Air fare how do you do it as a family?

[blondietink]

We are a family of 4 and we drive to the ports. The closest port for us is Boston (6 hour drive), Baltimore (7 hour drive) and NYC (8 hour drive) but the cruise fares are so high from those cities it is cheapr to drive to Florida. It will typically cost $1400-$1600 for us to fly anywhere, so driving is the way to go for us. With flying you also have to figure in the cost of parking your car at your home airport, transfers to the hotel/cruise port and baggage fees, if any. That can really add up. On our last drive in April to Florida round trip (Disney World), we spent around $500.00 on gas and that is when gas was close to $4.00/gallon. Hotels are free for us (points) and we always pack a lunch, breakfast at hotel and dinner is our only pay meal. At that, we try to hit the fast food places we don't have around here, like Hardees, Bojangles, etc. The only cruise port we could never drive to is San Juan, but the itinerary is so great we just might have to spring for it. I priced it out of Buffalo, with a stopover in Charlotte or Atlanta and it was cheaper than if we drove to Charlotte and got a direct flight from there. Go figure! We also have Starwood points, so we could fly at least a couple of us to San Juan for free.

[jenale80]

Earn and use airmiles. :)

[laurenpie]

I find flying *does* cost more than the cruise in our case.. I wish we could drive to the port. :(

We have to fly from Australia, and thank god that it is just the two of us.

It's about $1100 return from Australia to Los Angeles each, then $250 each down to Miami... then the cost can differ as to where we want to go after the cruise.

 

Sometimes I wish we lived in the US.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Airfare prices have nothing to do with the cost of the cruise. Why do people even measure the 2 against each other.

 

We live in the Northwest and fly to any embarkation port. It is what it is.

How do we do it as a family? We buy our airline tickets just the same as everyone else.

 

 

Airfare prices have everything to do with it when you're flying to port--they're part of the total cost of the vacation. We've changed weeks we're cruising when it's made a big difference on the total cost.

 

OP, it's a cost we factor in when we cruise--no choice as not a lot of cruise ships sailing out of Oregon. ;) Last year, for the first time ever, we had the luxury of driving to port. W did a round trip cruise out of Seattle and it was great to not have to concern myself with flights.

 

It's now just me and my youngest DD who cruise together, so that helps keep the costs lower. I'm doing a Western Med next year and will be cruising solo. Even with paying extra to cruise solo, my airfare wil exceed the cost of the cruise.

[xitappers2bx]

We live in Florida within driving distance of multiple ports, so we never have factored air costs. However, we wanted to try a cruise out of LA and when we checked air fare it was more than the cruise!

 

Are air costs to FL cheaper or is it crazy priced too? How do you do it as a family of 4+?

 

it really depends when you book... we're flying from philly to tampa in about two weeks, and for my daughter and i RT it was about $300 total. so it's really when you book... i booked a super last minute to vegas (for a funeral) from philly, it was nearly 1200 for one ticket, a few weeks later i booked a few weeks out, found a randomly slow weekend and got it RT for $220. other times i've booked much in advance, and paid 380-450. the carriers often have flight deals. and while SW is usually cheaper the legacy lines are also getting into the price game. i wouldn't be too hopeful though... planes are flying fuller now, (less plans flying) so there's more competition for the seats. if you're really flexible, or plan on flying in the day before or the day after, i strongly suggest a name your own price thing.. i've only had great luck with that.

 

if your dates are set, then you'll probably have a harder time, but if you can book the cruise around the flights, you could get it for around 300pp. from having basically lived bi-coastal, it's really not worth flying out there, dealing with all the flying drama, time changes, etc for a short cruise, you're basically losing a day each way, so its worth it for a week or longer.

[mrsd912]

I wish I'd watched airfare more before booking my tickets. Our local airport is pretty pricey so we're driving 4 hours to another airport. We initially saved about $300 doing it that way. But now we're going to that city the day before we fly so gas, hotel, and meals puts us saving about $100. Me being the fool that I am checked airfare from our local airport again last week, and tickets were only $100 more that what's we paid. Technically we're now in the hole. What do you do?

It's just the two of us, but being in the northeast we had to include airfare intonour vacation budget.

[Anthomaniac]

We are cruising the week after turkey day, and the airfare is definitely more than the cruise...for two of us from Des Moines to FLL is about 900! When I priced it for our cruise this may, it would have been about 1200! It helps that SW starts flying out of DSM in September! So we won't have to pay bag fees, and parking at the airport is only $5 per day...or I might ask a friend to drop us of and pick us up, since we only live about 20 minutes away...

[girlscruise2011]

I am a family of 5 cruising during Thanksgiving. My flights home we more then double my flights down PLUS luggage fees. With the cost of gas, I booked as soon as the flights opened up.

 

When SW finally opened their flights they added a nonstop flight that I could have saved over $600 on my flight home but then I would have waited at the airport for 6 hrs. Nothing I can do about it at this point since airlines charge $150 to cancel.

 

As OP stated, with a family, its just something you accept if you want to cruise. Especially during High Seasons.

[teampayne]

We are looking at paying 4700 dollars for 3 adults,1 child and an infant from England to miami next August :eek:

[girlscruise2011]

We are looking at paying 4700 dollars for 3 adults,1 child and an infant from England to miami next August :eek:

 

OUCH :eek:

[teampayne]

OUCH :eek:

Tell me about it! Needless to say we only cruise once every 2 years.

[LuckyZ]

depends upon the competition out of your home airport as to flight costs. My market used to have really cheap flights to MCO, now they are harder to findl.

 

Good point. We are from the Cinci area and Delta is pretty much a monopoly here. And recently, we are finding that

1. You can't fly direct to many locations anymore ( like Miami)

2. You can't seem to find airfare for less than $500

 

So for a family of 5, you're talking about airfare of between $2,000 and $2,500.

