RCCL Cruise Air Question

[ryzmom]

We booked our air through RCCL for next year. Do they give you good flight times or what's leftover? I just don't want to be flying into Miami at 6 am when I could maybe leave around 11 am or so for the flight there. On the way home, I hope to have an afternoon flight, like around one or two so we are not rushed from the ship to the air terminal.

Do they usually do this fine? Has anyone had any problems with them picking the air for you or did you have to call your TA and have to pay the extra $50 to book your own times?

Thanks in advance and have a great day!

[Miata6]

My understanding is that they will send you an itinerary and you can request adjustments until the tickets are issued. They had us returning to the wrong airport and went through our whole itinerary on the phone with me. That doesn't eliminate all problems (see my post below entitled "Did we get hosed?"), but RSSC was derelict only in not predicting the incompetence of Delta and the subsequent off-hand treatment by Olympic Air. They are very nice to deal with on the phone. Have a great trip- we did, once we got there.

[greatam]

We booked our air through RCCL for next year. Do they give you good flight times or what's leftover? I just don't want to be flying into Miami at 6 am when I could maybe leave around 11 am or so for the flight there. On the way home, I hope to have an afternoon flight, like around one or two so we are not rushed from the ship to the air terminal.

Do they usually do this fine? Has anyone had any problems with them picking the air for you or did you have to call your TA and have to pay the extra $50 to book your own times?

Thanks in advance and have a great day!

 

Cruise air is generally booked as the cheapest flights. It may be 6AM or 11PM. Whatever works that will get you to and from the ship to meet the cruiseline requirements, not necessarily your requirements.

 

You have until final payment to book your own flights and cancel the cruise air. That is the general recommendation from most on CC.

 

You can also pay the fee and pick your own flight times.

[wrp96]

RCI will place you on whatever flights they have contract seats for. It may be a non-stop flight at a great time or it may be a milk-run route leaving early in the morning and arriving late in the day; it just depends on available seats at 30 to 60 days out when they book. Depending on where you come from, the 6 am flight may be the only one that can get you to the ship on time (unless that 11am flight gets you into Miami by about 2pm, 1pm would be even better).

 

You won't know until about 30 days out what flights you have. If you want to ensure which flights you have you have 2 options: 1) pay the $50 fee and book custom air or 2) book independently which depending on where you are flying from can be cheaper than cruise air (but don't cancel your cruise air until you have the independent seats booked). You don't have to book custom air immediately when you book, you can add it at a later date if you decide you want to go that way.

 

If you decide to book on your own, remember to give yourself plenty of time after the flight down to get off the plane, get to baggage claim, collect your bags, find transport, and drive to the port. Especially flying day of, the earlier flight is usually the better option because it may allow you alternatives in case of delays, bad weather, etc.

 

From my area, there aren't many choices of flights that will get us to a cruise on time, so RCI has always put me on the flights I would've chosen to begin with (and been less expensive than any flights I could find on my own). Return flights RCI has certain minimum times from different airports and they won't book before that (unless that is the only time left). My first two cruises the flights we were booked on gave us plenty of time to get to the airport and we still got home early in the evening.

[kyriecat]

I let RC pick my flights on my first cruise since I didn't know any better. That was a big mistake! I didn't know any better at the time and the TA said it was best to let the cruiseline handle everything.

 

We live about an hour from the Houston airport. There are several direct flights from Houston to San Juan, PR daily. Did we get one? NO! We flew from Houston to Atlanta to Miami to San Juan. Our flight left around 6 AM and we finally made it to the ship a little before 8 PM for a 10 PM sail. We were completely exhausted by the time we got onboard. It was a horrible way to start a trip. I'm impressed they didn't lose any of our luggage since we changed airlines 3 times (Contiental to American to Delta). We booked in San Juan 2 nights post-cruise through RC so they let us have a direct flight back.

 

I have either booked my own flights or used custom air since then. BTW, if you choose custom air after you receive the flight itinerary from RC, they charge $50 pp fee PLUS the difference in fare from what they booked vs. what you want. By the time you know what RC booked for you, anything you really want is considered a "last minute fare" and pricey.