Carnival Flyaweigh plan is too high

[Brenda Bell]

I have just booked our summer cruise for June 2007 but..... this time we are flying to Miami from Nashville,Tn. I told my PVP to go ahead an add the flights and that we would like to come a day before the cruise. Then when I received the deviation request form they want to charge me $50.00 plus once accepted and additional air costs may apply.The tickets cost $350.00 a person plus deviation costs. The price would end up costing alease $500.00 a person if not more. So I have been checking Orbitz. Priceline, and Expedia on pricing and they are cheaper. I have not fax the papers back to Carnival's Deviation.

This will be my first time booking air fares, do I need to book these tickets in Feb.? Also would it be best for me to book it with someone else since Carnival are so high? There will be 6 of us on this cruise.

[jmkoilers]

My family and I (total of 6) often run into this problem and this year all it took was a little time on the web to save a bunch. We are flying from Detroit to Tampa (May Legend sailing) and Carnival wanted $409 per person. By looking around, I found Air Tran - (with bookings out to next May) for just under $200 per person including all taxes/fees. For us, that means most of our shore excursions (which we will be booking direct) are paid for by the air savings alone. When you have a larger family, it seems that going only with the cruiselines is a convenience that can be really expensive. Good luck on your cruise and have a great time.

[JJPNYC]

I never book air through the cruise line unless it's some great deal (i.e. free or free upgrade to biz class).

 

You can almost always get a better deal on your own. Plus doing your air separate you have the option of picking the airport, airline, & flights of your choosing. Cruise air is notorious for putting you on the most inconvenient & convoluted routing (i.e. going LGA-CVG-ATL-FLL on Delta, leaving at 5:00AM) if it means them paying the cheapest possible price for your air ticket (and then this means that they keep the difference between the actual cost of the ticket & what you paid the cruise line for the air ticket).

[jetexpress]

The cruise air fare is ususally drastically more expensive and does include transportation to/from airport and pier. I usually find flights for about half as much as cruise line wants to charge by using Yahoo! farechase http://farechase.yahoo.com . All you need to do then is get a cab at the airport. The cab fare will be MUCH less then the cruise air and transportation fare combo. Happy Cruising!

 

1999 - Sovereign of the Seas

2001 - Majesty of the Seas

2005 - Disney Wonder

Jan 11, 2007 - Imagination

[silentbob007]

The way I see it, the only reaosns to book cruise aire are 1) The price is actually reasonable (which it usually is not) or 2) You don't want to have to deal with the details, such as how you are getting to the port, etc. Personally, I love the details ... :)

[Brenda Bell]

You're right I was worry about how we were going to get to the hotel from the airport and from the hotel to the pier. But after I seen the deviation terms & conditions and plus additional costs. We have been checking on the flights and it's almost $200.00 less per person that is $1200.00 we'll be saving.