Flight question

[Suzez]

Hi Brian,

 

American Airlines use the term '1 stop' and '2+ stops' to indicate the number of flight changes.

 

BA use the term 'number of stops - 1' on flights like BA015 to Sydney where although you keep the same flight number and aircraft you do have a stop in Singapore.

 

Internal US flights are a bit like buses and very often pop into various places en route to their final destination. These flights use the term 'direct' to indicate no aircraft or flight number change on route to the final destination even if they stop at an intermediate airport on the way.

 

But I agree, let's educate Susie, not confuse her.

 

Thank you, this does make sense now. I still don't know what EZ is? is this Princess's included flights? I guess it is? There is no mention of this on the website. The price we have paid includes the flights. One from UK to US Miami( possible indirect) and the other from Barcelona to UK. We are dong a B2B.

This being our first fly cruise to US, we wanted to keep everything under the Princess 'umbrella' so to speak. If anything goes wrong, then we only have Princess to deal with.

[Suzez]

I would change your agent, if you have to wait to talk to him as he is on holiday.

Why not call 2 or 3 cruise specialists, and ask them to quote for your cruise, with and without flights. In the meantime, price up direct flights to Miami (ugh) or FLL (with Norwegian from Gatwick). You can then decide what us best for you.

Flying via Toronto seems stupid unless the cost benefit is unbelievable - it's like flying from Miami to Athens via Aberdeen, with the last leg being on Ryanair!

I dont need to change our agent, he's doing a great job so far, he's back soon. He's given me a number to call if I need help forehand.

[CRUISE4TWO]

Hi,

We fly to Miami from Heathrow at least once a year.

You should be signed up with ESTA, the US replacement for the Visa Waiver program ( I think)

 

When we flew in April, we were expecting the usual long queues but instead we were through in 10 minutes.

There are now banks of self- service machines.you follow all the easy instructions.

You place your passport in a slot just as an officer would do. When that is finished it asks you to look at a lens, a light comes on and your face is approved.

Finally, you place your fingers and thumb on a pad.

I f everything is OK you are through.

If you do something wrong if prompts you to do again or moves you along.

So very quick unless I suppose you have a problem but there are customer service people along the line showing available machines it answering any questions.

The wonder of technology

Lynda & Marty, london

[CruiserBruce]

Hi,Expedia and even Virgin Atlantic use the term direct.Ive never seen the term non-stop on any websites.I think you are confusing the great unwashed like Susie and I.Is it true that you can clear US imm and cus in Canada?Cheers,Brian.

 

Yes, it is true you clear US Immigration and Customs in Toronto, and the flight on to Florida will be a domestic flight- no Immigration or Customs in Florida.

[windsurferfirst]

I am a Brit living in Toronto I am not sure when you flight is next year but we get hit bad with snow in the winter and it can delay flights. If you take the via Toronto option bear this in mind. Personally I would avoid Toronto if you can.

[Suzez]

I am a Brit living in Toronto I am not sure when you flight is next year but we get hit bad with snow in the winter and it can delay flights. If you take the via Toronto option bear this in mind. Personally I would avoid Toronto if you can.

 

We fly early April. How's the weather then?

[HomelessBear]

The price we have paid includes the flights. One from UK to US Miami( possible indirect) and the other from Barcelona to UK. We are dong a B2B.

This being our first fly cruise to US, we wanted to keep everything under the Princess 'umbrella' so to speak. If anything goes wrong, then we only have Princess to deal with.

 

I know where you're coming from wanting everything as a 'package'. Its been a while since we did flight packages with Princess but in the past when they allocated "poor" flights, I contacted Princess flight dept and spoke with them directly, even though I'd booked with a TA. Only once we didn't manage to get our flights changed (and they were a nightmare on the return journey!).

 

I'd suggest either go through your TA (if you've got a good one) or phone the Flights Dept at Princess UK yourself and ask if they can offer you direct flights. Although Miami is a "pain", I'd also rather do that than having to change planes (with the risk of missing the connecting flight as happened to us once with Princess!).

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruises.

Edited June 1, 2016 by HomelessBear

[windsurferfirst]

We fly early April. How's the weather then?

 

You should be fine in April, we do get snow in April but it will be nothing like the January - March dumps that we get.

 

There is not much to do in Toronto airport, I am sure Canadians on these boards will disagree but you are used to UK airports and they are very different much more to wander around and use up the time. Having said that I have been to a lot worse airports Fort Lauderdale being one.

