FlightEast and B2B

[Live4cruises]

We have two cruises on HAL booked, back to back, sort of.  They two are on different ships, and separated by 2 days when we’ll be hanging out in Fort Lauderdale.  We are mechanically able to book air from the beginning of the first cruise until the end of the 2nd cruise on only the first cruise confirmation.  It seems to me this would be more cost effective than booking two one-ways.  Thinking of the protections offered by booking cruise line air, is there any reason we should not book the air in entirety on only one of the confirmations?  

I really thought this would be a common question, but the person I spoke with at HAL today understood the question, but was not certain.  I’m going to try again tomorrow, but I’m hoping some of you will have encountered this situation.

Thanks!

[CruiserBruce]

Flight protections from cruise air are a bit of a myth. They can't guarantee you will make your sailing. Yes, the fares can be good, in some cases. In other cases, they are no different than what you can purchase. And in some cases there can be inconvenient timing or connections. We stopped booking cruise line airfares a long time ago, except for some rare cases where they are definitely a plus, like one way international flights.

 

Buying two, one way sets of fares can also be cheaper, depending on your airline and shopping. For example, we currently have booked a SFO-DCA (Reagan National) trip. Booking it as two separate bookings, one for each direction, can be had for $200 less per person (in first class) if we didn't take their recommended routing, simply by flying through a connecting airport at a little off peak travel time. The timing actually ends up working better for us, and saves some money.

 

Your specific problem sounds a little like a tech issue, more than anything else. Or maybe an "accounting" issue within their software.

 

By the way, your cruise is actually a "side by side", or a S2S, not a B2B.

[Ashland]

I always check it both ways (one ways & round trips) as price point can vary as well as opting to use different carriers for outbound & return.

[OVgirl]

If there are any issues with the second cruise ending later, your return flight that you booked with your first cruise would not be linked to it. 

I think it would make more sense to book your first flight with the first cruise and your return flight with the second cruise.