I’ll start by saying I know obviously it’s better to arrive a day before your cruise, but this one is a little more complicated. Due to work, we absolutely cannot fly out during the workday on the Friday before the Saturday cruise.
Our options are:
direct flight at 7PM the night before, gets to Fort Lauderdale at 11PM, hotel (Jet Blue)
direct flight that arrives at 10AM day of cruise, so 4 hours to spare (no checked bags), first flight of the day on that route (Southwest)
There is also a direct flight from Southwest that runs the same route a couple hours later, if the first flight is canceled, so slight rebooking possibility
connecting flights, which increases exposure to cancellations anyways
This is in late February in Nashville. Statistically, weather has a 1% chance of being a problem. My thinking is, if weather is an issue, how likely is it that the JetBlue flight “the day before” would make it while the Southwest flight the next morning wouldn’t? Plus the Southwest option saves us $250 in hotels and bag fees, and my understanding is the first flight of the day for a route is the least likely to get canceled.
This is a free cruise, so I’m only in $300 for taxes and fees. Which flight plan would you choose?