are willing to do in order to cruise. It's dedication I tell ya! :D

We have run into the same situation and will be driving too. I couldn't believe the cost of the tickets. We would have to drive to Chicago and fly from there. With air fare and car rental it was going to be over $900 and we refused to pay that much....even with gas prices being high we can still drive for less than that.

[mitsugirly]

We have run into the same situation and will be driving too. I couldn't believe the cost of the tickets. We would have to drive to Chicago and fly from there. With air fare and car rental it was going to be over $900 and we refused to pay that much....even with gas prices being high we can still drive for less than that.

 

Yea we tried several different scenarios which included us driving to 3 different airports (all within a 2-3 hour drive from our house) just to try to save $$. NONE of them would have saved enough for it to be worth it. (There are 5 of us going). :(

[searchers909]

The airfare prices are shocking! We always book with American site cruisecheap.com, as it's about 2/3 of the price here in the UK. The carribbean cruises are so much cheaper than the European cruises, but we run into the expensive flights. We're going on the Star on April 1st from Tampa, but we've got to fly via Toronto down to Tampa. About $600 return I think we had to pay.

[nbsjcruiser]

Wow - After viewing the new "Latitude Insiders Cruise" Specials today, I was all set to book a TA on the Spirit departing 04-15-2012. Seriously, a 13 Night cruise starting at $ 429.00 + Tax ? Talk about Value.........not to mention the double Sailing points !

 

The downside is the Airfare....Yowzaa - Best Fare found for one way (return) from Barcelona to Chicago is $ 965.00 - Over twice the price of the 13 Night Cruise. Go figure. :mad:

 

Although the price of Cruising overall has climbed a bit, it's still a great value (and) there are bargains still to be found. Hoping that someday, the Airlines will again follow suit......;)

 

You should live in Canada!

 

We drive 5 hours twice a year to fly out of the US because of its cheap airfare. Let me give you an example. We just came back from our cruise on the Pearl. We paid around $340 per person round trip from Portland Maine to West Palm Beach Florida. To fly Air Canada from our home town where the airport is 10 minutes away was approximately $900 per person.

 

Here's another example. We purchased air at $200 per person round trip from New Hampshire (6 hour drive) to FLL for November. Wanna take a guess at what the cost would be to fly from Canada? Go ahead, guess, I'll wait . . . . . . . . . . Give up? $1097 US per person! So the 2 of us can drive 6 hours to NH, fly round trip for $400 or stay home and fly for $2200. Here's the best part. We're sailing on the Majesty of the Seas for about $600 total. So if we were to fly Air Canada and get the pleasure of THE WORST service money can buy we get the pleasure of paying $2200 to take a $600 cruise.

 

Prices like that make it impossible to cruise regularly out of Canada. It becomes a major financial effort to do and is something we can do only once every 3 years or so. But fly out of the US and we can cruise twice a year sometimes.

 

So while I hear your complaints, trust me, you ought to walk a mile in my shoes.

[SuiteCruiser]

Dummy me - I had not looked at "Round Trip" fares (but) have now. Thanks for the great suggestions and Airfare Tips..........You all ROCK !

 

Based on response information provided, Round Trip Barcelona-Chicago tickets have been found at WAY less then the cost of One Way Tickets.

 

Quick question: The Cruise is scheduled to arrive back in Barcelona on April 28, 2012 at 5:00 AM. The same day Flight out of Barcelona departs at 12:30 PM. Thoughts as to how the timing looks, i.e. Ample time to get to the Airport after the Cruise returns ? Barcelona would be a new port for us.

 

Awesome! So glad we could help :) Barcelona is a great port, the ship docks about 20 minutes away from the airport, so even allowing for traffic, you can be pretty certain you won't miss your flight.

 

Maybe like someone else mentioned, you can move your return to line up with another Trans Atlantic, if you had the vacation time :)

[bobbyleduck]

Anyone who tries to tell you that airfare is cheap, doesn't know what they're talking about. We flew round trip from Portland, OR to Paris, France, 10 years ago, and it cost $880.00, total, for the two of us. Today, you can barely fly cross country for that price, for one, unless you have miles, points or free trips. Fortunately, we got two round-trip tickets on SWA when we signed up for it's charge card. A $59 annual fee, but we cancel the card at the end of the year, plus $20 in 9/11 security fees, and we're able to fly to our next cruise in Florida for $39.50 each. We have to be creative with our travel to the cruise ports if we're going to be able to keep cruising.

 

Bob

[RareBird]

Air prices are insane!

 

That's why we book suites, skip the high fare flights and travel from NYC. We are 20min from NCL's pier and about 40min from Liberty Cruise Port. Heaven!

 

My parents love Europe and they love to travel there, cruise or not. Airfare for them is always 700 to 1,000pp. And that's offseason when kids are in school.

 

I'd rather add a cost of one of that airfare and travel in suite, for 2, instead.