airlines provided by the cruise

[juanarcin]

When I did my first cruise last year I did a lot of research on CC. In regards to airfare I saw many posts against using air options provided by the cruise. Mostly saying they were overpriced and you could find better if you searched on your own. So I bought my own and was happy with it. I found a direct flight from Los Angeles to Rome that was under a grand roundtrip. I never checked how much RC would have charged me. This year I decided to take my second cruise also out of rome and around the same dates, about 4 day difference in start date so very very close to same timing as last years. This time however I found an even better fare (less than 900) roundtrip but a pretty bad flight. It goes from los angeles to russia and then into rome with a 9 hour layover :(. I got it because I didnt think id find a better rate and all the other air options didnt seem to work for me time wise. if the time matched to when i wanted to leave/arrive then the price would have been more than doubled for a direct flight. So my question is would I have had more options with RC? i checked many websites to compare fares and saw the same flights. Would RC have provided one of those more expensive ones at a discount? Or would they have been the same options at the same price? For example would they have offered me the same flight with a nine hour layover in russia or would they have avoided that option to not leave me with a "bad taste" towards booking with RC?

[LHT28]

It may depend on how much your time is worth

I would not want a 9 hr layover in the airport ...if you want to leave the airport in Russia you will need to hire a licensed guide or get a personal VISA

 

In future ...I would check the airlines for the route you want then ask the cruise line what they will offer for airfare

You can also pay a small fee (deviation) to fly in a day or more early & stay longer after the cruise

I doubt RCCL would have routed you through Russia when going to Rome ...but just a guess on my part

 

Suggest you consider arriving early in case of any delays that may happen along the way

 

Just my opinion though

a good site to check is http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

gives you the routes & prices for different airlines

[crzndeb]

I did RCI Mariner TA last Oct. and flew to Rome 4 days prior. I did use RCI Choice Air, since it was a one way fare, and after researching found nothing close to the option I got with them. There were several choices of airlines and times, so it wasn't like I was stuck with just one choice.

 

I paid $635 from San Diego to Rome, with a plane change in Philly (short layover). Most of the fares I was finding were $1000+.

 

I wouldn't choose cruise lines air for domestic flights, but for international one way, it worked out well for me in this case.

[chipmaster]

On your own always works better, you could get lucky with cruiseline air, but they really care little beyond getting you there, bad connections, long or very short layovers or carrier xyz they don't care.

 

If you are wiilling to do the research and leg work, direct booking is ALWAY better, plus you want to go earlier and maybe stay an extra few days to get acclimated and enjoy more, cruise arranged will always be less flexible.

[FlyerTalker]

Given that there are several airports in Moscow, do your flights both operate from the same one??

 

If from SVO, you may want to read THIS LINK.

[loubetti]

Just a little confused here.

 

You mention a "direct" flight. You understand that a direct flight WILL include a stop along the way, and is not the same as a "non-stop" flight?

 

"Direct flight" is often used incorrectly, and these days I find direct flights to be more costly than non-stops, at least between certain cities.

 

Just wanted to differentiate between a direct and non-stop flight.

[6rugrats]

So I bought my own and was happy with it. I found a direct flight from Los Angeles to Rome that was under a grand roundtrip. I never checked how much RC would have charged me. This year I decided to take my second cruise also out of rome and around the same dates, about 4 day difference in start date so very very close to same timing as last years. This time however I found an even better fare (less than 900) roundtrip but a pretty bad flight. It goes from los angeles to russia and then into rome with a 9 hour layover :(. I got it because I didnt think id find a better rate and all the other air options didnt seem to work for me time wise. if the time matched to when i wanted to leave/arrive then the price would have been more than doubled for a direct flight. So my question is would I have had more options with RC? i checked many websites to compare fares and saw the same flights. ?

No idea what you would have been offered through RCI.

 

But, why, why, why did you pick a flight that connected in Russia? I cannot believe you could not find a better routing. Please read up on transit visas for Russia. From the US State Dept's webpage:

 

If you are transiting through one international airport in Russia, and will depart again in 24 hours to an onward international destination, without leaving the customs zone, Russian law does not require you to have a transit visa. However, this law is sometimes misinterpreted by travelers and customs officials alike, and we recommend you obtain a Russian transit visa if there is any doubt about your transit plans.

