Flights through HAL

[Ontariotrekker]

Anyone booked their flights using HAL?  Any issues?

 

thanks Shar

[RocketMan275]

None.  Was able to save money over booking direct.  Booked a flight to Vancouver for Alaska cruise.  It was simple and easy.  Two nice things.  First, you can cancel/change flights up to final payment.  Second, nothing is due before final payment.  A note: prices change.  You need to check back to see if there's been a price drop or a better flight has come up.  I changed flights three times.

[TomBeckCruise]

1 minute ago, RocketMan275 said:

None.  Was able to save money over booking direct.  Booked a flight to Vancouver for Alaska cruise.  It was simple and easy.  Two nice things.  First, you can cancel/change flights up to final payment.  Second, nothing is due before final payment.  A note: prices change.  You need to check back to see if there's been a price drop or a better flight has come up.  I changed flights three times.

 

How do you look at available flights?

[kazu]

43 minutes ago, Ontariotrekker said:

Anyone booked their flights using HAL?  Any issues?

 

thanks Shar

 

Shar, we used them for a couple of flights.  One was from Amsterdam home and it was MUCH cheaper than if I booked with A/C, KLM or anyone else.

 

Great flight, no issues with flight ease.  Same thing with my other flight.

 

To clarify, I don’t fly in the day of the cruise so I don’t look for flight ease to get me to the next port.  But, you never know - we can’t always get outa’ here when we should depending on weather 😉 

 

I was very happy with it.

[RocketMan275]

23 minutes ago, TomBeckCruise said:

 

How do you look at available flights?

It's easier if you have a cruise booked.  

 

You open your booking.

Select travel planning.

Select post and pre cruise travel.

Select flights.

Enter the information.

Couple of factors, you do not have to use the default dates.  You can book a couple of days early or late.

Just scroll through the selections.

 

It's more difficult but doable if you don't have a booking.

Go to the Princess site and select a cruise leaving the same port with about the same dates.  

Princess and Holland use the same booking engine.

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

28 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

It's easier if you have a cruise booked.  

 

You open your booking.

Select travel planning.

Select post and pre cruise travel.

Select flights.

Enter the information.

Couple of factors, you do not have to use the default dates.  You can book a couple of days early or late.

Just scroll through the selections.

 

It's more difficult but doable if you don't have a booking.

Go to the Princess site and select a cruise leaving the same port with about the same dates.  

Princess and Holland use the same booking engine.

I love this feature with Princess. I wish HAL allowed for checking airfares without first booking the cruise. I bet HAL ends up with a lot of phony bookings just to check airfares. 

[KirkNC]

We have used them as well, worked great and (usually) great price especially on one way flights.  We are boarding the Maasdam today in Yokohama.  Our flight from NC to Tokyo was $300/pp with one stop in Dallas.

Edited August 27, 2019 by KirkNC

[utahtea]

1 hour ago, Ontariotrekker said:

Anyone booked their flights using HAL?  Any issues?

 

thanks Shar

 

We used Flight-ease for the first time and was very happy!  The airline we wanted because it was a direct flight home in premium economy from Copenhagen to SFO on the day we wanted was half the price though Flight-ease!  We got to choose our seats and I love the fact that if we had to cancel before final booking we didn't lose anything.  

 

Utahtea

[Ineke]

7 minutes ago, utahtea said:

 

We used Flight-ease for the first time and was very happy!  The airline we wanted because it was a direct flight home in premium economy from Copenhagen to SFO on the day we wanted was half the price though Flight-ease!  We got to choose our seats and I love the fact that if we had to cancel before final booking we didn't lose anything.  

 

Utahtea

 

Our TA booked us San-Diego to Vancouver with HAL, and we were very pleased with the cost, less than half of what we paid last year, which in itself was a very good seat-sale price.  Definitely going to do that again!

[rkacruiser]

None!  Seats assigned at the time of booking with better pricing than I could find on open jaw itineraries.

 

I needed to add wheelchair assistance to my YVR-MSP-DAY reservation and asked my travel agent to do so (the air booking was through HAL) after I arrived in Anchorage.  These were the less stressful flights that I have ever experienced from check-in at Vancouver to Dayton when the parking company's shuttle picked me up to take me to my car.  

[feathersandnananose]

We've done it twice.  First time (Los Angeles to Seattle and back)  was a piece of cake.  Second time (L.A. to Stockholm to Copenhagen, then Copenhagen to London and back) , we were given a very short connection time on the ride home, and our TA went back and re-arranged it.  She was SO RIGHT.  It took HOURS to get from here to there when at Heathrow.  But the prices were much better than we found elsewhere.

 

 

[westcoastcruiser]

We used it for RT Amsterdam business class this summer.  And we flew in over 3 weeks before our cruise so we could travel independently around Europe before setting sail.  Price was thousands cheaper than we could have found on our own.  Would not hesitate to use them again.

[rervousneck]

3 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

It's easier if you have a cruise booked.  

 

You open your booking.

Select travel planning.

Select post and pre cruise travel.

Select flights.

Enter the information.

Couple of factors, you do not have to use the default dates.  You can book a couple of days early or late.

Just scroll through the selections.

 

It's more difficult but doable if you don't have a booking.

Go to the Princess site and select a cruise leaving the same port with about the same dates.  

Princess and Holland use the same booking engine.

Thanks for the detailed reply. 

 

[RocketMan275]

2 hours ago, Poulsbo Cruisers said:

I love this feature with Princess. I wish HAL allowed for checking airfares without first booking the cruise. I bet HAL ends up with a lot of phony bookings just to check airfares. 

