Southwest on Carnival

[zwallace]

We recently booked an 8 day cruise to the Panama Canal on Carnival. I then proceeded to book flights through our preferred airline, Southwest. The cost for two round-trip tickets was over $1300 from Missouri to Tampa!  After searching for a few minutes for cheaper options, I discovered Carnival had Fly2fun, so I looked at the flights offered. Lo and behold,  Southwest Air was offered and I booked two r/t tickets for $537. We booked our flights thru Celebrity last year at a substantial savings and it worked out perfectly. I'm hoping it does again this year. If it does, I'm totally sold on booking thru the cruise lines. 

[Free2bMeForever]

I’ve used flights booked through Air2Sea successfully a couple of times. The things I like about them are:

(1) you can often get really good prices on 1-way international flights,

(2) you can cancel before final payment with little or no penalty,

(3) if the price goes down, you can contact the cruiseline and get the price lowered

(4) no additional money is required until your cruises final payment

 

BUT you need to be aware that those bookings are not like the ones you book directly with the airlines.  They are negotiated pricing that have specific restrictions associated with them. You may never even realize it if you don’t have any problems with the flights or connections.  However, if something goes “sideways”, those restrictions may become very evident.  As has been said multiples on these boards: Caveat emptor.

[zwallace]

We didn't have any problems last year. I'm going to hope for the best this year. We fly in a day early so hopefully we'll make it to the cruise on time. 

[BoozinCroozin]

I've checked Fly2Fun and the rates for our cruise are the same I can book directly. There were no discounts. Glad you got a deal.