[Suzez]

The price we have paid includes the flights. One from UK to US Miami( possible indirect) and the other from Barcelona to UK. We are dong a B2B.

This being our first fly cruise to US, we wanted to keep everything under the Princess 'umbrella' so to speak. If anything goes wrong, then we only have Princess to deal with.

 

I know where you're coming from wanting everything as a 'package'. Its been a while since we did flight packages with Princess but in the past when they allocated "poor" flights, I contacted Princess flight dept and spoke with them directly, even though I'd booked with a TA. Only once we didn't manage to get our flights changed (and they were a nightmare on the return journey!).

 

I'd suggest either go through your TA (if you've got a good one) or phone the Flights Dept at Princess UK yourself and ask if they can offer you direct flights. Although Miami is a "pain", I'd also rather do that than having to change planes (with the risk of missing the connecting flight as happened to us once with Princess!).

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruises.[/quote

 

I think we will see what direct options there are.

[Corfe Mixture]

 

 

I think we will see what direct options there are.

 

The direct options will all be to/from MIA, but the Princess pre-cruise hotel / transfer package is available from there so no real issue. You simply find the Princess rep after you clear immigration / customs and they transport you to your hotel and pick you up next morning.

 

For future reference this hotel and transfer package is also available to be booked via your cruise personaliser if you book your own flights. Indeed we will use this when we fly up from Key West and have used the similar hotel and transfer package out of LAX after dropping off a rental car we had driven down from San Francisco.

 

To answer those who wonder why we do EYW-MIA and not EYW-FLL, it is because we will ticketed with American for the whole of LHR-EYW(via MIA), EYW-MIA, FLL-LHR(via CLT) trip on a single locator code (booking reference) whereas if we want to do EYW-FLL we need to book a separate ticket with United for this sector. This would not be cost effective, not only because of basic fare issues, but also because, on our American sector back north from Key West our checked baggage allowance will be determined by our transatlantic allowance

 

Also if you fly direct out of MIA on the way home you will leave at around 5pm or 8pm. What you should do, in this case is to take the Princess tour package which includes a boat trip around the harbour passing the magnificent waterfront houses. When you disembark you put you luggage in the bus and you can forget them until you get dropped off at MIA around 2pm.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Corfe Mixture

[brian1]

Hi,I think Princess use the same flight combos as Expedia.We flew into Lima and out from Rio over xmas and new year and the combos Princess were offering were 22 hrs plus with cons in DFW and other places for £500 more than Expedia who we booked with.LHR-MAD-LIM 14hrs and RIO-LHR direct with BA.The original flight back was RIO-MAD-LHR with the first leg with Iberia which they cancelled and they got us on BA,thank god because Iberia was the crappiest airline Ive ever flown on after the flight out from MAD-LIM.Cheers,Brian.

[Corfe Mixture]

The price we have paid includes the flights. One from UK to US Miami( possible indirect) and the other from Barcelona to UK. We are dong a B2B.

 

Oops that information was missing from your first post. If you are crossing the Atlantic on a ship and getting off in Barcelona, then there is no way you will be able to match the prices offered by Princess as you will need to book expensive single air fares whereas because they can guarantee you are away from the UK for a Saturday night, they somehow get access to approximately half a 'Saturday stay' return fare on your transatlantic flights.

 

So, discuss with Princess, getting a direct routing from LHR to MIA and simply save all the other information in this thread for future reference.

[moki'smommy]

Corfe, as I was reading thru your long post dealing with various airports, I was thinking, "I should tell them to avoid JFK" and then you said you were flying thru JFK.

 

JFK is one of my least favorite airports in the world. At the new international terminal, from where Delta parks to the baggage claim is at least a mile walk. They have NEVER gotten our luggage to my final destination on the same flight that I was on. This is not a problem when I am coming "home," but would certainly be a problem if I were getting on a ship. Most of the time the luggage arrives 4-6 hours later. This is despite 3 hour layovers. And if anyone cares, they have the worst HA assist program of any airport except Heathrow. In fairness, we've had some lovely individuals, but we've also had real jerks. Heathrow has a system problem with their HA assists; JFK has a union and rude people problem.

 

My daughter live in London. I quit flying Delta on trips because JFK was so bad. Charlotte, Dulles, Atlanta, etc. are all better than JFK.

