Possible alternative to US Airways inflated charge...

[covey]

I have a cruise Dec.4-11 and will be flying to FLL from Charlotte. The return flight on US Airways Dec. 11, at 11:40 a.m., is substantially higher than the late afternoon and early morning flights. In fact, the RT is $340.00 while the earlier flights are $198.00. I have booked a one-way with US Airways--it departs 9:40 a.m. and arrives at 11:10 for $120.00. On December 11 I will take a taxi to the airport, pickup a rental car, and enjoy a Sunday drive and brunch at Miami Beach before returning the $20.00 rental car and flying out of Miami at 5:30 p.m. and arriving nonstop in Charlotte two hours later for $98.00. That's a savings of $244.00 for the two of us, less the small car rental and gas. After considering all of this, I am looking forward to a slower let-down after leaving the Millenium and a Sunday afternoon along the coast, rather than rushing home, may be the solution. Just thought I would share this for anyone else dealing with airlines who raise the cost of the most convenient flights home.

[CaribbeanBound]

Makes sense.

[greeneg]

I might suggest that you look into what X's quote is for the same flights. You can get them through CC (Custom Air); it just might be worth a look.

 

On our upcoming Constellation cruise from San Juan in January, we did it both ways and Celebrity's quote was actually about $500 pp less than direct booking via USAir. We also got the flights that we wanted; USAir had told us that they were "sold out".

 

There doesn't ( to my mind at least) seem to be a whole lot of logic to air fares, particularly out of Charlotte where USAir has something like 95% of the market. No logic at all.

[tadjr]

The airlines are a business so the logic is "to make money". They know people want to leave early on cruise days and if you want to go at the time most people do, you pay for it. This and the fact that this close on cruise day, the flights are probably already going to be fairly heavy in bookings so the people who booked a while ago got the deals on the flights most people want, leaving only the higher priced fares for later booking. They only allow so many seats on each plane at certain fares, so for the type of fare you were trying to get, they might have been "sold out". Also, the cruise lines sometimes book blocks of seats, therefore, they have the ability to offer some flights that the airline cant because they are holding seats the airline cant sell directly.

Glad to hear you got a deal on the flight out of MIA.