Air Prices So Cali - San Juan (SJU)

[lephysteria]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm wondering if the air prices are always this high, or if you would recommend that we keep trying.

 

Naren and I are looking at airfaire from So Cali to Puerto Rico (SJU) for our April 2, 2005 cruise. I have been peeking at Orbitz for a while, and its always been about the same (never under $400). I checked again today and found 1 stop using Delta for $545. (now think back to "In living Color" ...) Good Lordie that's a lot of money!

 

I'm wondering if any past San Juan airport passengers can help us find a better deal.

[mdmourges]

Can't address price from So Cal but from Phl the cheapest, with all taxes and whatnot, is about $350. Average price for non-stop both ways is about $425 - $450.

 

Mark

[sunsetme]

you are right flying from so cal is very expensive, there arent many flights and they keep the prices high. my target is $399 but I haven't seen that for some time now.

[Ocean Boy]

Right now Delta wants $682.00 from Providence, RI to San Juan for the week of April 9. I will swim there before they get that out of me. Spirit Air wants $297.40.

 

Gee, I just can't decide which airline to book. Maybe Delta thinks that I am personally going to help solve there solvency issues. Yeah... right.

:rolleyes:

[winewanderer]

DH and I flew to San Juan for a cruise about 4 years ago in the Spring. We were horrified at the airfare cost, it was about $550.00pp then too. It was more than the price of the cruise. And getting there was a pain from the west coast. I think we were travelling a total of like 20 hours by the time we finally got to the ship.

[lephysteria]

Thanks everyone for letting me know that I'm not alone.

 

I finally broke down and we got our air for $575pp. I feel as if our icruise point discount came in at just the right time, or else we'd be paying $800 more! But we got a good deal on the cruise, which includes free wine every night.

 

My chant will now change from Free Hat to Free Wine :) (South Park reference here .... :) )

[lbrooks34]

You are not alone. We are going on AOS Feb. 13th, and I paid $536 pp from Denver.

 

Lori

[nanner10]

Ah hah, wine every night, used icruise, right?;)

[lephysteria]

Ah hah, wine every night, used icruise, right?;)

 

 

Yes we used icruise to book. That's what I meant when I said

"I feel as if our icruise point discount came in at just the right time, or else we'd be paying $800 more!"

 

Besides, who's going to turn down a free bottle of wine every night and $800 off their cruise? :)

 

p.s. - ICruise offered to book our airfaire for $732 !!!!

[skiiergirl]

Airfare to SJU is always expensive. From Memphis the cheapest I have ever paid is $550 and that was through the cruiseline. Right now it is running about $700 for us for November. My relatives is running $850 for Houston to SJU. The east coast folks that have Spirit and Jet Blue are very fortunate. Sometimes it is cheaper to get it through the cruiseline than direct with the airline.

[lephysteria]

You are not alone. We are going on AOS Feb. 13th, and I paid $536 pp from Denver.

 

Lori

 

 

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that. I'm jealous that you're going cruising 2 months before us, though :)

 

We even looked into doing Southwest from California to Florida, then another carrier to take us the last leg. Even Miami to PR is expensive, and that's not a long flight at all! I wonder what the appeal of PR is .... perhaps all of us disgruntled cruisers can kayak to PR, and wave "hello" to the coast guard as they pick us up along the way.

[lephysteria]

Airfare to SJU is always expensive. From Memphis the cheapest I have ever paid is $550 and that was through the cruiseline. Right now it is running about $700 for us for November. My relatives is running $850 for Houston to SJU. The east coast folks that have Spirit and Jet Blue are very fortunate. Sometimes it is cheaper to get it through the cruiseline than direct with the airline.

 

 

THAT is way expensive. Perhaps I won't whine as loudly next time! Egads, brain!

 

We have JetBlue that flies from Long Beach, but even then, they're not cheap to the east coast. The cheapest I found to Florida was actually with Southwest, and that was $300 pp to Florida. Then they wanted another $350 to get to PR. Sheesh! I say we just drive there! :)

[nanner10]

About the wine every night...for ours it was LeTerre white zinfandel. Lets just say its not our preferred wine. We asked if we could choose something else. If you are interested in doing that I will be glad to fill you in (you have to do that on board).

[39august]

When flying internationally, your best bet may be the cruiseline's airfare. I suggest you check it out and see if perhaps they can get it cheaper. I know when I was pricing air to London, RCI air was much less than AA.

[angelsil]

for ours it was LeTerre white zinfandel. Lets just say its not our preferred wine. We asked if we could choose something else. If you are interested in doing that I will be glad to fill you in (you have to do that on board).

 

Could you please fill me in as well? We are also being given '1 free a bottle a night'. I don't mind white zin, but not *every night*.

[nanner10]

We checked with "the online travel agency" and were told that if we wanted something other than what they provide we could try to change or upgrade aboard ship.

 

The first day we came back to our cabin and the seven bottles of Zinfandel were sitting there waiting for us. We called guest services and they suggested we call and talk to Sylvana at extention 9002. It took a number of attempts to get through, I am sure that first day is quite busy. I even called as we were out and about investigating the ship (there are public "house" phones in various areas, including in the areas near the elevators.

