Princess Air - A good thing?

[kywildcatfanone]

Hi folks,

 

When I booked my upcoming cruise online with Princess, I didn't book Princess Air because, 1) I never had before, so I just ignored it, and 2) I figured I would find a better deal myself.

Anyway, with that said, I'm not finding a better deal, and would like to get something booked. I called Princess and they gave a price that was better than what I am seeing online myself, but they don't seem to want to give me any particulars about what flight I will be assigned to (airline, times, etc).

I don't really care which airline from my local airport, and the only time that really matters to me is the return flight home. I don't want to get put on a 5pm flight out of FLL where I have to kill an entire day, if I can avoid it, I want to get home.

Can someone who has used Princess for air give me an idea of what to expect, and pros/cons of whether or not it's a good thing to do? I can book my own out of a different airport (80 miles away), and get reasonable times for the flights, but it will cost me about $100-125 more than what Princess is quoting me, plus I will have to park my car for a week and at my local airport, I can have someone drop me off, so that would save me about $70 or so.

 

I'm also interested in who folks use for Trip Insurance, do you do Princess ($89/pp) or recommend a particular service from someone else.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Mike

[paul929207]

One of the drawbacks to Princess (& other cruiselines) air is that you don't know what you will get until it is too late to change. You find out the airline and flights after you have made final payment. The cruise lines are trying to get the lowest fare from the airlines. They are less concerned with getting "nice" times, connections, etc. for you.

[98Charlie]

The only time we have found cruise line air fare to be less expensive was with Dawn Princess Southern Caribbean out of San Juan a few years ago.

 

You have to judge if the savings ($300 +/-) is worth the uncertainty of the flights. You will get your flights assigned about 30 days before the cruise as I recall.

 

My understanding is that the cruise lines have agreements with airlines for the flights. The airlines guarantee flights for the cruise passengers but hold off on assigning until the last minute so that the airlines can use the cruise passengers to fill unsold seats.

 

The only guarantee that you get as a passenger is that if you miss the cruise because of a delay in the air, they will fly you to the first port of call to connect with your ship. If you start with a sea day or two, your 7 nighter could become a 5 night:eek:

 

Having said that, I haven't heard on these boards of anyone missing their cruise because of delayed cruise air.

 

Just my 2¢

 

Charlie

[DanJ]

The typical drawback people post about is wacky connections from cruise air. That would be my concern if they are quoting flights quite a bit cheaper than what you can find. From LEX (which I'm assuming is your home airport), I don't think you have any direct flights to FLL, but the ideal routing would be LEX-ATL (or CLT)-FLL. What the cruise line might do is send you to Detroit or Cleveland or worse, Chicago or Dallas.

 

When friends of ours who had just discovered cruising booked their honeymoon this past March, they went with cruise air for Toronto to Ft Lauderdale against my recommendation. They checked flights a few times and said "See Dan, the flights are more expensive than Princess." I just said "You aren't there yet, are you LOL" Sure enough, they get their flight info, and it included a lovely stopover in Montreal, which is the other direction from Toronto than Ft Lauderdale is. So a call to their TA and a deviation fee later, they weren't thinking cruise air was such a deal. Not to mention the fare class the cruiseline gets on Air Canada doesn't include seat selection ($15 extra per person), but was included in the price I gave them 9 months earlier. Of course, this experience didn't do much for them, since they booked cruise air again for when they go on the Grand over Christmas. Their reasoning was they didn't have to pay for the flights until they paid for the cruise, whereas they would have to pay for the flights at the time of booking if booked on their own. Oh well, some people refuse to learn LOL.

[kywildcatfanone]

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like if I have flights I am happy with, I should just book it and be happy. Just trying to save money where I can, what with the fuel surcharge they have hit me with after booking.

 

If you have any other advice, let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

[Toto2Kansas]

Princess air can be very good, especially price wise, if you are booking something that is an 'open jaw'. Leaving from one port and returning from another. But even then, we always pay the deviation fee so we have a bit more choice in our flights, airlines and times.

