Once we selected our cabin and booked the cruise, we then had to arrange our flights from SFO to Venice, and then from Barcelona back to SFO. But when flying internationally one is subject to the 330 day rule. That means you cannot book your air reservations until there are only 330 days remaining to the day you fly…and that is the LAST day you fly, not the first day.
When using Frequent Flyer miles you are also subject to availability…and that was complicated somewhat since we really wanted to fly Business Class (Hey, we’re going to Europe for the 1st time, let’s try to do it right!)
We knew we wanted to arrive in Venice (one of our dream locations) at least two days before the cruise started, and we wanted to stay at least a day after the cruise ended in Barcelona. So after multiple calls to United and several possible itineraries, we finally came up with one that met our goals…the key being able to fly non-stop both ways between SFO and Frankfurt…on a 747…for free! Short hops on Lufthansa going (Frankfurt to Venice) and Swiss Air (Barcelona to Geneva) and Lufthansa (Geneva to Franfurt) returning didn’t really matter as long as the LONG leg was taken care of. Then it was time for seat selection.
If you haven’t used seatguru.com then you are missing out. It is very cool! We went into each airline's website, determined plane type for our flights, and then went to the schematics on seatguru and picked several ‘optimal’ seat locations before calling the airlines and confirming seating. Below is the link to United's 747 we will fly on. Move your cursor over the seats! Fun stuff. (And we got the seats we wanted in the Upper Level…sweet!)
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/United_Airlines/United_Airlines_Boeing_747-400.php
With the cruise and air booked we then needed to start researching pre- and post-cruise hotels.
We were able to research information about different cruise lines, different ships, and various itineraries and ports before finally picking the best one for us and booking it.
