Experience booking air with cruiseline.

[mmsoko]

Questioning whether booking air with cruiseline or independently is best.

 

Would appreciate any input.

 

Concerns about times of flights, long layovers, etc.

[JVilleGal]

Free is always good, so if the promo includes free air.... That's good but know that your flights, connections and layovers, "may not" be so great. After all you do get what you pay for !

All that aside, it costs nothing to ask what the cruiseline can book for you. Then see what you can book for yourself and compare.

Booking for your self you will be able to book many many months in advance, pick your flights and seats. And know exactly

what you are getting.

Booking with the Cruiseline you get you flights 30 or so days prior, flights may or may not be acceptable and seats may or may not be anything decent if you can get them assigned at all. Lots of reports both good and bad.

In sure others will have their own opinion!

 

In my opinion it's worth paying a bit more to have control over my flights.

Edited July 30, 2015 by JVilleGal

[Host Jazzbeau]

Last time we booked our flights through AMA. We chose the flights and our TA asked AMA what their price would be -- it was the same as the airline website, but they threw in free transfers. This time we booked directly because I was able to get one ticket with points. Both times we were ticketed immediately and able to upgrade to Economy Plus directly with the airline right away.

 

There have been several threads here about problems utilizing the cruise air -- some lines won't let you pick your flights, some don't ticket until just before you sail (which means you can't get good seats, because they're all gone). I'm not sure if any of the river cruise lines do this, but on ocean cruises it is very clear that "free" flights aren't free because if you decline the air you get an Air Credit. So it's complicated -- this is where a good TA comes in handy!

[biker1972]

I am using flights booked by Viking for my 3 August cruise. The flights going are Cleveland-Atlanta-Amsterdam-Budapest with 95 min to 105 min between any of the flights. The return is Amsterdam-Detroit-Cleveland with the first flight leaving Amsterdam just after noon so no early rush to the airport and again about 95 minutes at Detroit. I had concerns about what Viking could/would do as I generally book all my own flights. I am quite happy with these arrangements and since the flights were included in the price with no up charge for leaving from Cleveland, all the better. My Delta app even has told me exactly what Viking paid for the tickets ;) even though Viking was able to hide that cost in the total package deal.

[mhb1757]

I agree with some of the others. Do your homework and see what the cruise line will charge and what you could pay booking on your own. Not sure what cruise line you are using but if you use Viking you can pay an additional $50 to use their custom air option. That worked well for us. We paid $799 thru Viking (including the custom air option) and the cheapest I have seen the fare has been about $1325.

By using their custom air option I was able to pick the flights and airline we wanted and they ticketed the flights by my request when I selected them. As soon as they were ticketed I was able to get on the airlines web site and upgrade to economy comfort and pick our seats. Now I can manage the reservation via the airlines web site as needed.

I know lots of people have been very pleased with what the cruise company provided them but I wanted a bit more control and it was worth the additional fee and was still a good value for us.

So you CAN pick flights you prefer, be ticketed far in advance and pick your seats months in advance when using the cruise line in some cases. Just discuss your options with your TA or the cruise line. Also remember if you book air with the cruise line they usually include transfers to/from the ship.

Edited July 30, 2015 by mhb1757

[davidrw]

I think that the answer depends on local consumer laws and what your insurance covers.

 

For example in the UK, if you buy the air ticket and tour from one company that is a package and they are liable for delivering it all & there are strict compensation and protection rules.

 

When Northern Europe was closed for a couple of weeks due to the Iceland Volcanos, people with separate deals found themselves liable to pay for a holiday that they could not go on.

 

For an expensive holiday, I will always buy inclusive flights, however will normally specify exactly which ones that I want.

[sunsetbeachgal]

The "free air" included in our 2016 river cruise is only applicable from certain gateway cities, all of which are a significant distance from our home. We plan to take the credit in lieu of air (which most likely will be a bit less than what I will have to pay) and do our own flights.

[rogerdawhip]

I always book my airfare with the river cruise line (GCT). They give me a preliminary air itinerary 10 months in advance and will work with me on changing it if I desire. The price is always competitive, I'm able to get my seats when the itinerary is available and get my FF miles on the flights.

Edited July 30, 2015 by rogerdawhip

[JVilleGal]

I always book my airfare with the river cruise line (GCT). They give me a preliminary air itinerary 10 months in advance and will work with me on changing it if I desire. The price is always competitive, I'm able to get my seats when the itinerary is available and get my FF miles on the flights.

