AllAtSea75 Posted July 20 #1 Share Posted July 20 (Hope this is the correct place now) Hi all. Just joined this website. We are hoping all being well to cruise on QE cunard next year to Miami and the Caribbean. The flights with Cunard come out at £1000 each. This is TOO much money for a return flight to Miami, so I want to get our own flights. I've heard it's possible to do that and then link those flights to the cruise. I'm asking is this quite straightforward with Cunardline? We cruised to the carribean with P&O a couple of years ago and did something like this and paid a bit extra to fly with BA instead of Tui. However, the flights were a lot out of sync with the holiday timings, meaning we didn't get to the ship until 10pm (the passengers who flew with Tui were on board the ship by 3pm that day) also travelling back, were quite a lot of hours wait at Barbados airport, standing in the queue and heat, waiting for our flights and checking in. This Cunard cruise is a special occasion, so I want the travel there and back to be smooth as possible really. All advice welcome and thanks in advance. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Kat Posted July 20 #2 Share Posted July 20 1 hour ago, AllAtSea75 said: (Hope this is the correct place now) Hi all. Just joined this website. We are hoping all being well to cruise on QE cunard next year to Miami and the Caribbean. The flights with Cunard come out at £1000 each. This is TOO much money for a return flight to Miami, so I want to get our own flights. I've heard it's possible to do that and then link those flights to the cruise. I'm asking is this quite straightforward with Cunardline? We cruised to the carribean with P&O a couple of years ago and did something like this and paid a bit extra to fly with BA instead of Tui. However, the flights were a lot out of sync with the holiday timings, meaning we didn't get to the ship until 10pm (the passengers who flew with Tui were on board the ship by 3pm that day) also travelling back, were quite a lot of hours wait at Barbados airport, standing in the queue and heat, waiting for our flights and checking in. This Cunard cruise is a special occasion, so I want the travel there and back to be smooth as possible really. All advice welcome and thanks in advance. 🙂 @AllAtSea75 Your thread has been moved to the Cunard Line forum where it will be more on topic. Happy sails, Host Kat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moses0 Posted July 21 #3 Share Posted July 21 Welcome to the Cunard community page. You will find a lot of helpful people here. Why do you have to link your flight to Cunard? Am I missing something? We always book our own flights. Fly into Miami at least the day before the cruise and maybe have a day in Miami before flying home. We live in Florida yet if I was going out of Miami I would probably go the day before. I am sure you will have a wonderful time. Queen Elizabeth is a lovely ship. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rog747 Posted July 21 #4 Share Posted July 21 (edited) Yes, I agree, ideally fly in to MIA the day before if you are booking your own flights independently.... QE sails from the Port of Miami and not Port Everglades for these Caribbean winter cruises. Virgin and BA & AA fly all direct from LHR, and Norse Atlantic Airways fly from LGW. Norse have very cheap fares, including Premium Economy. Aer Lingus have a Dublin-Miami service, which is handy if you live near a UK regional airport where Aer Lingus fly from to Dublin (such as out of BHX BRS or SOU) and their through fares can be very reasonable when having the benefit from going from your own local airport. Your luggage is checked all the way through, and you also enjoy pre-clearing US Immigration and Customs at the Dublin stopover, so when you land at MIA you simply collect your bags and walk out. (ask Cunard to quote you too for Norse and Aer Lingus, as well as costing it yourself) If you do choose to book your flights with Cunard, you will get transfers and have the security and comfort they will look after you if things go wrong. Edited July 21 by rog747 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poole Boy Posted July 21 #5 Share Posted July 21 Based on this years schedule, there are no flights from the UK, that get you into Miami early enough to Fly and Embark the same day, so you need to factor in the cost of a Hotel, when looking at the cost of flights If you want to link the flights and the cruise , the only way you can do this is to buy a Cruise / Flight package from either Cunard or a Travel agent. ( don't forget with Cunard you can still specify you flights, but you may loose the group transfer element) If you book the cruise from Cunard and book the flights your self, direct from the airline or another travel agent, you will not be able to link the bookings, and you will be solely responsible for any delays in getting to the ship ( and getting your self to/ from the ship and airport / hotel) While the cost of Cunard flights may be high, it does include transfers and overnight Hotel stay if required, it does also include a level of security in the knowledge that if anything goes wrong en route, it will be Cunard problem to sort things out and you gain the financial protection that is part of the UK package holiday regulations) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllAtSea75 Posted July 21 Author #6 Share Posted July 21 7 hours ago, moses0 said: Welcome to the Cunard community page. You will find a lot of helpful people here. Why do you have to link your flight to Cunard? Am I missing something? We always book our own flights. Fly into Miami at least the day before the cruise and maybe have a day in Miami before flying home. We live in Florida yet if I was going out of Miami I would probably go the day before. I am sure you will have a wonderful time. Queen Elizabeth is a lovely ship. Hi. We have been saving Avios points to convert into BA flights (basically get a better experience during a long haul flight) so I want to use these flying with BA. But I think they have to be linked somehow between the flight and cruise operators, to make them usable or something like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllAtSea75 Posted July 21 Author #7 Share Posted July 21 (edited) 1 hour ago, Poole Boy said: Based on this years schedule, there are no flights from the UK, that get you into Miami early enough to Fly and Embark the same day, so you