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Booking flights and using a travel agent advise


Artisticgirl
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I booked the Best of Italy Cruise on the Celebrity Constellation for June 2020 and I'm very confused about committing to a flight this early and if the best flights are out yet this far in advance. Celebrity called me and are giving me some options from Ft. Lauderdale and Miami but the flights, layovers and prices are not the best.  In addition I am flying in one day early to Rome the day before the cruise.   Can anyone give me some advise on how they got the best price for air travel?   Also,  the TA I spoke to said it was in my best interest to book the flights through the cruise line.  I'm not sure if it is beneficial to use a TA to coordinate and get me the best price.   I have read on the board that some transfer there booking to an online travel agent for better incentives.  Can anyone direct me to a TA that will do that for me and help coordinate this trip? 

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I usually book direct with the airline  but sometimes I book through the cruise line  depends on the price

Booking via cruise line you might not pay in full until final payment  date for the cruise  Not sure how X works

 

I use  http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

to check routing & prices  then book with the airline  when the price is right for me

sign up for the seat sales email   I try to avoid connections when possible  & definitely fly in a day or more early

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7 minutes ago, Artisticgirl said:

I booked the Best of Italy Cruise on the Celebrity Constellation for June 2020 and I'm very confused about committing to a flight this early and if the best flights are out yet this far in advance. Celebrity called me and are giving me some options from Ft. Lauderdale and Miami but the flights, layovers and prices are not the best.  In addition I am flying in one day early to Rome the day before the cruise.   Can anyone give me some advise on how they got the best price for air travel?   Also,  the TA I spoke to said it was in my best interest to book the flights through the cruise line.  I'm not sure if it is beneficial to use a TA to coordinate and get me the best price.   I have read on the board that some transfer there booking to an online travel agent for better incentives.  Can anyone direct me to a TA that will do that for me and help coordinate this trip? 

Sorry, but discussion of specific TAs (by name) is not allowed here on Cruise Critic.

 

I will say, generally, that booking airfare through cruiselines is more expensive and usually results in less than desirable flights.

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Look at flights yourself....You'll usually do better booking directly with the carrier vs cruiseline. You have plenty of time to research flights ... don't get pressured into booking flights with Celebrity.

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I can't imagine a reason to buy flights 11 months in advance. We usually track flight prices for a couple of months before buying ( usually 3-5 months out unless we find a good seat sale). Are you looking for return flights or a multicity flight?( into one city and back from another) Sometimes Cruise Air can give you good prices on international flights, especially if you want business or first class. But those tickets can also have less than desirable times or connections, and may have restrictions. We generally use a site like Google Flights or Kayak to monitor prices, the book directly with the airline.

 

One other thing- rather than flying into Rome on the day before embarkation, consider coming in 2-3 days early so you will have time to get over your jet lag and be able to see a bit of wonderful Rome before you have to leave.

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 I am pretty price conscious and found Royal Caribbeans Air2Sea program is the best I can do, considering they get you to the ship if there are problems with weather. .  Celebrity and Azamara are included with Air2sea.  Plenty of airlines and tons of flight options. We usually book oneway non stop Lax to Barcelona and prices are always under $400. pp one way. Last year we booked Norwegian economy plus non stop Lax to Barcelona for $650.00 pp. happy cruising.

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Generally to Europe your best price is going to be with the cruise line, BUT you may end up with multiple connections, and horrible flight times. Also using a TA for flights rarely happens anymore because the airlines don't pay commission, so you have to pay the TA over and above, unless you get one that books a flight for you as a favor.

 

Make sure when comparing air fares that you are booking the same class of travel.

 

If you want to use air points book ASAP.

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Most airlines only make booking available 330 days in advance of the flight, so June 2020 will have just been released.

Without a doubt I would be waiting a couple of months before committing.

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16 hours ago, Artisticgirl said:

I booked the Best of Italy Cruise on the Celebrity Constellation for June 2020 and I'm very confused about committing to a flight this early and if the best flights are out yet this far in advance. Celebrity called me and are giving me some options from Ft. Lauderdale and Miami but the flights, layovers and prices are not the best.  In addition I am flying in one day early to Rome the day before the cruise.   Can anyone give me some advise on how they got the best price for air travel?   Also,  the TA I spoke to said it was in my best interest to book the flights through the cruise line.  I'm not sure if it is beneficial to use a TA to coordinate and get me the best price.   I have read on the board that some transfer there booking to an online travel agent for better incentives.  Can anyone direct me to a TA that will do that for me and help coordinate this trip? 