 

Wish they all did it this way but sadly this seems to be the exception and not the rule with Cruise Air....

[H2Otstr]

The "free air" included in our 2016 river cruise is only applicable from certain gateway cities, all of which are a significant distance from our home. We plan to take the credit in lieu of air (which most likely will be a bit less than what I will have to pay) and do our own flights.

 

Yes, we are driving 4 hours to Charlotte for our "free air" from AMA. Raleigh is closer, and we have family nearby, but that wasn't one of their gateways.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Yes, we are driving 4 hours to Charlotte for our "free air" from AMA. Raleigh is closer, and we have family nearby, but that wasn't one of their gateways.

 

The literature from Scenic Cruises does not list CLT or RDU as a gateway for us, which I kind of find surprising. You are lucky! I have done cruise line air many times before and always had those as options, and most times could fly out of smaller airports close to us. I Will have our TA confirm, I am not ready to book anyhow as I am considering various pre and post river cruise options. The Scenic gateway closest is ATL and to drive to Atlanta would require overnight stays at both ends which definitely isn't worth it.

 

We can opt for a $1,000 credit per person if we don't take the free air, so probably will go that route!

Edited July 30, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[Capt_BJ]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2241232

 

we booked our own

 

yes it takes some time

 

we feel we saved money and had MUCh better flights

 

we went an airline it appears V never looks at

 

LOT

 

Polish National ... connected thru Warsaw .... VERY HAPPY with our trip .... and our price

[CPT Trips]

The literature from Scenic Cruises does not list CLT or RDU as a gateway for us, which I kind of find surprising. You are lucky! I have done cruise line air many times before and always had those as options, and most times could fly out of smaller airports close to us. I Will have our TA confirm, I am not ready to book anyhow as I am considering various pre and post river cruise options. The Scenic gateway closest is ATL and to drive to Atlanta would require overnight stays at both ends which definitely isn't worth it.

 

We can opt for a $1,000 credit per person if we don't take the free air, so probably will go that route!

 

It's worth a phone call to ask the cruise line whether they will book you from you local airport and what, if anything, it will cost you. Different line, but we had one trip with an inconvenient gateway and they got us out of the airport we wanted at a very minimal extra charge.

[CPT Trips]

I always book my airfare with the river cruise line (GCT). They give me a preliminary air itinerary 10 months in advance and will work with me on changing it if I desire. The price is always competitive, I'm able to get my seats when the itinerary is available and get my FF miles on the flights.

 

Their approach is particularly helpful when doing a last minute trip with GCT. Buying trans-Atlantic air with two different European airports is expensive and time consuming. In addition GCT provides both airport transfers and some credit back for long layovers when air is through them.

When one doesn't have frequent flyer miles, there is no up side that I can see in booking myself.

[KathyK13]

We booked our own on our first river cruise because we could use points to upgrade to first class on the flight to Europe and planned our own pre and post cruise accommodations. On our next cruise in September our TA gave us a quote that basically matched the price we could get on our own. We don't live near a gateway city and that may be a factor. Thinking of driving 3 hours to Canada to save $1000 with the favorable US dollar exchange rate. I think a lot depends upon where you plan to fly from, and to...

[Host Jazzbeau]

We booked our own on our first river cruise because we could use points to upgrade to first class on the flight to Europe and planned our own pre and post cruise accommodations. On our next cruise in September our TA gave us a quote that basically matched the price we could get on our own. We don't live near a gateway city and that may be a factor. Thinking of driving 3 hours to Canada to save $1000 with the favorable US dollar exchange rate. I think a lot depends upon where you plan to fly from, and to...

 

I would think of that too. 3 hours is a long drive to the airport but it would be a leisurely day trip, stopping somewhere interesting along the way, and even with an airport hotel you would be well ahead (or if a night owl flight you could use the savings toward a business class upgrade). Lots of ways to win.

[KathyK13]

I would think of that too. 3 hours is a long drive to the airport but it would be a leisurely day trip, stopping somewhere interesting along the way, and even with an airport hotel you would be well ahead (or if a night owl flight you could use the savings toward a business class upgrade). Lots of ways to win.

 

Plus we could get direct flights instead of two connecting flights (Rochester has no direct flights to Europe :rolleyes:), so the travel time is pretty similar. We once drove to NJ and stayed with friends before flying direct from Newark to Warsaw to visit friends in Poland. The direct flight was nice, but it did add 2 days to our travel time. I do envy those who live close to major airports...as we used to when we lived in NJ!

