Another reason not to book air with the cruiseline!

[kenandlaura06]

We just returned from a trip to Orlando. We flew out Sunday 2/19 from Manchester NH to Orlando, with a layover in Newark. Our flight had about 10 people on it that were supposed to leave on a Carnival cruise from Tampa that evening, whom had all booked airfare through the cruiseline. The cruiseline had them leaving on an 11 a.m. flight out of Manchester, with a close connection in Newark to Tampa. Well, wouldn't you know that the plane had problems and we didn't end up leaving Manchester until about 1 1/2 hours later...all of the people on the Tampa flight missed their connection and had to be put on standby for the later flight to Tampa--I don't know if they made it,but they said that if their standby flight didn't work out, they would miss the ship and have to be flown into Grand Cayman on Tuesday 2/21...missing 2 days of their cruise. Moral of the story...don't book with the cruiseline AND fly in the day before! This proved to us that were right to book our flight to come in the day before our cruise.

[jcanino]

Our flight had about 10 people on it that were supposed to leave on a Carnival cruise from Tampa that evening, whom had all booked airfare through the cruiseline. The cruiseline had them leaving on an 11 a.m. flight out of Manchester, with a close connection in Newark to Tampa. Well, wouldn't you know that the plane had problems and we didn't end up leaving Manchester until about 1 1/2 hours later

 

Moral of the story...don't book with the cruiseline AND fly in the day before! This proved to us that were right to book our flight to come in the day before our cruise.

 

You cannot blame the cruise line for airline delays. Those people could have easily booked those same flights themselves. Flying in the day before or the day of a cruise is a matter of choice. Some people just cannot do it for one reason or another. On my upcoming cruise in April and my last cruise in July, the cruise line's air cost was much lower than I could get it myself AND we flew in two days early in July and will be flying in one day early in April.

 

What would you have done if there was a big snowstorm the day before your cruise and all flights were cancelled and you could not be put on another flight until two days later? You just never know, do you.

[silentbob007]

I think it's really easy to bash cruiseline air, but let's face it, it is the right choice for some people. Sometimes it is cheaper. Sometimes the travelers aren't experienced and/or don't want to hassle with ground transportation and finding a hotel in the port city. Those of us who spend a lot of time on this board and who travel a bunch, well, I'd say in most travel situations we can take care of ourselves. Others may not be so fortunate .... :)

[kelmac]

You cannot blame the cruise line for airline delays. Those people could have easily booked those same flights themselves. Flying in the day before or the day of a cruise is a matter of choice. Some people just cannot do it for one reason or another. On my upcoming cruise in April and my last cruise in July, the cruise line's air cost was much lower than I could get it myself AND we flew in two days early in July and will be flying in one day early in April.

 

What would you have done if there was a big snowstorm the day before your cruise and all flights were cancelled and you could not be put on another flight until two days later? You just never know, do you.

 

I would have to agree with kenandlaua06. If you do a little planning, air costs are always lower than the cruise line can provide. You have control over your schedule, and control makes people happy.

These are our own personal cruise travel guide lines:

a) always fly in the morning (less schedule delays)

b) always fly in at least one day early

c) make precruise as much of a vacation as the cruise itself

d) try to stay at least one night post cruise (nothing is more depressing than watching and fighting the herds at the airport just after disembarkation)

e) rental cars and taxis give you more control than shuttles and cruise line transfers

f) if you only have seven days to give up for a cruise, cancel and wait until you can do it right. (stressful vacations?? What's the point?)

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[kenandlaura06]

You cannot blame the cruise line for airline delays. Those people could have easily booked those same flights themselves. Flying in the day before or the day of a cruise is a matter of choice. Some people just cannot do it for one reason or another. On my upcoming cruise in April and my last cruise in July, the cruise line's air cost was much lower than I could get it myself AND we flew in two days early in July and will be flying in one day early in April.

 

What would you have done if there was a big snowstorm the day before your cruise and all flights were cancelled and you could not be put on another flight until two days later? You just never know, do you.

 

The reason to blame the cruiseline in this case was that they booked the original flights too close to the ship's departure...leaving New Hampshire for Tampa after 11 a.m. the day of the cruise is cutting it way too close. The people affected told me that they had called Carnival to complain as soon as they got their itineraries, saying that it was too close and Carnival said it would be no problem. Carnival had booked them with a very short layover in Newark, leaving little to no time for problems. The fact that the flight was delayed was the airline's mistake, but Carnival left no room for any error, which was why they held responsibility, as well.

[popcorngal]

You cannot blame the cruise line for airline delays. Those people could have easily booked those same flights themselves. Flying in the day before or the day of a cruise is a matter of choice. Some people just cannot do it for one reason or another. On my upcoming cruise in April and my last cruise in July, the cruise line's air cost was much lower than I could get it myself AND we flew in two days early in July and will be flying in one day early in April.

