Great Price on cruise, terrible prices on airfare

[opshannon]

Looking at a Baltics cruise this summer and see a great price and itinerary. Cannot for my life find airfare that isn't equal to the cruise price. Mind you, I'm talking about cruise and airfare for four. Any advice? information? Help?

[Budget Queen]

Where are you flying  from/to?    And what do you "expect" to pay?   Each price has nothing to do with the other,  and sure,  transportation can be more costly.   Does   your overall budget support going on the trip?    (not looking for answers)  

 

sometimes,  there are "creative"  ways to fly- nearby airports,  different days  etc.

 

The less flexible you are,  the fewer options you are going to have as well. .   

[terry&mike]

You should check all the sources you have for airfare, because you may have multiple sources. Check the cruise line air first as often their contracts have very good rates internationally. If you booked with a travel agent, they can also offer you consolidator fares that can be extremely good. And the open market, by running your dates and options on an aggregator site such as skyscanner, kayak or similar.

[sverigecruiser]

8 hours ago, opshannon said:

Looking at a Baltics cruise this summer and see a great price and itinerary. Cannot for my life find airfare that isn't equal to the cruise price. Mind you, I'm talking about cruise and airfare for four. Any advice? information? Help?

 

Where are you flying from and what's the price for the cruise?

 

If you are flying from London and the cruise cost over $10000 you shall defenitely be able to find a lower airfare.

 

If you are flying from Melbourne and the cruise cost $1000 the airfare will be higher than the price for the cruise.

 

I want to help but need some more information.

[CruiserBruce]

Air fare and cruise fare have absolutely no relevancy. You could get the cheapest fare for a short cruise, and take a long, first class flight. No relevancy at all.

 

Without knowing any details...where you are flying to/from, dates, etc, not sure how to help except say, do your research. Check the cruise line airfares.

[fbgd]

11 hours ago, opshannon said:

Cannot for my life find airfare that isn't equal to the cruise price. information? Help?

 

A more expensive cruise should sort you out here.

[thinfool]

Suggest that you edit your profile settings to tell readers where you are on earth.  

Obviously airfare will be radically different if you are flying to the Baltic from London or from Buenos Aires, Tahiti, Los Angeles, Miami, Lima....etc.

[opshannon]

I was foolish not to provide all the info. Apologies.

So I'm looking at flying from Orlando (MCO) to either Copenhagen or Rome (two different cruise options). Both cruises leave the week of June 24. There is flexibility on arriving a few days early. 

 

For those who recommend cruise air fare, can one check that online, or must one phone the cruise line directly?

[hallasm]

For low cost you might look at Eurowings (MIA and RSW) and from MCO, Icelandair might be an option for Copenhagen. For cruise air fare you should be able to see prices and book online, however might depend on cruise line.

Edited January 4, 2019 by hallasm
Spelling

[waterbug123]

It would help to know what the "great price and itinerary" is for the cruise(s) you see, (what region is the itinerary, what sort of cabin, how many cabins) as well as what you are seeing for airfare, both per person and the number of people you're buying for.   I mean, if you found a great deal on an inside cabin for yourself, spouse and 2 small kids all in one cabin, obviously that may well be less than FOUR round-trip transatlantic plane tickets!   Without details, it's very hard to say either whether you are indeed seeing oddly high airfare or if what you are seeing is perfectly normal and  thus your expectations need to be adjusted.

[jagoffee]

11 hours ago, opshannon said:

I was foolish not to provide all the info. Apologies.

So I'm looking at flying from Orlando (MCO) to either Copenhagen or Rome (two different cruise options). Both cruises leave the week of June 24. There is flexibility on arriving a few days early. 

 

For those who recommend cruise air fare, can one check that online, or must one phone the cruise line directly?

For Princess and Celebrity you can check it on line.  I do not know about the other cruise lines.

[terry&mike]

Copenhagen will generally cost you a good deal more to fly to/from than Rome, if that helps in selecting your cruise.

[FlyerTalker]

Note that the OP never mentions actually prices, so it's completely impossible to say what might be reasonable or not.

 

All we have is the old "flights are more than the cruise" lament.  Which somehow seems to come from those in the southeast USA who have relatively short distances to get to Caribbean trips out of SoFla.

[FionaMG]

On 1/4/2019 at 4:26 PM, opshannon said:

So I'm looking at flying from Orlando (MCO) to either Copenhagen or Rome (two different cruise options). 

If flying from MIA might be an option for you, you could check the prices on TAP Air Portugal. They often have some very competitive pricing. You would connect to Copenhagen or Rome through Lisbon, which is a very easy airport to connect in. TAP also offer a free stopover of up to five days on one leg of your journey. 

I recently did an updated review of them here on this board.

[opshannon]

10 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Note that the OP never mentions actually prices, so it's completely impossible to say what might be reasonable or not.

 

All we have is the old "flights are more than the cruise" lament.  Which somehow seems to come from those in the southeast USA who have relatively short distances to get to Caribbean trips out of SoFla.

 

Thanks for taking the time to chime in on something you find so irritating.  I should have been more specific. Flights to Copenhagen from Orlando are $635,000 dollars one way. Does that help?

 

Edited January 6, 2019 by opshannon

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, opshannon said:

 

Thanks for taking the time to chime in on something you find so irritating.  I should have been more specific. Flights to Copenhagen from Orlando are $635,000 dollars one way. Does that help?

 

 

 

Yes it does.

 

That's a very reasonable price to pay.  It's in no way a gouging OMG price.

 

So I guess the next questions....just what were you expecting to pay to for a trip in high season to Scandinavia?   And what will you consider an acceptable price?  The answers to those may now lead to determining if it's possible to satisfy your desire for a price that's "less than the cruise".

