jimc_usa

I am new to this board so please forgive me if this question has been answered already.

I have 25000 on my card, how do I exchange it for credit on my cruise?

I have been sober for 30 years and my wife only drinks the odd glass of wine. We have always refused the drink package

We have been on NCL many times, we almost always get a cheap inside cabin (who stays in their cabin anyway?) thats they only way we can cruise on a pension :D

Just using the dates you posted, I can very easily see how using a combination of a Delta ticket for MSP to FLL to board the cruise (plus a shuttle to the cruise port which was figured in) then JFK to MSP on the return plus an Aer Lingus ticket from BCN to JFK will result in a TOTAL fare of just slightly over $1000.00. In fact, if you are willing to take a 12 hour flight from JFK through Washington DC (Reagan airport) with a 7 hour layover, I can get the total price down to about $920.00 IF booked at today's prices.

 

Delta price is $442.00 from MSP to FLL on May 6, then the late night return from JFK (no long layover). AerLingus from Dublin to JFK on June 1-$502 and AerLingus from BCN to Dublin is $53.00. One bag of 50 pounds plus 22 pound carryon. IF you need the extra bag, AerLingus has a nice feature-flat rate of $50 for a second bag on USA flights.

 

You will have to change terminals when you arrive JFK/USA. And you will have to handle your own luggage at JFK. But with online check in for Delta, shouldn't be very complicated. AND you have NO long immigration lines entering the USA on AerLingus. You are PRE CLEARED in Ireland, so get your luggage, walk it through Customs and off you go to the Delta terminal. 3 hour layover at JFK, which should be more than sufficient. AND you MAY have to spend the night in Dublin-the entire schedule (intra Europe) for AerLingus is NOT out yet for the public website but AerLingus has some pretty good "packages" for hotels and sightseeing. The schedule through March DOES NOT require an overnight.

 

There are other, more complicated ways to do it and get the price down to about $750-800 but that involves changing airports in NYC as well as a transfer from Palm Beach to MIA for the cruise as well as flying FROM MSP on May 5.

 

Just got to put on the old thinking cap.

Thanks for the info - I am taking your advice and watching all those suggestions. It seems that Air Lingus via Dublin and Chicago may be the wat to go.

I give-got 1.5 hours of free computer time now. Bored here at work (BIAP-Baghdad)-cargo plane is 2 hours late so means I will be working until midnight again.

 

What departure day, which airport??? How many people, etc. etc. All particulars, please.

Are you serious?

I've noticed that strategy can usually work pretty well on CC. Not speaking about you, but I have never seen a board with so many people asking the most basic questions, that they could find answers to in less than a second, with a google search.

It was tongue in cheek

GET CREATIVE-use your brain and all the search engines to get yourself home.

I was hoping that if I looked helpless someone would do it for me :D

Why not?

 

You don't need to have flown a single mile with AA - just join their FF program and purchase the total number of miles required for your flight. The only restriction is that you can only purchase 40,000 miles per member per year. You can even check FF ticket availability without having any miles (I have done this numerous times).

 

What would prevent you from executing this scenario?

Nothing actually. I will check into it. Thank you

Is there a special way to make this work as an open jaw oe one way - I keep getting "No American, American Eagle, or American Connection service is provided between the cities requested."

You won't find a continuing flight on Aer Lingus into MSP. So book AerLingus/IcelandAir/Lot, etc. etc. on the one way basis, then a separate ticket from your US gateway (generally JFK/ORD/BOS to MSP. And if you are on a repo cruise, you still have to get from MSP to most likely Florida to join the ship. An open jaw, internal USA ticket can also be a money saver-MSP to cruise departure point, then US international airport gateway to MSP.

 

Yes, you will have to recheck your luggage. But you have to do it anyway-every entry into the USA requires a Customs check AND reclear through security, as you have handled your baggage. One nice thing about AerLingus-when you fly out of Dublin or Shannon into the USA-you are precleared through immigration. NO NEED to stand in long immigration lines, just grab your luggage from baggage claim, walk it through Customs and go on about your business.

 

Yes, the airlines COULD come after you if you do "throw away" ticketing. Will they???-chances are very, very slim unless you make it a habit. I wouldn't use your FF number-too easy to track you down. And sometimes when you book the RT, IF you book it properly, you can save a chunk of money. Example: Spring repo to Europe-most likely arrives sometime in April-before May 15. This is when air fare is generally cheaper than peak summer season. Then book the return for mid October/early November-this is another time the airfare is generally cheap. You will have to play around with this as some fare classes do not allow a stay for longer than 30 days. But if you read the fare rules, you can often save some decent money by booking both segments in "low" seasons. Good luck in your search.

Thanks for the reply - since I retired I do not fly much anymore...

I have lots of time to check any scenario from MSP-SJU and either BCN or AGP - MSP and it's not until next May.

An open jaw is around $1550 (maybe best bet)

One way to SJU could be $150 and the return as much as $1700

I am not an AA FF so Twickenham's idea will not work and the Delta FF is just ridiculous. But thanks for the info - I am open to any/all ideas.

I have read most of the threads and my question is slightly different.

After a cruise the flight back from Spain would be $1700 one way and $1000 return.

If I booked return tickets and threw the return away............

Would there be any possiblity of financial problems with the airlines and also with immigration, considering we live in the US?

I tried Aer Lingus and I don't seam to be able to do a BCN-MSP or Malaga-MSP

Just got an email from a representative there and was told that they did have a shuttle to the dock. I booked my reservations for this hotel and we're leaving in a couple of weeks.

