Help Me Understand Princess Air

[janetz]

When you book your air thru Princess, the flights are a crap shoot, correct? They do fly you out from the nearest airport from where you live? What if the flight is delayed or there is a problem? They are responsible to get you to the ship? The ship waits? Thanks ahead. :)

[-Lew-]

Do yourself a big favor: make your own flight reservations and fly in at least one day prior to embarkation.

 

Lew

[janetz]

Thank you. :) That's what I have been told. The person I am asking for can not do that....So.....;)

[bhopal21]

You descirbed it best, "a crap shoot". I have heard many tales of 6 and 8 hour layovers on return flights when much closer connections were available.

 

Mike:)

[-Lew-]

That's what I have been told. The person I am asking for can not do that....

Could a travel agent make flight arrangements for this person? From what I have read here on CC, Princess Air should be avoided if at all possible.

 

Lew

[paul929207]

Princess will book the least expensive flights they can find. These may or may not be the best from your point of view.

 

If the flights are delayed or cancelled. Princess and the airline will attempt to re-book you to get you to the ship on time. If this is not possible, the ship May wait if you are not too late and they can still get to the first port on schedule.

 

If that fails, they will do what they can to get you to the ship at the next port.

[janetz]

The thing is, having to fly in the day of sailing. Seems safer. :)

[Toto2Kansas]

The thing is, having to fly in the day of sailing. Seems safer. :)

 

I wouldn't actually consider using Princess air arangements as 'safer'.

Will they hold the ship for a late arriving passenger because they booked the air through the cruise line, NO. Will they assist her/him to catch up to the ship at the next port? Sometimes, especially if they have insurance.

They will fly you out of your airport that you list with them, but that is about the only good thing we have found with it. They book the cheapest flights available and charge you the highest rate going. Which means terrible connections when straight through flights are sometimes available. Also, from what I have seen, Princess books a lot of flights a lot later than I would even be comfortable with arriving the same day. No room for error on some of them.

Now agree, there are some who have had great flights from the cruise line, but the highest percentage of passengers find it very rough going with Princess arranged flights.

 

I agree with bhopal21 on the Princess flights. They used to get us there pretty good, but flying home was always an absolute nitemare with all the connections and layovers.

 

Only time I use Princess air is when we have an open jaw flight that I can't find a decent airfare. I will even pay a bit more to book them on my own before using Princess arrangements, they are only our last resort.

[Boethius]

Hi kids - I'm the person JanetZ is trying to help (the poor dear). At this point, I'm thinking it would be easier & safer to book our flight thru my TA with Princess. That would alleviate a lot of tension about being late. If we book an early flight on cruise day - and if we take the Princess shuttle from the airport, we should be ok. I don't see any reason to pay $200-300 for a hotel. Other option is to book my own flight for about $200pp less ... such a quandry! What do yawl think?

 

Be kind - after all, this is my very first cruise ... and I do come from Alabubba

[Fritzie]

Well, I booked Princess Air (at the advice of my TA--and for the same day of the cruise--GASP!) before checking the CC carefully. And I've been fortunate to get decent routes--from Ohare to Anchorage via Minneapolis (short layover--hope THAT'S not a problem!) and back from Vancouver via Denver (with another short layover.) I'm just going to keep thinking the good thoughts that all goes well. What else can I do now--it's done. Wish me luck, and I certainly wish you luck! :)

[fti]

Hi kids - I'm the person JanetZ is trying to help (the poor dear). At this point, I'm thinking it would be easier & safer to book our flight thru my TA with Princess. That would alleviate a lot of tension about being late. If we book an early flight on cruise day - and if we take the Princess shuttle from the airport, we should be ok. I don't see any reason to pay $200-300 for a hotel. Other option is to book my own flight for about $200pp less ... such a quandry! What do yawl think?

 

Be kind - after all, this is my very first cruise ... and I do come from Alabubba

 

Welcome to CC.

 

Not sure which port you are heading to but I have never paid $200-$300 for any hotel anywhere and I stay in quite a few hotels. In any case, if you can save $200pp by booking on your own and even if you paid $300 for a hotel for two people, you are still $100 ahead of the game, plus you have control over your own flights. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

Note that if you are cruising from Vancouver northbound to AK on a one way cruise and you miss your departure in Vancouver, you can NOT board at the next port (usually Ketchikan) since that would mean you are not visiting a foreign port on the cruise. There was a post on CC recently about someone not being able to take their cruise after being delayed in TX. So be careful in that regard! And that would not matter how you booked your air.