 

You're sort of contradicting yourself here. You say that you're not sure if the "best flights" are out, but you claim that the flights/layovers/prices you were given are not the "best". I think you need to make a decision of what "best" means to you - price? schedule? comfort? total travel time? Odds are, you won't find a perfect combo of all four, so you need to know what "best" means for you. It could be that the info you were given is the "best" and you just don't like it, unfortunately.

 

I will say that I would never book flights 11 months out (which is generally right after they have been released). Prices may very well be at some of their highest points as they "test the market" to see what people are willing to pay. Schedules are also more likely to change the further you book out. The only time I would book 11 months out is if I were using points and there was immediate availability on a flight that was "best" for me.

 

14 hours ago, zqvol said:

Generally to Europe your best price is going to be with the cruise line

 

I disagree. For one-way flights to/from Europe, yes, the cruise line may offer the lowest (which may or may not be "best" for each person) fares. If it's a roundtrip or even a multi-city/open jaws (for example, Miami to London, Paris to Miami), the chance of a cruise line offering dramatically lower fares drops...well, dramatically. And as you mentioned, you often trade control and choice for what may or may not be a price break.

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17 hours ago, mom says said:

I can't imagine a reason to buy flights 11 months in advance. We usually track flight prices for a couple of months before buying ( usually 3-5 months out unless we find a good seat sale). Are you looking for return flights or a multicity flight?( into one city and back from another) Sometimes Cruise Air can give you good prices on international flights, especially if you want business or first class. But those tickets can also have less than desirable times or connections, and may have restrictions. We generally use a site like Google Flights or Kayak to monitor prices, the book directly with the airline.

 

One other thing- rather than flying into Rome on the day before embarkation, consider coming in 2-3 days early so you will have time to get over your jet lag and be able to see a bit of wonderful Rome before you have to leave.

 

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I would love to fly in a few days early but my husband only has a limited amount of vacation days.  We were going to travel the 6/10 arriving early morning of 6/11.  Cruise leaves 6/12.  This time Im taking something to sleep on the plane. 

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skyscanner.com is our go to site for flights to and inside Europe. We have used Air2Sea and it worked out great once, not so much when there was a problem (Superstorm Sandy.)  Be sure to check the baggage pricing and reserving of seats. I discovered an international AirTrans flight that was a lot more expensive than posted due to these two details. 

 

Also, advice on the "sweet spot" in booking: We found the best price to be eight months out for our RT to Rome. Many sites say 5-6 months. 

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On 7/26/2019 at 6:55 PM, zqvol said:

Generally to Europe your best price is going to be with the cruise line, BUT you may end up with multiple connections, and horrible flight times. Also using a TA for flights rarely happens anymore because the airlines don't pay commission, so you have to pay the TA over and above, unless you get one that books a flight for you as a favor.

 

You don't necessarily have to pay the TA extra for flight bookings.  Mine, who also discounts cruise fares, even offered to walk me through the process.  You just have to find the right TA.

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On 7/26/2019 at 4:02 PM, Artisticgirl said:

I booked the Best of Italy Cruise on the Celebrity Constellation for June 2020 and I'm very confused about committing to a flight this early and if the best flights are out yet this far in advance. Celebrity called me and are giving me some options from Ft. Lauderdale and Miami but the flights, layovers and prices are not the best.  In addition I am flying in one day early to Rome the day before the cruise.   Can anyone give me some advise on how they got the best price for air travel?   Also,  the TA I spoke to said it was in my best interest to book the flights through the cruise line.  I'm not sure if it is beneficial to use a TA to coordinate and get me the best price.   I have read on the board that some transfer there booking to an online travel agent for better incentives.  Can anyone direct me to a TA that will do that for me and help coordinate this trip? 

I usually book flights directly with the airlines.  We don't have an awful lot of choices in this region, pretty much Delta through ATL.  Our next cruise is Holland out of Vancouver.  I found that I could beat Delta's price rather easily on Flight Ease (Hollands air travel.)

