Airfare is killing our cruise plans

[askimdog]

Our last cruise for our family of 3 was the Legend out of Tampa for 7 days. With a 5-6 hour drive to the airport and the flight (odd hours, up in Minneapolis, down in Kentucky for 2 hours, down in Atlanta for 1 hour, back up and into Tampa) the cost was exactly 1/2 the cost of our trip. 3 of us in an interior room.

 

So yes, that's how it normally have been for us, total cost of vacation is half for transport, half for cruise.

[mitsugirly]

On every cruise that we have flown into so far, our air fare has been more than the cruise itself. :(

[ramref]

Unless it's a peak time, ie; spring break, or a popular school vacation week. We have been looking at the Breeze in April, but the entire Northeast has that week off. Airfare from CT to FLL is $800 per person:eek::eek::eek: It's more than the cruise. DH said NO:mad::mad: So, now, I am trying to be "crafty" and look at alternate airports, etc. Frustrating.

 

What dates are you looking to fly?

[funinthesun1964]

I have found the best deals about 90 days out. I use kayak.com and create e-mail alerts for the itineraries I am interested in.

 

I bought airfare for my February cruise about a month ago. I purchased RT from CAK to FLL for about 270 per person total.

[lisajm]

We just booked our flights for Miami for 269 round trip pp. Saved 200 dollars by staying in Miami an extra day. It would have been 449 pp if we flew home the day we got back into port.

[tonit964]

I got lucky and booked LAX to FLL for $280 R/T non-stop on Virgin. I felt like I died and went to heaven.

 

You got more than lucky!!

 

We were booked on the Breeze for April 12th but the airfare for 3 of us was crazy, so I switched to Princess for the same date going to Mexican Riviera, again, but this way my Dad gets to come along so it's all good.

 

Congtrats on your great price, now you gotta play the lottery. :)

[SadieN]

 

Other alternative check AMtrack to New Orleans. Didn't like the train much on the way back we had fun on the way down but save over $300 each for that trip..

 

Horrible routing from Los Angeles to NOLA. There is no longer a southern route. All trips connect in Chicago or other IL stations.

 

**

 

Look at SNA and LAX. Be careful with SNA and it's noise restrictions. Last cruise our return flight was delayed out of FLL. If we were flying into SNA we would of had to spend the night in FLL.

Edited December 14, 2013 by SadieN

[picomullet]

I am in the same boat. I want to cruise out of Ft Lauderdale or Miami (I live in Texas) and the air fare for two will cost as much or even more than the cruise! I have decided to just continue to cruise out of Galveston and hopefully they will add a new itinerary - or a new ship....

 

Have you checked rates with flying out of Austin? We did that Feb 13 and saved a bundle. The airport at Austin is great and wont mind driving there to fly out again. We also had to stay o/v night to Monday. It was still a great savings..

[bugeater2]

Looking to do a cruise in the carribbean next fall and the rates are great. But, the airfare for the family is killing the great cruise rate. In fact, the airfare is almost as much as the cruise itself. Looks like we'll have to stay closer to the West coast. :(

 

Your problem is you only see the legacy carriers fares. Southwest and Jet Blue don't even have their schedules out yet for the fall.

 

Also it is kind of hard to help when you didn't give any dates but Virgin America out of LAX nonstop to FLL is $280 for all of September and October. You would be hard pressed to beat that price ever.

 

If you are only looking at SNA you are going to always have issues with higher prices.

[TruckinMama]

This is exactly why we drive!

 

We take our time, plan stops with things to see, and really enjoy a full two weeks of vacation, even if the cruise is only 5 or 7 days. :)

 

The first time around we could have flown for cheaper than the full trip, because it was just the hubs and I, but this next one we are taking 2 of our kids and the DIL with us. There is NO WAY we can do airfare for all 5 of us from South Dakota! :eek: I keep telling them all we need to move closer to a port. ;)

[Lerin]

I know the feeling. It's not even worth airfare for us unless we can stay at least 2 weeks. We're going to FL for a month this time (luckily my husband gets 30 days a year of vacation time).

AMEN!

It's hard for us west coasters.

All our trips are at least 10 days and sometimes up to a month. We tack on land vacations or AIs to make the airfare worth it.

[KPfromCT]

What dates are you looking to fly?

 

April 12th, and returning on April 20th. Hartford (ideally) to FLL.:o

[waterbug123]

Book after midnight on Tuesday or Wednesday. This is when airlines discount their fares. This is what I always do and pay about $75-150 cheaper per person.

 

Always? Like every single time, no matter where you're going or how far in advance, you ALWAYS find cheaper fares at that time? You must be incredibly lucky. Too bad that doesn't always work in real life. Will you sometimes find a cheaper fare then? Sure, probably. Will you sometimes find a cheaper fare on Friday morning? Yep. And Sunday afternoon? Yep.

 

We also book right after midnight on a Tuesday. That was a tip I got from a friend that was a TA.

 

As long as you don't just blindly book then and ASSUME that because "someone told you" that was the best time it will really always be true.

 

The laws of supply and demand pretty much guarantee that there will never be one particular time of the day or week when airfares will always be lower.

[ramref]

April 12th, and returning on April 20th. Hartford (ideally) to FLL.:o

 

KPfromCT

I'm not sure where you are in CT, but Providence is your best choice for those dates.($858 for 2 people). Providence is an easy airport to fly out of and parking is less than Bradley.

[cruiserami]

We booked the Freedom out of Ft. Lauderdale in February and are paying about $200 pp more than we have in the past for air. One thing that has really ticked me off is the fact that almost all of the available flights leave before 900 am on the return flight. Come on! How many people are getting off of ships and can't get to the airport till after noon? They really get you there.

[greatam]

I'm just sitting here chuckling about all the rather over the top ideas on how to get cheaper airfare. And particularly how cruise fare equates in any way, shape or form to air fare. It doesn't.

 

Cruises are sold per cabin cheaply because those fares cover the ESSENTIALS-the fuel, food, insurance and some of the cost of maintenance. The PROFIT or even the money to break even on a cruise comes from drinks, the casino, photos, the shops, art auctions, specialty restaurants, shore excursions, etc. etc. etc. No such opportunity on a airline to make EXTRA (unless you want to count the $8.00 sandwiches which cost the airline $4.00). Did you add in the gratuities (family of 4-at least another $40 per day)?

 

From SoCal to Florida in the fall should be a darn cheap ticket in the scheme of things. REGULARLY, there are flights from LAX to MIA in the $300-400 range. I can see flights for September/October out of LAX to FLL as cheap as $280 on Virgin nonstop. $348 on Alaska and Delta, also nonstop to MIA.

 

GUARANTEED you cannot drive 3000 miles for that money, even with a family of 4. Unless you are all jammed into one of those "mini" cars or a diesel Passat, gas alone is going to run you about $600+. It will take you about 3 days, so at least two nights hotels (another $200-300). And then food for 4 people-even if you live on Mickey D's for 3 days, you are still going to rack up a minimum of $200 for food. So just the most bare bones trip you can imagine will set you back $1100. That doesn't count toll roads, a flat tire, wear and tear on the vehicle or extra sodas/water along the way. Those figures put you VERY CLOSE to what 4 air tickets will cost. And you will have spent 5-6 days of your time DRIVING coast to coast.

 

Now if you are trying to fly into Florida during President's Week, Spring Break, Easter, Thanksgiving, Xmas/New Years or any time there is a BIG event in Florida (Bowl games, Yacht show, etc. etc), the prices will be considerably higher.

 

And if Tuesday night after midnight was THE time to buy, wouldn't EVERYONE wait until then to buy their tickets? Computer bandwidth would be JAMMED with everyone trying to buy air tickets after midnight on Tuesday night. And then the airlines would just change their very sophisticated yield management calculations to another time.

Edited December 14, 2013 by greatam

[CruiserBruce]

I'm just sitting here chuckling about all the rather over the top ideas on how to get cheaper airfare. And particularly how cruise fare equates in any way, shape or form to air fare. It doesn't.

 

Cruises are sold per cabin cheaply because those fares cover the ESSENTIALS-the fuel, food, insurance and some of the cost of maintenance. The PROFIT or even the money to break even on a cruise comes from drinks, the casino, photos, the shops, art auctions, specialty restaurants, shore excursions, etc. etc. etc. No such opportunity on a airline to make EXTRA (unless you want to count the $8.00 sandwiches which cost the airline $4.00). Did you add in the gratuities (family of 4-at least another $40 per day)?

 

From SoCal to Florida in the fall should be a darn cheap ticket in the scheme of things. REGULARLY, there are flights from LAX to MIA in the $300-400 range. I can see flights for September/October out of LAX to FLL as cheap as $280 on Virgin nonstop. $348 on Alaska and Delta, also nonstop to MIA.

 

GUARANTEED you cannot drive 3000 miles for that money, even with a family of 4. Unless you are all jammed into one of those "mini" cars or a diesel Passat, gas alone is going to run you about $600+. It will take you about 3 days, so at least two nights hotels (another $200-300). And then food for 4 people-even if you live on Mickey D's for 3 days, you are still going to rack up a minimum of $200 for food. So just the most bare bones trip you can imagine will set you back $1100. That doesn't count toll roads, a flat tire, wear and tear on the vehicle or extra sodas/water along the way. Those figures put you VERY CLOSE to what 4 air tickets will cost.

 

Now if you are trying to fly into Florida during President's Week, Spring Break, Easter, Thanksgiving, Xmas/New Years or any time there is a BIG event in Florida (Bowl games, Yacht show, etc. etc), the prices will be considerably higher.

 

And if Tuesday night after midnight was THE time to buy, wouldn't EVERYONE wait until then to buy their tickets? Computer bandwidth would be JAMMED with everyone trying to buy air tickets after midnight on Tuesday night. And then the airlines would just change their very sophisticated yield management calculations to another time.

 

Absolutely correct...every word of it.

 

And, repeat after me...cruise fares and airfares have NO correlation. NONE!!!

Edited December 14, 2013 by CruiserBruce

[caribsun]

April 12th, and returning on April 20th. Hartford (ideally) to FLL.:o

Check White Plans NY (HPN) Jetblue to Fll.

 

HPN is right on the CT/NY border and very reasonable parking at SUNY Purchase. That's Easter break for many NE schools, rates are going to be high.

Edited December 14, 2013 by caribsun

[dclark]

A little late now, but for the future, consider credit card flipping for free flights.

I hate paying for flights, that is why I haven't bought a plane ticket in years.

For example, not only are all the flights to and from our New Orleans xmas cruise free, we also get free luggage and free passes for the United lounge to enjoy free cocktails during a layover.

You can get points even without a cc, For example, if you were to switch to Directv and give them your flyer #, they'll give you 25,000 miles, enough for two rt tix in the U.S. Look at how much those tix would cost if you paid for them and you'll realize "Hey, that's pretty good!".

Only drawback is that you to get your tix about a year in advance to get the lowest point rate.

You can look up my posts on it or do a google search on it.

[TruckerDave]

A little late now, but for the future, consider credit card flipping for free flights.

I hate paying for flights, that is why I haven't bought a plane ticket in years.

For example, not only are all the flights to and from our New Orleans xmas cruise free, we also get free luggage and free passes for the United lounge to enjoy free cocktails during a layover.

You can get points even without a cc, For example, if you were to switch to Directv and give them your flyer #, they'll give you 25,000 miles, enough for two rt tix in the U.S. Look at how much those tix would cost if you paid for them and you'll realize "Hey, that's pretty good!".

Only drawback is that you to get your tix about a year in advance to get the lowest point rate.

You can look up my posts on it or do a google search on it.

 

 

That sounds good in theory but.....the airlines are not dumb. They are not going to make many seats avail for the 25K miles on the premium routes during a high demand time. (Northeast to FL during spring break for example). You can usually get most any coach seat for 50k miles (each) but to be honest using miles for a domestic coach ticket is not a very good use of miles. (save the miles and fly up front to Europe or Asia for a better value).

[kenish]

Since OP is from Orange County too, here's some tips:

 

- Airfare is simply commodity pricing based on supply and demand. The supply of seats is 20% lower than 5 years ago while demand is increasing. Fares are increasing from the artificially low, fire sale prices available 5-10 years ago. Need to get used to the "new normal"...it might also help to keep in mind airfares are still an absolute bargain compared to back in the 70's when a transcon flight cost about $2500 in today's dollars.

 

- On the other hand cruises are a great bargain with very low prices...especially for the cruise you're looking at which is during hurricane season if it's Sept-early Nov.

 

- Besides SNA, check LGB, LAX, ONT, SAN and don't forget CLD or even PSP. Use a website like ITA matrix to make it easy to check all of these at a glance. (Southwest doesn't participate in third-party sites and you must use their website directly).

 

- You're competing with thousands of other passengers flying to and from the cruise...especially if other ships sail or arrive on the same day. It's always a bad idea to fly on cruise day anyway, so check 1-2 days before and after for your flights. Fares should be a lot lower.

 

- The "Tuesday afternoon" is a myth..if it were true then everyone would jump on websites and book then! I really like the myth, because it means there's a rush on seats late Tuesday. When I see a fare bucket about to sell out, I jump on it *before* Tuesday.

 

- Southwest generally does *not* have the lowest fares. They often have the lowest fare on the date they release their fares...lower fares were available on other airlines but sold out long before. Several studies support this, including one by our local UC Irvine Dept. of Transportation Studies.

 

- Definitely keep checking but it's way too early to book travel for Fall 2014. 2-3 months prior is probably the "sweet spot", but who knows? The exception is JetBlue, where I find that their fares tend to start out low and just increase from there...when there are sales later on they only save a few bucks. All this said, there's no hard and fast rule on any of this...commodity pricing!

 

I know you didn't say this, but many people on this board feel airfare should be less than the cruise price. Of course they are totally unrelated to each other...like saying a set of tires should cost less than a sofa and getting upset when the tires cost more. You're correctly concerned about airfare as part of your total budget for the trip...good you're doing your due diligence before the fact.

 

I'm nearby in RSM by the way.:)

[TruckerDave]

Another thing I have found, is fly in a day or so earlier than planned. I am doing the NCL Star from Copenhagen nest spring, If I leave from Houston on Thursday instead of Friday I can save $300-$500 dollars. I will have to spend Fri night in either AMS or FRA then make the final trip Sat to CPH (Already planning to spend Sat/Sun exploring Copenhagen and cruise Monday)

[FlyerTalker]

- Southwest generally does *not* have the lowest fares. They often have the lowest fare on the date they release their fares...lower fares were available on other airlines but sold out long before. Several studies support this, including one by our local UC Irvine Dept. of Transportation Studies.

Do you have at hand a link/reference to that study? If so, it would be great to have. Just thought I would ask before starting my own search.

 

BTW, to echo Greatam....I "love" all of the advice that gets posted to threads before they are moved to the Cruise Air forum. Toss in the meaningless "well I got XXX for YYY" and one can understand how urban legend and folk rumor get their starts. Plus reinforcement for Twickenham's "The plural of anecdote is not data".

[dclark]

That sounds good in theory but.....the airlines are not dumb. They are not going to make many seats avail for the 25K miles on the premium routes during a high demand time. (Northeast to FL during spring break for example). You can usually get most any coach seat for 50k miles (each) but to be honest using miles for a domestic coach ticket is not a very good use of miles. (save the miles and fly up front to Europe or Asia for a better value).

 

All depends on the airline. When the booking window on United opened up last Jan for 12/20/13 (a very high demand time before xmas), I got three tix for 12,500- the cheapest rate offered. I got three return flights on SWA with my points for 1/3/14. I don't remember the amount, but it wasn't much.

Our last family holiday trip was two years ago and again, we flew free for points, flying out the day after xmas and coming back after NYE. Again, all were booked for 12,500.

Actually, I had a harder time getting bargain rate seats for our summer trip to Kona than any holiday trip, though this might be due to AA being pretty stingy.When I say tough, initially,no cheap seats were offered, then some cheap code shared Alaskan Air ones show up a couple of days later, then disappeared for good. At any rate, I did get cheap saver seats and yes, we all are all flying to the big island this summer for free.

It was maybe eight years ago that you could fly across the coast around Xmas for about $250-$300 and that included luggage. Now with the same travel costing about triple, it really pays to try to get your tix free as air travel can cost more than the cruise itself.

[Blk_Amish]

Flying to Florida during President's week and got the $280 on virgin. Also flew to Hawaii for the last two years during that week for under $450 r/t.

 

Nothing hurts like flying to Europe for $1300 times four ppl.

 

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