Air booked through Carnival

[HarpHarp]

I have never booked air through the cruise line until our upcoming cruise, because it was such a deal.:D

What experiences have you had with air booked through Carnival, flight schedules, routing & so on. I'd especially be interested in flights booked to Europe.

[firefly333]

I would say unless its a cruise to Europe .. please dont do it.

 

I read so many horror stories, red eye, last minute specials, you cant go in the night before and relax unless they are flying you from far away and cant get you there on a red eye special.

 

One poster actually missed the ship the flight was too close .. carnival said .. not their problem!!!! its a 3rd party who books the airfare.

 

You could not convince me to do it

 

if you dont mind taking a huge chance missing the ship, last minute red eyes, and not knowing your flight time until almost the last minute .. maybe this is for you, but not for most people.

 

How much $$$ are you saving?

 

this is the poster who did not make the ship and carnival told them later when contacted .. not carnival's problem. they do not wait the ship if you dont make it to the ship on time on a last minute flight.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=29650679&posted=1#post29650679

[HarpHarp]

Yes indeed it is to Europe, Barcelona in fact. When I called Carnival & asked about the air, both the pvp & I were surprised at the cost. We are going 2 days before the cruise to see some of Barcelona.

 

I usually like to make my own travel arrangements, and have booked several European trips that have been quite wonderful. Other than a transportation stike in Italy that put us in Paris in a freak snow storm, no bad tales to tell.

[firefly333]

europe is the one exception where the savings can be worth it booking air thru carnival as I noted above.

 

So, if you are ok with not controlling the flights, you should be ok.

 

Ive also heard like you are in calif, and flying to the east coast, they cant get you there the day of the flight and have to fly you in the day before and this works out well.

[carsaw]

Yes indeed it is to Europe, Barcelona in fact. When I called Carnival & asked about the air, both the pvp & I were surprised at the cost. We are going 2 days before the cruise to see some of Barcelona.

 

I usually like to make my own travel arrangements, and have booked several European trips that have been quite wonderful. Other than a transportation stike in Italy that put us in Paris in a freak snow storm, no bad tales to tell.

 

We are going on the Breeze the sailing before you and Carnival quoted us a price that was $100 pp less than we paid on our own. In addition, we would have had to get to the airport 5 hrs away to get that price and it had a connection. We are driving to the airport 3 hrs away, direct flight, good seats for only $100 more pp. I think we got the better deal on our own.:)

[Gizmo88]

it can sometimes be a bit hectic with the flight schedule that given. i usually did it. if anything goes wrong (ex: flight delay that make you miss a connect or land after ship departure), you can contact Carnival's travel hotline to inform of the situation and the will get you the first port of call at the expense of the cruise line and get you accommodations and pay any fines incurred. (it happened to me once).

 

if you want more info, under carnival FAQ it is under the flyAweigh program.

 

honestly, i recommend arriving at departure port the day before as it is less hassle.

[Lisah101]

We sailed from Barcelona in October and there were a few on our ship that booked air through Carnival. One of them had a very late delay and just made the ship, but their Carnival transfer they had paid for wasn't at the airport so they had to get a cab.

 

I personally would never book air through Carnival. I booked ours separately to get to Barcelona 2 days before the cruise so we could adjust to the time zone change before embarkation. I also had control over which airlines/ connection times, etc. When you book through someone like Carnival, they have purchased tickets through a "consolidator". This means you don't have the same kind of ticket I do for a flight. If there is a delay due to weather, mechanical or overbooking and you are on a consolidator ticket, the airline puts you at the bottom of the list for help because you aren't their customer, the consolidator is and they are a bulk volume company. Also, you could end up with a connection through someone like Ryanair which has so many hidden fees, some people have been left stranded. They even charge you to print a boarding pass at the airport.

 

Please read some of the threads under "Cruise Air" topic on Cruise Critic. There are many people who have shared their stories on cruise air. Note: European airfare is running about $1,000 per person to Barcelona. I found ours for $850 per person last year and thought that was a deal.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=128

[Lisah101]

I'm not sure where you are from, but I think I read Ohio on your roll call.

 

Assuming Columbus, I can see round trip tix on American Airline for $869 with two stops or $1,000 on US Airways with one stop each direction.

 

I did US AIrways last year because we only had one stop in Philadelphia with a 3 hour layover. I love longer layovers before an international flight so I don't take any changes that a delay would cause me to miss my connection to Barcelona. Those flights usually only run once a day so if you miss it, you loose a whole day.

[Yvonne]

I would never book air with Carnival. I tried once, but was told we had to fly in the day of the cruise. Our cruise was going to be in January and we live in Michigan, the weather could definitely delay or cancel a flight so flying in the day of the cruise was just not at all acceptable. I asked if we could pay a "deviation fee" so we could fly in a day or two early and still wasn't allowed. On our very first cruise on the Disney Magic we booked air with them and we paid $50 each to deviate from the flight they wanted to put us on. So I just told the Carnival representative "no thanks" and booked air on my own.

 

We used to fly down at least a day ahead, but a couple years ago we were delayed flying home by two days because of a major snow storm in Detroit, so now we fly down at least 2-3 days before the cruise.

[Captain Carnival]

This is all very interesting and encouraging information as I am currently exploring airfare from Tampa to Venice and Barcelona to Tampa for next May when we sail on Legend throughout the Mediterranean.

[laurenpie]

I'm currently trying to get airfares booked with Carnival. It's a bit of a system glitch so I don't know if I'll be able to do or not..

 

But spoke to my PVP about it, and she advised that if I do not book a hotel through Carnival they will put me on a flight that gets me there maybe the night before the cruise, or if not the day of the cruise.

 

Advised her that I was not comfortable with arriving in on the morning of the cruise (apart from the fact its a slight waste, I want time to explore Barcelona)

 

She told me that if I booked either 1 or 2 nights with Carnival for accomodation in Barcelona the airline I flew with would accomodate that, so we're planning to (if Carnival's airfares are not sold out) to stay fly from Miami, stay 2 nights in Barcelona pre-cruise ...

 

We're getting a 1 way flight because we are doing a transatlantic cruise.

It's $620 p/person for the airfares (VERY good from Miami)

and $190 p/person each for the hotels for 2x nights for a hotel 5min walk from Las Ramblas. I'm happy with that.