blog post

Great travel deals abound in the Fall!  Package operators and cruise lines are doing everything they can to entice people to fill up their remaining 2010 inventories, and they are encouraging 2011 reservations by offering early-booking discounts.

What’s the catch?  Unfortunately, in many cases it’s the airfare!  I've written before about the importance of booking air now for 2011 travel because of the expectation of higher prices, and today I want to continue the conversation by talking about European flight schedules.

I’ve been helping a lot of folks with their Europe cruises and packages, so I’ve seen all of the pitfalls to watch out for when it comes to booking the air.  If you become too focused on your price, you may miss the fact that you are getting a really, really, bad itinerary.

“Supply and demand” is the rule when it comes to air prices:  the ideal flight times command premium fares, and the undesirable times get bundled together by consolidators at reduced rates.  What happens when you go to a consolidator site like Travelocity or Expedia is that they show you the bundled fares that they want to sell you, which are not necessarily in your best interests.

Watch out for the following, and be sure to weigh the downsides against the price:

• Too-early departures.  Keep in mind that all flights to Europe are overnight.  Ideally, you’ll want an afternoon departure.  It’s important to get as much sleep as possible the night before you leave to reduce jetlag effects, so get to bed early then sleep in.
• Too-late arrivals.  When there are too many stops and/or the connections are too far apart, you could end up arriving at your destination way too late.  Aim for a morning or noon-ish arrival.  After all, you don’t want to miss your whole first day of vacation!
• Changes of airports.  This is common in London and New York.  You have to ask yourself if that cheap flight is really saving you anything if you have to retrieve your luggage and pay to take a taxi across town to a different airport (and check in all over again).
• Overnight, long layovers.  You expect an overnight flight to Europe, but not on the way home!  You might see an overnight somewhere as a bonus city to visit, but European hotels are pricey even at airport locations —  that expense plus the cost of additional meals out could more than negate any airfare savings.
• Too many stops.  I saw 3 stops the other day on one airline!  That is just ridiculous because you’ll spend more than 24 hours getting home.  2 connections should be the maximum.
• Bad connections.  I see many “cheap” schedules that don’t allow sufficient time for changing terminals and getting through customs (not to mention the long ones that have you sitting around an airport all day).  You need to plan to have at least 2 hours for customs.  Any kind of delay will cause you to miss your connecting flight.  I notice that some of the online sites hide the true nature of the connections until you have clicked the "purchase" button, or they make you wade through several links to uncover the details of where you are really connecting and for how long.
• Returns to different airports!  There is crazy stuff out there, I’m telling you.

Sure, you can brag about that cheap air you got, but is it really worth it to arrive in Barcelona at 10:10 pm after leaving home the day before at 10:10 am?  Do you really want to spend the night in the Amsterdam airport on the way home?  Will you really be saving money if you have to collect your luggage at Heathrow then take a cab or a train to Gatwick for your next connection? 

Consolidators are fine for basic research, but then I recommend going to the airline’s direct website to compare what else might really be available.  For less than $150 more you can probably get an excellent schedule with reasonable departures and arrivals that maximize your vacation time (and reduce your time in the air), and have only one stop each way with reasonable connections. 

Your vacation time is too precious to give away for nothing, and you want to come home refreshed, not exhausted from a ridiculous travel itinerary.