Flights

[muggs007]

I am taking a cruise that ends in Venice Italy

I am having a hard time finding flights back to SFO that are reasonable as far as time and money. Any suggestions?

[scgirlatheart]

We did a cruise that ended in Venice a few years ago. It was much cheaper to take a train to Rome and fly out of there instead of Venice.

[diane.in.ny]

OP, You might want to also post this on Cruise Air

[paul929207]

Have you check the price thru your cruise line? We have found ours to be much more reasonable lately

[1josh777]

You can try to fly out of Venice to a different location in Europe and then fly home from there.

 

Although a different itinerary, I did this a few years back. I used Air Berlin and Alitalia.

[CruiserBruce]

I am taking a cruise that ends in Venice Italy

I am having a hard time finding flights back to SFO that are reasonable as far as time and money. Any suggestions?

 

The fares are what they are...curious as to what you consider "reasonable"?

[navybankerteacher]

The fares are what they are...curious as to what you consider "reasonable"?

 

One way trans-Atlantic air fares on major airlines are obviously not "reasonable". -- because they are higher than round trips involving same one way on same airline: anyone who thinks that is "reasonable" should stay away from advice threads.

 

Go to cruise air thread on CC for general information, call your cruise line for info on their arrangements for one way T/A's linked to their cruised - they all have some arrangements.

 

Worst case: buy a round trip and throw away the return half.

[Keith1010]

This is a good web site to use to look up flights/fares.

 

http://matrix.itasoftware.com

 

Keith

[Flatbush Flyer]

One way trans-Atlantic air fares on major airlines are obviously not "reasonable". -- because they are higher than round trips involving same one way on same airline: anyone who thinks that is "reasonable" should stay away from advice threads.

 

 

 

Go to cruise air thread on CC for general information, call your cruise line for info on their arrangements for one way T/A's linked to their cruised - they all have some arrangements.

 

 

 

Worst case: buy a round trip and throw away the return half.

 

 

Not always more expensive. For example, Athens to SFO on Turkish Air with one stop (Istanbul) runs approx $750 most of the time. On the other hand, Papeete to SFO on Air Tahiti Nui is usually the same price one way or round trip. (about $1200).

 

OP needs to look at the ITA search engine and may want to also check out airline confederation websites like Star Alliance, which lists more possibilities than any single one of its members.

I also think that there are some other websites that cobble together cheap multi-stop, multi-airline "hop scotch" routing (seem to remember hearing about "skiplagged.(?)".

 

Also, buying a round trip and tossing out one direction can backfire for multiple reasons not the least of which is erroneously booking the unnecessary leg as the outbound portion (oops! No show outbound results in cancellation of entire ticket).

Edited June 14, 2016 by Flatbush Flyer

[CruiserBruce]

One way trans-Atlantic air fares on major airlines are obviously not "reasonable". -- because they are higher than round trips involving same one way on same airline: anyone who thinks that is "reasonable" should stay away from advice threads.

 

"Reasonable" is a wonderful word, but the fact is it is totally subjective. I have seen a number of posters ask for "reasonable" hotel rates, or air or cruise fares, only to discover their definition of "reasonable" doesn't connect with what the actual fares are.. Less than $100 per night hotels in Ft Lauderdale in March, for example.

[Roz]

I agree with the advice to check with the cruise line. They often can do better with the open jaw and one-way flights. For example, last year I had to fly into Budapest for my river cruise and fly back home from Munich. The fares I researched on my own were in the $1,300 range. Uniworld got me both flights for $851.

 

Roz

[diane.in.ny]

 

OP needs to look at the ITA search engine and may want to also check out airline confederation websites like Star Alliance, which lists more possibilities than any single one of its members.

QUOTE]

 

Never thought to use the Star Alliance site. Appreciate you mentioning it but maybe you can help me out.

 

Went to the site and I can't figure out how to get past the Destination request screen. I entered my home airport and a destination airport and then what?????

[navybankerteacher]

"Reasonable" is a wonderful word, but the fact is it is totally subjective. I have seen a number of posters ask for "reasonable" hotel rates, or air or cruise fares, only to discover their definition of "reasonable" doesn't connect with what the actual fares are.. Less than $100 per night hotels in Ft Lauderdale in March, for example.