 

What would you have done if there was a big snowstorm the day before your cruise and all flights were cancelled and you could not be put on another flight until two days later? You just never know, do you.

 

I'm with you Joe. Since you're in the travel biz, if you couldn't get cheaper air, then it wasn't to be had. We've run into the same thing, especially with booking a hotel. It's real hard to beat that rate that Carnival's buying power provides, especially if there's limited availability.

[Sea Breeze]

I just got of the mariner of the sea feb 12 cruise western caribbean, and the captain did tell us he was waiting until 530 for passengers coming from the east coast (snow storm) but as we go into jamaica three days later we were picking up MANY passengers that missed the ship. Our first day was at sea and he second day was rccl private island haiti. This had to be heart breaking to go to the port and see the ship pulling away or not even there... I would be ill.

 

I live in maine, and we flew out the day prior( I changed the time three days prior after watching the weather report). ( of course costing us big$$) but we made the ship, as we know the weather can be Fickel to say the least and atleast we could. I know alot of people have only one week to spare for holiday. I will always try to go a day before, as I know the ship has to go when scheduled. I do think the ship did put champagne and strawberries in a cabin for one couple so that was a nice gesture, on rccl part. :cool:

[nparmelee]

Now I prefer to book my own air, I just like to have that little bit of control and usually make the luxury of extra time pre and post cruise, but in fairness to the cruise air, if everything had gone as it was supposed to, those folks would have been happy campers. The cruise air was within an acceptable layover time, bad things just happened, even if those folks would have had another hour in the layover it may not have been enough considering how late the first flight was. The lesson I see here is to always have a list of the alternate flights from each leg so that if there is a problem with one leg, you know the options from the layover airports. It can only help in talking to the airlines if you already know alternate flights even on alternate airlines that might get you where you want to go.

 

I hope those folks made it on time!

[Miata6]

When we had a missed connection, the airline at fault could not transfer us to another airline/flight because the tickets were through the cruise line. We had to wait 24 hrs for the next scheduled replacement flight. :mad:

 

Can't stress enough, also, that scheduling an extra day prior to boarding can be a big deal. It certainly was for us.

[greatam]

When we had a missed connection, the airline at fault could not transfer us to another airline/flight because the tickets were through the cruise line. We had to wait 24 hrs for the next scheduled replacement flight. :mad:

 

Can't stress enough, also, that scheduling an extra day prior to boarding can be a big deal. It certainly was for us.

 

You are definitely correct. I booked son and SO on Pride of Aloha with cruise/air-Thanksgiving week. I know, I know, but could NOT convince son to fly out of Moline instead of Cedar Rapids. And there were NO inexpensive seats out of CID, EXCEPT with Norwegian cruise/air.

 

They were late arriving Chicago by 1 1/2 hours, so missed their nonstop to Hawaii on United. American had a flight out within 40 minutes to LA and there were flights available on United or Hawaiian from LAX to Oahu to board the ship. Even though I am EXP with American and was able to secure the flights I needed, when it came time to actually ticket those flights, American could NOT use the United tickets, as they were cruise/air tickets. NO amount of calling the cruise line did any good. THEY were going to take care of it. Left to the cruiseline, they would still be sitting in O'Hare. After my future DIL burst into tears at O'hare, my son was so disgusted he rented a car and was going to drive back to Iowa.

 

Cruise line finally got them a flight to LAX at 5:30PM (after 9 hours at O'Hare). Then booked a nonstop to Kauai the next day. Not only did they miss a day of their cruise, BUT they had to pick up hotel and incidental expenses in Los Angeles and a taxi in Kuaui. Even with a Priceline hotel at the airport, the costs out of pocket were still over $150.00.

 

Norwegian's travel insurance did no good either. Stated it was a cruiseline/United decision AND the only obligation of the cruise line was to get them to the ship (which, as I was informed SO many times, they did).

 

I will NEVER get my son on another cruise.

[UNCle Don]

I agree with the wisdom (when feasible) of flying in a day early and much of the other advice here, but I'm curious about the claim by kelmac that arranging your own air is "always lower" in cost than cruise air. I think that's frequently true for roundtrip air, but, when embarkation and disembarkation are in two ports far removed from each other, how does one find lower air costs than the cruiseline provides? Advice appreciated. Cheers,

UNCle Don

 

P.S. We haven't always used cruiseline air, but, when we have, we've always had good luck so far (knock on wood). Once, coming back into the country, we missed a connection and HAL provided a hotel overnight plus a flight the next day. Another time, a ship's mechanical problems caused a late arrival and many missed flights. While others were frantically trying to arrange alternate flights, RCCL arranged ours. Perhaps our luck won't hold.....