[umma]

Princess booked us from Detroit Metro to Houston, approx. 2,000 miles south, layover there for 2 hrs., then Houston to Anchorage, 2200 miles north. We were in planes on waiting for about 14 hours....horrible arrangements and I would never trust them to make my flight plans again.

[janetz]

Hi kids - I'm the person JanetZ is trying to help (the poor dear). At this point, I'm thinking it would be easier & safer to book our flight thru my TA with Princess. That would alleviate a lot of tension about being late. If we book an early flight on cruise day - and if we take the Princess shuttle from the airport, we should be ok. I don't see any reason to pay $200-300 for a hotel. Other option is to book my own flight for about $200pp less ... such a quandry! What do yawl think?

 

Be kind - after all, this is my very first cruise ... and I do come from Alabubba

 

 

Yep, her first post. :D

[janetz]

Welcome to CC.

 

Not sure which port you are heading to but I have never paid $200-$300 for any hotel anywhere and I stay in quite a few hotels. In any case, if you can save $200pp by booking on your own and even if you paid $300 for a hotel for two people, you are still $100 ahead of the game, plus you have control over your own flights. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

Note that if you are cruising from Vancouver northbound to AK on a one way cruise and you miss your departure in Vancouver, you can NOT board at the next port (usually Ketchikan) since that would mean you are not visiting a foreign port on the cruise. There was a post on CC recently about someone not being able to take their cruise after being delayed in TX. So be careful in that regard! And that would not matter how you booked your air.[/quo

 

 

 

She is coming from Huntsville, Alabubba :rolleyes: to NY..See, they don't have any direct flight from Huntsville unless you can spend 800.00

 

I say drive to Nashville EARLY and get a direct flight to LGA. :)

[Boethius]

Not sure which port you are heading to but I have never paid $200-$300 for any hotel anywhere and I stay in quite a few hotels. In any case, if you can save $200pp by booking on your own and even if you paid $300 for a hotel for two people, you are still $100 ahead of the game, plus you have control over your own flights. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

Thanks for the welcome - I'm flying from Alabama to NYC - online search didn't reveal any lower hotel rates (no, I dont want to stay on Jersy side - one bridge jumper can delay traffic for hours. Not quite a no-brainer for me yet, still pondering. I wish I could see the Princess flight itinerary before booking.

[Princess Chatterer]

Here's what I do.

 

1. Plan to always travel to your port city a day or two early.

 

2. Get on various Internet search engines and write down the best prices and travel times.

 

3. Get a quote on Princess air - figuring that Princess prefers Northwest, Delta and Air Canada over all others.

 

4. Add points for Princess cancellation insurance that is part of the package with Princess Air, not with do your own thing air.

 

5. Pick either Princess air or do your own thing. Which ever is noticably cheaper. If priced the same, see step 4 above.

 

6. Decide if Princess air deviation is the way to go. Princess air deviation is a combo of Princess air and do your own thing. Also figure that you're not going to be able to be allowed to wheel and deal directly with the Princess air deviation department if you booked through a travel agent.

 

For Princess hotel packages I follow my basic strategy listed above.

 

My only problem ever with Princess air was too tight scheduling in Amsterdam rather than too loose scheduling. This was due to passport agent line waits.

 

If everything is equal on likely schedule, figuring Princess will use Northwest and Delta most of the time, and price I'll choose Princess Air but I realize that most of you don't.

[cynbar]

Just my two cents here, but I don't think that price should be the only consideration. A couple years back, we booked a Celebrity cruise and took their air package the day of sailing since we had a conflict the day before. Well, we were bumped from our flight in Boston, even though we were there in plenty of time, because the flight was overbooked and cruise lines pay the absolute lowest rates. We thought we were protected and the ship would wait, but a call to Celebrity put that thought to rest --- apparently the ships only wait if a large number of passengers are delayed, and sometimes not even then. Delta was able to reroute us through NY, and we arrived at the ship about 20 minutes before sailing (thankfully our luggage also made it -- what are the chances of that!) But the anxiety of the whole experience was awful, and really set us back for the first couple of days. Since then, we ALWAYS fly in a day ahead --- it's money well spent to avoid the hassle, and wake up the morning of sailing rested and ready to board.