[DrivesLikeMario]

Also take into consideration how many stops you have to make. The more stops, the more chances your luggage has of going missing, the more "equipment failures" can happen and the better your chance of missing a connection.

 

IMO, it's worth paying more to make the fewest possible connections, whether you do that through the cruise line or by making independent flight arrangements.

 

Although the cruise lines follow the guidelines for MCT (minimum connection time) at airports, savvy travelers know that there are some airports where that MCT is NOT long enough. Do a little research on your connecting airports before booking. Read reviews of actual time people spent traveling through 'your' airports. ;)

[JVilleGal]

We live in a tiny rural Oregon community so no direct flights for us.... Just a short flight or 5 hrs in one direct and 7 hr drive in the other. SO we can fly out of SeaTac, Portland, San Fran or LAX but we always arrive the afternoon before our International flight but if we have a problem out of our tiny airport we still have the time to drive and still make our flight.

 

Air travel is just getting so complicated and often undependable[emoji39]

[memmtb]

For the first time ever, I booked my airfare via the cruise line - Viking. Never again - this is what happened:

 

We were notified by email the afternoon before we were to leave for our Viking cruise and pre and post stay that the boat was in dry dock and the entire trip canceled. We had purchased everything from Viking - air, hotels, transfers, insurance. They canceled everything! No option to not cancel the airfare and hotels, no call - just one email notification that arrived the afternoon before we were to leave the next morning. That was bad enough but the lack of customer service was stunning. The wait time to call in was long, the answers were simply you will receive a refund in the next 7 to 10 days. We wanted to take the trip without the cruise portion - planning a 2 week vacation is really tough when you work. They would not let us keep the airfare for which we had already paid or the room reservations. We went to France any way and had a marvelous time, but will never ever do business with Viking again. There was a post on Viking's Facebook page that the trip before ours had issues with the boat and they got bussed to a nearby town and boarded at a less than desirable hotel. There is a review on this site that the same cruise trip was tremendously impacted by the heat wave and the air conditioning was woefully inadequate and condition were less than acceptable. I can't verify their stories, but I can assure you that they were terrible with us and not at all helpful. Watch out for their cancellation polices. We will NEVER use Viking again and suggest that everyone else avoids them!!

[Mark_T]

They would not let us keep the airfare for which we had already paid or the room reservations.

 

Do consider the flip side to this and the reason a lot of people would be happy for this outcome as it means that if the cruise portion is cancelled for any reason then you are not left holding air and hotel reservations that it may be too late to cancel and that your insurance may not cover cancelling either.

 

Not everyone wants to continue with the flights if the cruise has gone ...

[Host Jazzbeau]

Do consider the flip side to this and the reason a lot of people would be happy for this outcome as it means that if the cruise portion is cancelled for any reason then you are not left holding air and hotel reservations that it may be too late to cancel and that your insurance may not cover cancelling either.

 

Not everyone wants to continue with the flights if the cruise has gone ...

 

What memmtb wanted -- and what I would want in a similar situation -- is a Choice. The airfare was probably a bargain -- especially compared to repurchasing at the last minute -- and since it was already contracted for by the cruise line it wouldn't have cost them anything to let OP keep it.

[Mark_T]

What memmtb wanted -- and what I would want in a similar situation -- is a Choice. The airfare was probably a bargain -- especially compared to repurchasing at the last minute -- and since it was already contracted for by the cruise line it wouldn't have cost them anything to let OP keep it.

 

I think we have to strike a balance between wanting the protection of purchasing a bundled product and the flexibility of unbundling the package.

 

There are risks attached to both and frankly we have no idea if it would have cost the cruise line or not as we don't know the terms on which they contract for the seats.

 

We also don't know if they are able to simply sell the seats but not a cruise as that may also be covered by their contract with the airline.

 

The only certainty seems to be that whatever the cruise line does will turn out to be wrong for somebody :)

[ebvacationer]

DO NOT BOOK YOUR AIRFARE THRU THE CRUISELINE!

We just returned from a Baltic Sea Cruise thru Oceania!

It was a nightmare from beginning to end! Especially the end! We are still exhausted!!!!

[mamaw58]

We had no trouble with booking airfare with Viking for our upcoming European sojourn cruise. We got good flights and were able to upgrade to economy comfort seats.