[FionaMG]

8 hours ago, opshannon said:

Flights to Copenhagen from Orlando are $635,000 dollars one way.

OP, that has to be a typo, surely? Also, are you returning home some other way after the cruise or do you actually need round trip flight tickets. Some airlines do genuine one-way tickets at roughly half the price of a round trip but on others a one-way ticket works out more expensive.

[waterbug123]

9 hours ago, opshannon said:

 

Thanks for taking the time to chime in on something you find so irritating.  I should have been more specific. Flights to Copenhagen from Orlando are $635,000 dollars one way. Does that help?

 

 

There are people here, including Flyertalker, that have a wealth of knowledge they would be more than happy to share with you.  But you need to give details, rather than give a snarky reply, i.e. $635,000 for one way. 

 

I asked some questions in a previous reply.  If you would consider answering them you would probably get some very helpful responses. 

[RickT]

You may be overthinking this.  As others have said, the price of the cruise and the price of airfare have zero connection to one another.  While they add to YOUR total cost they are separate items.

Regardless of what you think the airfare should be (or even what it was last year) doesn't matter as the cost will be whatever is being charged this year.  While you can look at historical prices, sometimes current prices will be completely different.

 

To help you, how are you  looking for airfare?  When I am searching I use either google flights or ITA Matrix http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

I always search using my home airport but also look at any other airports within a reasonable distance.  I'm often amazed how a 90 minute drive can save me hundreds off my airfare.  I also check the cruiseline airfare.  Many here will argue against that but it never hurts to see what their price is and if it's good then look to make sure the terms and conditions of that airfare are acceptable to you.

 

Lastly, if your deposit is refundable, doesn't hurt to book the cruise and continue to look for airfare between now and final payment date.  Airfare can often fluctuate and if you lock in the cruise price you'll be in a position to take advantage of any drop in airfare should it occur.

 

Good luck.

[hallasm]

11 hours ago, opshannon said:

 

Thanks for taking the time to chime in on something you find so irritating.  I should have been more specific. Flights to Copenhagen from Orlando are $635,000 dollars one way. Does that help?

 

To me it looks like a 1000 factor - prices one way fro MCO to CPH should be in the range of $400 to $600. 

The problem could easily be that Nordic countries does use ‘ . ‘ as thousand separator and ‘ , ‘ as decimal separator - which easily can lead to some miscalculations. Also be careful if you get Icelandair airfare in ISK - US$100 is equal to ISK 11,700 - or can be shown as “11.000”.

Or if price is shown at $635,00 which will be the case in Nordic Countries. 

Edited January 6, 2019 by hallasm

[cruising cockroach]

$635,000?  Cheaper to charter a small private jet!

[waterbug123]

20 hours ago, hallasm said:

To me it looks like a 1000 factor - prices one way fro MCO to CPH should be in the range of $400 to $600. 

The problem could easily be that Nordic countries does use ‘ . ‘ as thousand separator and ‘ , ‘ as decimal separator - which easily can lead to some miscalculations. Also be careful if you get Icelandair airfare in ISK - US$100 is equal to ISK 11,700 - or can be shown as “11.000”.

Or if price is shown at $635,00 which will be the case in Nordic Countries. 

 

Good point, although it isn't just Nordic countries; in much of Europe they use a comma where Americans use periods and vice versa when printing numbers.  Ex. In the US six thousand dollars is show as $6,000 with a comma after the six.  If it was euros it would be written as 6.000€.  LIkewise, if $635.00 (USD) was euros it would be shown as 635,00€.    I can see where someone could glance quickly, see the comma, and assume there were 3 zeroes following rather than two, and assume it 6 represented six hundred thousand, rather than just six hundred.

 

Bottom line:  OP- is it possible that you saw 635,00€ and misread it as $635,000?    635,00€ is currently equal to about $727.00, which is a pretty good price for a round trip transatlantic flight.

[3rdCoastFan]

You could fly one-way on Norwegian from MCO to CPH on June 24 for $215. Note this likely doesn't include a checked bag, food, seat reservation, etc - to say nothing that Norwegian may not be in operation in June - but if you're looking for something cheap... 

[hiccups]

Definitely check with the cruise line.  For the RCI cruise lines, for example, you can do a quick search without a booking number to check prices.  And keep checking!  For our upcoming Azamara cruise, I'd been checking prices on the Choice Air site and one day the business class flight price dropped by HALF, and was actually less expensive than premium economy.  We snapped that right up!  Price then went back up.  And yes, the air is more than the cruise, but for business class, I have no problem with that.

You may also want to check out WOW Air, as they fly from Orlando.  However, I think it was posted here WOW is cutting a lot of flights.

Edited January 7, 2019 by hiccups

[Flymia]

I did a quick look on google flights. I searched TPA,RSW,MCO,MIA,FLL to CPH leaving Friday June 21 coming back July 1st. Plenty of options under the $800/rt mark. Not each way. Anything under $800-$750 is a good fare for a flight across an ocean. 

 

For Rome prices were much higher, with the cheapest being $1,050.00 round trip. This is expected as Rome is a very popular tourist destination on its own in the Summer from the U.S. Though when I plug in MIA you get an option under $900.00 

 

I would search google flights. At the very least make sure to search both MCO and TPA. If you really want lots of options take a look at adding MIA and FLL to the list. MIA has a pretty heavy amount of flights to Europe so prices are better. Of course you would have to take into consideration the cost of driving to Miami, taking a bus etc.. And then getting back to Orlando. All part of the value. One-way car rentals are usually not too bad in Florida. Though driving back from arriving from Europe would be rough.