Airfare offered through cruiseline

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, clo said:

Wow. We booked with United for our cruise in July. I've chuckled because three times now they've notified me of a schedule change. One time it was one minute, one was five minutes, etc.

For our cruise last summer with which we did NCL's BOGO, they kept sending me urgent airline e-mails. And every time I expected them to be changes, and every time they were the exact same. Since it seems they also sent the same e-mails to our TA, he also then forwarded them, but by the time I got those, I knew there were no changes.

[Zach1213]

On 3/8/2024 at 10:06 AM, lenquixote66 said:

The first plane was a jet whereas the second was a 30 seat plane.

 

Is this like a "all jets are planes, but not all planes are jets" kind of thing? 

 

On 3/7/2024 at 4:43 PM, ontheweb said:

We flew Newark to Heathrow and they had us have a layover in Montreal.

 

God bless cruiseline flights..."Let's see, they're flying between New York and London, one of the busiest longhaul air routes in the world with countless options...so of course we need to route them through Quebec". 

 

On 3/9/2024 at 7:12 AM, CHPURSER said:

I beleive your pilot was Orville Wright.

 

The first person to ever kill a person in a plane crash, be careful 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Zach1213 said:

 

God bless cruiseline flights..."Let's see, they're flying between New York and London, one of the busiest longhaul air routes in the world with countless options...so of course we need to route them through Quebec"

And to make it worse, our first flight was delayed and then waited and waited to park the plane in the Montreal airport. And then despite being told by the passenger next to us that all Air Canada flights are always delayed, the second one was on time. After walking very briskly to the terminal we immediately got on the line to boar

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, Zach1213 said:

 

Is this like a "all jets are planes, but not all planes are jets" kind of thing? 

 

 

God bless cruiseline flights..."Let's see, they're flying between New York and London, one of the busiest longhaul air routes in the world with countless options...so of course we need to route them through Quebec". 

 

 

The first person to ever kill a person in a plane crash, be careful 

I no longer go on planes.

[Zach1213]

3 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

And to make it worse, our first flight was delayed and then waited and waited to park the plane in the Montreal airport. And then despite being told by the passenger next to us that all Air Canada flights are always delayed, the second one was on time. After walking very briskly to the terminal we immediately got on the line to boar

 

I love the idea that someone thinks a major global airline like Air Canada, with hundreds of planes and probably thousands of flights per day has a 100% delay rate. 

[ontheweb]

4 minutes ago, Zach1213 said:

 

I love the idea that someone thinks a major global airline like Air Canada, with hundreds of planes and probably thousands of flights per day has a 100% delay rate. 

Well, the person was from Canada and had flown with them several times.

 

We had had only one previous flight on Air Canada, and it was delayed.

[YYCJim]

On 3/9/2024 at 1:27 PM, BOB999 said:

Not all cruise airfare is bad.  Many cruise lines allow you to pick your flights at time of booking, pay when final payment is due, get cheaper air and offer some protection on delays causing you to miss the ship.

 

That being said, some offer what I refer to as "opaque air" where the cruise line chooses your flights with limited recourse if you don't like them.  Of these, I've heard the most grumbling about NCL which appears to assign your flights 30-45 days prior and if you don't like them, then tough since their custom air closes 75-110 days prior to sailing.  Perhaps you would have been lucky and gotten the non-stop flights both ways, but just as likely if not more likely to have to double-connect via the US or some other country.

Thanks for the feedback, greatly appreciated.

[Zach1213]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Well, the person was from Canada and had flown with them several times.

 

We had had only one previous flight on Air Canada, and it was delayed.

Oh don't get me wrong, Air Canada is notorious for having delays. I think they're worst in North America amongst major airlines. But per the latest statistics they're only late 43% of the time, not 100% 😉

[ontheweb]

10 minutes ago, Zach1213 said:

Oh don't get me wrong, Air Canada is notorious for having delays. I think they're worst in North America amongst major airlines. But per the latest statistics they're only late 43% of the time, not 100% 😉

Ok, I will agree always late was hyperbole. 43% is still quite awful. I think we can also agree on that.

[sleepingcat]

On 3/7/2024 at 10:29 PM, YYCJim said:

Unfortunately they will not give you the details when you book, your flight arrangements are only released 45 days before departure. The fact that we saved 2000 plus booking it through the cruise line is worth it

oh, it appears very different in the UK.  we ve only done this once, we flew to NZ from Birmingham a month before  boarding our half world cruise in Auckland. I agreed every single detail of the emirates flight, including all the timings and a one night stopover in Bangkok, with the TA before I booked.  then we paid a package price to P and O for the whole thing. I ve no idea whether it would have been cheaper or more expensive than booking the flights myself, but at that stage I wasn't confident to do the flights myself. Your saving looks great - and enjoy the trip. 

 

btw an aside, I notice cruisers from other side of Atlantic usually fly into Heathrow.  consider Birmingham as its just as well connected for the UK. I avoid Heathrow at all costs as it is so busy.

[Zach1213]

3 hours ago, sleepingcat said:

btw an aside, I notice cruisers from other side of Atlantic usually fly into Heathrow.  consider Birmingham as its just as well connected for the UK. I avoid Heathrow at all costs as it is so busy.

 

Maybe it's my jet lag, but am I misunderstanding your statement? Because I'm just wondering in what world BHX is even remotely an option for people coming from across the Atlantic. There are one or two seasonal flights by TUI to holiday destinations in North America, and nothing to any major cities in North America (not even New York). Heathrow has more flights across the Atlantic in an hour than BHX has in a month. Rail/bus connectivity around the UK makes no difference if you can't actually get there. 

[donnatello]

Depends on where you're going.  Domestic, you'll probably do better on your own.  Our experience has been that going on a European cruise, the cruise line's air has ALWAYS been a better deal. Being from the NYC area, we've always gotten a non-stop at a reasonable time..

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, donnatello said:

Depends on where you're going.  Domestic, you'll probably do better on your own.  Our experience has been that going on a European cruise, the cruise line's air has ALWAYS been a better deal. Being from the NYC area, we've always gotten a non-stop at a reasonable time..

Not always. Our flight to Heathrow in London this summer from Newark had a stop in Montreal. We did have a direct flight back from Reykjavik.

[John Bull]

12 hours ago, sleepingcat said:

 

 

btw an aside, I notice cruisers from other side of Atlantic usually fly into Heathrow.  consider Birmingham as its just as well connected for the UK. I avoid Heathrow at all costs as it is so busy.

 

As @Zach1213 posted, there are no regular scheduled direct flights to North America from BHX.

 

I think the only options are London  Heathrow / Gatwick / mebbe City,  plus Manchester, plus Edinburgh. 

 

JB 🙂

[Zach1213]

22 hours ago, donnatello said:

Our experience has been that going on a European cruise, the cruise line's air has ALWAYS been a better deal. 

 

Keep in mind "better deal" and "lower price" can be very different things. 

 

13 hours ago, John Bull said:

 

As @Zach1213 posted, there are no regular scheduled direct flights to North America from BHX.

 

I think the only options are London  Heathrow / Gatwick / mebbe City,  plus Manchester, plus Edinburgh. 

 

 

London City doesn't have any flights outside of Europe. Lithuania and Greece are the furthest you can get. MAN has had a sudden explosion of longhaul routes over the last week or two, but almost exclusively going east and not west. The UK is still extremely focused on LHR/LGW, and even EDI has relatively few longhaul flights (and even fewer that are offered year-round). 

[sleepingcat]

Re BHX, Looks like I was truly sleeping when I posted that completely incorrect information, apologies. thanks to others for the correction.