ccruise air from heathrow to newark new jersey

[sandian]

Any thoughts on which airline royal carribean will use in march 2010. Only concern will be if we have a change as we would prefer no changes.

 

Thanks

sandian

[steve20832]

Cruise lines use whoever gives them the best rate. Most of the time it is less expensive booking your own flight plus you have control over the times you fly. Have you looked into that possibility?

Lufthansa is $708 with one stop each way from LHR to JFK March 5 and return March 19. The return time is 4:55pm so you would have plenty of time to get from the pier to the airport. The price may come down because not all airlines have released the schedules yet for March 2010. Continental has a hub at Newark but you will have to wait for them to release the schedule for a price.

[wrp96]

Remember that RCCL may also fly you into JFK instead of Newark.

[sandian]

Thanks both

 

As this will be our first major cruise in many years wanted the certainty of booking everything through cruiseline. We are flying in the day before and our hotel is at newark and our receipt shows newark airport. I dont think doing air ourself now will be an option as this will incur extra charges through our TA.

[FlyerTalker]

As this will be our first major cruise in many years wanted the certainty of booking everything through cruiseline.

Not sure just what kind of "certainty" you are looking for, but booking cruiseline air will NOT guarantee that you will make the ship, or that they will "hold" it for you, or many other assumptions.

We are flying in the day before and our hotel is at newark and our receipt shows newark airport. I dont think doing air ourself now will be an option as this will incur extra charges through our TA.

The only "other charges" should be booking fees if you buy your independent air through an agent and they charge for doing that. If you buy it directly from the airline, I cannot see why your TA would charge you for not providing a service??

 

As for the "receipt"....unless you have a confirmed ticket from an airline, not just a "receipt" from a cruiseline, you are not booked on a flight. Given that you are talking about a year from now, it is very likely that you don't have a ticket, but have merely paid a cruiseline for the future booking of a flight. Do you have a six-character locator?

 

I would be looking at buying your own air....start researching fares now.

[jestley]

Thanks both

 

As this will be our first major cruise in many years wanted the certainty of booking everything through cruiseline. We are flying in the day before and our hotel is at newark and our receipt shows newark airport. I dont think doing air ourself now will be an option as this will incur extra charges through our TA.

Hi Sandian,

We had a cruise air package booked with RCCL for Jan 2010 cruising around New Zealand, we had no flight details when we booked because it was so far in advance. We had booked through a travel agent and had felt the same that booking it all together gave us more security. However when the flights were released although they were good flights with Emirates I found flights with Etihad at nearly £1000 cheaper. I spoke with the travel agent and have since changed our booking with RCCL to cruise only at a cost of £35 amendment fee each for three of us and booked my own flights direct with airline and saved £810.. There was only the amendment fee to pay to RCCL because the cruise was still such a long time off. I appreciate that you would not be saving as much as we did as your flights are not going to be as exspensive but it is definately worth pricing your own flights and seeing wether it is worthwhile to change your booking to cruise only, you have got nothing to lose. After reading these boards and chatting with others ive come to realise that the aircruise package is not what it seems, hope this helps

jo:)

[6rugrats]

Thanks both

 

As this will be our first major cruise in many years wanted the certainty of booking everything through cruiseline. We are flying in the day before and our hotel is at newark and our receipt shows newark airport. I dont think doing air ourself now will be an option as this will incur extra charges through our TA.

 

I think this receipt is meaningless. You can't even book flights for March 2010 yet; airlines haven't released their schedules. The flights, as mentioned, haven't even been purchased by the cruiseline yet, and you could have many changes between now and then.

 

In the next week or so, you should be able to check fares for the beginning of next March yourself. Read the sticky at the top of this forum that explains cruise air. Do some research and I bet you can find better and less expensive flights by booking yourself. Your TA should not be charging you anything for a service they are not providing.

[sandian]

Thanks I will certainly look into this although I know our TA has not been helpful so far. It seems as soon as they got our deposit they lost interest. I wish I had found cc before booking. Never mind will know better next time. As to prices I have looked and although prices are slightly higher we have the convenience of transfers and an overnight hotel.

Thanks again to you all

Sandian

[FlyerTalker]

Thanks I will certainly look into this although I know our TA has not been helpful so far. It seems as soon as they got our deposit they lost interest.

Look into transferring the booking to an agent that actually wants your business and will provide service all the way until your departure. Any company that doesn't demonstrate they want my business quite quickly doesn't have my business anymore.

 

Remember, those are YOUR travel pounds, and it's YOUR choice how they get spent.

[kenish]

Sandian- Cruise air is buying into "uncertainty", not "certainty" as others have commented. There are several recent threads on this board where people are coming down to the wire and still do not have confirmed flights. If you prefer the security of having everything known, planned well in advance, and under your control then cruise air is NOT the way to acheive it.

[steve20832]

If you book directly with the cruise line, most won't charge fees that travel agents love to charge extra for.

I booked a cruise directly with RCCL a year ago and had to cancel it due to the economy. A lot of travel agents charge a fee to cancel or make a change the cruise. RCCL didn't charge me anything and I got all of my money back on my credit card 3 days later.

Plus cruise lines customer service are available longer hours than a travel agent. I have read many posts here about people having problems getting a hold of a travel agent where as cruise lines have large staff to handle customers.