Custom Air from RCI. ??

[Coralc]

Even though it is some distance away, I have a question about custom air from RCI. We are booked on a Hawaii one way in 2006, Honolulu to Ensenada.

 

We added air out of SFO at an additional cost of $472 p/p. Not a great price, and I might be able to beat it, by the time we sail. We are Diamond members, so the custom air fee is waived.

 

My question is this....we plan to fly to Hawaii 3 days pre-cruise. I have no problem picking my own flights and we will boook our own hotel. How does that $472 figure into the cost of whatever flights I decide to book? What if the earlier flights are more expensive? What if they are cheaper? Is the $472 only for a flight of RCI's choosing? I would like to understand a little bit more about custom air, if anyone has any insights? Thanks. :)

[worldsbestcandles]

pbhunt,

 

I think we are in almost the same situation as you. We are doing the Ocotber 2005 Honolulu to Ensenada on the Radiance this fall. We chose custom air through RCCL for a couple of reasons...

 

1) We wanted to pick times and the airlines so we could earn miles

 

2) We wanted to go into Hawaii more than 2 days early and unless you book custom air you can't do this with RCCL because they will only let you fly in early if you are staying at their hotels. If you do custom air, you can fly in however early you want

 

3) We still wanted a transfer to San Diego from Ensenada as we didn't want to try to navigate our way accros the border in a cab or rental car and your transfers are still included when you do custom air.

 

As for pricing, it was much cheaper for us to do custom air than to do it on our own since we basically were doing a 1 way from Detroit to Honolulu and then a 1 way from San Diego back to Detroit. If I remember right, the airfare was around $800pp straight from RCCL. Then we added $50pp for custom air and then the flights we picked added another $30pp. For us to fly Northwest and get our miles, we though the extra $80pp was worth not getting stuck on an airline like Spirit or something... but that's us, that may not be the case for you. If you are working with a TA he/she can go through flight choices with you to say how much on top of the custome air fee you would need to pay, I think it varied by airline.

 

I hope this helps and if you have any other questions I will try to answer them.

[Coralc]

Thank you wbc! That does help to explain it. If we find less expensive air, I suppose I could cancel the custom air altogether, but would still have to figure in the cost of that Ensenada to San Diego transfer. At the present time RCI cost of $472 is about the going price for flights. Thanks for your help. :)

[sailor moon]

If I priced custom air with my Med cruise, is there a way to upgrade it from economy to business class and still keep it as a "custom" air?