Princess Air Question Re: Sapphire Princess March of 07

[SPARKLE10]

Hi:

 

I'm hoping that someone who has taken a Princess cruise to NZ/Australia, can help me with my question. We have a Sapphire cruise booked for March of next year and I had some questions about the air scheduling. We always book with the cruise line and thru a TA. I am using a different TA this time, than I normally use. (Long story). She is telling me that it is too early to get seats assigned .....even though we are using air deviation because we're flying in a day early to LAX from the midwest before we leave from LAX to Auckland, which is about a 13 hour flight I am told. We are just trying to break up the long flight and thought we would stay the night at the hotel in the airport at LAX. Another cruiser I have been talking with thru the "Meet & Mingle" thread for our cruise, told me that she paid the air deviation fee and has all four legs of her trip already booked with seat assignments and she was able to pick out her seats thru her TA, after Princess approved their flight plan. Now I am totally confused. My TA said it was too early (we're paying the air deviation also) but the lady from Georgia was able to do this. We live in Des Moines, Iowa. Do you think my TA knows what she is talking about, or perhaps I need to switch back to my regular TA ( I don't even know if I can do that, probably not.)

 

Any suggestions or comments?

 

Thanks.....Sparkle 10 (Anita) :confused:

[DonMaryCar]

Hey Anita

 

Sorry I can't give you a answer but wanted to say hi as we live in Clive. We just booked this cruise last week but we are flying on a package deal from Minneapolis but the on line agent I worked with said we couldn't do seats till pre-cruise documents arrived and our actual flights were assigned. We are doing back to back cruises on 1/23/07 and 02/04/07.

 

We booked it rather spur of the moment as was a time sensitve booking so now doing my research to make sure it is the cruise we want to take before our final payment is due in November.

 

Maybe we can keep in touch

 

Mary

[SPARKLE10]

Hi Mary:

 

Would love to keep in touch. We've cruised quite a bit, but this is our first time to NZ/Australia. We're looking forward to this cruise, but not the long flight. Just think.....this cruise will be here before we know it. It will be nice to get out of town in March, after one of our winters here.

 

Later,

 

Sparkle 10 (Anita):)

[MVPinBoynton]

Anita,

We didn't do deviation because we used the Princess hotels. We were able to contact Quantas and Air New Zealand about 6 weeks before the cruise and select different seats than were assigned to us.

[DonMaryCar]

Anita

 

The last few years every time we leave Iowa they have nice weather. 2 years ago we took Hawaii cruise and the weather was seriously warmer here than it was on our cruise. It was in March. Last year we took a January trip, no snow, April trip gorgeous weather. We have our neighbors watch the house while we are gone and to cover snow removal, they always love it when we are gone cause weather is good. We are taking a Florida trip and then cruise 11/26 - 12/17 then leaving on 1/20 for our back to back Australia cruises so Iowa may have a miled winter till late February when we return then look out.

 

We have done 17 or 18 cruises, we keep saying we need to set down and figure them up. First cruise was in 1985, I was sicker than a dog so we didn't cruise again till 2000 then we have been a regular since that time.

 

I'll let you know when we hear anything about our flights as our trip is in January maybe I can shed some light on it for you. Our agent said we could request seating but she couldn't guarantee it.

 

Nice to talk with ya

 

Mary

[SPARKLE10]

Hi Mary:

 

We started taking cruises in 1985, when our son went off to college at ISU, and we've taken one or two cruises a year (sometimes 3). We're still working full time. We retired from one of our jobs and then started working again to support our "cruise habit". I think our Freedom of the Seas New Years Cruise this year, will be our 40th cruise. I would like to be really retired one of these days. We have 3 cruised booked for next year and I even have one booked for 2008.

 

Happy Cruising......Sparkle 10 (Anita)

 

PS I know what you mean about the weather. We were in Hawaii one year and it was actually warmer here. You just never know.;)

[Desert Cruisers]

Have you tried contacting the airlines directly? You may be able to get seat assignments that way. Some international carriers may not assign economy class seats this early so even if other cruisers have been able to get seats, they may be on different airlines than you.:)

[suefalls]

Most of the airlines do not show seats until 90-120 days out approx. We cannot get seats assignments for our Fort Lauderdale trip on Northwest for JAN. 3/2007 til 90 days ahead. I'm sure most airlines have something similar. Any assignment would be up in the air, so I don't think your TA is wrong. Check the airline websites by doing a dummy reservation and see if they will let you select your seats, and you will know.

[mare s.]

We are doing our air independently (United and Air New Zealand) and were able to get seat assignments already (in fact, about a month ago) for our March 2007 flights. I've been told that if you book your air directly with Princess, you aren't able to get seat assignments until right before you leave. I think it's a matter of which airline you go on and whether or not you are booking the air yourself or going through Princess.

[never2late]

Just wondered if you were sitting in the economy section of the plane -- any tips for getting seats with a little more leg room. When we flew back from Tahiti I felt like a pretzel for 8 hours -- I cannot imagine sitting like that for 13.

 

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Andrea:)

[mare s.]

The only time we were able to get a seat with more leg room in economy was when I broke my foot and had to travel with a cast on one leg! Then they gave us bulkhead seats! But I wouldn't recommend that option LOL. United does have a super-economy section with a bit more leg room, but of course you pay more for that. Otherwise, we try to get aisle seats and hope for the best.