Most frustrating part of cruising for me, FLIGHTS!

[MegnJoe]

I guess we were lucky with this aspect of our planning. We knew we were flying in the day before, and we had a Jet Blue credit. We just picked the time that was cheapest. It was 12:50pm. However, they switched it to 1, and my husband called, so they switched us to the 9:30am flight for free, so now we get in earlier.

[OCruisers]

:o Gosh, no fear of flying .... but hate doing it now.

 

Fortunately, we can drive to Florida ports and we love going to the Caribbean so at this point it's what we've been doing.

 

LuLu

~~~~

[Twickenham]

I just wish I was smart enough and rich enough to create a website where I can say these are my travel dates and I'm willing to fly out of any of these 6 airports, give me the best results.

 

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

[Zach1213]

Hmmm...I'm at at least 5 now as the number of times I've seen "best" simply meaning "cheapest". Cheapest isn't always best and best isn't always cheapest in flying...

[ibcnusoon]

I am doing the flight dance now. The flights from NY dropped about $30/pp and I need 6 tickets so pretty worth it. I just dont know if its too early to book for November. Its $208RT to Miami. I feel like just taking it, but I cant pull the trigger. Its quite absurd really.

 

Its NJ week in Florida(for those not familiar, its a week in November when school is out 3 of the 5 days(T,R,F) and everybody goes on vacation!). It should be a no brainer that flight will be pricy soon. Sigh.

 

Definately book for $200 r/t to Miami that week! We are going on the Breakaway that week out of New York (Thank GOODNESS we don't need airfare) but we were on the Liberty during "jersey week" in 2011 and booked flights right away, they just started creeping up from then. ALOT of people fly, especially to Orlando, that week.

[FawnRiver]

Only reason I even consider flying is if there's a cruise ship waiting for me at the end of it ;).

Driving to a port isn't really an option and DH isn't interested in any cruises out of ports that are short hop flights away, so off to the airport we go.

We could drive down to Buffalo for some of our cruises, but everytime I look at that option and then add in the expenses of driving, staying in Buffalo the night before the flight and driving back home afterwards its not really saving us anything.

You can waste so much time trying to save a few bucks that you realize it isn't worth the aggravation.

I guess everything that's good has to have a drawback somewhere. :(

[Zach1213]

Seriously, jump on a $208 R/T to Miami.

 

How much lower can it go? Very little, if any!

 

How much higher can it go? A lot!

 

Correct! Flying an $80 million plane, holding nearly 7,000 gallons of fuel (how expensive is it to fill your care with 17 gallons?), with 5-6 crew members onboard, plus countless others you never see, plus airport fees and taxes...the airline is losing money by transporting you for that price, I give you both the George Foreman AND Mens Wearhouse guarantees - "I guarantee it". So, don't expect it to come down.

[waterbug123]

On our last cruise, Delta canceled our flight the night before we were supposed to fly, and it was around 10:00 p.m. You couldn't reach anyone to resolve the issue. The first leg of the flight was to Atlanta and was the problem. We could have driven to Atlanta and caught the 2nd leg of the flight, but no, they canceled both legs without even giving us the option. We ended up taking the refund and driving from SC to Ft. Lauderdale. But if we had lived further away, that wouldn't have worked. And if we had booked the flight for the day of the cruise and that had happened to us, we would have had to drive all night with no sleep to get there on time.

 

Not sure what you mean by that; Delta phone reps are available around the clock. :confused: As you were flying in the day before the cruise, you should have been able to talk to someone about getting on a later flight to ATL, and subsequently a later connecting flight to FLL. Not sure where in SC you were flying from, but there are 10-12 flights a day from CHS-ATL, and I believe similar from Columbia and GSP. Likewise, there are almost hourly (or every 1.5 hours or so) flights from ATL to FLL.

 

I am doing the flight dance now. The flights from NY dropped about $30/pp and I need 6 tickets so pretty worth it. I just dont know if its too early to book for November. Its $208RT to Miami. I feel like just taking it, but I cant pull the trigger. Its quite absurd really.

 

 

A price drop down to $208 and you haven't booked yet? :eek:

I'd book NOW. In fact, there may not even be 6 tickets at that price, so I'd get as many at that price as possible, before the prices go back up.

[ibcnusoon]

 

A price drop down to $208 and you haven't booked yet? :eek:

I'd book NOW. In fact, there may not even be 6 tickets at that price, so I'd get as many at that price as possible, before the prices go back up.

 

Speaking of which, when we flew to San Juan for our cruise this past Thanksgiving, I also need 6 tickets. When the prices fell to a comfortable rate, I noticed that when I booked 6, the price jumped $75 each. I then determined how many tickets were at the low rate, and how many were for the higher rate. So, instead of paying $612 r/t for each, I ended up paying $550 r/t for two people and $612 r/t for four people. When I added 3 people, the rate jumped to $612, so I knew there were only 2 tickets available at the lower rate, which I booked right away. Saved a little money, hope it works well for you.

[m*u*g*]

Agree!

 

How many posts have we read about folks wanting to fly out at 8AM or 9AM?

 

Worth the stress?

 

Absolutely not!

 

Don't order the Photo package on CD if you want to fly early. They notriously don't have these ready until the morning you depart. Lines...

[AbbyGirl]