 

If I were flying from London to Ft. Lauderdale, the best flights (IMHO) would be those that go directly from London to either Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. As many have said, Miami has a bigger Customs and Immigration issue and a longer commute to the cruise terminal, but it is a bigger airport so that makes sense. I'd worry less about whether I was going out of Heathrow vs. Gatwick than what I would encounter at the arrival airport. Yes, I've flown into and out of both Heathrow and Gatwick. I did prefer Heathrow just because it was easier for me to get there, but I'd be more concerned about making it easy at a strange arrival airport than at a departure airport that I was already familiar with.

[Suzez]

Oops that information was missing from your first post. If you are crossing the Atlantic on a ship and getting off in Barcelona, then there is no way you will be able to match the prices offered by Princess as you will need to book expensive single air fares whereas because they can guarantee you are away from the UK for a Saturday night, they somehow get access to approximately half a 'Saturday stay' return fare on your transatlantic flights.

 

So, discuss with Princess, getting a direct routing from LHR to MIA and simply save all the other information in this thread for future reference.

 

Sorry about that. I didn't think the return flight was relevant, maybe it is.

[Suzez]

Corfe' date=' as I was reading thru your long post dealing with various airports, I was thinking, "I should tell them to avoid JFK" and then you said you were flying thru JFK.

 

JFK is one of my least favorite airports in the world. At the new international terminal, from where Delta parks to the baggage claim is at least a mile walk. They have NEVER gotten our luggage to my final destination on the same flight that I was on. This is not a problem when I am coming "home," but would certainly be a problem if I were getting on a ship. Most of the time the luggage arrives 4-6 hours later. This is despite 3 hour layovers. And if anyone cares, they have the worst HA assist program of any airport except Heathrow. In fairness, we've had some lovely individuals, but we've also had real jerks. Heathrow has a system problem with their HA assists; JFK has a union and rude people problem.

 

My daughter live in London. I quit flying Delta on trips because JFK was so bad. Charlotte, Dulles, Atlanta, etc. are all better than JFK.

 

If I were flying from London to Ft. Lauderdale, the best flights (IMHO) would be those that go directly from London to either Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. As many have said, Miami has a bigger Customs and Immigration issue and a longer commute to the cruise terminal, but it is a bigger airport so that makes sense. I'd worry less about whether I was going out of Heathrow vs. Gatwick than what I would encounter at the arrival airport. Yes, I've flown into and out of both Heathrow and Gatwick. I did prefer Heathrow just because it was easier for me to get there, but I'd be more concerned about making it easy at a strange arrival airport than at a departure airport that I was already familiar with.[/quote']

 

We don't mind which airport we fly from, Heathrow or Gatwick, Heathrow is easier for us too. we have included a hotel in either Miami or Fort Lauderdale, I don't know which yet. If we book to fly direct to Fort Lauderdale, we could end up transferring to Miami to a hotel could we not? I don't know how Princess allocate these things. I was told its only about 20 minutes between the 2

Edited June 1, 2016 by Suzez

[Corfe Mixture]

Corfe' date=' as I was reading thru your long post dealing with various airports, I was thinking, "I should tell them to avoid JFK" and then you said you were flying thru JFK.

 

[/quote']

 

Don't disagree with you for one minute and you may have noted that my preference on the return is to transit through CLT.

 

In the example I gave relating to my next US visit, the issue I was trying to deal with, given I am planning to be ticketed with AA and therefore need to pass through MIA to make my connection to EYW (Key West), is the time to clear immigration and the point I was making, perhaps not very clearly, was that 3hours to clear at JFK followed by 1hour domestic connection at MIA is a better bet than 1hour 40 mins international to domestic transfer at MIA. All of which is not relevant to Sue, but was offered simply to show that you NORMALLY get more flexibility if you cut out the middle man and deal with the airline yourself,

 

In the end, my game plan will be to book through MIA with the 1 hour 40 mins connection and then phone AA in the UK and suggest that we minimise the risk by changing my MIA-EYW flight to the following morning.

 

As I now realise, Sue is flying out to the US and back from Spain which means that she is in the one situation where she will get a much better price by booking through Princess.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Corfe Mixture
screwed up the quote!!

[Corfe Mixture]

Sorry about that. I didn't think the return flight was relevant, maybe it is.

 

The mistake was mine not your's. I was still answering the first post and had not seen the additional data - my error - lazyness.

 

The bottom line is that, because your return flight is from a different continent than your outbound, the airline booking systems will not see it as an 'open jaw' return flight and will treat it as two singles meaning you are much booking through Princess who get access to 'return fares'.