 

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1006.html

[jamessemaj]

I have had it both ways with cruise air, that is, had them beat anything I could find, and in other cases done better on my own.

 

I have generally found that they will beat the price for one ways to/from Europe as necessary for trans ocean cruises.

 

Another thing I have found is that it is necessary to search the cruise line air availability with varying dates of travel, to find the best offer, just like any search engine.

 

The was one occasion where they offered the best Europe one way, but I didn't like the domestic part of it and paid for a separate domestic part, still beating all prices for the trip to Europe. I had to accept the full cruise itinerary, but there were 2 separate bookings and i had no problem not showing up for the domestic flight.

 

Last spring I couldn't find anything on the cruise air to return from Malaga. I changed departure city to Madrid and found an outstanding savings. I just took a train from Malaga to Madrid for my return home.

[5326jan]

If you don't see a routing that you like when you search online, you can always use the airlines "advanced search" and put in your layover stop of choice. For instance, if you were flying from LA to Rome, but CDG (paris) was the only layover stop that comes up and you don't like to stop in Paris, you could put in LA to AMS (amsterdam) AMS to Rome on the same date and it will price it as a direct flight. I have done several different layover codes to see which is the cheapest and or the fastest. If it gives you a connection between origination city and the connection city, it's because there aren't any nonstops between those markets.

 

The cheapest will be using large gateway airports in the US, like JFK, Dulles, Chicago, Atlanta or the large airports in Europe.

[notentirelynormal]

Well now that the OP has already bought the ticket, maybe he'll learn for his next cruise because I'm sure it will cost more to cancel this trip and re-book no matter how cheap another flight might be. Why the OP didn't ask these questions before he booked has to make you wonder.

[greatam]

Well now that the OP has already bought the ticket, maybe he'll learn for his next cruise because I'm sure it will cost more to cancel this trip and re-book no matter how cheap another flight might be. Why the OP didn't ask these questions before he booked has to make you wonder.

 

 

The OP did nothing wrong (although they may have gotten a ticket that is NOT the ticket they thought they bought).

 

The routing through Moscow is a valid routing on Aeroflot and sold by a lot of vendors on Kayak. Aeroflot has been trying to expand service from the USA to Europe (through Moscow) and some of those ticket prices are almost too good to be true (tickets DIRECT from Aeroflot, NOT through Kayak). There have been Aeroflot tickets floating around for about $400-450 from Rome to Tokyo (via Moscow) to London and return (same routing through Moscow).

 

A BUNCH of SkyTeam miles for pretty cheap dollars if you are inclined to do a mileage run in Europe.

 

 

A lot of those vendors on Kayak are CONSOLIDATORS selling heavily restricted tickets-Vayama, CheapoAir, Bestfares, etc. etc. One big reason it pays to read ALL the fine print when purchasing through Kayak-they sell not only airline issued tickets but also consolidator tickets. We got caught up in a hotel booking a year ago with a Kayak booking through another booking agency. Got the WRONG type of room upon check in (booked two beds, got a single king for two men traveling together) and ended up having to pay through the nose to get the RIGHT type of beds. No one could do anything about anything at 7PM at night and we never did get our initial hotel payment reversed. That was the last time we used Kayak.

 

The REALLY big reason we don't use Kayak in our office-If someone is NOT paying attention and buys strictly on price, we could end up with a ticket that LOOKS like an airline direct ticket but is not.

 

To the OP:

 

The chances of getting an RCCL/Choice Air trip on Aeroflot would be very slim. And could you have gotten the same price or routing on another airline? Who knows!!!

 

Just get a couple of books and find a nice place to sit for your layover. You will be fine.

[greatam]

I did RCI Mariner TA last Oct. and flew to Rome 4 days prior. I did use RCI Choice Air, since it was a one way fare, and after researching found nothing close to the option I got with them. There were several choices of airlines and times, so it wasn't like I was stuck with just one choice.

 

I paid $635 from San Diego to Rome, with a plane change in Philly (short layover). Most of the fares I was finding were $1000+.

 

I wouldn't choose cruise lines air for domestic flights, but for international one way, it worked out well for me in this case.

 

You certainly can't compare a one way ticket to a RT LAX/Rome ticket. The cruise line essentially sold you 1/2 of a RT ticket at a large upcharge.

 

And there are quite a few ways to get a one way ticket from San Diego to Rome for about the same price as your Choice Air ticket WITHOUT all the restrictions.