need to factor in the cost of a Hotel, when looking at the cost of flights If you want to link the flights and the cruise , the only way you can do this is to buy a Cruise / Flight package from either Cunard or a Travel agent. ( don't forget with Cunard you can still specify you flights, but you may loose the group transfer element) If you book the cruise from Cunard and book the flights your self, direct from the airline or another travel agent, you will not be able to link the bookings, and you will be solely responsible for any delays in getting to the ship ( and getting your self to/ from the ship and airport / hotel) While the cost of Cunard flights may be high, it does include transfers and overnight Hotel stay if required, it does also include a level of security in the knowledge that if anything goes wrong en route, it will be Cunard problem to sort things out and you gain the financial protection that is part of the UK package holiday regulations) This is all true. Ideally, I would like to fly with BA. The cruise I'm looking at is October 2025, so if I can fly with BA via Cunard, then I'll have to bite the bullet as it were and pay the extra. The main thing is flying with BA. Incidentally, when is the best time to book for a years time trip?(talking about getting the best offers and incentives) This particular cruise is quoting to book before September 2024, to get almost double the spend on board. Should we take advantage of this offer and book, or do Cunard offer greater savings so wait until further in the year? Edited July 21 by AllAtSea75 Additional information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poole Boy Posted July 21 #8 Share Posted July 21 8 minutes ago, AllAtSea75 said: Hi. We have been saving Avios points to convert into BA flights (basically get a better experience during a long haul flight) so I want to use these flying with BA. But I think they have to be linked somehow between the flight and cruise operators, to make them usable or something like that. Booking BA with Avios, would be a booking independent of the cruise, there would not be any way to link the bookings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LadyL1 Posted July 21 #9 Share Posted July 21 5 minutes ago, AllAtSea75 said: Hi. We have been saving Avios points to convert into BA flights (basically get a better experience during a long haul flight) so I want to use these flying with BA. But I think they have to be linked somehow between the flight and cruise operators, to make them usable or something like that. You cannot use Avios with any Cunard BA flight booking. If you book a fare yourself, you are on your own as already said, and Cunard or any cruise line, will not tag this on to their system. This is from years of experience! We have used Avios to get to Florida and stayed for a couple of nights for the safety net. Think about what has just happened to airlines/Crowdstrike this past few days, if you had been caught up in that with your own airfare, you would be panic mode trying to sort. Have you asked Cunard for oneway flight to Miami, and use Avios for return? It is easy to get a taxi from the port, but majority of eastbound TA flights start leaving late afternoon, so an airport wait seems inevitable. Enjoy the cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david63 Posted July 21 #10 Share Posted July 21 17 minutes ago, AllAtSea75 said: Incidentally, when is the best time to book for a years time trip?(talking about getting the best offers and incentives) Nobody knows and if they did then that is when everybody would book. Standard rules apply - if you are happy with the price/deal then that is the time to book - yes it may go down next week but equally it could go up next week - and if you are not happy with the price then don't book. Whatever you do it is a gamble but once booked you are better off not looking at the price again. As a rule of thumb prices tend to be the lowest when booking opens, but there can obviously be exceptions to that. If you lived in the US then there are far better deals being reported than you can get in the UK. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LadyL1 Posted July 21 #11 Share Posted July 21 The price Cunard quoted you must be a guesstimate as you cannot book airline seats over a year in advance. I am almost certain you could book cruise only now and add the flight later; might be worth a phone call on this, but has always been so in previous years, Perhaps when BA has one of their frequent sales the price could be advantageous. (I assume Cunard are not doing charters for these Caribbean cruises. Be aware that when booking BA you have to pay extra to book a preferred seat certainly up to and inc business class, which is grating, unless you are very high on their frequent flyer programme. Not many mainstream airlines do this: Virgin and most US airlines you can book seat with the code given by agent. Hope this helps. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Pushpit Posted July 21 #12 Share Posted July 21 If avoiding school and public holidays, where different dynamics apply, then buying in the 5 to 8 weeks to departure period is historically the cheapest time to buy since at this stage airlines start getting jittery about unfilled inventory. Those who buy at 355 days (in the case of BA) won't usually be offered the lower fare buckets such as N, O and Q (or I in the case of business class, T in the case of premium economy) since anyone buying on day 355 must travel and will pay accordingly. Competitions kicks in at day 330 when other airline open their inventory, and again at about 180 days when the low cost carriers such as Icelandair, Norse and Magic start tuning inventory. Hence by day 50 to departure all the airlines are making a proper effort to compete. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare foodsvcmgr Posted July 21 #13 Share Posted July 21 Without question fly in at least one day prior. Don’t worry about transfers as it is no more than 20 minute taxi airport to downtown or pier. If you aren’t concerned about staying beachfront in South Beach, I suggest Hyatt Centric in Brickell which has views of the ships coming into port and is 10 minutes to the pier. You’ll save hundreds of dollars and be in a very nice neighborhood with easy walking to a variety of excellent restaurants. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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