SUGGESTIONS FOR AIR FROM PHILLY TO FAIRBANKS

[phillychick]

Hi everyone.  My first time cruising out of Alaska & need help picking air.  Is it best to get if on our own or thru the cruise line?  If you get it through the cruise line do we get to pick the flights/seats?   Any suggestions on what airline to fly?  Best way to get there?  Thanks in advance. 

[Zach1213]

For domestic US travel, I personally have never seen much if any of a savings booking through the cruiseline. I'm a big proponent of not putting another layer of bureaucracy between me and the airline if I have no benefit. Some people will claim the cruise line will hold the ship or get you to the ship if you book via them, but there's really no guarantee.

 

Airlines...well, Alaska Airlines and Delta tend to operate the most to Alaska, but United and American fly there as well. Being based in an AA hub, you may want to look at them if you have allegiance to their frequent flier program (note you can earn AA miles on Alaska too). But, personally, Alaska is my favorite airline in the US and they can get you to the major cities in Alaska via one stop in Seattle, which is a very easy and enjoyable airport.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Zach1213

[phillychick]

13 minutes ago, Zach1213 said:

For domestic US travel, I personally have never seen much if any of a savings booking through the cruiseline. I'm a big proponent of not putting another layer of bureaucracy between me and the airline if I have no benefit. Some people will claim the cruise line will hold the ship or get you to the ship if you book via them, but there's really no guarantee.

 

Airlines...well, Alaska Airlines and Delta tend to operate the most to Alaska, but United and American fly there as well. Being based in an AA hub, you may want to look at them if you have allegiance to their frequent flier program (note you can earn AA miles on Alaska too). But, personally, Alaska is my favorite airline in the US and they can get you to the major cities in Alaska via one stop in Seattle, which is a very easy and enjoyable airport.

Thanks for the info.  Do you know how far the port is to the Vancouver airport?

[waterbug123]

1 hour ago, phillychick said:

Hi everyone.  My first time cruising out of Alaska & need help picking air.  Is it best to get if on our own or thru the cruise line?  If you get it through the cruise line do we get to pick the flights/seats?   Any suggestions on what airline to fly?  Best way to get there?  Thanks in advance. 

 

The question of "best," be it vendor, airline, routing or whatever comes up regularly, and the short answer is that there is no one best answer for any of these.   You need to consider what's important to YOU, and what the advantages and disadvantages are for the various options.  This will be long, but her goes:

 

Your first question is whether to purchase through the cruise line or not.  The cruise lines have access to both regular published fares as well as to bulk rate, consolidator-type fares that can save money.  These savings may come at a price though, as you may have rules and restrictions attached to your ticket that aren't obvious unless or until a problem arises on travel day and you need to be rebooked.  Also, the savings are generally reported to be insignificant or nonexistent for flights within N. America.  The other advantage folks often refer to with cruise line are the "guarantees."  Sometimes folks read the marketing blurbs and interpret them to mean they guarantee to get you to the ship on time but that simply isn't true.  The one advantage cruise line air does have is that if you miss the ship, they will try to reroute you to the first available port, whereas booking through the airline will only get you to the original port of embarkation unless you pay a hefty change fee.  That said, due to some laws governing ship transport of passengers, you can't generally embark at one US port and disembark at another US port. So for example, if you cruise started in Seattle, made a few stops in Alaskan ports and returned to Seattle, you'd be out of luck if you weren't able to board the ship in Seattle.   In this case, the cruise line's promise to try to get you to the next port would likely be irrelevant.

At this point you may be thinking it's best to just purchase air directly from the airline, but understand that that isn't always a perfect answer either.  For instance, the airlines usually have pretty rigid change/cancellation fees, whereas you may have more leeway with the cruise line if your plans change for some reason.

 

Moving on to flight and seat selection:  Cruise lines often have the option to choose your flights, but you may pay more to do so.  As for seat selection, depending on the fare class booked, be it through the airline or the cruise line, you may or may not be able to select your seats, and/or you may have limited seat selection even if you can do this, unless you have status with a particular airline.  Airlines often make only middle seats, or window and aisle seats toward the back of the plane, available for non-status passengers.

 

As for what airline to fly, where to begin?!?!   What is important to you?  Are you one of those people who insists on a nonstop flight, or a flight with no more than one connection?  Or are you willing to make two connections if it saves money?  Do you have a preferred airline that you like to stick with for purposes of frequent flyer miles?  What are the airlines that fly from your home airport and how many flight options/routings do those various airlines offer from your home airport?  What are the flight times and how important to you is that?  Some people think nothing of getting up at 3am for a 6am flight if the price or itinerary is right.  Others wouldn't do it even if the flight was practically free and nonstop.

