Airfare through Carnival?

[thunder_lin]

Have you booked airfares with Carnival? If so, has anyone run into any problems with flight availablities, etc?

We have booked our flights through Carnival and was advised by our TA that we will not be notified of our flight information till 2-3 weeks prior to departure. Is this true? We're a little worried about seat availablity as we are flying from a smaller city connecting to a larger center and then from there to Ft. Lauderdale during March Break time.

Advise.

[big_duck]

Is true, your air bookings will come with your docs. We've used them twice so far, they flew us Air Canada to Montreal then Florida the day of the Cruise.

[mared1]

Have you booked airfares with Carnival? If so, has anyone run into any problems with flight availablities, etc?

We have booked our flights through Carnival and was advised by our TA that we will not be notified of our flight information till 2-3 weeks prior to departure. Is this true? We're a little worried about seat availablity as we are flying from a smaller city connecting to a larger center and then from there to Ft. Lauderdale during March Break time.

Advise.

 

We booked through Carnival the first time we cruised in 1996 - and yes, I think we did get our flight information about 3 weeks before we left.

It is up to Carnival to pick the times of your flights and I would think they wouldn't book you if there was availability for the number in your party. Hopefully it will work out fine for you.

We had to connect from Des Moines to a larger city and fly to Miami and didn't have any problem as far as availability. Our plane was delayed leaving Des Moines which meant we had to run to catch the next plane but that wasn't Carnival's fault.

[JJCalder19]

For me, I will never book the airfare thru Carnival again. They look for the least expensive flights which is fine but I couldn't stand all the connections and weird flight times.

On our honeymoon we booked the airfare thru them and we had to leave our house at 3am which we had to pay the limo driver extra for the odd time. Flight left at 6am, connected in Philadelphia..took a puddle jumper to Norfolk, Virginia...got there at 11am only to sit in 90 degree heat to wait 3 hours for embarkation. No thanks. Direct for me from now on. I live near two major airports so I can book on my own, but I know for some this isnt an option. Just my experience.

[Jasonsterling]

Booked airfare through Carnival once and had no problems. No weird timing or extra connections. Of course living in Oklahoma you usually have to connect somewhere else to get where you're going so I'm used to it. Mostly I don't use Carnival air however as my travel agent can arrange air cheaper than the cruise line- as well it's harder going down a day or two earlier if you arrange air through carnival.

[big_duck]

Another option (and one I am seriously considering) for the OP is to change her flight Origin to Montreal or Toronto and make her own arrangements to get there.

[LornaT]

Here is the most important tip I can give you................The minute, I mean very minute your TA has you're flight info from Carnival have him/her call the airline(s) and reserve your seats!

Carnival just books you to the flight ONLY, to the airline you look like stand-by or seat available .............. if you don't get seats confirmed prior to arriving at the airport you could have 2 things happen..............airline assigned seats but you are all in differents rows on the pane or you are listed as stand-by.

Make sure your TA knows to call and confirm seats for you immediately. If they don't or won't then you need to do it as soon as you have the flight info.

Been in this situation (family seated all over the plane, no 2 seats together) ................ now I know better.

[thunder_lin]

Thank you for that great tip. I would not have thought about that. I just returned home from a Vegas trip and all 5 of us were seated separately. That was OK because we were all adults but travelling with the kids is a different story.

[mojean]

We've only used Carnival the first cruise which left out of San Juan so that would have been a mess trying to connect there since we couldn't drive there !!! We drove one and the other we were gonna drive to Port Canaveral but we lucked out with airfare wars and got a special on buy one get one. Right now we're opting to drive to Tampa but its sooo early, who knows the outcome on that one. It was great with the drive to New Orleans, no inconveniences and went down a day early.

[jcanino]

We have booked our flights through Carnival and was advised by our TA that we will not be notified of our flight information till 2-3 weeks prior to departure. Is this true?

 

Your TA will be able to contact Carnival's Air/Sea department 30 days prior to your cruise to get your flight information unless you are sailing during a heavily booked week such as a holiday week or a known school vacation week.

[phabric]

Have you done final payment. What I did, I told TA to book air through cruiseline to make sure I had seats. I then checked fares on my own and found a better price and then cancelled the cruiseline air since they hadn't booked them at that time. I could pick the times and rate I wanted. Travelling in March and with the snow, planes may be delayed I would try to travel the day before and be safe. I have travelled during March break and worried the whole time would we make it.

[big_duck]

Here is the most important tip I can give you................The minute, I mean very minute your TA has you're flight info from Carnival have him/her call the airline(s) and reserve your seats!

Carnival just books you to the flight ONLY, to the airline you look like stand-by or seat available .............. if you don't get seats confirmed prior to arriving at the airport you could have 2 things happen..............airline assigned seats but you are all in differents rows on the pane or you are listed as stand-by.

Make sure your TA knows to call and confirm seats for you immediately. If they don't or won't then you need to do it as soon as you have the flight info.

Been in this situation (family seated all over the plane, no 2 seats together) ................ now I know better.

 

Yup, not making that mistake again. :mad:

[MSUcruisers]

We booked our air through Carnival for an Easter week cruise in 2004. We live in a middle sized city and rates were higher to book on our own. We were told that Carnival might fly us in the night before and pay for our hotel if seats were not available on day of the cruise.

 

That didn't happen, but Carnival booked return flights for Monday and planned to pay for our hotel. My daughter and husband couldn't get out of work that Monday so our TA worked with Carnival and we got first class seats on the return plane back home at no extra charge to us.

[DiveCruiser]

Carnival will not tell the TA when the flights are till they print the tickets. Yes we were told about two weeks before departure. They do this everyweek for 19 or so ships and thousands of cruisers. They are not the cheapest but they get you there.

 

Bob