 

It's truly a shame, and sure makes driving very tempting

[CincyLucy]

We have a Delta American express card and each year we get a companion ticket free (like a buy one, get one free). That coupled with the points we earn throughout the year usually makes it possible for three of us to fly free at least twice a year.

[CincyLucy]

Lucky, I'm from Cincinnati. We got direct to NOLA two years ago out of CVG for $189/person delta. They still go direct to FLL and it's way cheaper then MIA

[mandis]

book early. We are flying from Florida to Seattle in August and booked the flights as soon as they posted on southwest site. We are paying $1300 round trip for the 4 of us. Not too bad considering the allow 2 checked bags for free.

[mandis]

And we never pay for seat selection. They will not split families up. 4 flights booked without picking seats and have always been put together.

[keishashadow]

Airfare prices have nothing to do with the cost of the cruise. Why do people even measure the 2 against each other.

 

We live in the Northwest and fly to any embarkation port. It is what it is.

How do we do it as a family? We buy our airline tickets just the same as everyone else.

 

For many of us driving to port is totally out of the question (whether it's the distance/time/lack of desire to drive vs fly). Airfare and cruisefare (along with pre or post hotel stay) = total variable cruise price. These are elements I can control vs standard costs of TI and OB charges/excursions we enjoy.

 

I usually start looking to book a non-DCL cruise four or five months out once airline rates have been released and try to compare a few weeks' worth of dates before I settle upon a booking for the specific ship/itinerary we want to sail. My bottom line is the total cost of both elements (air, cruise & hotel) before I book.

 

I priced out cruise on Breeze for January, factoring in two nights pre-cruise in order to enjoy south beach again. Talk about sticker shock! It's high season and i can't bring myself to stay off the beach or pay $400 a night:eek: for decent place; now looking at other options. This is the first time that hotel rates blew me out of the water.;)

 

re splitting up families, on full flights I've seen unhappy families split up when others won't give up their seats. SWA allows familes with young children to preboard after the A group though.

[fergusonvt]

The airfares to MIA were crazy from Burlington so we are flying into Orlando and driving to Miami. Plus JetBue cancelled our non-stop flight and booked us on one with a stop at JFK but gave us some nice service dollars for our trouble. Too bad I already booked our flight home from San Juan but I'll be able to use them for our 2014 cruise.

[PAPERBKWRITER]

First time ever we are flying......usually we drive 2 days, but with 9 people...two cars....flying is about equal to driving! Plus 2 sons and their wives can't take off the extra drive time this time.

 

We got direct SW flights from Kansas City to Fort Lauderdale for about $160 each way for a total of about $320 per person. Yes that is expensive but not as much as hotels, food, and gas for all 9 of us.

 

Add to that our four rooms and yes I wish I got VIFP points for what I pay for our cruise. :D

 

I feel your pain since we also use MCI. Air fares have gone thru the roof in the past year. We've used SW many times to FL and until recently it was always under $500 for 2. THEN west coast flights were reasonable, but not anymore. Last cruise we drove to Galveston from north central MO.

[SadieN]

Airfare is one reason we haven't sailed out of FLA yet. We are an hour to 90 minutes away from San Diego and Los Angeles.

 

Deals are out there. Two days ago we booked airfare to Seattle for this coming Saturday. RT was only $26 more than the extremely low rate we got 4 years ago when the tix first came available.

[legion3]

We are looking at paying 4700 dollars for 3 adults,1 child and an infant from England to miami next August :eek:

 

 

 

Yeah unbelievable. Was looking at the QM2 westbound and then discovered the airfare to london would equal the cruise! Might as well go b2b on the ship.

 

Airfares are not middle class friendly much anymore unless you use credit to rack up free flier miles or some other massaging of the system.

 

Guess we will stick to Florida but even non cruise vacations are hard to manage with families. Fewer non stops, bag fees, etc.

[Hugh0906]

Coming from California we feel your pain. We usually book our cruise a year or so out. I watch the airfares and always shop alternative airports, even with some additional cab/shuttle it's worth it. SFO to FLL or MIA is usually in the $400 range for us off season.

 

For LA try Long Beach and Orange County along with LAX.

 

Good luck!

 

Ontario and Hollywood/Burbank also.

 

Even San Diego would not be a bad drive in a rental car to Long Beach/San Pedro. If the savings are there.

 

Hugh in Dallas

[klfhngr]

Try flying from Ft.Lauderdale into Long Beach, if possible. If not, Ft. Laud. to Lax. I'm on the West coast, when we fly into Florida, we fly into Lauderdale because we can save at least $100 p.p., if not more. Southwest or Jet Blue might be an option.

[ondeegoh]

What's worked for me in the past is looking at different airlines to/from my destination (either California or FLorida - we're from VA, btw). I've found it was cheaper to buy one way fares for our family - using different airlines, of course. This August, I and my 2 daughters will be traveling to Orlando and I was able to get a one-way return trip, non-stop, from MCO to DCA, for $284 for the three of us. Going there we used United and it was about $90 pp - but I only paid about $30 for all 3 of us using certificates we had received earlier from the airline for delayed flight.

Also, every now and then low fares pop up closer to the date...Jetblue for example had 1-way fare from DCA to MCO for $80 pp today..and that's non-stop, and 1x free luggage pp.

[CheckersMidwest]

We live in Missouri and fly out of Kansas City. Average air fare to Orlando is $278.....since about 1994. however, the past few years it has gone up.

 

we cruised out of Tampa in May and our air fare was $344 each. we are also a family of 4. We only get a small amount of vacation so have to fly as opposed to spending 4 days driving to/from places. sometimes, we have to skip a year.

 

We just know we have to add in another $1200-1600 to go. Wish we lived close enough to drive.