Usually, I will book air directly with the cruise line.  I will monitor Flight Ease prices and Delta's prices.  The thing to remember is this:  in most cases, you are not committed to any air bookings up until final payment date.  If you book early with the cruise line, you can change to a lower fare if one appears and you can cancel the booking with no penalty and book with the airlines if that's in your favor.  But once you book direct with the airlines, you are committed.  Just be careful that you're booking a flight that you can cancel with no penalty.

 

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Our experience is ....it depends.  To date we have always booked transatlantics and transpacifics, returns or open jaws, on our own.  Price was better, routes were better.    Only once have we found cruise line air to be better than the market for a one way transatlantic flight.    It was on RCI.  Price was very good, routing was first rate.  That, plus a great rate on this last minute cruise was the reason we decided to book.    We are doing open jaw to Athens next month and return from London in October.  The cruise line fares I saw did not come close to what we were able to buy from the airline (Transat).  I put it down to timing...when we purchased the tickets and how well the seats on those particular flights were selling at the time.

 

When booking  flights we sometimes check to see what the Celebrity air prices are like. You can do this without having a cruise booked.  We do it simply as another check on market rates.

 

I think the key is to understand what an average fare is and what a good fare is.  When you see something grab it because it could disappear within hours.   Book whichever way you are comfortable and then stop worrying that the price may go down or stroking your own ego for being so smart if the price goes up.

Edited by iancal
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Consider what it means for the cruise line air to promise they will get you to your cruise on time. Let's say you booked Air2Sea with three days in Rome before the cruise and there is a hurricane. If you miss the flight because of weather, they will try really hard to get you to Rome for your cruise, but you may miss out on the three days you wanted in Rome before the cruise. That almost happened to us, but Air2Sea was overwhelmed and let us take control of the booking. We called the airline direct and they changed our first flight which let us make the final flight out during SuperStorm Sandy. There were about twenty Americans who didn't make the fall TA.

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  • 1 month later...

What is the best air tracking site?   I booked my flight with Air France out of my local International Airport when most leave out of Miami.   I saved myself a 2 hour drive right there and got the flight for $1099 round trip which I think is a decent price.  I booked this through Celebrity air.   I want to monitor this fare.  I have looked a few times already and the fare is up to $1400 round trip but I would like to put an alert on it if possible.  What is the best way to do this?

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One thing to watch with the fare comparison sites, as well as booking directly with the airline, if you are traveling economy, they default to showing the their basic/no frills economy.  These may not have any checked bags, may be restricted to middle seats and are normally seats assigned at the airport (so even if that airline is not middle seat only, you are more likely to get middle seats).

 

Make SURE you book the "normal" or "full" economy.

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For repositioning sailings and river cruises, we've ALWAYS gotten the best price using the cruise lines air. ("X"/Princess/HAL)  However, we've always flown into or out of JFK and it's almost always been on a non-stop flight.  That's been our experience and it's always worked best for us but it doesn't mean it works best in every instance for everyone.   I think the airports you're flying into or out of make a difference as far as price and/or connections.

Edited by marco
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Some time ago we booked a cruise via a TA but booked our own flights. Why? The TA admitted they could not match the price we got. We booked as early as we could and managed to secure extra leg room seats (only six available on each flight) and of course we had a schedule of our choice.

For another cruise, last month, I asked for a direct quote from the cruise company. The basic price included economy flights, but I asked for a price for a B/C upgrade.

The cruise company quoted an upgrade price that was double the price  of a DIY booking.... this ‘extra price’ being on top of the included economy price. They also quoted for overnight hotels .... the price they quoted was per person and it was the same as the hotel was quoting per room!

I didn’t even bother asking my TA. 🙄

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As I stated in a previous post, on Europe bound trips, cruise line air has always been a better deal.  Once we priced air for a Princess cruise out of Fla and yes, the price for "thier air" was considerably  higher than what we could get on my own.  In fact, when I was quoted the price I said, "that's for both of us, isn't it?"  Of course, the answer was no.  However on another note, since I posted on this thread, we've booked a T/A on the QM2.   Cunard's air OW is $161 pp.  I can't match that on my own.

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