Mary

My husband and I are planning to do a transatlantic cruise next year, but before we do the cruise we would like to do some visiting in Europe. Our dilemna is that right now is when I go to various web-sites or call airlines directly and give them our travel plans, the airfare is outrageous!! It's more than the whole cruise put together. Does anyone know how to get around this?<BR><BR>Would it be better for us to book our airfare through the cruise line? The cost is $649 per person (Washington, DC to Barcelona; Fort Lauderdale to Washington DC).<BR><BR>Does anyone know of a good site that could help me get a reasonable airfare from Barcelona to Frankfurt? If I go to Europebyair.com for example I am getting a quote of $1200!!

Lou

Try calling a travel agent. DO NOT use the cruise line air, it is ALWAYS more expensive. A TA can get you a discounted one way rate to Barcelona and then you can do just the Ft. Lauderdale portion on your own. Check round trip....ft lauderdale to D.C and back, and just don't use the return portion, it is often cheaper to do a round trip than one-way when doing domestic tickets.

Marilyn

There have been some recent threads, I think on the Europe board, listing the best websites to check inter-Europe airlines and fares. Do a search and good luck!

mary

Thanks for your responses. However, I have checked the Europe site here on Fodors and unfortunately there hasn't been much to help me (that's where I found out about europebyair.com). There are no cheap flights from Frankfurt to Barcelona (one-way).<BR><BR>There are no cheap flights from Washington DC to Frankfurt!<BR><BR>The only cheap flight so far I can find is Jet Blue from Fort Lauderdale to Washington/Dulles.<BR><BR>That's why I'm starting to think that it just might be cheaper to go with the cruise lines.<BR><BR>I've called TAs (specifically Carlson Wagonlit) who wanted me to get a quote from the cruiseline first before he would give me a quote. Obviously this TA does not need my business. Know of any good airline TAs?<BR><BR>Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. are no good because they can't help on the intra-Europe portion.<BR><BR>I'm beginning to think of cancelling my cruise!! Maybe just go to Europe without the transatlantic cruise. Too much of a hassle.

TA

What are your dates that you want to go from BCN to FRA?

Mary

To TA: These are our plans (what we would like to do), I realize that it is a little over a year away but:<BR>10/16/03 - Depart for Frankfurt, Germany from Washington DC (Baltimore is okay if flight is much cheaper)<BR>10/25/03 - Depart Frankfurt, Germany for Barcelona<BR>10/26/03 - 11/9/02 - Transatlantic cruise via Celebrity's Millennium<BR>11/9/02 - Fort Lauderdale to Washington, DC.<BR><BR>Can you help?

TA

I would love to help, but the schedules aren't released that early. You may have better luck if you try after the 1st of the year. But from what I was able to put together, your FRA to BCN should be no more than 200pp. Just book it as a round trip ticket and don't use the return, it is alot cheaper that way. <BR><BR>And your D.C to FRA should be around 500 once you add your taxes. And your FLL back to D.C should be about 200. I am over-estimating a bit here based on what I found for this year. But if you do the math, it is about 900 dollars. Your best bed would be to contact an agent in your area next year and price around for one-way from D.C to FRA. <BR><BR>Also, have the agent book your FRA-BCN as a round trip (some agents won't) because the airlines are very strict with us, that is the key to keeping the price down. Same with your return from FLL to D.C. Hope this helps. It really is too early to book your air though. 6 months advance is more than enough.

Mary

TA: Many thanks for your help. At least I have a ball park figure to work with, and about $900 per person is just fine.<BR><BR>I'll start looking into everything again sometime during the spring.

TA

your welcome! Good luck!

Leslie

You might consider flying to London from DC, as that fare is usually lower, and then fly from London to Frankfurt on one of the inter-European airlines. It also might be cheaper if you fly via London to buy a roundtrip ticket and throw the second leg away. Fall airfare sales are usually advertised in August.

Ziggy

Mary<BR>I cant believe a TravelAgent is telling you to do something that may come back to haunt you.I have heard from the APA that virtually all major airlines will begin auditing individual tickets to eliminate &quot;throw aways&quot;,i.e. buying a roundtripo ticket and only usuing one way of it.Officially this practice is illegal as far as the airlines are concerned.If you do this and your ticket is audtited you may be billed hundreds of dollars and even tho you might get out of,look at the trouble.Just my humble opinion.

Professional Traveler

A pet peeve: &gt;&quot;Officially this practice is illegal as far as the airlines are concerned.&quot;<BR><BR>It is NOT illegal ... it is &lt;maybe&gt; against an airline's rules. It may be against an airlines &quot;tariff,&quot; which they try to pass off as a contract. <BR><BR>But there is no law saying you must use your return ticket and the airlines cannot collect from you if you didn't. They can do things like cancel all further flights on that ticket, assess penalties against frequent flyer miles, and so on. But no police will call on your doorstep at midnight because you did someting &quot;illegal.&quot;<BR>

TA

True, the Travel agent that issues the ticket could get into trouble, but they will not bill the client. All the client has to do is not show up and say something came up. Honestly, the client is not signing a contract to fly, it is the airline that agrees to fly the client. The client can force the airline to fly them, but the airline can not force the client to fly.

Maurice

True, what can they do?<BR><BR>As mentioned above, just don't make the return the first leg of your return to the USA if you aren't goping to show. They may cancel the entire ticket. I suppose they can do that. It fits with their customer relations practices to date.<BR><BR>Warning... Air Canada recently started a policy with Etickets - if you miss ONE leg of the Eticket, the whole remainder is null and void with no refund. This would make a missed connection a truly memorable experience.