How to find the best airfare for Transatlantic cruise?

The cruise line air is the most cost efficient although they may take you on a roundabout route.
I have just returned from a TA cruise and I planned a second trip in the fall so that I could book a round trip flight.
One way flights back from Europe to the US (if that is your route) cost more than a return trip!!!

We have found booking our own airfare to Europe with one only one stopover isthe most cost effective way..When one of our cruises ended in Ft. Lauderdale we booked a later flight to to be able to visit with friends. For our Sept. cruise we have a flight to Dublin and then on to Barcelona for under $500.00 each..So far the cruise line for 2009 wants to charge us $1,000.00 EACH for a one way fare. So a year from the date of our sailing (november) we will watch the discount sites. We are on the East Coast and that may make it more convenient rather than doing milk runs all over this country and Europe to get to our embarcation site

I have used Global Marine. They're good in that they can be canceled, changed with no penalty. They specialize in cruise airfare which involve open jaws etc.

This is their information:


Global Marine Travel
+1-954-761! -9595
Toll Free 1-866-746-8872
Website www.flygmt.com

Although we can supply competitive air rates with favorable conditions within the United States the best advantage of using Global Marine Travel is for International travel and for business class seats.

Global Marine Travel,
1. Sells special air/sea airline fares which are fully refundable and changeable most without penalties
2. Able to give passengers their air details as soon as they have paid for their cruise (no waiting 30-45 days before departure to get details)
3. No extra charges for deviations or changes
4. Air details will be confirmed with 24 hours of receiving the request
5. 24 hours 7 days per week live afterhours /emergency service.
6. If flight a flight is late and the clients will miss the ship, we will get them to the next port and in most cases if it is an airline delay
there will be no extra charges
7. We accept several forms of payment, credit cards, company checks

These are some great ideas, and I appreciate your help. ParrotMom, you brought up a good point - we can hold a reservation on Princess with our $100 Future Cruise deposit, and then look for discount flights after that. We don't need to be so committed then, as we can always cancel and get our deposit returned prior to their cut-off date.
Philbill, I am hesitant to book our air through the cruise line, as I have read some real horror stories about overseas travel itineraries - four or more segments, layovers that take most of the day, etc. The best thing I can say about it is that if they book it on the front end, we can plan on arriving the same day the cruise departs (I think!) and if we are delayed and the ship has to sail, the rest of the transportation is on them. I do like your idea about booking a RT and taking two TA cruises!

Wow, patsy120, sounds almost too good to be true! I'll definitely check them out. Thanks!

Patsy..never heard of this company..thanks.
On our recent cruise which departed from Fort Lauderdale, some of the LA passengers (if not all...but at least those I talked to) were put on red-eye flights with a change involving a few hours layover at another airport!!! They were exhausted so to me not worth it. However, some of the prices people quoted for their air were quite reasonable and those looking for a cheap vacation were happy. One other issue to remember is that many airlines now only allow one suitcase with a maximum weight of 50lbs even on international flights. Passengers were having a hard time with that. It is always worth checking around as ParrotMom suggests. I find BA's one way flights in Europe to be quite reasonable if you can get a good fare back from London. Of course RyanAir, Easyjet etc. are cheaper if can get to the airport you desire. They do not go to LHR.

Have never heard of ths company either..but worth checking out. We have gone to various sites and put in ONE WAY AIR FARE and I admit you can sace even more $$ if you will accept two changes..but thats not what I want to do.. Your right about cancelling the cruise is the air fare is going to be out of sight.. We were told that November when we want to fly to Rome is off season...and if I have to pay for an extra bag I will... going home from Ft. Lauderdale that is.. As some body just sai the only thing they are not chargng you for now are the clothes on your back...

My only advice would be to check the cost of both a one-way and a round trip (the second half of which you could let go unused.

I would also use an aggregator site such as itasoftware.com to check prices. Also take a look at the "month-long" view which compares prices for several days during a period.

i have read repeatedly that using a cruise line's air can often be highly INefficient and for several years now we have been able to book fares which were cheaper and with itineraries more convenient but obviously other folks' experiences have not been the same.

In teerms of less-expensive....flying on non weekend days (Thursday or before) can help

My husband and I took a TA cruise out of Barcelona last December. It was a 15 day cruise from Barcelona to Galveston,Tx. Since we live 1 hour out of Galveston it was perfect for us. We booked airfare through B-t store with a price of 335.00 pp. We flew Luthansa from Houston to Frankfort and then to Barcelona. Everything was great except I do not like Frankfort airport, but we managed. No lost luggage at all and arrived on time in Barcelona. Luthansa is great!!

I have flights booked for November through Global Air. It will be the first time we've used them but know others who have. I'm not sure if their prices are that much less but I do like the flexibility of changes or cancellations. I booked before the fuel prices got so outrageous so probably have a good fare (LAX to Zurich will stopover there for 3 nights, then from Zurich to JBurg, South Africa. We cruise from Cape Town back to FLL, then fly back to LAX from FLL) This was all booked through Global Air.

Oop....I called it Global Air and I meant to say Global Marine Travel. Sorry.

One of the best airfares is with Air Berlin - around 218 Euros from Dusseldorf to LAX. Website:
http://www.airberlin.com/site/start.php?LANG=eng&all=1
You can connect with them to Dusseldorf from most anywhere in Europe. They have specials - such as 1 Euro from Paris to Dusseldorf (+taxes, fuel surcharge).

