Have to cancel... airfare is a nightmare!!

[dltvermont]

LSM,

 

What is the possibility of flying out Monday morning instead of Sunday? Last year and this year, it was actually cheaper for us (5-6 ppl) to pay for a motel and stay overnight to leave Monday morning. Saved alot doing this.

 

D

[PCHENG]

Update from the OP. We have looked for months, checking every option I can think of... nothing reasonable so we called carnival and canceled. Was hoping they would allow us to transfer our $200 deposit, but no luck. Learned a valuable lesson... next time we will check airfare before we pull the trigger on booking a cruise. Wife now wants a new kitchen, so looks like we wont be cruising this year. thanks to all of you who provided great advice and suggestions! We will be back next year!

 

Sorry to hear you had to cancel.

 

Booking air before cruise is not always easy. Legacy carriers generally will allow you to book up to a year in advance, but some low cost carriers only allow reservation up to seven months out. If the cruise falls on a popular date such as spring break or Thanksgiving, your cruise fare will most likely have gone up by several hundred dollars if you wait till six months from sailing to book (versus when booking first opened).

 

I am now booked on the Sunshine for Thanksgiving 2017 at a pretty good price, but I dread to think how much I will have to pay for my family of 4 in airfare.

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

LSM,

 

What is the possibility of flying out Monday morning instead of Sunday? Last year and this year, it was actually cheaper for us (5-6 ppl) to pay for a motel and stay overnight to leave Monday morning. Saved alot doing this.

 

D

 

Interesting that for you it was cheaper on a Monday. Because of business travel the most expensive and less discounted days are Monday and Friday with Tuesday and Thursday having the best prices (and usually the better availability). Also, if online booking, Tuesday thru Thursday are the best days to make your reservations. Just my experience.

[zdcatc12]

Legacy carriers generally will allow you to book up to a year in advance,

 

Actually it is 330 days in advance at 12:01 am.

[DanishJourney]

I'm from Ct and usually fly to FLL. This April I will be going on the Breeze from the 9 to the 17. The fare on S.W is 600.00 RT and the fare on jetblue is 800.00 RT. How can a family afford these prices plus the cruise fare. If I wasn't using my miles I probably wouldn't have gone.

 

Gary

 

How? Well for me it's all about priorities. If I want to go on a Caribbean cruise I will need to wait until I have money for both the cruise and the air fare. Flying in from Europe isn't cheep, but sometimes it's almost the same prices as domestic US flights.

 

This time I was lucky. My son and I will also be going on the Breeze, but not before December. Air fare RT (Copenhagen- Houston) would normally be around $800 p.p, but I manage to get a great deal for $525 p.p. 334 days before departure. 3 days later they were back to $800. Not bad to save $550 😜💪🏼

[luv2trvlnow]

Interesting that for you it was cheaper on a Monday. Because of business travel the most expensive and less discounted days are Monday and Friday with Tuesday and Thursday having the best prices (and usually the better availability). Also, if online booking, Tuesday thru Thursday are the best days to make your reservations. Just my experience.

Actually we found it cheaper to fly out on Monday also. You have to realize that the Miami and Ft Lauderdale airports are overwhelmed with people getting off the ships and they aren't able to make the early flights so the later flights are high due to the large demand. We were able to get a hotel and still save over $200 and it was just the 2 of us. We found the same thing in San Juan. By waiting until the next morning the early flights were much cheaper. More than enough to cover the night at the hotel. The airlines know there will be a large number of people getting off the ships and wanting to fly home and the prices reflect this.

[DanishJourney]

Actually it is 330 days in advance at 12:01 am.

 

Not true - Different airlines open up schedules at different times. I actually bought my tickets 334 days ahead if I have counted correctly. Got the tickets on Jan 17 and will be leaving on Dec 16.

Edited January 28, 2016 by DanishJourney

[sfaaa]

 

key message find a cruise you want but commit the airfare before the cruise

 

Or you can book Past Guest, lock up the cruise price and cabin, then shop for cheap flight. If nothing materializes, cancel the cruise for a full refund before final payment.

Edited January 28, 2016 by sfaaa

[h3yitsvictoria]

Try discount airlines like Spirit or Frontier. I am booked on the Glory in September and got RT from Long Island to Miami for $150.

[dltvermont]

Luv2trvl,

 

Thats it, we are flying San Juan to Boston. I got a motel for the night and still saved hundreds on the flight by leaving Monday morning. And the early flights were cheaper so leaving Monday also allows us to choose those instead of mid day or afternoon flights.

[lilmizz]

Klfrodo… My goodness, that is a great idea. Why didn’t I think of calling the airline and explaining my situation to see if they would lower their prices just for my family. Silly me, here I am on a message board, trying to find another solution to my problem by drawing upon a forum with a vast amount of knowledge and expertise pertaining to my situation.

 

Some ppl are just A%$#%^^

Try and change dates, sometimes the carnival person is really nice about it, We did it and got cruise cash with the cruise being cheaper. I would try that. airfare prolly wont get much cheaper being spring break...

Good lucK!!:)

[Smmessineo]

What's really disgusting is that oil prices have dropped so low, but airline prices don't reflect it much.

Yes, I know there are reasons for that such as future supplies bought, blah blah blah, but why then do oil price increases immediately reflect on airfare ?

[sfaaa]

What's really disgusting is that oil prices have dropped so low, but airline prices don't reflect it much.

Yes, I know there are reasons for that such as future supplies bought, blah blah blah, but why then do oil price increases immediately reflect on airfare ?

 

Why? Because airlines can. There is no such thing as fairness when it comes to doing business or making money. The strong will always get their ways and the weak get beaten up and pay the price.

[thedispatcher]

I have nothing helpful to add to this post, but rather very glad I live 45 minutes from Galveston.

 

Hoping for cheap airfare for all you cruisers! I know we would probably not be cruising if we had to pay cruise plus flight.