Carnival Fly Aweigh Program

[ron1946]

Now that the Vista will be making European Cruises, consideration must be given to air fare (Ugh!).

 

What are the benefits/problems associated with the Carnival Fly Aweigh Program? Would you recommend/not recommend using this program over booking flights yourself.

 

Can you recommend best place(s) to look at to book flights independently?

 

We will be booking the Vista for the September 13, 2016 sailing (Athens to Barcelona) and would appreciate any suggestions pertaining to air fare. I do realize that it is much to early to book flights, but being a planner and organizer I want to get things in order!

 

TIA.

[falkcor]

the primary benefit is that if you're on their flight, they will wait for you to get to the ship, within reason.

 

the primary problem is that this could be a very real possibility lol. when you let them book the flights, you don't get to pick when - no day earlier, no early flights, etc., you get what they give you. you also may end up with flights with inconvenient connections / inconvenient times, etc. - you just never know...

 

here's a pretty great post about how cruise air works:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

 

after reading it, i decided i'd never book air through the cruise :)

 

i typically start my search through my preferred carrier(s). personally, i like united (well really i liked continental first)... but there are plenty of travel sites like kayak, etc. to compare fares.

[tea4ular]

Airfare to Europe is out of control for my pocketbook - however my favorite airfare comparison site is kayak.

 

I think the #1 positive of using FlyAweigh is knowing that either the ship will wait for you to arrive before setting sail OR take responsibility for getting you to the next port if God forbid you are left behind. You know how flights these days are...delays, cancellations and more. :eek:

 

I'm actually putting my money where my mouth is - on our next cruise we are using FlyAweigh because we're coming in from out of state and I've had too many flight issues in recent years (land based trips) to want to even think about it! Like you, I'm a planner and a control freak, so the hardest part for me is waiting to know our flight details until just a few weeks before we leave. Some folks just add a day or two at their start/end and make their own plans. I just didn't have the luxury for this particular trip.

[soneau]

If your travelling within a group, I wouldn't recommend Carnival's fly aweigh program. We decided to book this (3 couples) as we liked to have the protection that they would help us in the event we are delayed with our flights....but at this point even starting to doubt this ;-(.

 

Having flown twice before with other flight & cruise program and having been satisfied with them both times, we decided to do it again. Not knowing they would book us on three different flights, different times, different routes and different airlines. The 2 other couples booked their cruise with us as this is their first cruise and wanted some guidance by flying and cruising with us. We contacted our TA and he tried to have this changed with Carnival...NO GO! One of the couple is even thinking of cancelling this whole vacation as they are very disappointed and very nervous of flying themselves. Plus they don't speak good English, which has them even worried if they do get delayed , Carnival probably won't even be able to help them. We cruise the first week of March and hoping and praying now for good weather and no major delays as I said I even now doubt the help we are supposed to get from Carnival.

 

I have learned my lesson and will never again book it this way. I will have control of my airway (times, flight and airlines).

 

The 2 other times we had booked through Air Transat, which has their own airlines and had us fly direct and did have our transfers(airport to port) and our cruise organized. As I found out since Carnival is a cruise ship they book your cruise then look for the cheapest way to fly you there, not taking into account the flight they give their clients!!!!!! I can sadly say I can't wait for our vacation to be over at this point!

Edited February 15, 2015 by soneau

[QTPieRye]

If your travelling within a group, I wouldn't recommend Carnival's fly aweigh program. We decided to book this (3 couples) as we liked to have the protection that they would help us in the event we are delayed with our flights....but at this point even starting to doubt this ;-(.

 

Having flown twice before with other flight & cruise program and having been satisfied with them both times, we decided to do it again. Not knowing they would book us on three different flights, different times, different routes and different airlines. The 2 other couples booked their cruise with us as this is their first cruise and wanted some guidance by flying and cruising with us. We contacted our TA and he tried to have this changed with Carnival...NO GO! One of the couple is even thinking of cancelling this whole vacation as they are very disappointed and very nervous of flying themselves. Plus they don't speak good English, which has them even worried if they do get delayed , Carnival probably won't even be able to help them. We cruise the first week of March and hoping and praying now for good weather and no major delays as I said I even now doubt the help we are supposed to get from Carnival.

 

I have learned my lesson and will never again book it this way. I will have control of my airway (times, flight and airlines).

