Booking the airfare

[rmmm]

Do you book the airfare at the same time that you book your cruise? I have been looking at airfares and I am not sure if we are going to be flying in the night before or the morning of the cruise. It depends on whether or not I can get the day before the cruise off from work. The thing that concerns me is that we are cruising during a school vacation period (third week in February) because I am a teacher. I am worried that the fares are going to go up tremendously the closer that we get to the cruise. I have been checking airfares on expedia.com and right now the price from NY to Florida are running between $500 and $800 per person. My question is this - is it better to book now or wait to see if prices go down ?

[FlorenceItaly]

If you can, I highly recommend you coming in the day before. It saves from the anxiety of missing the ship should connections not work, etc. Also, as far as airfare is concerned I book when I see a rate that is reasonable to me. I set a price in my mind(typically under $300) and when I see a good rate, I book. Those are very high rates, in my opinion. I have often heard of people getting great deals on airfare from the East to FL. Don't you have Song, JetBlue, etc where you are? Or AirTran? In OKC, we don't have any of those airlines, but in all my reading it seems that alot of people in NY, etc that have those airlines find great deals to FL. I hope I have helped some, and that you will get more feedback from people in your area.

 

Marie

[Islandbuoy]

depending on which airport you use, I saw Southwest FLL to Islip for $79.

I'm sure jet Blue has similar fares.

[OldinJersey]

We were not going to book a cruise for that reason. I did get a fare on my own just this week, for the week of Christmas. I got airfare for 4 with all taxes etc for just under 800 TOTAL on Continental. yeah!! (about 168 each plus everything)

What I did was use bookingbuddy.com every day. You put in the dates and the airports. You can pick "check nearby airports" as well. You then pick different airfare search engines or individual airlines (little box at bottom) and as each one starts to load you can minimize and pick a 2nd, 3rd etc. It checks air3000, jetblue, song, spirit(LGA) and many other airlines. Also not sure where you are. We are in north Jersey and if you can make the drive to Allentown or Philly you can find much lower fares. Allentown has (cough, choke) Hooters Airlines which if available is very low.

One cruise (which we didn't book) from San Juan was 600 rt through cruiseline, 800 rt on my own, but 499 from Philadelphia.

In the end I picked a cruise that leaves Dec. 21, with us flying in a day early. Picking a cruise that left Dec 22, 23, 24 or 25 made it 2k, 3k and up for airfare.

[FlorenceItaly]

Susieslow - What an AWESOME DEAL!!! I am so happy for you. Thanks for sharing the booking engine, etc.

 

Marie

[Stevesan]

I have been checking airfares on expedia.com and right now the price from NY to Florida are running between $500 and $800 per person. My question is this - is it better to book now or wait to see if prices go down ?

 

Where in New York? I just did an ITA search and there are numerous nonstop flights on Continental from EWR and LGA to FLL for less than $200 R/T in late February. American is under $250 R/T. I'd bet that the regionals could match or better Continental and American.

Considering February weather threats in NY it would be wise to leave the day before, even if it's an evening flight after work.

[Lucyt1207]

DH, DS and I sailed last February (during school vacation) on Zaandam out of Port Canaveral. I HIGHLY recommend flying the evening before. We left JFK on Jet Blue on a 7pm flight to Orlando and were checked into the hotel that HAL booked for us by 11pm. We were able to unwind, sleep and leisurely eat breakfast and catch the HAL shuttle for the 45 minute ride to the pier. On previous cruises we travelled on cruise day and were so exhausted from the stress of airport stuff etc. that we didn't really enjoy our first evening aboard the ship.

We are travelling this year on Oosterdam from San Diego during Easter break. This time we plan to fly Wednesday (last day of school) to San Diego and tour the area til the cruise, which departs Saturday. Returning on Saturday we are staying over in San Diego and catching a Sunday noon flight on Jet Blue back to JFK.

By the way, we booked our own flights and saved a bundle. HAL does not deal with Jet Blue so all their flights were one stop or worse or at crazy times.

[Southbound]

Jet Blue just started flying non-stop to several Florida locations out of Newark at a great price. Supposedly, Continental is now matching JB's low fares out of Newark, but would guess they're not non-stop flights.

[A02]

I'd book it yourself.

 

I took Song down and Jet Blue back (Boston-Fort Lauderdale). NYC will have similar rates. For the two of us it came to like 360 total.

 

We also arrived the day of, which was retardedly easy. We landed at like 11:30am, snagged a cab, and was onboard in an hour or so.

 

I think as long as your flight lands around noon or so - you'll have no problems.

 

They get you off the ship insanely fast too... we were the last group called and got to the airport so early, we had our 4:30 flight bumped up to 10:30.

[cindiedee]

Air Tran is having a big sale right now - check them out - under $200 R/T from NY - and JetBlue also - they are starting more flights to FL.

 

Happy sailing!

[GAJE]

I would definitely recommend against flying in the day your cruise begins. Last Feb. we cruised out of Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived a day early and had no problems, but people flying in the day of embarkation through Atlanta missed the boat due to an ice storm the night before. Those folks caught up with the ship three days later!!! What a horrible dilemma!!

Betty

[Randyk47]

We try to always go the day before the cruise. Typically, since we live in Texas, we're flying to the port and there are just too many things that can go wrong between here and there. Last March we sailed out of Galveston for a change and got the chance to drive to a port. Even though it was only 4-5 hours driving we still went the day before. We like the feeling we're in the port city and ready to board the ship the next day. We usually try to find a nice hotel, a good restuarant for the evening, and just relax so we get on the ship the next day all rested. As for when we book flights....not necessarily the day/week we book the cruise but usually pretty close. We treat flight planning as just a part of our cruise research so we usually have a pretty good idea of schedules and costs by the time we actually book the cruise.

[jhannah]

I will generally book flights as soon as possible, which is something like 330 days out for most airlines. I like having the flights "in the bag" as well as having some choice of seat location.

 

I certainly agree with flying in the day before. We've not done that only twice. Once was to FLL. It was a time of year that I wasn't worried about storms enroute causing us to miss connections. Plus, there were alternate flights available the same day "just in case." Even so, I don't think I'd do it again.

 

The other time was when we sailed out of Los Angeles. Less than an hour flight, and there are flights over there virtually every hour of the day. So no worries getting over there from Las Vegas.

 

Other than that, it's the day before for us (or more, depending on where we're going.)

[rmmm]

Thanks for all the replies. I am keeping an eye on Southwest out of Islip. Right now they are only booking through Feb 3rd and we are cruising on February 18th.

[pcs15]

My advice is to check on Southwest on a daily basis. The agents themselves don't seem to know when they will open up additional dates. But once they do the cheapest fares will go fast. You can also sign up on their website for e-mail notification of sales. Good luck!

[sailorbill]

WEATHER !! WEATHER !! WEATHER !!

 

Think about what the weather might be like in mid February! Does it ever storm or snow in the northeast at that time of year??? Are there ever flight delays at that time of year?? You betcha!! Plan to fly south at least a day early to improve your chances of arriving before sailaway. AND, don't be a dummy, purchase trip insurance for the whole vacation not just the cruise part.