BMI (flybmi.com) prices their fare from/to USA for each leg, so one way is reasonable. However, they only fly to Manchester, with hops from there. But once in Europe, can take inexpensive hop to wherever.

L'Avion is, I think, the only remaining business class only line. They price each leg separately; but only fly to Paris. But again, in Europe can hop inexpensively.

If dates are right, can also do TA with Cunard in lieu of flight - ahhh, civilized way to go - even if book an inside!!

Then again, some cruisers book both ways to get the cheaper air & just don't fly the one leg. Sometimes the airline will give a credit for another flight.

Or, do 2 TA's a year! Book one round trip to fit both trips - ahhhh!

Happy cruising

We are booked on a Celebrity TA cruise in April, 2009, and are in need of suggestions to get from Rome to Miami. Has anyone used Celebrity's Custom Air or Global Marine for this? We would prefer Business class on BA, but to book directly thru BA is a BIG BIG pricetag. Thanks for any suggestions!

try kayak.com

Robertalee, we're going on the same cruise. We booked the air & transfers with Celebrity and will be going down to Ft. Lauderdale the day before. Don't want to take any chances of missing the first 5 sea days should something delay our arrival. Likewise coming back, don't want the hassle of missing our flight as we aren't staying over in Rome after the cruise.

Have you been on the Solstice Roll Call Forum. Others are looking for air transportation, so you might be able to share ideas.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=739002&page=43

Winstoncup, thanks for the link. I have hooked up with it and hope it brings us some help. Looking forward to the cruise, but somehow we did not want to book air with Celebrity. All we have heard is that cruise lines give you the worst airlines and hours.

Robertalee,
You are absolutely right about the cruise line giving you "bad" air tickets. They get the cheapest fare and do not care how many connections you have to make and what airlines you fly.
Our friends joined us on a Black Sea cruise last year and were booked by the cruise line DC-Munich-Istanbul with Luftansa with 40 minutes connecting time in Munich. There was a Lufthansa plane 2 hours later and I suggested they ask the cruise line to change them to that flight. They wouldn't. The predictable happened - they made the connection, but their luggage did not. They received 1 piece of luggage 6 days into the cruise and the second one after the cruise (looted). Need I say more - you get what you pay for, in general. Sometimes you get lucky and get good flights/connections, but why take a chance? Take control!

PS.
Granted, you are flying home after the cruise, so missing connections/luggage is not as important as before the cruise. Still, I do not like red-eyes, multiple connections, etc.
Plus, if you are collecting FF miles, you want to earn them on the airline of your choice. With cruise airfare you usually earn only 25% miles (or none) due to the class of airfare.

With BA you can pay for WTP and upgrade with miles to Business.
However, the one way is expensive (more than the return fare) so plan on a cruise the opposite direction!
We sailed to Rome from FLL in April on Princess and flew Rome to London to LAX and in November we will fly on the return half of the ticket to London (and forfeit the ongoing to Rome..I specifically booked a stop-over in London for November to enable me to cancel the London to Rome portion) and will sail back to New York on the QM2 from Southampton, England.
Jet Blue of course took us to FLL and will bring us back to California. Their one ways are half the return fare, although prices are rising by the day!!

Philbill, what is WTP? Can you tell I am not familiar with all these initials/short terms?!!!! When you book a R/T with one trip to be used in the future, how do you do this?

WTP..sorry..World Traveller Plus. It costs more than Economy (World Traveller) but takes only 25,000 miles to upgrade round trip to Business (Club World).
If you travel other than July and August it is very simple (as far as my bookings have gone and I travel about 6 times a year as I am English). In the summer months you have to book almost a year ahead.
I had no trouble booking an April outbound and a November inbound.
No questions were asked, but my mother, who travelled the opposite direction, was asked for her cruise intinerary when she departed from England (the cruise was to take her back).
Her return is for December when she will return to the UK from LAX after sailing from Southampton to NY with me.
Wow, am I making sense???
If you do not want to use miles, WTRP is a nice inbetween with a very small cabin and a lot more room than economy, though not the beds as in Business (Club).

WTRP is a good alternative to economy. We have flown that once. Thanks for your input.We will consider it.

I'm booked on a cruise to Scandavia (Princess)next May with my daughter & my mother. I did not choose the cruise's air price because they quoted me $1,500 each (from Phoenix to Copenhagen). I thought I could get fares around $1,000 each. And since I'm paying for all three, it was a significant amount... I guess it would be signifcant no matter who was paying for it... ha... Anyway, am watching Travelocity, Orbitz and some others I got from this forum... Does anyone have an opinion as to the chances of some sales anytime between now and next May??

GirlScoutMom,
I assume you are on the Emerald Princess out of Copenhagen on May 16th
I put in Phoenix - Copenhagen RT on ASAP Tickets and got $552 KLM,$ 612 om NW and $ 613 Delta (plus taxes).
This is their website:
http://www.asaptickets.com/
You can probably do even better with them if you fly NYC - CPH and get yourself to NYC (?Southwest, or any other). You would have to give yourself PLENTY of time to connect in NYC if these are separate tickets.

You can also try Best Travel Store:bt-store.com
They have good prices as well.