No.   You actually have to have booked a cruise to access the flight data.  Princess allows you to check flights without a booking.

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

2 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

No.   You actually have to have booked a cruise to access the flight data.  Princess allows you to check flights without a booking.

That’s what I said. 

[ski ww]

Good to know we'll use them for our cruise out of Amsterdam next year.

[Alberta Quilter]

I had one issue that I'll mention since the OP is Canadian.  I booked through HAL for reasons I won't get into here.  Flights are Alberta to Boston and Quebec City to Alberta on Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge; we leave this coming weekend.  I was given a good, inexpensive price, in CAD, which didn't surprise me given comments like the ones above.  I confirmed with my PCC that these flights were of a certain fare level which included the first piece of luggage, and 100% Aeroplan points.  The times sucked a bit but the prices were good so we went with it.

 

Turned out that we were booked in the lowest fare level with no luggage allowance and 50% Aeroplan points.  That was annoying enough but, again, we got a decent price.  What really ticked me off was when I purchased our seats in advance.  I was charged in USD!  That cost me an extra $100+ in foreign exchange over and above the seat cost!  I hadn't realized I would be charged in USD and it's my fault for not noticing that the charges were in USD when I booked them; I would have used a different credit card that doesn't add on the F/X 2.5% surcharge.  I called Air Canada and asked why I was charged in USD when all flights originate in Canada and I am Canadian.  It was because HAL booked the flights in USD and converted it to CAD to charge me.  (The AC agent told me that they could have booked it in CAD somehow; we didn't get into specifics.)  Because I had already transferred the booking to the Big Box Agency, I couldn't talk to my PCC about it nor could I talk to the Big Box Agency about it.  So, lesson learned; I'll ask a lot more questions if I ever book flights through HAL again. 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Alberta Quilter

[ger_77]

We've used HAL's Flight Ease for a number of trans-Atlantic cruises that require 1 way fares, and our most recent SE Asia cruise.  I went online to check the flights we wanted, then called the Flight Ease people and they set them up - at much more reasonable prices than I could find anywhere online.  Whether we were booking premium economy or business class, I always went online a couple of days after booking to confirm the seats with the airline.  We'll continue the process.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[Ontariotrekker]

Wow.  Thanks everyone for your quick and helpful responses.  As a Canadian, I always have to make doubly sure I'm getting quoted in $$CDN. 

My flight is a full month ahead of my ship embarkation in Australia and since I'm flying out in March the Hal feature of making sure you get a flight is handy. Right now Hal's quote is $350. cheaper than Air Canada on the flight I want.  The flight home from Vancouver to Toronto is cheaper on the AC website. 

 

Have a great Labour Day weekend everyone.  Shar

[janmcn]

We were doing a land tour in Switzerland this year followed by a cruise back out of Copenhagen. We were able to get Flight Ease to book flight from home to Copenhagen much cheaper than if we did it ourselves. Stayed overnight in Copenhagen and flew to Zurich on our own next day. After Swiss tour, flew on our own back to Copenhagen. Still way cheaper (since we flew the initial flight to Copenhagen in First Class) to buy the short flights ourselves. Nice to know that as long as you book from home to port it can be days/weeks earlier. 

[Daisyloo]

On 8/27/2019 at 5:43 PM, Ontariotrekker said:

Anyone booked their flights using HAL?  Any issues?

 

thanks Shar

 

We used HAL for flights last year.  To Rome for a TA cruise,  then home from Ft Lauderdale after the cruise.  It cost us significantly less than what we could find on our own.  We picked the airlines we wanted, the flights we wanted, chose our seats.  No issues at all.  We have booked flights  for this October through HAL again.

[Selion]

HAL noob here with 1st HAL cruise 9 months away (Memorial Day weekend 2020).  How far in advance should I book my flights?  It's domestic to Seattle.  I know I can cancel and rebook if I book flexible fares with HAL.  Anyone has a suggestion for the "Goldilock's Zone" for booking flights?

[JimnKaren]

We live in Florida, many of our cruises have only one air segment. For instance: we flew from home Atlanta to Buenos Aires direct. There were several options, including stopping in Panama City or Miami or Rio. Didn't want all that stuff. Told them what we wanted and it came in a lot less expensive than if I had booked it myself. The money I saved was used for liquid refreshments on the ship.

 

Jim

[TAD2005]

5 hours ago, Selion said:

HAL noob here with 1st HAL cruise 9 months away (Memorial Day weekend 2020).  How far in advance should I book my flights?  It's domestic to Seattle.  I know I can cancel and rebook if I book flexible fares with HAL.  Anyone has a suggestion for the "Goldilock's Zone" for booking flights?

The earliest you can book any flights is 330 days from your last flight, which could be after you disembark the ship, if you are flying home.   For domestic (US) flights, the prices start changing (going up or down) around 60 days out.  For international flights, 5 months is a good time to book.   Unless you are travelling to Europe in the summer.  Prices are very high from April to September for Europe.

[Lido deck main]

On 8/27/2019 at 2:43 PM, Ontariotrekker said:

Anyone booked their flights using HAL?  Any issues?

 

thanks Shar

We used HAL air this last spring  for direct flight Vancouver to Sydney, Australia, price was $400.00 per person cheaper then had we booked direct.  We went AC.  We have a current HAL flight for our cruise next spring.  We can refare up to final payment in January 2020.  Price for this flight is the same what I can get, no savings on this one.