Europe Flights Sticker Shock

[Zach1213]

Agree with Travelplus. I always get best pricing from Lufthansa. They go everywhere on time with best economy seats and service. Never use domestic lines. Have you checked with O? They can get most all lines.Usually at savings.

 

 

Lufthansa has always underwhelmed me in economy class, both longhaul and regional (and domestic). To each their own I suppose.

[b_cruise]

I'm curious about this: What, and how often, have you read that people are having difficult experiences with third party booking sites? I have found good flights on Kayak, but you're kind of scaring me a little!

 

 

My apologies.dont get me wrong I have used Expedia orbitz and kayak for booking flights and have never had a problem but all my flights were on time. Other people on this board have commented if a connection is late or weather or some delay, then if your ticket is third party, you are put at the bottom of the list to get another flight to your destination. ( coding or something?). After reading that, I pay a bit more and book direct unless it doesn't matter if I'm delayed.

 

I just booked lufhansia direct for europe next July. It was the same price on kayak. I did not want to chance multi airline flights just in case as I am on a time restraint.

[Zach1213]

My apologies.dont get me wrong I have used Expedia orbitz and kayak for booking flights and have never had a problem but all my flights were on time. Other people on this board have commented if a connection is late or weather or some delay, then if your ticket is third party, you are put at the bottom of the list to get another flight to your destination. ( coding or something?). After reading that, I pay a bit more and book direct unless it doesn't matter if I'm delayed.

 

I just booked lufhansia direct for europe next July. It was the same price on kayak. I did not want to chance multi airline flights just in case as I am on a time restraint.

 

It really has more to do with the fare rules of the ticket rather than whom you purchase it from. You can buy a perfectly legit ticket with the same rules as the airline from a third party. But many people, including many cruisers on this site, go to third party sites (including cruiseline air) to find airfare as cheap as possible, no matter what the rules are. And that's where those special rules come in that can cause trouble.

[greatam]

One thing to really pay attention to when using Kayak anymore is WHO is selling the ticket.

 

So many people just look at price. Kayak used to be primarily selling tickets from the airlines or well established third parties (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. etc). Now it seems like every mom and pop who has airline tickets for sale is using Kayak.

 

PAY ATTENTION. Some of those I recently saw were companies that have some VERY STRICT rules regarding their tickets. I was looking for two tickets-one from PHX to Amman, Jordan and one from Las Vegas to Kansas City. The PHX to Jordan cheapest price was offered by a company that had a $100 cancellation penalty IN ADDITION to a $350 change penalty. AND the other was one of the "fly it or loose it" tickets (slightly higher price). Either one could cost you an arm and a leg-1st one-need to change the flight and rebook a different date/time-$450. Second one-your flight is at noon on Thursday (Example). But the airline changes the flight time to 9:45 on Thursday. So sad, too bad. Flight XXX is still flying, just 2+ hours earlier. Can't make it-your ticket is NO GOOD for anything.

 

NO, these caveats weren't available on Kayak. I had to go digging through the T &C's and fine print on the actual sellers websites to find the info.

 

As I have said over and over and over ad nauseam, if you CAN'T READ the ENTIRE FARE RULES before you click purchase, you truly have NO IDEA WHAT YOU BOUGHT!!! Just an FYI

[Ashland]

If you'll be in London more than a couple of days pre-cruise then you might want to look into renting a flat instead of a hotel room. We're staying in London for two weeks next spring, and have rented a spacious one BR flat with a washer/dryer, full kitchen including dishwasher, wifi, satellite TV with a gazillion channels, a UK king (ie US Queen) bed, lovely looking place with all the comforts of home in a fantastic neighborhood near Kensington Gardens and within three blocks of Tesco and Waitrose, two tube stops, and Boots, and across from the Natural History Museum. It works out to $283 per night including all fees and taxes, plus a black cab pick up from LHR.

 

While searching I found many others that were less expensive, but not suited for a two week stay. They would have been fine for 2-4 nights.

Sounds great...mind me asking where exactly (name) of where you're staying and the website you used to book it ?

 

We love the Kensington area (stayed at the Milestone Hotel) but next visit we're taking the whole extended family (7 adults 2 toddlers) and want more of an apartment. Have been looking at 51 Kensington Court but would love some other suggestions.

 

Thanks so much

[scottbee]

It has been awhile since we have had to purchase tickets for Europe.

 

We are looking to leave LAS (Las Vegas) on 5/15/15 for FCO (Rome) and return on 5/29/2015.

 

The best price with decent connections is about $1,450. YIKES!! Is this normal or should the rate go down a bit if we wait until Nov or so to purchases?

 

We were only expecting to pay about $1,200 each.

