Greetings fellow travelers.
I'm looking for recommendation to get back to the States after our tour ends on Oct. 5th in Dubrovnik. I would like to keep travel within the One World network but I'm finding rather limited flights out of DBV on any of their partners.
We will be flying into Europe on Iceland Air landing at Gdansk for the best of Poland Tour prior to the Adriatic tour.
Thanks in advance for any recommendations or warnings.
British Airways is a One World partner and they have 3 flights from Dubrovnik to London On October 5th. The earliest one goes to Gatwick and that airport has few direct flights to the US. The 13.05 flight goes to Heathrow but the 14.55 arrival may be too late for most flights back to the US. If that is the case for your US destination, then you could consider the late flight that arrives at Heathrow at 21:35 and then overnight at the airport, flying home the next day. We have done that (once) and it is nice to be so unhurried. We stayed at the Sofitel which is connected to T5 at Heathrow and has a good facilities and a decent restaurant for dinner.
Also check flightsbout of Podgorica.
As I recall, I used Croatia Airlines from Dubrovnik to Zürich (one stop) and then connected with onward transportation there. They have numerous flights every day, and the one I used left very early.
I took a positioning flight to Rome and flight home from there.
Finnair is a One World airline and has flights from DBV to HEL. There are non-stops
to LA, Chicago, NY, Miami, Seattle, and Dallas from there. Schedules this far out in
advance are guaranteed to change. Non-trivial chance you'd spend a night in
Helsinki, but is that a bad thing?
Since Croatia Airlines is part of Star Alliance, you will probably find better/more options
with United.
You would get more assistance if you said what your US destination was as well, since
US hubs are often alliance-centric.
Google Flights offers a filter for alliance, which would display all results for OneWorld routings.
Lufthansa/United.
We flew Lufthansa both ways. The return was 18:20 Dubrovnik to Frankfurt, stayed at Hilton Garden and flew to US next day midmorning.
United------------have been 3 times and always do United but I live in a United Hub city
Thank you all. We have been reluctant to fly through LRH, the last time was quite an experience of brief customs and passport controls to change terminals... but that was pre pandemic. Our final destination in the States in Seattle and we have considered FinnAir via HEL. Their biz class seats look break but very expensive, more that double Iceland Air via KEF. I think we will look more closely at the overnight stay at LHR and try to keep it all in the One World Alliance. Thank you Star Alliance folks, our base of operations and most flights are linked to Alaska Airlines, OW network.
Cheers and Happy Traveling.
Update: As noted in a later comment on this tread, one way tickets run more that half of the round trip fare. Still, biz class on BA rolls in at almost $10,000 for the two of us. Plus a hotel night near LHR. Not in our plans. We will go on Croatia Airlines to FRA and then Iceland Air to CPH. KEF and home. We did this connection last hear and it worked out great starting in Milan. Thanks for suggestions.
I think at least part of your issue is that you are looking for a one-way fare between DBV
and SEA. If you don't know it, one-way fares on international flights are generally not
50% of the roundtrip fare.
I can see a RT in biz between Seattle and Dubrovnik on Finnair is around $4300. The
one-way is $6000. You can't book a RT and then throw away the originating flight; the airline
will cancel the whole thing.
You have some options:
Finnair is moving to Avios as their frequent flyer currency in January. If you have Avios, or
points that can be converted into Avios, you might want to wait until the conversion happens
and see what you can book. AA miles sometimes work, but not always.
You also could look into Condor. A one-way PE ticket on 10/5 can be had for ~$1000.
Tap Portugal and Icelandic air are the only two airlines I am familiar with that let you buy one way tickets without a penalty.
Dubrovnik Airport is very strange in that they have a huge Seasonal flight schedule--during Summer. I have no idea what that means and what date all of the airlines quit flying there for the season?
The rest of the year, they have very, very few flights. Croatia Airlines flies to Frankfurt. Ryanair flies to Vienna, Dublin and London-Stansted. And Turkish Airlines flies into Istanbul. That's just about it for linking up with any airline flying back to the U.S.
Thanks all. Lot's of choices if we are not in a rush. Keep on travelin!
Wrong place to rely on OneWorld alliance. For Croatia, Star Alliance is way better IMHO (at least for folks going to/from the USA).
Croatia Airlines + United and/or Lufthansa. Gets you here to there and back easily, for many folks, with just one stop (typically FRA). Easy.
