Where do you purchase your airfare?

[momof3boyz]

Where do most people purchase their airfare from? Do people tend to go through the cruiseline? A travel-agent? Or just book it themselves online?

[EggDropErin]

We always purchase ours online. Usually through Southwest or Airtran for the cheapest rates. A good comparison website to look at would be http://www.kayak.com

 

I find that site is great to search multiple airlines at once. They don't sell you tickets, they just help you shop for airfare and direct you to where they found the rates. They don't, however, have all of the airlines listed, so you might have to so some more checking on your own.

[cherylandtk]

The only reason to purchase airfare from the cruise line is a) you don't want to be bothered with any details and don't care if you pay a higher cost as long as someone else handles all the details or b) You are flying a route that is international or at a busy time (Spring Break to Florida) and you cannot find cheaper flights yourself.

 

Booking yourself is usually cheaper, you can pick your routings and fly in a day early and not have to worry about making the ship on time. You can often pay for the hotel with the saved airfare costs and then some. If your flights are delayed using cruise air (which almost always arrives the day of the cruise), the cruiseline usually makes some sort of effort to help you out and arrange transportation to the ship, but they are not contractually obligated to do so.

[wrp96]

It depends. When I book the cruise, I usually book it with cruise air included and then look for cheaper air on my own. If I find cheaper air, then I cancel the cruise air and book on my own. For most of my cruises though, cruise air has been less expensive than booking on my own, even doing the custom air option through the cruise line where I choose my own flights.

 

I use search engines like Kayak.com and sidestep.com to search for airfare, plus search Southwest's website (because Southwest is not included in any search engines).

[bububr]

I usually book directly with America West/US Airways or Southwest.

 

I plan my vacations usually a year or more in advance, so I am up to when the new rates are usually posted.

 

Example. It only takes a few minutes to check every morning.

 

For my 1/04/07 Bahamas cruise I booked RT air MDW FLL for $98.00

For my 1/12/07 Ensenada cruise I booked RT air MDW LAX for $178.00

For my 2/08/07 Vegas trip I booked RT air MDW LAS for $208.00

For my 3/23/07 Caribbean cruise I booked RT MDW TPA for $98.00

 

I'm paying about $580 for airfare for FOUR vacations...averaging $145.00 per trip:)

 

Call me cheap...I'll call myself resourceful

 

Dave:eek:

[Sheffie]

Another site to check is sidestep.com. That site and kayak cover most of the airlines, and sometimes they show different options.

[MIZZ_K]

I just recently booked my 2nd cruise ( 1st time solo ) and purchased my air through the American Airlines site I did check our cruise air but they were asking $389.00 and i did not like the fact that I did not know my times or any details, the cost for the flight i got was $238.00 nonstop from Boston to Miami

[celbercrz333]

We've booked our airline online three times in the past year or two without incident. We like USA 3000 which only has limited flghts. Air Tran lost our luggage (just the golf clubs and we were doing a golf package), but they found them before our first round. American Airlines was ok. Southwest was good, they don't do assigned seating, you are assigned line A, B or C and go on the plane accordingly.

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

My wife and I have been on 15 cruises. It has been my experience that you can save money making your own air arrangements and fly when you want to, rather than when the cruise line air package wants you to fly. However, if you don't want to take the time and effort to do the necessary research then the cruise line air (arranged by your TA) will be fine.

 

Please note though that you should be very, very careful when you make your own air arrangements and especially, do not be penny wise and pound foolish. In October of 2006, we flew American Airlines to Dublin, and Alitalia from Dublin to Milan, Italy. We wanted to visit northern Italy prior to a transatlantic cruise from Venice to Galveston.

 

Alitalia has very strict weight requirements for luggage, and this meant that we had to carefully weigh our suitcases to avoid hefty excess charges. As a result we had to leave some clothes home that otherwise would have been nice to have on an 18 day cruise. We were just under the limit and we had a very nice flight with Alitalia.

 

Suggestion....do your research including luggage requirements for international airlines if you want to use these airlines for flights within Europe. The Kayak. Orbitz, Expedia systems are excellent sources but make sure that you look at the airlines websites as well before purchasing.