 

We may have to scrap this cruise if the air prices stay this high and just do Alask next Jun or Jul instead.

 

Most airlines operating costs per seat-mile are around about $0.15/seat/mile; so for the 12,700 mile LAX-FCO-LAX, you're actually costing the airline money. So if the airfare is less than $1900+govt taxes you should count yourself lucky that there is a another group of customers subsidizing your ticket.

[Globaliser]

Most airlines operating costs per seat-mile are around about $0.15/seat/mile; so for the 12,700 mile LAX-FCO-LAX, you're actually costing the airline money.

Oh no, not this fallacy again ...

[ducklite]

Sounds great...mind me asking where exactly (name) of where you're staying and the website you used to book it ?

 

We love the Kensington area (stayed at the Milestone Hotel) but next visit we're taking the whole extended family (7 adults 2 toddlers) and want more of an apartment. Have been looking at 51 Kensington Court but would love some other suggestions.

 

Thanks so much

 

 

We booked through homefromhome.co.uk.

[FawnRiver]

As with many things in life it comes down to priorities. I might be willing to spend 800.00 to upgrade a cabin on a cruise but I'm not fond of paying 200.00 more for a flight. Personally I will almost always fly economy plus or the equivalent because it's worth it to me. I like my knees but I don't want them in my face for an 8 hour flight. Is it worth paying for business class, not usually.

I echo that. For our Grand Med cruise next year, we're paying just under $1500 pp for flights (premium economy on BA). We could have gotten away with around $800 - $1000 pp for economy on BA or any other airline, but DH is 6'3 and I have back, hip and knee issues from a car accident years ago so economy seats won't work for us for an overnight flight. We tried it once and decided never again. Like most things, it all comes down to priorities.

[CatlinSTJ]

Some tips I have found to work:

 

- Clear your browser cache, the airlines track the flights you are searching and inflate the prices the more you search to encourage you to hurry up and book.

 

- Check prices from international hubs separately. I can fly to several international airports for about $200pp RT, but booking a flight that stops there may cost $500-$800 more.

 

- Check prices to fly into other European cities. Getting around Europe once you are there is cheap. We flew into Amsterdam and stayed for two days before flying KLM to Venice. The KLM flight and two nights hotel were less than the cost of the direct flight to Venice.

[6rugrats]

 

- Clear your browser cache, the airlines track the flights you are searching and inflate the prices the more you search to encourage you to hurry up and book.

To that I would say:

Oh no, not this fallacy again ...

[scottbee]

Oh no, not this fallacy again ...

 

 

 

Airline operating costs per ASM (Available Seat Mile)

American Airlines 2014 Q2 http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NTUwMDgwfENoaWxkSUQ9MjQzNjM1fFR5cGU9MQ==&t=1

AA: Operating cost per ASM (cents) 13.61

 

Delta Airlines 2014 Q3

http://ir.delta.com/files/earnings/2014/Q3/Delta-Announces-September-Quarter-Profit_v001_m24ovx.pdf

Operating cost per available seat mile (cents) 15.69

United Continental Holdings, Inc. 2014 Q3

http://ir.unitedcontinentalholdings.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=83680&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1980686

Cost per available seat mile (CASM) 13.51

IAG (British Airways/Iberia) 2014 Q3

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MjU3NDc2fENoaWxkSUQ9LTF8VHlwZT0z&t=1

Total cost per ASK (€ cents) 7.37

= ($ cents) 9.12 km = 14.68 ASM

 

Admittedly there is also cargo to help factor in the expenses, however it's as near to negligible ($244m of $11000m revenue for DL for example)

 

That being said, 15c/ASM is a pretty reasonable number (and let's also remember it assumes the plane is 100% full) to base an airline's costs on.

[Globaliser]

That being said, 15c/ASM is a pretty reasonable number (and let's also remember it assumes the plane is 100% full) to base an airline's costs on.

It only tells you the average cost per seat across all cabins operated by an airline across all flights and routes.

 

It tells you nothing about the airline's cost of operating one economy seat on a flight from AAA to BBB, and therefore about whether you're profitable or non-profitable for the airline if you pay $C for an economy class ticket on that flight.

 

That's where the fallacy is.

[iancal]

We used cruise air (Choice Air) for the second time and were able to score a very good price and a very good route on a one way home after a recent Med cruise.

 

We booked in late August for an early Nov. flight.

 

What surprised me was the differences in pricing among carriers for this flight. The lowest, and the best routing, was $475. The next best price was $750 and the others were in that same price range.

 

We need to get home from Australia in March. We will probably try the same since we are going to Asia with a one way ticket and a very flexible schedule.