OUCH $1,000 from Seattle to Bergen. How can I do better?
 

We are taking a Norwegian Coastal Voyage cruise June 22. I've checked air rates from Seattle to Bergen for around those dates. Over $1,000!!!! How do I find something less? I've checked Travelocity, Expedia; the airlines themselves; Orbitz, Cheaptickets. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'll be traveling with my 79 year old mother so 1 connection would be preferred. Help!
Thanks!
Caroline
WA state

I personally don't think it is realistic to think that it should be possible to find a lower air fare, especially not with the expectation to do it as a one-stop connection. Full fare tickets cost from 2083 to 2376 (weekend travel), even in the off-season. And June 22 is hardly off-season.

One-stop connections are available on KL/NW through AMS or UA/SAS through CPH. Lower fares might be available if you were willing to consider changing in London (this would mostly make sense if you had an interest in actually visiting the London area).

Best wishes,

Rex

I too live in Seattle and that's one of the (few) disadvantages to living here--higher airfares to Europe and LONGER flights. However, I agree with Rex--it would be to your advantage to fly into London and go from there. You could even enjoy a few days in London (on both ends of the trip).

British Air often has Internet specials through their website--you can sign up and get notices from these...I believe it's britishairways.com. In some of these you can fly on to your destination for an added price from London. We flew from Seattle to Malaga last year for $449 each during one of their specials.

If they don't fly into Bergen, you might check out whichbudget.com and see what you can get with them from London.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

I think its a bit early to book for June since no discounts are listed yet. I am not sure if this may also just be an expensive route. One way to check fares is to use the ITA sight to see what fares are, you cant purchase here but you can find out what the fares are.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/

Have you considered a Lufthansa flight from Portland?

I too live in Seattle. My 5 trips to Europe (over past 10 years & all in summer season) I have paid ~$1100 on British Air. It is worth it to me for their non-stop flight which leaves in the evening and arrives London Heathrow late the next morning. The price I mentioned is RT and includes the next leg on another BA flight (I've gone on to Amsterdam, Paris, or Geneva different times).

Isn't that amazing that it is so high? It sounds like they are ripping the Seattle/Pacific Northwest market. I use to fly to Europe from LA and often got fares around $450, in fact once I got a trip to Munich for under $400! It sucks because Seatlle is actually closer than LA.

Many European tour companies can arrange airfare from the US, so make sure you ask them (or your travel agent) about that. It's likely to cost you less than $1,000.

<i>Isn't that amazing that it is so high? It sounds like they are ripping the Seattle/Pacific Northwest market.</i>

Smell the coffee. The RT price for late June from JFK to Oslo is $800-$900, seven dollars less if you don't mind stopping in Iceland. I don't think the PNW is getting hosed, especially given it's the peak travel period of peaks, and there's one plane a day from SEA to CPH.

dcsam, it might get cheaper if you wait, but it might not. Jet A, heating oil, unleaded... all up, way up. Have you priced hotels for pre- and post-cruise in Norway yet? :(

For my July 2003 flight (actually I left June 30) from Vancouver to London, I paid about $930 CAD on a charter.

For my July 2004 flight, I paid about $813 CAD on Air Canada (lucky find).

In any event, both of these are rather less than the Seattle summer fares reported here and there are several charter options to London out of Vancouver.

I might be able to think up a Seattle-Vancouver-London-Bergen itinerary, but it might not end up that much cheaper when all the hassle, extra time, and extra hotel stays are considered, unless you wanted to stay in Vancouver and London anyway.

For just leaving from Seattle, you probably can't do much better than $1,000. SAS does have a great pre-Christmas sale, though.

Sorry, meant to say that SAS typically has a great pre-Christmas sale for January to March dates.

I agree with most here. Seattle-Bergen route is not a very competative route. As somebody else posted earlier, you have a choice of 2 airlines IF you prefer one stop ONLY.

<b>richardab</b>,

distance has NOTHING to do with fares. <i>rkkwan</i> explained it very clearly in another post, so I won't go into the explanation here, but you have to realize that LAX-Europe are highly competative markets. You just can't compare that route to Seattle-Bergen, regardless of the mileage. New Yorkers could get to London for a lot less than they could to, let's say, Little Rock or Indianapolis, etc. WHY? because there are many, many flights on that route with many different airlines.

So, I may need to check into flights out of LAX or JFK? We'd be willing to do two changes of planes, but that's pushin' it for my mom. When I type 'flexible' dates on Travelocity, I'm finding fares for a bit under $600 up to March. That's why I'm thinking it may be just a bit early. On the other hand, I don't want to wait and have to pay over $2000. We couldn't do that.
Thanks again
Caroline
Westport, WA

see how you could route it using icelantic airlines, through NY, newark or boston??

With a 79-year-old traveling, I'd say Icelandiair, which would take a connecting flight just to get to -- and another from Oslo to Bergen -- not to mention the Iceland stop -- might not be a great choice.

I'd keep watching -- my first trick is to use mobbisimo.com with sidestep running on the side. You could also put in a ``deal tracker'' request with Orbitz (and I think Expedia might have a similar service) for the dates you're looking for.

I broke this trip up into a lot of pieces and right now there are fewer cheaper options that about $1,050.

When I lived there Seattle wasn't a great place for getting bargain flights, except down the West Coast.

I guess hanging out in Ballard won't do as an alternative, huh?

It would be worth asking this on the Cheap Flights forum at www.eurotrip.com/forum also.

WOW! You all are terrific! Thanks for all your suggestions. Looks like I have some work to do.
Thanks again!
Caroline

Have you considered using a consolidator fare? The fares are from airlines that have determined a percentage of seats on a given flight that they feel that they can't sell. You generally can get tickets for a lot less that the regular airfares. Also ask if you will get credit for the miles that you fly. Since you already know what the normal airfare is you have something to compare their price against.

Repete, too funny! How many folks on this forum will get your reference to Ballard as a substitute? Not Many, I'll bet.

SAS has a nonstop listed at $998 per person. I haven't read the entire string so don't know if that is good or not but it is nonstop.

I found it via http://www.france.com and clicked on Airfares on the right side of the screen. If you do this, scroll to the top of the Airfare screen or you'll get a combination air/hotel fare and you want air only.((@))

Wonder what the OP decided. And if you book through the US agent, www.coastalvoyage.com, the cruise price includes airfare from JFK or EWR, and they can arrange extra fares from other cities.