 

I explained that the wine was through our travel agency. I asked for two things.

 

1. To exchange the Zinfandel for something else. Wanting to keep it simple to encourage a positive response to our request, we just requested Cabernet Sauvignon. So, we had the same wine on all seven nights. We dealt with it!!You may have to pay an additional fee if the wine you select is more than the "basic level" wine the agency provides.

 

2. We didn't want to have to walk into the dining room with a bottle of wine or to risk having to pay the corkage fee for our "free" wine each night, so our second request was that they take all the wine to the dining room and have a bottle there for us each evening.

 

(Sylvana was very pleasant to work with. Later in the week we went to a wine tasting in the dining room and thanked her for her efforts...she said "oh, you are the people with the seven bottles of wine from your travel agency". I was surprised, it seemed as though they were not that accustomed to that promotion. I don't know how long the agency has been offering this promotion.)

 

She agreed to do this and said they would have a bottle waiting for us at our seating and would pick the wine up from our cabin later. It took a day or so for them to pick up the wine from our cabin, however the wine was waiting for us when we went to dinner.

 

We made reservations to eat at Chops on Tuesday and asked our main dining room waiter if we could have the wine sent up to Chops. He told us that he could go and get a bottle so we could take it with us or the Chops folks could send someone down to get it. We elected to do the latter. It did seem like it was quite a hassle for the Chops staff to have to go and get it, so, when we dined at Portofino later in the week we elected to take our bottle with us.

 

When we arrived at Portofino's with the wine we explained that this was wine from the ship that our travel agency had provided for us, but, as it became evident when the bill came, they did not understand.

 

When the bill came we noticed that they had charged us the corkage fee. We explained that this was not wine we brought from home but SHIP wine. After a little discussion between our very pleasant waitress and the manager, they removed the charge.

 

It is possible that I have misunderstood the issue, but, I believe that you are allowed to bring wine from home and they will charge you a corkage fee ($12.00). Our understanding was that the wine "the online travel agency" provides is something that they purchase from RCCL and is "ship wine" the same as if we had purchased it ourselves aboard ship.

 

Hope this info helps. Enjoy your wine and your cruise!

[angelsil]

Thanks so much nanner10!

 

We'll 'make due' with the same wine every night. It's my favorite brand: FREE!

[erby2283]

I am pricing some cruises out of San Juan and am also surprised at the cost of airfare from Charlotte, NC. Most itinerary's I have checked out stop over in Miami before going to San Juan, and I couldn't find anything cheaper than $450 pp. I thought since I was going in November, that it might be cheaper. I guess not!

[lephysteria]

nanner10 You are the coolest! Thank you so much for providing that info. After reading your posting, I have to say that my understanding of the wine promotion was exactly what you described. Thanks again for the great explanation.

 

We were hoping to get a different wine every night, as no one has asked us what kind we'd like. Angelsil, I agree with you, its free - so I'm not going to turn down whatever we get. Our TA at icruise said that we are offered the "house wine", which is the red or white basic kind. So I was thinking Chardonnay/Cabernet Sauvignon. I was really under the impression that you could tell them what wine you wanted, and they would just bring it to you.

 

We'll have to play this one by ear when we get onboard. Although I used to enjoy Chardonnay, after consuming too much at my girlfriend's wedding, I'm allergic to it now :)

 

erby2283, I've recently learned that even if you're leaving from a Continental US City on the East Coast, you're still going to pay a lot for airfaire. I don't understand why its so expensive to fly there. :rolleyes:

[nanner10]

You are welcome and you never know, maybe they will be open to doing it differently on your ship. Enjoy!

[Suzy B]

Royal Caribbean is having an airfare sale going on from certain airports across the country. ;)

 

These Air Promo's are not advertised & they don't appear on our computers at home - only on the computers on board their ships, or you can call RCCL to get them.

 

I called RCCL last month inquiring about a Dec. ’05 cruise, never intending on booking. The agent told me about the “Air Promo” & checked to see if the flight from Cincinnati to Puerto Rico was included & sure enough, it was!

 

The "Special Air Promo" will save us $440 for the two of us. (Only paid $349 each, round trip from Cincinnati to Puerto Rico.) I'm so glad I called - otherwise I wouldn't have known about it! Needless to say, they got a booking from us that night!

 

Before you commit to a booking somewhere else, call RLLC to inquire if your departure airport is included in the “Special Air Promo Sale”. If the airport closest to your home isn’t, try another one that you could fly out of. Hope you find a good Sale too! :)

 

Happy Sailing,

Suzy B

[jbond]

Then they wanted another $350 to get to PR. Sheesh! I say we just drive there! :)

When you figure out the route to take, let me know, it should be a very interesting drive.

We just booked with American Airlines for our August AOS cruise. We paid $522 pp using Orbitz, a one stop flight, changing in Dallas. We searched all the local airports around LA and ended up leaving from Ontario. From where we live the travel time difference between, LAX, ONT, SNA and Long Beach is negligible, plus we're hoping that Ontario may be a little less crowded than LAX and SNA. Long Beach just doesn't have the flight availability and we have found it is usually more expennsive.

Flights to San Juan are always expensive, we are flying LAX to Barcelona for only $195 more.