Well I bit the bullet and just booked our flights (the day before) and the price actually went down about $60 each just from last night!

 

We are flying down on Delta and back on American... times aren't great as far as when we get to San Juan but at least we'll be there the day before.

 

Hotel booking up next... Thinking the Courtyard.

[ibcnusoon]

Well I bit the bullet and just booked our flights (the day before) and the price actually went down about $60 each just from last night!

 

We are flying down on Delta and back on American... times aren't great as far as when we get to San Juan but at least we'll be there the day before.

 

Hotel booking up next... Thinking the Courtyard.

 

We wanted to be in Old San Juan but didn't want to pay a high price for it, so we booked Hotel Plaza De Armas, very inexpensive and right in the heart of the city. It was nice, we walked to Barrachina for dinner, the next morning I walked with my Dad over to the Cathedral for Sunday morning mass. Afterwards, it was a quick trip to the Carnival pier.

 

http://www.hotelplazadearmaspr.com/

 

It's a nice alternative to the super expensive Hotel El Convento or the 2-night minimum at the Sheratan OSJ.

[Gunner22aa]

Living in Alberta Canada our flight choices are limited to basically the two major carriers, Air Canada and West Jet. AC is part of the Star Alliance, WJ is independent for the most part. Connections are almost always guaranteed somewhere. YYZ for the east and south, YVR for the west and south.

I book our air the day it opens which here is 330 days out. We always fly in a minimum of a day early if nothing more than to start our cruise refreshed. Not to mention flying during Canadian winters can be a crap shoot on the best of days. 330 days out I always get the flights and the seats I want. Have I missed some seat sales, yes a few. Have I missed some major price hikes, for sure.

If I could guess when the absolute best day to by our tickets was I wouldn't have to worry about another thing in my life because I would have allready guessed the winning numbers in the lottery. Odds are just about the same in my mind.

[ibcnusoon]

I guess we were lucky with this aspect of our planning. We knew we were flying in the day before, and we had a Jet Blue credit. We just picked the time that was cheapest. It was 12:50pm. However, they switched it to 1, and my husband called, so they switched us to the 9:30am flight for free, so now we get in earlier.

 

We were lucky to get a good flight too, coming back from San Juan we had a flight that left at 3:40pm. I booked it because it was cheaper than the 1:30pm flight that I wanted. Somewhere along the way, US Airways changed the flight to 3:50pm. I called once and asked to be moved to the 1:30pm flight and was told NO, I couldn't change for just a 10 minute time change. I waited a few weeks, called back again and the person that answered was happy to move us to the earlier flight. ;)

[4774Papa]

If you are flying to an overseas location, absolutely must fly in at least one day ahead of time.

Too many things can happen, even if you arrive on time, what if your luggage is delayed?

[biggerbearmom]

I just booked our flights today for leaving on Thanksgiving night. (LAX to FLL). I realize it is early in the game, but I know these prices will not hold and I'd rather have it locked in. :D

 

WOW, $208 is a bargain! I booked flights last month for a Thanksgiving cruise and paid $498 for a non stop RT from SFO to Miami. I never book flights this far in advance but figured that flights around the holidays will fill up and prices would go up.

[trbeer]

I've been tracking flights from Detroit to Anchorage witha return from Vancouver to Detroit for 4 months and the rate started at $897. About 3 weeks ago I almost pulled the trigger with a rate of about $634 and didn't. Prices started to climb and this past week they jumped a bunch and were $1111. Checked this morning and found DTW to ANC with a direct flight return from Seattle to Detroit for $602. The flight to Anchorage was better in the sense it didn't go way out of the way and had a relatively short layover at Minneapolis. I swear airlines change prices daily to drive people like me crazy.

[scottbee]

Just venting - I HATE trying to book flights!

 

Do we go the day before or the day of? Which airport? Which airline... UGH!

 

I just wish I was smart enough and rich enough to create a website where I can say these are my travel dates and I'm willing to fly out of any of these 6 airports, give me the best results. Instead I have to keep changing my search criteria for each date and airport...

 

And then you figure out what flights work out best and then you look them up the next day to book and everything changed...

 

Again, just venting! Happy flight scheduling for all. :rolleyes:

 

can't KAYAK do this? Separate your options for airports with commas

 

 

From: CMH,DAY,CAK

To: FLL,PBI,MIA

+/- 1 day

[monicajay]

Just venting - I HATE trying to book flights!

 

Do we go the day before or the day of? Which airport? Which airline... UGH!

 

I just wish I was smart enough and rich enough to create a website where I can say these are my travel dates and I'm willing to fly out of any of these 6 airports, give me the best results. Instead I have to keep changing my search criteria for each date and airport...

 

And then you figure out what flights work out best and then you look them up the next day to book and everything changed...

 

Again, just venting! Happy flight scheduling for all. :rolleyes:

 

I have to agree with you. Venting too!

 

I'm shopping for Burlington, Vt to SJU for a March 1st cruise. What bugs me most is that the airlines insist on showing flights in their matrix that take 17hours ???? to get to SJU. So the cheap (?) flights are running around $775 pp but the flights with a normal flight time and acceptable connections are around $900.

 

Who would book a trip to San Juan that was going to take 17 hours?