 

Princess is well known for getting you to your destination pretty well when booking flights through them, but returning home can be a totally different story. Keep in mind they attempt to get you the cheapest flight out there, which usually means lots of layovers and long waits in your port city airport. There are sometimes exceptions to this, but normally, it is a nitemare.

 

For us, even paying a bit of a higher rate to book our own air is well worth the effort. There is nothing good about having to hang around the airport for hours after a great cruise, long layovers and connections that can take you way off the shortest coarse for the return home.

Once, we had an 8 hour layover after an international flight booking Princess air, and that was even with paying the deviation fee. If we wanted a better flight, it would have cost us even more than we could have booked it ourselves.

So, just keep in mind that they get you from point A to point B and return, but they can take the "long way" around to get you there and you have no choice in the matter whatsoever.

[wrp96]

My one piece of advice is if you do cruise air, pay the deviation fee and choose your own flights.

[jajohnson]

In previous years, we have used Princess air for "open jaw" flights since they yielded significant savings. We have booked our own flights where we were able to do so a a cost less than Princess. The downside is that on a recent Med cruise we had less than optimum routing (no non stops and two connections from Venice to Tampa). On the other hand the Princess flights worked well (adequate connection times) and we were satisfied. Value for the money wise it was the right thing to do.

 

Each cruise must be evaluated on a case by case basis. Sometimes you win and sometimes you might lose. You control your destiny.

[Murphey]

Can someone help with the "air deviation" thing? I don't mind paying the fee for better flights/connections, but it was my understanding that the price can go up too with the different flights. Therefore, you end up losing the advantage of booking cruise air (our particular situation involves the open-jaw ticketing).

[greatam]

Hi folks,

 

When I booked my upcoming cruise online with Princess, I didn't book Princess Air because, 1) I never had before, so I just ignored it, and 2) I figured I would find a better deal myself.

Anyway, with that said, I'm not finding a better deal, and would like to get something booked. I called Princess and they gave a price that was better than what I am seeing online myself, but they don't seem to want to give me any particulars about what flight I will be assigned to (airline, times, etc).

I don't really care which airline from my local airport, and the only time that really matters to me is the return flight home. I don't want to get put on a 5pm flight out of FLL where I have to kill an entire day, if I can avoid it, I want to get home.

Can someone who has used Princess for air give me an idea of what to expect, and pros/cons of whether or not it's a good thing to do? I can book my own out of a different airport (80 miles away), and get reasonable times for the flights, but it will cost me about $100-125 more than what Princess is quoting me, plus I will have to park my car for a week and at my local airport, I can have someone drop me off, so that would save me about $70 or so.

 

I'm also interested in who folks use for Trip Insurance, do you do Princess ($89/pp) or recommend a particular service from someone else.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Mike

 

Read this-explains EXACTLY how cruise air flights are put together and why some people have very decent experiences and some people miss the ship:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

 

Yes, it's my post, but I am in international logistics, have interaction with the airlines EVERY day of the year, and believe me, the airlines are NOT getting any better.

 

IF you miss your cruise due to delayed air, you are at the mercy of the airline. Per the cruise line contract with the airlines, you will have to fly the originating carrier on a "space available" basis. You may miss 1, 2 3 days or your entire cruise (happened to a group flying to Alaska last year). There may be no airports the cruise line deems "safe" the next day (Haiti and Jamaica are two that come to mind). Or you may run into PSA issues or you may need a passport to fly to a foreign port. All issues to think about.

 

Please go to the cruise air board, post your dates, origination and destination, what the cruise line is charging you. Lots of help over there.

[greatam]

Can someone help with the "air deviation" thing? I don't mind paying the fee for better flights/connections, but it was my understanding that the price can go up too with the different flights. Therefore, you end up losing the advantage of booking cruise air (our particular situation involves the open-jaw ticketing).

