Cruise Air thru Carnival - Ridiculous

[thunder_lin]

We received our air information yesterday for our upcoming March 12th cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. We live in a small town in Northwestern Ontario, Canada and there are 5 families going on this trip. We booked the cruise and air as a package. I have been hounding the TA and Carnival for our flights over the last month. Here is what they gave us.

We depart for Ft. Lauderdale the day before. Depart 10:45 a.m., arrive Ft. Lauderdale at 6:42 p.m. via Toronto. (great flight). Here's where it all goes bad.

We overnight again on the return in Ft. Lauderdale. The next morning we are transferred/bussed to Miami to catch our 8:40 a.m. flight to Chicago, then to Toronto, then to Winnipeg then to T.Bay. They have split our family up. My husband and son are on different flights from my daughter and I out of Chicago and they have given him 23 minutes to make his connection. We arrive home at 11:35 p.m. That's 15 hrs. of travel plus we need to factor in the 1 hr. to Miami and the 2 hrs. before departure. We'll be travelling for 18 hrs. This is not an endurance test or the Amazing Race, it's supposed to be a vaction. We were told that was the best they could do without us staying another day. I'll stay another day because I have no intention of accepting these flights.

I know you're all going to tell me we should have booked our flights ourselves, I know that, I've always done it that way but we decided to do what everyone else was doing in our group. I just didn't think that Carnival would book something like this. :mad:

[silentbob007]

I'm guessing the flights were filling up and they had to split you since they wait until the very last minute to book airfare. Still pretty nasty, though. Hope everythign works out.

[caribbean dreams]

We bought the cruise/air/hotel through carnival, when the info. arrived we were all on the same flight but from California to Miami we had 4 layovers (Fresno to LAX, Denver to Dallas to New York and finally Miami) we had not payed our final payment yet so we canceled the flight portion and booked ourselves directly through American Airlines, we now have a direct flight from San Francisco to Miami and will be flying in 2 days early to have some tourist time, our savings even after paying the the hotel 2 nights and taxi fare is $800

[ocngypz]

Happens quite frequently

 

Your agent should have covered all the ramifications of cruiseline air with the group prior to booking.

 

I always advise my clients NOT to book cruiseline air unless the are willing to pay the deviation fee to select their own flights.... and they have to be willing to pay the upcharge in price, if any.

 

Needless to say, most book their own flights.

 

23 minutes for connecting in Chicago... they are not going to make it!

Your agent should get on the phone with Air/Sea,

[westernmom]

Boy, everytime I read a story like this, I am sooooo glad that I found the cruise critic boards! I too had booked a cruise/air package with Carnival but after reading some of the threads decided I didn't want to be at their mercy. My TA never explained any of the ramifications either. I found all of my info on here!

 

So, I cancelled it and saved a ton of money and have the peace of mind of traveling when WE want to and not when they plan it!

 

I agree about the Chicago connection. It took my daughter and I almost an hour to just get from one gate to another to catch our flight and we were hustling! But, that was a couple of years ago and there was a bunch of construction and remodeling going on.

[thunder_lin]

Still working with Carnival to rectify the situation. We will not split up our family as it will cause problems for us at customs, it's a family vacation, not an endurance test. With an ugly schedule like they have given us, Carnival is supposed to contact the customer and ask if they will accept the air schedule or choose to do it themselves. They did not contact us. They left it too long and I'm not about to accept what's thrown at us because of someone else's mistake.

[thunder_lin]

Carnival did change our flights. It took a week to get this done as the process is very slow going from one dept. to the next to finally get to the Supervisor to get it changed. But, it is changed, I'm happy and next time I will definately book my own airfare like a usually do. Lesson learned.

[jcanino]

I just obtained my flight schedule for my Easter week cruise on the Carnival Destiny out of San Juan. I am flying in a day early. When I made my reservation, Carnival was offering air for $599 per person. Being Easter week and Spring vacation for almost all of New England's school systems, the best price I could find was in the $800 range. Carnival's air price was much better. The flights that they have me on are a morning non stop from Hartford to San Juan and an afternoon non stop on the return. These are the flights that I would have booked for myself if the prices were lower than Carnival's. Those same flights today are $1545 p/p.

[lagbunch8]

I just obtained my flight schedule for my Easter week cruise on the Carnival Destiny out of San Juan. I am flying in a day early. When I made my reservation, Carnival was offering air for $599 per person. Being Easter week and Spring vacation for almost all of New England's school systems, the best price I could find was in the $800 range. Carnival's air price was much better. The flights that they have me on are a morning non stop from Hartford to San Juan and an afternoon non stop on the return. These are the flights that I would have booked for myself if the prices were lower than Carnival's. Those same flights today are $1545 p/p.

 

So was that about 6 weeks out that you got your info? I am cruising in June and I was figuring late April for my info. Sounds about right. I am sailing on Carnival Liberty. Thanks for the info!