Cruise Air Princess for Australia

[Strawberry]

Hello - Has anyone had experience using Princess air for an Australia/New Zealand cruise? Did you do an Air Deviation? I have tentatively signed up for their air. We have lots of time as cruise isn't until 1/2007 but it seems that the Princess air is lots cheaper than we can do on our own. Thank you!

[DonahCBrown]

Hello - Has anyone had experience using Princess air for an Australia/New Zealand cruise? Did you do an Air Deviation? I have tentatively signed up for their air. We have lots of time as cruise isn't until 1/2007 but it seems that the Princess air is lots cheaper than we can do on our own. Thank you!

 

Our TA said we could avoid the air deviation charges (assuming you want to arrive a few days early or stay later?) by booking the hotel through Princess as well. Still didn't wind up doing the air, as we were able to work out a different package using some frequent flyer miles and a cheaper hotel that as a whole cost less, but generally, the cruise line airfare is cheaper if you are going out of one port and landing in a different one. The "multi-leg" airfares are often just outrageous, and one-way fares are just plain ridiculous. You CAN do some things with frequent flyer miles if the distances between legs meet certain criteria (varies by airline and program rules) so that if you can get one freebie, and pay for just one, the overall price becomes less than Princess air for two.

 

You'll need to look at the various possibilities and figure out what is going to work best for you, but since it isn't until 2007, you'll have to wait a while for the airlines to post their fares.

 

Donna

[greatam]

Hello - Has anyone had experience using Princess air for an Australia/New Zealand cruise? Did you do an Air Deviation? I have tentatively signed up for their air. We have lots of time as cruise isn't until 1/2007 but it seems that the Princess air is lots cheaper than we can do on our own. Thank you!

 

Please post your dates and from and to places. We will all try to help. Princess air is NOT the cheapest a lot of times. AND you will not know what flights you are on until about 30 days pre cruise, unless you pay for air deviation. Air deviation often incurs additional air fees as well.

 

Example-your cruise leaves on Saturday. You want to fly on Wednesday. Princess knows that they have to get people back to the US on Saturday. So to make things simple, they are using your return ticket to accomodate THEIR returning passenger. Your Wednesday trip may not have anyone wanting your return. You will generally pay a higher price, as well as the air deviation fee.

[Strawberry]

Greatam - We are booking a two day pre and a 2 day post package through Princess. I expect that we would be flying out of Phila on 1/7/07 in order to arrive in Sydney on the 9th for our two-day pre stay before our cruise departs on the 11th. At the end of the cruise we would stay in Auckland on the 23rd and the 24th departing on the 25th for Philadelphia. In March, our TA is going to check on the deviation possibilities and costs as well as what we would pay on our own. We'll also look at using SW to fly to LAX and what Princess Air might cost then. (Air add-on for now from Phila is $1649 each w/o any deviation fees or charges.)

We have used the cruise air for some trips and done it ourselves for other trips. We really haven't had any complaints with most of the air arrangements (or their costs) which we have gotten through Princess so far but I've heard so many complaints on this board lately about Cruise AIr that I thought I would find out what others have experienced.

Thanks for everyone's information and suggestions.

Christine