Booking a flight before picking a cruise?

[CarnieAddict]

has anyone ever booked a cruise after they book their flights in hopes to get a good deal on a cruise

[princessa]

I do hope we get some advice. I also wondered the same thing. Subscribing.:)

[YubaSutter]

I do, but only with Southwest Airlines. Very easy to change dates.

[dadroy]

I have never done it, but, if you plan on a busy port (Ft. Lauderdale), can accept any room category and are not picky about the ship or line it could work out well. Get great fare on air, then look for what is available close to sailing date. If there are 7 ships in port you are likely to get a good deal on at least one of them.

 

If planning on a smaller port like Galveston, your chances of a good deal will not be so high.

[snc_cam]

I do all my research at the same time for identifying the cruise I want (dates, start port, itinerary) and airfare for the start/end dates. Then when I find a good set between the two, I book. Only takes a few minutes after that. Though I have booked cruises and waiting for Southwest to open their schedule to match the dates of the cruise. But since we fly into MCO mostly since I have family there, I can come in and leave days before/after the cruise with minimal extra cost.

[N00B]

I did but I'm not sure that it's what you mean. We planned to be in the Miami area for a fair bit of time and booked our flights. Afterwords I looked for cruises that fell within our timeframe. I was able to book us a great deal. I'm not sure I would've done the same thing if we were trying to fly in and out the same week.

[kelkel2]

I would also suggest southwest airlines as they are very forgiving if you need to switch around flights. Other airlines are not so forgiving.

Plus, with you picking the flight first, I would maybe stick to flying in somewhere like FLL that you can do to more than one port. Leaving you with more options such as cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. That way you have a lot more options of what is available. That's personally what I would do if I were booking the airfare first.

If you book airfare into Tampa or Houston you are limiting yourself greatly on the amount of cruises to choose from. I'm not sure how loyal to Carnival you are, but even if something with Carnival doesn't end up working for you, with flying into FLL you should have a ton of choices of cruises and cruise lines that are in port between miami and port everglades.

[CarnieAddict]

Unfortunately I am stuck using Air Canada or WestJet for flights.

[snc_cam]

I would also suggest southwest airlines as they are very forgiving if you need to switch around flights. Other airlines are not so forgiving.

Plus, with you picking the flight first, I would maybe stick to flying in somewhere like FLL that you can do to more than one port. Leaving you with more options such as cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. That way you have a lot more options of what is available. That's personally what I would do if I were booking the airfare first.

If you book airfare into Tampa or Houston you are limiting yourself greatly on the amount of cruises to choose from. I'm not sure how loyal to Carnival you are, but even if something with Carnival doesn't end up working for you, with flying into FLL you should have a ton of choices of cruises and cruise lines that are in port between miami and port everglades.

 

Kelley,

 

Though flying into Tampa you only have that port close by, you can rent a car and drive across the state. It is only a few hour drive from Tampa to Port Canaveral, Port Everglades (FLL), or Miami.

 

But I do agree with you about flying into FLL. 30-45 minutes to Miami and only a couple of hours to PC. Gives you a LOT of choices for Carnival as well as their competition.

 

Steve

[stargate fan]

has anyone ever booked a cruise after they book their flights in hopes to get a good deal on a cruise

 

Never.

Airline tickets are non-refundable so we don't take the chance that we'll find a great cruise sailing different dates than we thought we'd book. Since we usually book a cruise about a year out, Jet Blue and SWA aren't selling anyway.

 

Hotels, on the other hand, yes, especially in busy cities like Miami or Fort Lauderdale.

[Kamloops50]

Unfortunately I am stuck using Air Canada or WestJet for flights.

 

Neither are very forgiving on flight changes. AC only if you bought a full first class then you might be able to change.

With AC or WJ I would never buy airfare before the cruise.

[kelkel2]

Unfortunately I am stuck using Air Canada or WestJet for flights.

 

I would be very careful with this then. I'm not sure about AC's cancellation policy, but generally most airlines are not very forgiving. You may be able to cancel and get credit, but typically it has to be used in 1 calendar year. This is what we did with Delta.

I would certainly check before you book.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

has anyone ever booked a cruise after they book their flights in hopes to get a good deal on a cruise

 

That is our strategy for our next cruise but only during the winter months when every cruise line has the majority of their ships in the Caribbean.

 

Will also only pick Fort Lauderdale for our air as we then will have both Miami and Fort Lauderdale sailings to pick from.

 

Bill

[cyntil8ing]

Yes, we've done it. We always pick dates first because of arranging for my parents to come stay with our kids. So, we knew the timeframe and then I found below $130 BWI - FLL round trip flights on Saturday, nearly unheard of. So, I checked to see how many cruises left from MIA or FLL on 7-day itineraries. There were eight or nine. It's nice not to be dedicated to just one cruise line!

 

There was one cruise I really wanted, but I wanted to see what prices did after final payment. It was HAL to Bonaire and Curacao, all new to me. There were three other cruises I would have been happy with. Worst case, if all sold out, we'd spend a week in South FL or the Keys.

 

I watched prices daily for weeks. About three weeks out, I learned that Carnival Past Guests get Mariner pricing on HAL cruises. With that, they had a suite guarantee in my budget! Score!!