I am signed up for the Heart of Portugal followed by the Best of Spain tour in 2024. I will be flying out of SFO to Lisbon to meet the HoP tour group. This tour ends in Porto. I have tickets on TAP from Porto to Barcelona where I will meet the BoS group. My question is about the flights home. It seems like a RT ticket SFO - Lisbon is easier to book than a multi city ticket. Any tips? Should I book a RT ticket and a flight from Seville to Lisbon? Does that make sense?
Posted by
Queens, NYC
571 posts
Just to make sure I've understood correctly, your itinerary is:
- San Francisco > Lisbon
- Tour (HoP), ends in Porto
- Porto > Lisbon
- Tour (HoS), ends in Seville
- Seville > San Francisco
And the leg you are asking about is in bold (Seville to SF).
If all that's correct, to your question, I would only book the Seville-Lisbon and Lisbon-SFO flights separately if there was one night between the flights. If you book these separately (a SF-Lisbon round trip on one ticket, and a one-way Seville-Lisbon on another ticket) you have no "protection".
In other words, if you miss your Seville-Lisbon flight (or it's delayed, or canceled) causing you to then miss your Lisbon-San Francisco flight, the LIS-SFO airline is under no obligation to rebook you for free, and you may end up buying an expensive last-minute ticket.
My one-night caveat is because this gives you more wiggle room -- should something go awry, you have more time to come up with a Plan B to get from Seville to Lisbon to still make your flight.
If I were you, I'd go for the multi-city. You will still end up making a connection on the way home from Seville to SF (maybe via Madrid, Lisbon, or another one of the big hub airports) but that connection will be protected -- if you miss your connection in Madrid/Lisbon/Connecting Airport, your airline is still responsible for getting you back to SF and will rebook you on a different flight.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11874 posts
If you fly Seville to Lisbon at least one day before your Lisbon to SFO flight it makes sense. Trying do so , as a separate ticket, on the same day, puts you in financial danger if the 1st flight is delayed and you miss the SFO bound flight.
Have you looked at a multi-city routing of SFO-Lisbon with a Seville-SFO return?
Posted by
Hudson Valley
2267 posts
You should be able to fly SVQ-SFO via LIS on one ticket—it'll be either a very early departure from SVQ or an overnight layover in LIS to make the US-bound flight. I'd book a multi-city with that as the return.
I agree that if you book separate tickets get to LIS you should give an overnight buffer.
(Your post reads like you've already bought the SFO-LIS as a one-way. If that's the case, the total pricing could end up wacky.)
Posted by
London, UK
414 posts
I might be misunderstanding you, but if the BoS tour starts in Barcelona, why are you meeting the BoS group in Lisbon?