[derf5585]

Does anyone have something good to say about Pricess Air. Or has everyone who has used it never made their cruise.

[hotmike98]

This is the first time we ever booked Princess Air: one way Alaska trip, Vancouver to Anchorage (Whittier). The Princess fare was within $50 dollars of the best fare I could find for open jaw (ANC to LAX is very expensive), but I still didn't like their schedule. We opted for the deviation charge, which is only $50 on this particular trip. Still flying in a day early, as Vancouver is such a great city, and I just want to be sure we don't miss our departure. It's certainly not usually cheaper to use Princess Air in every case, but check and compare, and find out what the deviation fee is.

[SPI_Rick]

I think we have booked Princess Air on every cruise we've taken with them except for our one Caribbean cruise. I have been generally pleased with the price....its often been significantly below the best available fare at the time we've booked our cruises. I have been less pleased with the times and the routings of the flights.....early morning departures and indirect routings have often been the case. But this is something that you should be willing to accept....they do purchase seats in bulk from less traveled flights. But, sometimes this is good.

 

We recently returned from a Transatlantic-Baltic B2B cruise. The first leg of our return flight from Copenhagen was late (very late) getting into Frankfurt. We would normally have missed the connecting flight out of Frankfurt, but because Princess had booked many of the seats on the connecting flight, the plane was held for over an hour so that all of the Princess passengers could make it.

 

Another plus for Princess Air: In 2005 we were on a west-bound transatlantic crossing from Copenhagen to Fort Lauderdale. We encountered strong winds and high seas the last two days of the voyage and arrived in Fort Lauderdale about 6 hours late. Many people, including us, missed our flights back home. However, since we had Princess Air, the Princess staff on the ship coordinated changing our flights, sent a printed copy of our new travel itinerary to our cabin, arranged and paid for our hotel accommodatoins in Fort Lauderdale for the night and for transportation to the airport the next morning and reimbursed us for our dinner and breakfast expenses while at the hotel. Was it still a bit of a hassle?? Sure. But, not nearly as bad for us and for the other passengers who didn't have Princess Air......they just got the opportunity to use the ship-to-shore telephone to make their own arrangements and had to cover their own reservation change fees from the airlines.

 

OK, now having said all that, the next time I cruise I will still check the cost of traveling by my own arrangements and if I can get direct connections to/from the ports for about the same cost as Princess Air I will probably book it myself and plan a 1 or 2 day pre and post cruise stay in the port city. But we have only cruised in and out of the same city once (on the Caribbean cruise), all others have been different embarkation and disembarkation ports which makes doing your own travel arrangements more difficult and more expensive.

 

So, my thought is: If you want the most direct set of flights at the most convenient times, then you should book your own flights. If you want the most 'peace-of-mind' for the least amount of effort, you should book Princess Air.

[Fritzie]

Does anyone have something good to say about Pricess Air. Or has everyone who has used it never made their cruise.

:D:D:D

I'm beginning to wonder that, too. :)

[SPI_Rick]

Fritzie, I see we hit the "Submit" button at the same time....but I did have something nice to say about Princess Air...you just have to check the end of the prior page.

[Fritzie]

Just read yours, SPI_Rick--most comforting--don't need that double martini now...;) Well, don't want good gin to go to waste...

Thanks for your input!

[Boethius]

My gosh, you guys are really helpful and well-informed! Wokie and SPIRick - glad to hear some positives on using Princess for air, particularly since they favor Delta (big down here). How bad could it get, either a change in Atlanta or Cincinnati - and, if they know we have to be there on time, won't they schedule accordingly? Also, please - what is "deviation charge" and what are the advantages? That cancellation coverage sounds good too.

 

I'm beginning to get excited ... hehehe - I suppose 11 months of excited anticipation could be exhausting, but thus far, I find it great fun:)

[janetz]

My gosh, you guys are really helpful and well-informed! Wokie and SPIRick - glad to hear some positives on using Princess for air, particularly since they favor Delta (big down here). How bad could it get, either a change in Atlanta or Cincinnati - and, if they know we have to be there on time, won't they schedule accordingly? Also, please - what is "deviation charge" and what are the advantages? That cancellation coverage sounds good too.

 

I'm beginning to get excited ... hehehe - I suppose 11 months of excited anticipation could be exhausting, but thus far, I find it great fun:)

 

 

Two positives, only two, sis :p :p :p