 

The issue of flying in to MIA or FLL does not really matter to you as Princess offer an airport hotel / transfer package from both so you won't have to worry either way.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Corfe Mixture

[Suzez]

Don't disagree with you for one minute and you may have noted that my preference on the return is to transit through CLT.

 

In the example I gave relating to my next US visit, the issue I was trying to deal with, given I am planning to be ticketed with AA and therefore need to pass through MIA to make my connection to EYW (Key West), is the time to clear immigration and the point I was making, perhaps not very clearly, was that 3hours to clear at JFK followed by 1hour domestic connection at MIA is a better bet than 1hour 40 mins international to domestic transfer at MIA. All of which is not relevant to Sue, but was offered simply to show that you NORMALLY get more flexibility if you cut out the middle man and deal with the airline yourself,

 

In the end, my game plan will be to book through MIA with the 1 hour 40 mins connection and then phone AA in the UK and suggest that we minimise the risk by changing my MIA-EYW flight to the following morning.

 

As I now realise, Sue is flying out to the US and back from Spain which means that she is in the one situation where she will get a much better price by booking through Princess.

 

That's good to know :)

[Suzez]

The mistake was mine not your's. I was still answering the first post and had not seen the additional data - my error - lazyness.

 

The bottom line is that, because your return flight is from a different continent than your outbound, the airline booking systems will not see it as an 'open jaw' return flight and will treat it as two singles meaning you are much booking through Princess who get access to 'return fares'.

 

The issue of flying in to MIA or FLL does not really matter to you as Princess offer an airport hotel / transfer package from both so you won't have to worry either way.

 

I don't know for sure if the deal is great, it's an awful lot of money. It does include all flights, transfers and the hotel stay before the cruise. Our agent gave us a little discount, so maybe we can use that for a direct ( no stops) flight to Miami. If we don't use the 'Toronto' option.

[Suzez]

I was shown this, which I thought was useful about the process for customs and immigration

http://www.torontopearson.com/Connecting.aspx##

[moki'smommy]

We don't mind which airport we fly from, Heathrow or Gatwick, Heathrow is easier for us too. we have included a hotel in either Miami or Fort Lauderdale, I don't know which yet. If we book to fly direct to Fort Lauderdale, we could end up transferring to Miami to a hotel could we not? I don't know how Princess allocate these things. I was told its only about 20 minutes between the 2

 

You could also get a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale..... 20 minutes from airport to airport or cruise terminal to cruise terminal is probably optimistic. It isn't far, but I'd say more like 30 minutes with traffic.

[newcruzer2]

Try this website, i have found it invaluable for research purposes.

 

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

Hope the link works, I am SUPER bad at tech stuff :)

[Corfe Mixture]

I don't know for sure if the deal is great, it's an awful lot of money. It does include all flights, transfers and the hotel stay before the cruise. Our agent gave us a little discount, so maybe we can use that for a direct ( no stops) flight to Miami. If we don't use the 'Toronto' option.

 

I would just ask for the direct flight to Miami and don't offer any more money.

 

Remember you are doing a B2B and that should give you some leverage.

 

If all else fails, although Princess UK won't normally talk to clients who book through agents try phoning Southampton and asking for Jordan Brewer. If anyone can sort it, he can.

[wowzz]

Oops that information was missing from your first post. If you are crossing the Atlantic on a ship and getting off in Barcelona, then there is no way you will be able to match the prices offered by Princess as you will need to book expensive single air fares whereas because they can guarantee you are away from the UK for a Saturday night, they somehow get access to approximately half a 'Saturday stay' return fare on your transatlantic flights.

 

So, discuss with Princess, getting a direct routing from LHR to MIA and simply save all the other information in this thread for future reference.

 

Why not fly direct from LGW to FLL with Norwegian (you can book one way flights at no extra cost) and then fly from BCN back to LGW with EasyJet - again with a one way fare?

[Corfe Mixture]

Why not fly direct from LGW to FLL with Norwegian (you can book one way flights at no extra cost)

 

 

Very useful information. They may only fly on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday but I'll definitely store that for future information, particularly if thinking about a one-way.

 

However, as Sue is committed to wanting to book through Princess, it is unlikely she can get moved to this flight

 

One thing to note for any premium class traveller is that, although their premium cabin has 46 inches of leg room, they are on a 2-3-2 configuration and are premium economy seats and not fully flat beds.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Corfe Mixture