San Juan from St Louis

[calliecat]

We would like to cruise in January out of San Juan. I have a couple questions

about flying into San Juan.

1) Would I be better off flying into Miami, Tampa, etc on Friday and then going to San Juan on Saturday, the day the cruise leaves?

 

2) What time do they suggest your return flight needs to be? I'm either finding really early flights or really late flights the day the boat gets back in.

 

3) Have you booked your own airfare or had the cruise line do it? We will be cruising on Princess if we go.

 

We will be leaving out of St. Louis. It seems that I will have to have a layover or two before I get to San Juan or return to St. Louis.

 

Thanks in advance

[wrp96]

You should see how much it would cost to book through Princess versus booking yourself. Prices are getting really high for airplane tickets at the moment.

 

As to flying in a day before, you are better off flying into San Juan a day before, than flying into another airport the day before to fly into San Juan the day of. Especially in January where bad weather can delay flights. If bad weather strikes St. Louis on your day of flight, would you rather them trying to get you just to Miami (where your flight from St. Louis was booked to) or to San Juan your final destination. One caveat on this is if you can get a really amazing deal to Florida, a really cheap hotel, and another really amazing deal to San Juan. If you are going to fly to Florida a day before you are better of flying to Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, or Orlando which have non-stop flights to San Juan, and not Tampa.

 

I know most people don't recommend taking a flight before Noon out of San Juan. Other people have gotten earlier flights, but I wouldn't want to be the one to risk it. Somebody else said it well when they said if the flight's less expensive than other flights, that is because the airlines know that cruise passengers can't make it to the flight. Take a later flight, and take one of the excursions to see San Juan while you are there.

[calliecat]

If I can have some input into my itinerary from Princess for my air, I might consider booking thru them. I would like to fly in a day early so we're not so rushed the day we sail, but I don't know if Princess will do that.

I've booked on my own several times, but I'm worried about the times that are showing up for departure from San Juan.

If the cost of airfare rises much more, we may not go at all. Thanks for your input.

[wrp96]

I know with RCI you can pay a $50 custom air fee (air deviation) and you get to choose your flights, which is what I did for my cruise next March. If the flights are on carriers they have contracts with (usually the legacy airlines), then you don't have to pay anything extra above that fee.

[golf261]

Calliecat, this past March we flew in and out of San Juan for our Princess cruise. We flew down the day before, and even figuring in the cost of the hotel room, saved money by booking ourselves. Like you, our flights coming home were not at great times. Our flight from San Juan left around 5 PM - we did one of the San Juan excursions through Princess for that day.

[megr1125]

Usually if you break up a trip (open jaw) it costs more than just flying into SJ (or anypleace)

 

 

I would suggest going to SJ the day before. The airport can be mayhem at best.

 

Not sure about princess, and we spent a couple nights post cruise in SJ too...but the people started to "dis-guest" at about 8:30. The airport is probably a 20 minute cab ride or so.....traffic stinks.

 

Check all the airline websites and see what kind of price you get. Seems cruise air is usually substantially higher than doing it on your own.

 

I would try getting a later flight. You could always do a tour or something...maybe the tour provider can store your bags. or if scheduling permits, stay an extra day or two.

 

HTH

[calliecat]

I scoured the internet yesterday for prices. I am finding prices from STL to SJU running anywhere from $500 pp upward. You might be able to get something a little less but the departure time in SJU doesn't work. We can't really stay longer in SJU since we are already planning on pulling our 13 yr old out of school for a week.

I don't know if these are good prices or not. We are booked for January so I don't know if I need to snatch these now or wait a little. It's all a guessing game. We will fly in one day early but we need to leave the day the ship comes in.

[Coolmama_1]

We saved a lot of money by booking ourselves. I flew SWA into FOrt Lauderdale and spent the night. Next morning to AA into San Juan. You might look at doing something like that. The only down side was on the return trip SWA and AA are in different terminals in Fort Lauderdale, and it was interesting to move the luggage but we had time.

Enjoy your cruise.:)

[wrp96]

I scoured the internet yesterday for prices. I am finding prices from STL to SJU running anywhere from $500 pp upward. You might be able to get something a little less but the departure time in SJU doesn't work. We can't really stay longer in SJU since we are already planning on pulling our 13 yr old out of school for a week.

I don't know if these are good prices or not. We are booked for January so I don't know if I need to snatch these now or wait a little. It's all a guessing game. We will fly in one day early but we need to leave the day the ship comes in.

 

For my March cruise out of SJU, airfares have never run lower than about $550 and that is on the 3 stops, leave early, early morning arrive late at night flights (although interestingly enough one of the last stops was in St. Louis for one of the cheapest). The ones with flights that worked, started out at around $750 pp and now are running upwards from $850 pp. I don't think you'll find anything less than $500 pp at the moment. Cruise air has actually always been cheaper than booking it myself from my airport and that is even with the air deviation fee.

 

You might look into CoolMama's suggestion of flying SW (or another discount carrier) into Ft. Lauderdale and then taking a flight to SJU, but make sure you can get a cheap hotel first. Also, when comparing costs of flights don't forget to compare the cost of a hotel room in SJU versus the cost of a hotel room in Florida.