Windstar Customer Service -- frustrating re Tahiti trip

[SB_Travlr]

We have a deposit down for the 11/26 Windstar Tahiti cruise -- they would not talk about any air deviations or land arrangements till we had done that. So we did it. :o It seems to be hard to get a timely response from Windstar.

 

We wanted to fly from CT to LAX on the Monday of our cruise week, then take a daytime flight to PPT on Tuesday so we can spend a couple of days on Moorea before the cruise begins. (It's a very long trip for just a week.) Now my agent tells me that Windstar says we cannot fly LAX to PPT on Tuesday, and she can't find out why. The person who deals with this is out sick (there's only one??!) :confused: I suppose all the flights could be sold out, but that seems a bit unlikely -- it's not prime time there (though it is Thanksgiving week here).

 

Am I misunderstanding what air deviation is about? (We did that with no problem when we cruised Windstar from Istanbul.) Anybody have similar experience, and how did you resolve? I suppose we could take the cruise without air, and just make our own arrangements, but that ups the cost more than a little!

[jsiegel]

I just went to the Air Tahiti Nui web site and it looks like the airline doesn't fly out of LAX to Papeete on Tuesdays. You can get a Monday or Wednesday flight, but not one on Tuesday Nov. 23rd. Windstar uses Air Tahiti Nui, so the problem may not be the cruiseline's fault, but a matter of no planes available.

[SB_Travlr]

Thanks jsiegel -- I think actually ATN does fly LAX to PPT on Tuesdays -- online schedule I looked at shows 1:00, 4:30 or 10:55 pm. <http://www.airtahitinui-usa.com/flightsched/flightschedules.asp>

But I did call the ATN customer service folks, and it looks as if yes, all the Tuesday flights really are sold out in Economy. :(

 

So I'm hoping Windstar will be able to help us fly Monday instead, which apparently has seats available. It's not their fault that flights sell out, but I wish they had told me this sooner (they've been sitting on this question for a couple of weeks at least).

 

But how bad could it be if the worst case is that we'll have to stay another night in FP?? ;) As long as the $$ hold out, that will be fine!

[jsiegel]

It's gotten me wondering. The rest of the world doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but we do, so is Thanksgiving turning out to be a popular time to travel? I sure hope not, I'm hoping to go on the Wind Star next Thanksgiving 2005, when it goes through the Panama Canal. I'm not going to be able to convince my significant other to book very far in advance. We may lose out on our opportunity if it is a popular cruise time. I figured that most people want to be with family for Thanksgiving. My family gave up that tradition years ago (to my relief) Oh well, if it's meant to be it will happen, if not, I blame my S.O.

 

Have a great trip to Tahiti. Sure is beautiful.

 

Jackie

[SB_Travlr]

Okay, problem solved. ;)

 

For anyone following this thrilling saga, the ATN flights for Tuesday really were all sold out. :( We managed to move everything back a day, and get the flight we wanted for Monday instead. :)

 

The Windstar folks (and our TA) were also very helpful with our flight from CT to LA, because our timing for a Sunday departure was complicated by family events that weekend. Deviation fee well worth the investment, because now we have just the flights we wanted. :) :)

 

Now back to the fun part -- hotels, what to take, excursions... (I'm trying not to obsess.)