 

The 2 other times we had booked through Air Transat, which has their own airlines and had us fly direct and did have our transfers(airport to port) and our cruise organized. As I found out since Carnival is a cruise ship they book your cruise then look for the cheapest way to fly you there, not taking into account the flight they give their clients!!!!!! I can sadly say I can't wait for our vacation to be over at this point!

 

 

When you say booking with a group, I am curious if this was through the group department or just a group of 3 couples on individual reservations?

[laniriveira]

We took advantage of their fly aweigh for our 9 day Caribbean cruise aboard the Splendor in 2013. LAX to JFK. Booking the airfare through Carnival directly gave us the security in knowing that if our flight was delayed they would hold the ship (within reasonable time) or pay our way to get to the next port. When I was looking for flights the price quoted by our PVP was a little more (approx $35). I was told by my PVP that if I booked flights directly through Carnival that it would include the transfer from airport to port plus if they chose to fly us in a day prior to embarkation that they would cover one night hotel costs. Well that was a complete lie! We received our flight information three days prior to sail date. They put us on a direct flight (red-eye) LAX to JFK but our return flight departed from Newark and had a layover in Dallas, Tx. I personally wouldn't book my flights directly through Carnival again unless there was a substantial savings!

[gapearl]

This is a really old thread, but it's from someone who missed their ship booking airfare through Carnival and the hassle she went through dealing with them.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1390690

 

If you do a search on the Carnival forum with "fly aweigh," you will see TONS of people who have horror stories to tell about this program- not getting flight information until a few days before, multiple connecting flights, flights that land EXTREMELY close to sailing time, not being able to change assigned flights, etc. There's way more bad than good said about Carnival's fly aweigh. Just going by all the bad stories here on the boards, I personally wouldn't do it.

[loxley]

If you book thru carnival just assume you will get the worst flights available.

 

Flying is a lot different than it was in the olden days. Far fewer planes so if something goes wrong, and there is a good chance it will, there are usually not a lot of options.

 

I used to fly often. It got to the point I had no idea when I would be arriving where I was going. I am laid back so I just dealt with it, plus I didn't have a ship that would leave me, and even I had to change jobs, even though I had perfected the sleeping in the airport thing.

[nofishforme]

Book your own flight and fly in the day before. I use orbitz to look at the different airlines look for the cheapest flight then start looking at the times i want then go to the airline and book directly with the airline

[sseuorosal]

I'm a planner and a control freak, so the hardest part for me is waiting to know our flight details until just a few weeks before we leave.

[QTPieRye]

Thank you everyone. After a lengthy conversation with CCL airline department, I went ahead and booked through CCL Fly Aweigh. With flights so limited to SJU for embarkation date, they confirmed that travel will be on a Saturday night redeye with arrival SJU by 4pm. We are completely good with that given our 10pm departure time :)

 

On another note, I've been advised that CCL is launching a new fly aweigh program that will give cruisers the flexibility to pick flights and arrive the day prior.... this will be launched in August/September 2015.

[dolphin2012]

We used the program on our europe cruise and it worked out fine. They didnt give us the flight plan till about three weeks ahead of the cruise. Two of us were on the same flight and they put my daughter (a minor) on another flight! Also our pre day stay in barcelona had been cancelled. After the TA called they got the flight together but the room was unavailable and we had to fly in the same day as the cruise.. We had no more problems with the flights and all went well. We were lucky.. The only suggestion i would make is that if you fly out of Venice get tothe airport early if its a Sunday..They told us not to walk there until about two hours before flights and it was a zoo in there. We almost missed the flight home. Good luck...

[Velvetwater]

We booked the fly aweigh for our Summer Panama canal cruise (obviously going the other way lol) and it got closer and closer and we were told we would find out 70 days before at the very latest. I then heard lots of reports that they sometimes told you only a month out with no option to change/pay more to change.

 

I got so flustered in the end I cancelled fly aweigh and booked my own flights which were around £50 more expensive but that was only because I left it a little late booking. So it shows if you shop around you can get a deal. I like using Tripadvisor as it compares for me and usually I book my flights with expedia through that and my hotel with booking dot com.

 

Also, if you are worried about missing the ship simply fly in the day before or a few days before. We did a few days in Tampa for this reason and to see the place...I am sure you will want to check out Athens.