 

Yes, "reasonable" is indeed a subjective term --- but the practice of many major airlines of charging more for a one way trans-Atlantic flight than for a round trip which includes that flight has to be seen as straining most normal concepts of reasonableness.

[navybankerteacher]

The fares are what they are...curious as to what you consider "reasonable"?

 

I just checked American Airlines' site: a one way coach seat JFK to London on Flight 106 on July 5 is listed at $1,444. A round trip, same flight over, coming back on July 12 is $985.

 

AA might have their "reason", but no reasonable passenger would think paying that much more for that much less meets any test of being "reasonable".

 

The fact that there are other options does not make that fare structure, which is mirrored by many other lines, anything like "reasonable".

[navybankerteacher]

 

...

 

Also, buying a round trip and tossing out one direction can backfire for multiple reasons not the least of which is erroneously booking the unnecessary leg as the outbound portion (oops! No show outbound results in cancellation of entire ticket).

 

I suppose that is a conceivable screw-up - but then someone likely to pull that is also capable of tossing his passport with the unwanted return ticket, or finding some other way of sabotaging himself; so I would expect that his minders would not let him travel alone in any case.

[shipgeeks]

I urge you to check with your cruiseline's air partner. When we did our first transatlantic cruise, the one-way air booked on our own would have been over $4,000 each. We got the same airline, same flight for under $700 each. Subsequent cruises have worked out just as well.

[diane.in.ny]

I agree about checking air through the cruise line.

 

The best price and best itinerary was through Princess air.

[Karysa]

I am taking a cruise that ends in Venice Italy

I am having a hard time finding flights back to SFO that are reasonable as far as time and money. Any suggestions?

 

When were you thinking? I find that cruises come down closer to the sail date and airfares go up. Also, the best times seem to be more expensive and fill up sooner.

Edited June 14, 2016 by Karysa

[cruising cockroach]

What no one has mentioned is that OW tickets are generally (but not always) more flexible - refundable, changeable, etc. - compared to deeply-discounted R/T tickets. They may look like identical products as long as you make the scheduled flight but not necessarily otherwise.

 

Some airlines (notably FI and EI) sell their deeply-discounted tickets on a OW basis but not many do, and those that do probably don't fly to/from VCE.

 

As for cruiseco-sourced tickets, these may be o.k. as long as you make the flight (or the return portion is missed due to the cruiseco's actions) but if things go wrong, you're at the bottom of the priority list (well, maybe ahead of non-revvers).

[hun]

Or - another option to check - take a train to Milan and fly from there Milan flights seem to have better air fares than some of the other cities (especially Venice)

[JVilleGal]

Condor does one way transatlantic out of Frankfurt to West Coast. They don't charge the crazy inflated prices for one way. I would not do their Economy product but at least Prem Economy.

 

 

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[wowzz]

Take a loco one way flight to London Gatwick, and than a one way flight with Norwegian, which, as a TA loco, again allows one way flights with no cost penalties.

[Piggeldy]

I am taking a cruise that ends in Venice Italy

I am having a hard time finding flights back to SFO that are reasonable as far as time and money. Any suggestions?

 

If you need to fly to your departure port as well, do not forget to look at multi-stop or open-jaw flights.

 

In 2013 our open-jaw (DUS-STN, MIA-DUS) cost us 320 Euro per person (on Air Berlin, approx. $450 at booking). A one-way to STN would have been cheap but the return flight would have been three times that much. So booking an open jaw flight was the best idea.

 

For this years TA the cheapest one way would cost us $390 but as I would not consider an AeroFlot flight with a stop over in Moscow reasonable the most reasonable flight would be $710. The flight we will be on (booked as a package deal through our travel agent) is a non-stop Lufthansa flight that would be $2880 if booked alone (just the MIA-FRA part, which is far from reasonable). The most sensible open jaw (which actually includes our flight to London) would be $1800. If our flight was not included this year (as it was last) two one way flights would have been the better choice. It really, really depends.

 

Check flights from Bologna (BLQ - DUS - SFO on Air Berlin or BLQ - CPH - SFO on SAS or BLQ - AMS - SFO on KLM), Bologna is just a train ride away. Consider spending an additional night in Venice (or Bologna). See if you can come up with more reasonable (to you) flights from Munich, Frankfurt or even London - it shouldn't be too diffult (or expensive) to get there from Venice. The cheapest option (for a random date in September) I can find to SFO actually is Venice - SFO on Air Berlin...