[mike215]

I did a Panama Canal Cruise on Celebrity in Dec 05 starting in Ft Lauderdale and ending in Los Angeles. Celebrity wanted $429 for air. I did it myself and paid $218 - convenient flights that I liked. Maybe it doesn't work out all the time but you do have to check. :rolleyes:

[kelmac]

I agree with the wisdom (when feasible) of flying in a day early and much of the other advice here, but I'm curious about the claim by kelmac that arranging your own air is "always lower" in cost than cruise air. I think that's frequently true for roundtrip air, but, when embarkation and disembarkation are in two ports far removed from each other, how does one find lower air costs than the cruiseline provides? Advice appreciated. Cheers,

UNCle Don

 

P.S. We haven't always used cruiseline air, but, when we have, we've always had good luck so far (knock on wood). Once, coming back into the country, we missed a connection and HAL provided a hotel overnight plus a flight the next day. Another time, a ship's mechanical problems caused a late arrival and many missed flights. While others were frantically trying to arrange alternate flights, RCCL arranged ours. Perhaps our luck won't hold.....

 

"Open jaws" flights are not that difficult to book yourself. You can check directly with the airline, go through a consolidator, or go through a booking site. In country, Southwest airlines makes it very easy to book one-way flights. For me, putting all the puzzle pieces of travel together is part of the fun!

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[ocngypz]

28 passengers checked in with an unnamed airline. It was cruiseline air.

Only 4 passengers (luckily mine) were able to get on the flight. I still don't know why the airline let them on, but they did.

 

According to the cruiseline, the airline claimed they did not receive the list of 28 names.

 

The cruiseline said they had reticked all 28 passengers for another airline. How were these folks standing in the airport at the crack of dawn supposed to know which airline as the cruiseline did not notify the travel agencies involved before hand. Likewise the cruiseline did not notify our clients although the cruiseline had contact numbers for all of them!!

 

I was notified about the problem with the air 3 days after it occured by the cruiseline. They called asking where my clients were since they did not fly with the second airline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My clients were notifed the last night of their cruise that their return flights had been changed due to airline #1 overbooking. So instead of getting home at 6pm, they would be getting home at midnight. My client decided to call the original airline to see if she would be entitled to compensation from the airline for the bump. The original airline told her the return flight was not overbooked, she just had a one way ticket.

 

ARGH>>>>>>>>>>> all in all my clients were lucky.. must have been divine intervention.

 

However, for next school vacation, she is doing her own air.. regardless of price!

[kenandlaura06]

28 passengers checked in with an unnamed airline. It was cruiseline air.

Only 4 passengers (luckily mine) were able to get on the flight. I still don't know why the airline let them on, but they did.

 

According to the cruiseline, the airline claimed they did not receive the list of 28 names.

 

The cruiseline said they had reticked all 28 passengers for another airline. How were these folks standing in the airport at the crack of dawn supposed to know which airline as the cruiseline did not notify the travel agencies involved before hand. Likewise the cruiseline did not notify our clients although the cruiseline had contact numbers for all of them!!

 

I was notified about the problem with the air 3 days after it occured by the cruiseline. They called asking where my clients were since they did not fly with the second airline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My clients were notifed the last night of their cruise that their return flights had been changed due to airline #1 overbooking. So instead of getting home at 6pm, they would be getting home at midnight. My client decided to call the original airline to see if she would be entitled to compensation from the airline for the bump. The original airline told her the return flight was not overbooked, she just had a one way ticket.

 

ARGH>>>>>>>>>>> all in all my clients were lucky.. must have been divine intervention.

 

However, for next school vacation, she is doing her own air.. regardless of price!

 

Wow!!! That is crazy.

[djacobson]

I agree with the wisdom (when feasible) of flying in a day early and much of the other advice here, but I'm curious about the claim by kelmac that arranging your own air is "always lower" in cost than cruise air. I think that's frequently true for roundtrip air, but, when embarkation and disembarkation are in two ports far removed from each other, how does one find lower air costs than the cruiseline provides?

 

I can only relate my own experience. For my upcoming trip in May, Carnival wanted $853 for airfare from Baton Rouge-Vancouver and Anchorage - Baton Rouge. I am assuming that this flight would have been on the day of the cruise. I booked my own flight online, going to Baton Rouge - Seattle the night before the cruise (taking Carnival's shuttle service from SeaTac to Canada Place) and Anchorage - Baton Rouge (leaving at 1250am the day after the cruise ends) and even with figuring in the hotel and transfers, I am saving about $240. I found a fare on Orbitz that combines American and United Airlines for $438.