 

You are correct. Price for air deviation MAY or MAY NOT be the same as "regular cruise air". Please see this explanation of cruise air and air deviation.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

[cherylandtk]

I'm also interested in who folks use for Trip Insurance, do you do Princess ($89/pp) or recommend a particular service from someone else.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Mike

I use Princess insurance when I think I might have aneed for the "any reason" coverage, otherwise I purchase separately. Go here for a good overview and help in deciding what coverage you want and what a policy covers and does not cover:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/features/articles.cfm?ID=274

[SailoretteII]

I think it really depends on where you need to fly to and return from. I am sailing from Ft. Lauderdale and flying home from Buenos Aires. I checked all the possible flights I could book myself and the Princess Air was by far the best deal. I have a non-stop flight from Toronto to FLL (early but hopefully I won't have to worry about missing the ship). And my return flight from Buenos Aires is non-stop to Washington with a connecting flight (1-1/2hr wait) to Toronto. All flights from Buenos Aires leave late at night so there wasn't much choice there, besides it gives me a day for a tour there. The price difference was at least $700.00 less than for anything I could find myself. I considered trying to get a return flight right to Toronto, but with the deviation fee and paying the difference in price, I would have lost that saving and more. So, I guess you have to decide if the price difference is worth a little inconvenience? In my case, it is only 1-1/2 hours!

[BurBunny]

With Princess air, there are two things I always recommend:

 

1. Just factor in the deviation fee into your fare calculations; and

 

2. Always, always, ALWAYS take Princess Travel Care. Reason being that even if you have their air, if something goes wrong on your flights while you're enroute, they will not do anything to help you unless you've taken their insurance. They're the only line to be that strict about it, but if you have their air, please take their insurance.

 

Now, as to the deviation, if you request a deviation, and what they offer you isn't acceptable (either the itinerary if you didn't specify what you prefer, which I suggest, or the price goes up too much), you can always decline the deviation and you're not charged the fee. So it doesn't hurt to go ahead and put the air on and immediately go through Flight Choice to see what they can do for specific flights and costs.

[Pam in CA]

I've used Princess air quite a few times and never had the odd routing that some people seem to get. It really depends on your departure and arrival cities.

 

As always, do your research; plus, fly in the day before AND get insurance. One thing to note is that if you take Princess air and get Princess insurance, your air is covered by the insurance. Yes, these are added expenses but are well worth the extra cost if you run into any problems.

[Shogun]

Hi Folks,

 

You poor folks on the other side of the pond,

 

Princess Air is great, cheap flights, Ok often a charter, but a jumbo for a 2 hour flight, captain had to say sorry as movie longer than flight, BA Virgin etc good cabin service, even get a choc ice half way through the movie.

 

Now in a few days we fly to join you for christmas but our flight was cancelled no problem as it is down to Princess to get us there as air is sold as part of the cruise price. So Princess are flying us south putting us up in a hotel driving us to the airport the next day all this at there cost not mine.

 

yours Shogun

[emeyers]

I've been very surprised by many of the comments I've read regarding Princess Air and the air provided by other cruise lines regarding international flights.

 

I've been on 32 cruises and will give you my experience.

 

I usually book over a year in advance and always take the cruise air. About 330 days prior to the returning flights, I check to see what is the best itinerary for us and the price. I then request my itinerary and tell my travel agent that I am willing to pay only the $75 deviation charge per person. If they want more money, just advise me of the flights I could have for just the $75 deviation charge. Just about all the time, I get the flights I requested or very close to it with another air line.

We'll be on the April 14th sailing on the 31 night Sapphire Princess cruise from Sydney to Los Angeles with flights from Tampa to Sydney and return from Los Angeles to Tampa and my air flights are costing me about $500 less per person than if I booked on my own. Also remember, with Princess you get the Princess Insurance without any additional charge if you book the flights through them.

 

Ellis