 

As a real life example of choosing, I did an Alaska cruise this past summer.  I don't generally book air through the cruise line, as I prefer to have complete control of my airline reservation, and I knew there would be no savings to speak of by booking through the cruise line since it wasn't a transatlantic flight.  I could have flown nonstop from Charleston to Seattle on Alaska Airlines and then taken a train to Vancouver where my cruise began, but Alaska only offers the flight from CHS on certain days.  Also, I fly often enough that airline status and FF miles matter to me, and since Alaska Airlines otherwise are of no use to me, (the CHS-SEA flight is the only one offered from my home airport of CHS so I can't feasibly use Alaska for my usual east coast/European travels) that eliminated Alaska Airlines quickly, even though it was the only nonstop option for me and that hugely important to many people.  CHS isn't a hub for any airline, but is serviced by all the major airlines in the US, so I could have looked at American or United, but again, given my frequent flyer situation, I really didn't want to give up the many status-earning FF miles I'd earn by flying Delta, nor did I want to give up the travel perks that my current Delta status affords me (preferred seat selection, complimentary upgrades, no checked baggage charges, etc.)   Delta also happens to offer a lot of flight options to their main hub of ATL, as well as multiple daily options via JFK/LGA/DTW that would give me plenty of Plan B choices if there were issues on travel day.  My CHS-ATL-YVR itinerary booked directly with Delta wouldn't be the best answer for everyone, but you can hopefully see why it was the best one for ME after considering the types of things I talked about above.

 

If you break it down and look at what's important to you, I'm sure you can answer most of your questions for yourself.  Or, with more details, folks here can give you even better guidance.  Let us know your itinerary (flight options for a Seattle-Seattle cruise would be very different than a Vancouver-Anchorage cruise for instance), travel dates,  how many are in your travel party, if you plan to arrive day of cruise or earlier, if you plan to fly home on disembarkation day or a day or more later, if you have frequent flyer miles or credit card points you want to use, and any other preferences or restrictions you might have.  🙂

[Zach1213]

1 hour ago, phillychick said:

Thanks for the info.  Do you know how far the port is to the Vancouver airport?

 

I have no idea, I didn't know Vancouver was involved in this situation. You should be able to Google Map it.

[fbgd]

2 hours ago, phillychick said:

Thanks for the info.  Do you know how far the port is to the Vancouver airport?

 

It's amazing what you can find on the internets...

 

https://*****.com/lazyvancouverlookup

[d9704011]

It seems you’re looking for ideas on flights from PHL to FAI and then YVR to PHL??

 

Why not check the United site; they offer a mid-week flight (next July) from PHL to FAI through ORD and return (Air Canada) from YVR to PHL at about USD 820.  Both schedules are pretty good.  Also, it’s quick and easy to get from the cruise port in Vancouver to the airport.  A flight at 1230 in the afternoon is easily doable by using the Canada Line LRT.

 

Whether these flights are any better or less expensive than what other carriers may offer  (or what the cruise company may come up with) will have to be determined by asking for quotes.  I don’t think there are any general rules here.

[Zach1213]

18 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

I don’t think there are any general rules here.

 

There are not. Finding the "best" requires a few things:
 

1) Having a definition of what "best" means to you...which may be different than what it means to others (price, schedule, comfort, food quality, lounge quality, etc.)

2) Being willing to have some flexibility to get that "best"

3) Taking the time to research and find that "best"

[em-sk]

9 hours ago, d9704011 said:

It seems you’re looking for ideas on flights from PHL to FAI and then YVR to PHL??

 

Why not check the United site; they offer a mid-week flight (next July) from PHL to FAI through ORD and return (Air Canada) from YVR to PHL at about USD 820.  Both schedules are pretty good.  Also, it’s quick and easy to get from the cruise port in Vancouver to the airport.  A flight at 1230 in the afternoon is easily doable by using the Canada Line LRT.

 

Whether these flights are any better or less expensive than what other carriers may offer  (or what the cruise company may come up with) will have to be determined by asking for quotes.  I don’t think there are any general rules here.

 

You will likely not save anything by combining both flights on the same ticket.  Booking Alaska one-way and Vancouver to Philly one-way will give you a bit more flexibility to use different unrelated airlines.

 

All the large US based airlines (except Southwest) will offer options out of Vancouver.  In addition you should look at WestJet and Air Canada website.   WestJet partners with Delta and Air Canada partners with United.  If you look at WestJet and AirCanada website, they will likely price in Canadian dollars.  $1 CDN will likely post onto your credit card in the US at between .75-80cents US.   

 

 

Edited November 1, 2018 by em-sk

[Gardyloo]

Don't know if you want another credit card, but you might look at the Alaska Airlines Visa card - https://www.alaskaair.com/content/credit-card/visa-signature - which will give you a bunch of Alaska Airlines miles (very useful, among the best frequent flyer programs) as well as an annual $99 ($121 after taxes) "companion certificate" for use on Alaska Airlines flights.  One person pays the going price, the other pays $121, so on, for example, an itinerary like Philly - Seattle - Fairbanks, then Vancouver - Seattle - Philly, you could save several hundred dollars if two people are flying.  Alaska Airlines flies nonstop from Philly to Seattle and from Seattle to Fairbanks, then has numerous daily (short) flights from Vancouver to Seattle on the way back.