Flying to Buenos Aries from UK - booking with Hurtigruten.

[BORDER REIVER]

Just a little more info needed on this subject to help us make a decision.

 

If we booked our flight from the UK (Newcastle) through Hurtigruten, which route are they likely to book us on?

For the sake of simplicity, we could book international flights through Hurtigruten as the price covers meet and greet, transfers, taxes and 2 nights in Buenos Aries.

We were wondering if anyone else on here has done this, how they found the service, what route was taken and which airline was used.

I know it would probably be cheaper to do it ourselves, but we haven't flown for over 10 years and would prefer to have someone else doing all the organising for us. Apart from that, we don't like rushing and would rather have 3 or 4 hours to wait for a flight than have to hurry between flights.

[SarniaLo]

I have been in Antarctica with Hurtigruten in Feb2099 (I live in France) and we had a direct Air France flight from Paris to BA, and there were other people from other European country (including UK) in the same plane. So that might be an option for you (change plane in Paris).

 

In BA we met the Hurtigruten guide right outside the bagage claim area and from there everything went smoothly. It was very easy and efficient. We are going again in Dec2013 and will probably book pre/post trip arrangement through Hurtigruten again. The price is :eek: but as you said it's good not to have to worry about anything after such a long trip. And another reason is that if you book the flight through Hurtigruten they will take care of you in case of flight problems (try to put you on another plane, or in the worst case scenario of missing the ship, they will refund the trip). The other option would be to arrive in BA a few days in advance, but we are not keen on doing that.

[BORDER REIVER]

I have been in Antarctica with Hurtigruten in Feb2099 (I live in France) and we had a direct Air France flight from Paris to BA, and there were other people from other European country (including UK) in the same plane. So that might be an option for you (change plane in Paris).

 

In BA we met the Hurtigruten guide right outside the bagage claim area and from there everything went smoothly. It was very easy and efficient. We are going again in Dec2013 and will probably book pre/post trip arrangement through Hurtigruten again. The price is :eek: but as you said it's good not to have to worry about anything after such a long trip. And another reason is that if you book the flight through Hurtigruten they will take care of you in case of flight problems (try to put you on another plane, or in the worst case scenario of missing the ship, they will refund the trip). The other option would be to arrive in BA a few days in advance, but we are not keen on doing that.

 

Thanks for that, it sounds perfect. I know that Air France / KLM fly from our local airport either directly to Paris or via Amsterdam. I just wasn't sure if Hurtigruten were loyal to any airline. I would hope that they would discuss our requirements first, because we really don't want connections where we have to hurry through airports.

[SarniaLo]

I just wasn't sure if Hurtigruten were loyal to any airline.

I'm not sure they are, actually. I'm hoping we get the same route for our next trip because obviously it's very convenient for us to have a direct flight from Paris. I think they book what is the cheaper for them, not necessarily the most convenient for us... :D But when we went to Svalbard with them we had an issue with the flight (as you say, a connection that seemed very short to us), we were able to discuss that with them and they changed our flight to allow for a longer connection time.

[digitl]

Earlier this year we flew out from Leeds- Bradford via Amsterdam on KLM and back through CDG to Manchester on Air France (cheaper to return into Manchester and saved three hours). On both Buenos Aries legs we were accompanied by passengers who had booked through Hurtigruten and paid £1700+ each as opposed to the £800 each which we got by booking ourselves. We flew out three days early to avoid any flight delay problems and the savings we made more than paid for the two transfers, the extra hotel nights, meals and a (very good) tango dinner and show.

 

It really is easy to book the flights yourselves (Opodo, Expedia etc. or direct with the airline) and even save a little more by getting cashback by doing it through TopCashBack (http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/digital).

 

You can book Taxi Ezezia for your EZE - hotel transfers online before you leave and also book a better hotel. The hotel we used (Duque) was cheaper and far superior to the one Hurtigruten used (Emperador).

 

We're going to Spitsbergen with Hurtigruten next August and Antarctica with them again in 2014 and will be booking our own flights and hotels...

[digitl]

@ BORDER REIVER

 

If you contact me at tykeonline (at) gmail [dot] com I can let you have some Hurtigruten specifics that may help.

[SarniaLo]

We flew out three days early to avoid any flight delay problems

That would be the right solution, of course, (I looked into it because yes, Hurtigruten's price is terrible) but we don't really want to do that. On our last trip we found the stop-over in BA difficult (because of the heat mostly, and we weren't it the right state of mind to enjoy it, even worse on the return part of the trip, coming back to BA after the trip in Antarctica was quite a shock on every level). It's a beautiful city, well worth visiting, but we thought that it deserved a trip of its own. But this is for us, I know not everybody feels the same way! ;)

 

We would be happy with coming in a few days earlier in Ushuaia, though. But the BA-Ushuaia part of the trip is already included in the cruise price, so we'll end up paying twice, and I'm not sure Hurtigruten is OK with us joining them only in Ushuaia (I emailed them about this and still have no answer). I'm not sure it's a big money-saving alternative but it's one we would definitely enjoy more.

[peterscot]

I did what digitl did last year (also Fram in February!), and also had a few days in BA afterwards, plus a side trip to Mendoza.

 

I don't know if Hurti look after you if you buy the flights through them, but they certainly didn't seem to care a hoot, if you didn't.

 

It looked like we would arrive late in BA after experiencing some bad weather, so, after checking with the ships managers several times, we put back our onward flight to Mendoza (at a cost), while still on board.

 

Then they decided to arrive early (without warning us), meaning we were sitting about for a day with luggage. They were very offhand, shrugging shoulders and said it was not their problem. A complete change in attitude to a few days earlier and left a sour taste in the mouth.

 

It was very clear that the booking team we had dealt with before the trip had virtually no contact or influence over what happened on the ship. The on board guys ignored any previous assurances given by the booking team.