Seattle

We are doing the Alaska cruise round trip from Seattle this September. I don't know anything about the area. I'm trying to figure my return flight from Seattle to Boston. Can someone give me an idea of how early I can get a flight once we debark from the ship. The cruise ship is the Ruby. Thanks.

I wouldn't schedule a flight out until after Noon, the earliest I book a flight would be 11:30am. Sea-Tac is an absolute zoo during cruise season and it's worse when the ships come in and go out.

If you look on the West Coast Departures board, here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=413

where Seattle is discussed daily, you will see that 11:30 is the standard earliest recommendation, and encourages you to get off as early as possible, and catch a cab.

Not sure if you want to do this but check out Princess EZ Air might a good rate in flights.

I believe Sea-Tac has a deal on transfers for the whole 2017 year. That will save you also some cash!

We are doing the Alaska cruise round trip from Seattle this September. I don't know anything about the area. I'm trying to figure my return flight from Seattle to Boston. Can someone give me an idea of how early I can get a flight once we debark from the ship. The cruise ship is the Ruby. Thanks.

We have always booked around 11:30.

My standard answer: it depends.

How badly does missing a flight impact you? In a perfect world, if you're a frequent-enough cruiser you can ask for and get any disembarkation group you want, and a flyer who pays for First and has upper-tier frequent flyer status, missing a morning flight to, say, LAX isn't a big deal - you're gonna get home on even the worst days, and you have priority access to check in, security and are probably PreCheck. I could conceivably book as early as 10:00 and sleep just fine. E

But for every step away from that ideal, things start to add up: if you don't have a lot of flight choices for the day, if the airline has no financial incentive to do you a favor ande get you on a full flight, if you aren't skipping the inevitable lines, if you're flying economy on a highly-restrictive ticket and the difference in fare between refund value and buying available seats on the next flight on another carrier would be a burden, if you or your travel companions are not in a physical condition to run through the airport, then you need more padding.

So 11:30 is probably a reasonable default position and 10:00 is probably the best case.

We are sailing into Seattle in about a month, albeit on Celebrity. Their recommended time for the earliest flight is 11:45 AM. I always use the cruise line's recommendation as my guide, although I might be tempted to book a flight at 11:30 AM if the next flight out isn't until late in the afternoon. Last time there, which was back in October, we were at the airport and through security at 8:30 AM and our flight was at 1:30 PM. Boy ...that was a long wait. But Seattle traffic can be a nightmare and any number of things can delay disembarkation so even though I had a really long wait last time flying back out of Seattle, I would still not book anything earlier than 11:30 AM.

If you look at google maps, you'll see that Sea-Tac is way south of Seattle. I would definitely stay away from morning flights, with 11:30 the earliest practical flight.

You may be able to get a nonstop to boston. Good luck.

Even after you make flight reservations, keep a frequent & constant eye on them!

We're on the Ruby in late May; we made our flight plans in late Dec. 2016. In March, American changed both our flights (to/from Seattle)! Both were moved up 2 hours!

Our 1:05 pm direct flight from SeaTac to Charlotte became 11:05 am. Too big a risk for us; We got EZAir to change it to 12:10 pm, w/a change in Dallas -- rats!

New program in Seattle this year. As long as your flight is after 11 am (and on the same day), you can get your airline boarding pass AND check your luggage on your ship. No charge. To me, this is saying flight no earlier than 11 OR book a later flight and spend a little time in the city. This is headlining our news as the first ship for the Alaska season arrives this weekend.