Thank you - but does the hotel also do a shuttle from the Charleston Airport?

When we cruised out of Charleston we stayed the night before at the Holiday Inn Riverview. It was great! Just ask for a room with a river or city view and you will really enjoy it. We could see the ship from our room when we got up Saturday.

The hotel has a nice restaurant/lounge on the top floor with walls of windows and great views.

They allowed us to leave our vehicle for free while we cruised and shuttled us to the pier. Dropped us off right at the door! When we returned after the cruise, I called them as I was leaving the ship. Walked across the street from the dock and they picked us up within 15 minutes. We were in our car and on the road home within 30 minutes of stepping onto land.

I would definately stay here again when sailing out of Charleston, SC.

Did the Hoilday Inn Riverview also do an airport shuttle? Free or otherwise?

Much of Garin's(The author) portrait is unflattering, particularly where U.S. cruise lines are concerned. He describes the industry's poor environmental record, revealing the degree to which the major cruise ships have willfully dumped massive amounts of waste offshore. When they have been caught, often as not, it has been in the act of covering up the evidence. Moreover, by flying the flags of such laissez-faire overseers as Liberia or Panama -- poor countries that are in the game only for the registry fees -- the American companies are able to avoid paying any U.S. taxes, which helps explain their outsize profit margins. Garin notes that if Carnival Corp. (CCL ) and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL ) were subjected to the same 35% tax rates as the rest of Corporate America, the two would have generated $518 million in additional tax revenues in 2003 alone -- equal to half that year's Environmental Protection Agency budget for Superfund cleanups. Garin details how Carnival founder Ted Arison's aversion to taxes was so great that, upon retirement, he renounced U.S. citizenship and returned to Israel to avoid paying estate taxes. (Arison's death just a few months shy of the 10-year "denaturalization" period left his estate liable.)

More troubling, perhaps, is the degree to which these moguls of the high seas have been able to operate largely by their own labor and safety codes. While the staff on the top decks, no coincidence, look just like the largely American and European passengers, Garin reveals that the legions of workers toiling below deck are invariably from such impoverished countries as Indonesia or the Philippines. These employees log 10, 12, or even 14-hour days, washing laundry or peeling potatoes for as little as $550 a month. And yet for many of them, Garin admits, the prospect of three square meals, a semiprivate room, and the chance to wire hundreds of dollars back home each month is a step up from anything they've known.

HI,

The albuterol was $9.00 for 1 inhaler, so I find it hard to believe Advair was $6.00. Don't get me wrong - I hope that the previous post is correct. We are going again 6/2007, and I will be at the pharmacy as soon as I can get off the ship.

We will be in Belize again at the end of October - this time I have a shopping list. So I hope for my sake that my memory wasn't playing tricks on me!

My son has asthma and NO medical insurance. The inhaler he needs is advair at a cost of $130 for 6o uses, (Costco price). In Belize I bought the last 6 they had for $6.00 each, (a savings of $750.00). My biggest fear was that it would be no good and I would have wasted $36.00. But no!

It is an unfortunate fact of life that Americans are paying for the research and development of drugs for the rest of the world!

Actually the very least of all the reasons for an alcoholic not to drink is the cash price of one (or a dozen )drinks. For a real alcoholic to pick up a drink again more times than not..means jails, institutions and the loss of jobs,families,friends,homes,savings and sanity..For me as an alcoholic picking up a drink is like taking a huge eraser to my life and watching things and people disappear..at a very rapid rate.

 

I have been on 3 cruises and attend FOBW meetings on a daily basis there. I have met people that had 40 years of sobriety at them and met people that were on Day 1 of sobriety there. I am ever so grateful to the cruise lines for supplying a time and place for the meetings...I said to the Food and beverage director on the SPIRIT while thanking him for the coffee setups " You REALLY don't need one of us getting drunk on this beautiful ship, me running naked through the atrium would NOT be a pretty sight!"....hehehehe..He reminded me that they still have a brig on the ship <G>...

 

Thanks for the nod of support to Friends of Bill W., Even in this day and age alcoholism is considered a moral failing or a sin by many..I DO know one thing, although alcoholism to me isn't a sin....when I was drunk I committed way too many of them that I later I was blessed to have the privilege and opportunity to make amends.

I agree entirely - if the people who think it is a SIN - should know - my daughter does not choose to be an epileptic - she just is. I didn't choose to be an alcoholic - I just am! But we both did something about it. She takes medication - I don't drink!

Congratulations to you all for the hard work, perserverence and success! I admire anyone who is willing to take on the disease and sees that their life is worth it!

 

I love your stories about people who show up to meetings thinking it is a cruise event! - lol

and that is amazing about the flight attendant!

Thank you

There are many sober cruises, but that means a TA has booked maybe 200/300 AA members and their SO on a cruise, The next cruise I am on, the Dream in October is a sober cruise for me, (not for my DW)with all day meetings and speakers when at sea. Most people on the cruise would never know!

As a friend of Bill W. I can tell you it is also really cheap to cruise, not buying alcohol!

Another great story I heard..... A flight attendent very new to recovery had just got off a plane and had the urge to drink when passing the bars on the airport concourse. Instead she paged the airport and asked if " Friends of Bill W." would come to Gate 12 (an empty gate) apparently over 20 people came and talked to her. (2 people missed their flights!)

Good Answer!