carnival air/sea booking...flight concerns

[shayb]

Let me start out by saying I have never used a TA before or booked air/sea out of 10 previous cruises. This time around we are going with 2 other couples who are virgin cruisers (virgin travelers of any kind in fact) and were worried about booking on our own, despite my input! (I've already done the "I told you so"). So I agreed to go this route.

 

Got our cruise docs last Friday and they have us arriving at 4:15 p (from Denver) for our 6p cruise out of New Orleans. Carnival's own website says "latest arrival flight before emabarkation: 3:30pm". Called the TA to change ( she thought it was cutting it close too) after checking AA site and seeing that they have much early flights that could get us in as early as 12:15p. She called back saying they wanted the $50 for the deviation. (We had requested from TA when booking earliest possible flight in due to a conflict in trying to leave 1 day early.) She said Carnival air/sea folks were saying we shouldn't worry though and could try to stand by on an AA connecting flight in Dallas that gets into NO at 2:15p (to me they should have booked us on that early flight anyway vs. the 2.5 hr layover they have us on now, plenty of time, 1 hr, to get to the connect flight from our DEN arrival to the outbound NO flight). After discussing it we said we'd just pay the $50pp for our friends peace of mind in arriving with plenty of time. This was last Friday and TA said she'd call 1st thing Monday as air/sea was closed and she wouldn't be able to change. Monday came and she called saying they now want $100pp to change as it was less than 45 days to cruise. Interesting thing was when she said she called Friday (before they closed) to see if we could even consider changing it was still after 45 days, yet they told her $50pp vs $100pp. My complaint was we didn't even get docs until 38 days before so we never had chance to review the flights booked before their "45 day rule". Talked to TA's supervisor and she said not much she could do but will try to call a "friend" she has at Carnival air/sea and see if they can do anything for us.

 

We have trip insurance (again, not my idea but perhaps a good thing now?). I also know that often they hold the ship for late arrival flights (have never left on time for my previous cruises) but do any of you think this is too late even despite Carnival's reassurance to our TA that original booking is fine? My friends are driving me nuts over this (despite my many I told you so's!) and I just don't know what to do or tell them at this point. This is a "trip of a lifetime" for them and I'm so worried that something will go wrong; even if we miss the boat and have to go to first port they'd lose 2 days of the cruise! I defintely will NEVER be talked into booking thru TA or doing air/sea pkg again. Does anyone have any input? I'll wait to see what supervisor TA says after talking to her "friend" at air/sea, but if its the same answer, I told my friends I don't know what to do short of calling Carnival customer service and raising some h*ll to see if that helps. With the stress of all of this, this vacation can't come soon enough! Sorry for the long post, just hoping someone may have some helpful ideas..only about 4 wks to go!

[shayb]

After raising some heck with Carnival, we got the flights changed to one that gets in earlier at no charge! Seems the Carnival folks called our TA and she called us saying that they got a "rush order to change the flight and it was taken care of at no charge"! So, in the end not sure if it was Carnival air/sea or TA's fault but we are sure relieved and looking forward to our cruise!

[jcanino]

and it was taken care of at no charge"! So, in the end not sure if it was Carnival air/sea or TA's fault but we are sure relieved and looking forward to our cruise!

 

Your TA has no involvement in choosing air flights when dealing with a cruise lines air/sea department. Also, for the most part, the air/sea department is at the mercy of the airlines and the flights that they give them in accordance with their contract.

[Bosun]

shayb- glad it all worked out for you and you can now relax!

 

I have a quick question on the matter - if you book air/sea thru the cruise line and the flight is delayed for whatever reason, do the cruise line help to get you to the next port? or is it all up to you?