 

Although I was told by my TA that booking Alaskan cruise airfare through Carnival is a good idea, I think I did better doing some shopping around. I already felt that shorter flights would be cheaper booking them myself, but in my case, a cross country flight was also significantly cheaper as well.

[wrp96]

Booking your own air is NOT always cheaper. For example, for my upcoming cruise out of San Juan. RCI wanted $659 per person cruise air. Even with paying for custom air, I have never found cheaper flights from Little Rock in the 14 months since I booked except for the flights that had me leaving at 5:30am and not getting into San Juan until the next day with 4 stops. For the flights I was willing to take, on my own the lowest fare I saw was $704 without taxes and fees.

 

For my cruise I'm currently on, at the time I booked cruise air was over $100 less than anything I could find on my own and I did custom air again.

 

You have to look and not assume that one is better than the other.

[kelmac]

Booking your own air is NOT always cheaper. For example, for my upcoming cruise out of San Juan. RCI wanted $659 per person cruise air. Even with paying for custom air, I have never found cheaper flights from Little Rock in the 14 months since I booked except for the flights that had me leaving at 5:30am and not getting into San Juan until the next day with 4 stops. For the flights I was willing to take, on my own the lowest fare I saw was $704 without taxes and fees.

 

For my cruise I'm currently on, at the time I booked cruise air was over $100 less than anything I could find on my own and I did custom air again.

 

You have to look and not assume that one is better than the other.

 

If you get creative, you can find a way. How about flying Southwest to Orlando ($210RT) and then American non-stop to San Juan ($310RT). If you were to overnight in Orlando, you could take an early morning flight to San Juan and be certain you won't miss the ship. Just a thought.:)

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Kel

[iamsaz]

Oh boy. I booked our first cruise and flights with Carnival and after reading some of these stories, I am very nervous about our flights. I tried finding airfare on my own but it was much more expensive that way due to all the Spring Break traffic. I have not received my information from Carnival yet so I don't even have any information about my flights. I'm getting kind of freaked out about these stories. I guess all I can do is hope for the best. Still, I'm getting the impression that it always pays to do your homework and find out whether it's cheaper to book on my own or book through the cruise line. And yes, due to the limited time I get off work, I was not able to fly in the night before or stay one day after our trip. ACK! Should I be worried??? Because I am. :cool:

[nyer]

Iamsaz...please don't worry so much. For three of my seven cruises I used cruise line air and everything was fine. My last cruise, 2/18, the air arrangements were the best I ever had. Try calling Carnival to see if they can tell you what arrangements they have made for you. (Or if you used a TA, call them.)

Enjoy your cruise.

[iamsaz]

Iamsaz...please don't worry so much. For three of my seven cruises I used cruise line air and everything was fine. My last cruise, 2/18, the air arrangements were the best I ever had. Try calling Carnival to see if they can tell you what arrangements they have made for you. (Or if you used a TA, call them.)

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Nyer...thanks for your supportive comment. I just got all my docs and our flight leaves Detroit at 6:45am (that's almost too early!) nonstop to Tampa, so barring any bad weather or other emergency, we should be fine. Next time I will plan my cruise much earlier so I'll have more time to compare flights.

 

25 more days!!!! :D

[Gma&Gpa]

We've also booked with Cruiseair for our Destiny cruise in May. And like some of you, we cannot go the day ahead so we're hoping for good flight times. At least that cruise doesn't depart until 10:00 PM - so hopefully that means we'll have plenty of time to make our ship.

 

I think that even though some people had a tough time with their cruiseair flights - it's probably a small percentage. As with most things, we're probably not hearing from all the folks that have had good experiences.

 

For our part - since we're going in May - at least we don't have to worry about snow and ice. Of course, we've very curious to know the arrangements - but guess it'll be a little while before we can get that information.

[Havana Daydreaming]

:confused:I am on the east coast and maybe it is different elsewhere. I booked on Southwest flying 4/29/06 , Roundtrip from Baltimore to Tampa for $ 312 for 2 people!!! I checked Air Tran, Jet Blue, US air, and every travel site I could think of. No one was close. The thing to do for southwest is, don't book far in advance. Go to their website and sign up for email updates. I get probably 2 per week. These will tell you current promotions for the current date and probably about 6 weeks out. I have not flown with any airline but Southwest in years. Who can beat $59 down and $69 back PP plus tax?

[Sea Breeze]

I agree nyer, I have used cruise air before and it worked out ok,,, like someone said (knock on wood) But sometimes coming from the northeast the snow/ice always seems to come when i am flying out.. SO I try to go a day prior. Just a piece of mind for us. Also when you cruise with a line for a while you get more benifits of air devations,at no charge which you can sellect when and what airline you want to fly.

 

We cruised with princess one time and they put us on planet airways airline, now that made me uncomfortable as we had never heard of that airline before,

:eek: