Buy airfare early, wait for last minute cruise price drops?

[DesertPesce7751]

Does anyone ever do this? Oftentimes, we see these amazing last-minute deals but really, the only people who can actually benefit from the discounts are those who live near the ports. Otherwise, we end up spending so much extra on last-minute airfare that it ends up evening out. So, I was thinking about looking at the cruise schedules and booking the airfare in anticipation (and perhaps even a backup-plan hotel just in case the cruise ship is full) and then waiting for the deals.

 

Anyone do this?

[CruiserBruce]

What happens when you can't get a cabin on the ship?

 

If you look around on the boards, there are a couple of people who do this. If you don't require any specific type or location of room, it is doable. But that variable of...what happens when you wait too long, and there aren't any cabins available?

[paul929207]

Just be aware the the cruise(s) you want may be sold out or the price may have risen substantially as the sailing date draws near. Also, you will have a limited choice of cabins.

[dread_pirate]

If you can reserve a hotel in an area you want to visit anyway (for example, Orlando or Fort Lauderdale), and will be able to have your vacation even if you can't get on a ship, then you should be fine.

[Keith1010]

I would find the cruise first. Then put the other pieces together.

 

 

Keith

[DMRick]

I've done it a few times. I get the credit card from southwest when they have the 50,000 points special ( and usually cancel it once I have the points) and so fly almost free ( that gets two if us from ny to ca for $99 the cost if the card plus leftover points). If we don't catch a good cruise, we cancel our air and southwest gives us back our points. For our Alaska cruise we booked our air when several cruises were going within a day of each other. Figured one would drop their price.

[zoncom]

Up to you. For Caribbean, the most ships leave out of FtL or Miami. Due to competition, pricing usually the lowest these ports. FtL seems busiest Sats., Miami Sunday.Book air coming in a day or two early and watch cruises from both ports for best cruise.

[cjrs]

Working my third cruise right now with this strategy. very easy to do by flying into mco with options of Port Canaveral and Tampa within easy reach. just need to make sure you watch availability and leave your options open for land vacation if nothing becomes worthwhile

[bosoxron]

We did that on our upcoming cruise; got great airline price about 6 weeks out, booked the cruise about 3 weeks out. We always book inside cabins, so we aren't worried about non-availability. If we would have waited a couple of more days, we would have saved even more.

[newbie8]

Has anyone done this in highseason ? E.g. summermonth July ? Just wondering if there are any chances at all if you try to do this for this high demand month.

 

BTW, target destination is indeed Florida where there are many cruise departures. TIA for any tips !

[zoncom]

Until recently. lived overlooking MIA cruise port.Summer availibility way down since most ships are sent to Alaska or Europe.There were days with no ships at all in port. Prices were higher too. Mainly CCL, NCL in summer.Caribbean also can be muggy, hot.

[luvoceanblu]

The best time to buy flights is 7 weeks before departure. Traveling on Saturdays saves money. Try Bing or Google flight price predictor - I find it helpful and pretty accurate.

 

 

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[librarian33]

I tried Bing and just can't seem to understand how to get the price predictor info. The flights to Orlando for the past 2 months are very high. Lookin at departure from ATlantic City or Newark:confused:.

[bellamour]

We have done this multiple times with great success. One tip though, make sure your airline has no change fees. I always fly with Southwest, and can change or cancel without additional fees.

[PoppyandNana]

Consider this: we booked a cruise to Norway last August (2013) for a May 2014 sailing. We paid $5,800 for a nicely placed balcony cabin. Within a few months fares, for the same Cat, were broaching $7,000. Now, other than a few inside cabins the ship is completely sold out. You do the math.

[Sadie cruiser]

We just did this 3 weeks ago and are going on the Freedom of the Seas for really cheap. Family of 3 inside cabin for 2011.00 including our prepaid tips! This is prime time over Easter. Yahoo! Yes, we did have airfare booked for Orlando on Southwest. Love Southwest because there aren't cancelation/change fees. If the cruise didn't work out then we would have just done a beach vacation anyways. We are traveling from Wisconsin and we go to Florida (Clearwater) every spring break so we would do this again for the significant cruise savings! You have to be flexible with what cruise ship and port you would sail from. Rental car prices were the same to all the ports.

[chriss87]

Hi All,

 

Booking a flight early can save a significant sum (especially in a larger group)

 

I have booked flights into Fort Lauderdale on 28th November 2014.

 

I am tracking a number of desirable cruises which leave Fort Lauderdale 29th/30th November through a website - CruisePriceTracker,com

 

This site is free of charge and sends email alerts when there is movement in the price of a sailing

 

As and when a price decreases on one of my preferred sailings I will be in a position to snap up a low cruise fare to match my cheap flight.

 

I don't suspect there will be a great deal of movement in cruise fare until closer to sailing

 

Hope this helps you all bag a good deal!

[iancal]

We have found little advantage to book flights a long way out...at least for international destinations.

 

For the past two years we have booked Med cruises 50 days, sometimes less, out. Never had a problem with air. Pricing was same or less as the 3-6 months out pricing. And in one case it was lower. Cruise line air was always more expensive and the routing was not to our liking.

 

This past Jan we booked air to Bangkok 10 days out. The fare was the lowest we had seen it for three months (I had been watching it).

 

We are watching Med prices. We plan to do an extended land trip to Malta, Sicily, Greek Islands/Turkey in Sept/Oct. In between we want to score another Med or a Black Sea cruise. My guess is that we will book this in late July/early August. Then work the air and the land itinerary.

 

For a Caribbean cruise, we definitely would book air with no cruise if the price and the dates worked. We always combine cruise and land trip so we would have no issue with this. We booked our past Christmas cruise about 30 days out. Air was reasonable-not the best-but reasonable.

Edited April 11, 2014 by iancal

[milesstandish]

I did this accidentally. Had researched and planned an Alaskan cruise for our 25th anniversary. Bought airfare, was about to book the cruise when DH phoned to say his vacation days were denied!! (after initially being approved).

 

We were 7 months out at that point, I did not cancel airfare hoping he would be able to sort it all out at work. Months went by, plans were forgotten.

 

3 WEEKS before anniversary, everything fell into place. At the 11 th hour he was granted leave from work for that time frame, I remembered that I forgot to cancel airfare and upon checking the cruise fare, discovered it had dropped drastically.

 

We had a great cruise in an amazing balcony cabin. Wouldn't plan that way on purpose, though.

[JstDreamin]

I would suggest booking the cruise and watch the airfare for a price drop. I usually find a great last minute deal on airfare about six or eight weeks out from vacation. I am intrigued by the idea of buying airfare first and I might try it for my next cruise.

[bobbisailsolo]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing next year for a cruise up the norwegian coast. The fare now is over 4000 per person, but I saw this cruise this year got down to 1299!!!! It did however go back up in just 1 week... So I think you have to be prepared to jump on it... This big drop was about 4 weeks prior to sailing.

 

 

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[RickT]

I understand the logic but am not sure I'd be brave enough to do that if only ONE cruise might work.

 

We have lucked out the past two years and found some excellent deals on med cruises once final payment date had passed. We were lucky and got decently priced flights and all worked out.

 

I think the only way I'd chance this is if I were booking flights on points. Less $ tied up and with some airlines there is less of a penalty to cancel points flights. I would expand my travel dates to see if I could open up the opportunity to grab a deal on a couple cruise and not limit myself to hoping the "one" cruise I want goes on sale (I'm not that lucky).

[iancal]

We do not have a fixed schedule. We plan to book air to Europe for Sept/Oct. and then snag a deal for a cruise. We are watching several. If it does not happen, we will simply carry on with our land trip. Doing the same next winter in S/E Asia/Australia.