 

Hope that this helps,

 

Fred

[on board]

Agree with what all said, we always start off booking through Cruise Line, but always end up canceling and getting our own. Use the search engines suggested here. So far we have always gone with Priceline.com. WE started off paying 399.00 from Cincinnati to San Juan, I booked through PL for 179.00 per person. WE are flying in a day early so that we would have no problem getting to the ship on time. If time is not an issue for you, you can bid on your flight. I would not suggest this because you don't get to choose your time of flights therefore you really have no control of anything.

[wrp96]

It has been my experience that you can save money making your own air arrangements and fly when you want to, rather than when the cruise line air package wants you to fly.

 

It really does depend on where you live, where you are cruising from, and when you are cruising whether cruise air is more expensive or not. As I said above, for 5 of my 7 cruises, the cruise are was much less expensive than booking on my own, and I even went with the custom air option where I still got to choose my own flights. BUT I live in a town with an airport with few flight choices to a cruise. Southwest is rarely cheaper than other airlines from our airport and has worse schedules. It's best to do your research all ways and not assume one is cheaper than the other.

[Keith1010]

We prefer to purchase our tickets directly from the airline and not through the cruise line. Usually we can find a price that is equal to or better than the cruise line and it allows us to select the airline that we want and the specific flight that we want and we can get our seat assignments earlier since the airlines to not provide your tickets until you receive your final cruise documents which is usually around 3 to 4 weeks before your cruise.

 

One item to consider when you book. I highly recommend that you fly in the day before your cruise. Flying in the day of your cruise poses risk should the flight either be delayed or canceled due to a variety of reasons from severe weather conditions to mechanical issues.

 

Keith

[Fredr]

hello,

 

The nice folks from Little Rock are correct, because there may be situations where the cruise line's air might be better than what you can find on your own. I am fortunate because Southern California has 5 airports that I can use. The point here is to do your research and compare not only prices but times of flights, change of planes, airports used when you must change planes among other variables. A truly outstanding website is Flightstats.com, which is loaded with very interesting and informative information on airports and airlines throughout the world.

 

And I agree with the other respondents that you should arrive in your cruise departure port at least the day before your cruise.

 

Fred

[chasetf]

As some have noted, depends on where you are starting from and where you are going. We live within 1-2 hrs of three major airports (one major international).

 

We check what we can get online, get the cruise line quote from our TA and decide. Usually we can do it cheaper and more convenient on our own. Europe we like to do pre and post, sometimes throw in an extra stop. Those we do on our own.

 

Tahiti we did with the cruise line because there are not many options, and the cruise line had the best price.

 

US and Canada we have usually ended up on our own, but we again like to fly in the day before to give us breathing room.

[monakayk]

I have daily airfare 'alerts' come into my e-mails for various places I am interested in traveling too. I book ALL my travel arrangements online and certainly my airfares---have alway gotten great rates!

[airbusdrvr]

Something else to consider. Cruiseline companies buy huge blocks of airline seats at deep discounts. If you booked your cruise with air you are somewhat near the bottom of the totem pole , along with the people that purchased tickets on hotwire , priceline , or other discount websites. This is all fine when you are sitting next to a person that paid twice or more what you paid until ........... something goes wrong. The flight cancels, gets diverted has a major delay ect. Then the cheap ticket holder becomes a second class passenger. The person that paid twice what you did now has priority over you getting on the next flight.

 

If your flight cancels at the last minute and the next flight only has 5 available seats guess who gets those seats, it probably won't be the hotwire fare ticket holder. Priority goes to the person that paid the highest airfare and the airline doen't care if you miss your cruise ship with your cheap ticket. Getting the best airfare deal online is great until things start going wrong and always remember this with a discount ticket. Until you have a confirmed assigned seat you are basically a standby passenger. If you are told you will get your seat assignment at the gate what they really mean is the flight is already over-sold and there are no seats to assign at the time.

 

 

 

We almost missed the ship about 10 years ago due to bad weather on the east coast but since so many flights were late RCCL changed the ship departure until 10pm , it was suppose to have sailed at 5pm . We heard almost 300 cruisers were on delayed flights for that cruise and thats why they held the ship . After all the anxiety of that day thinking we had missed the ship I told my DW from now on we will fly into the port city the day before the cruise . The cruiselines offer this for a reasonable fee.

 

IMHO it is well worth waking up at the departure port city refreshed, getting a nice breakfast and then transfering to the pier for an early embarkation before the huge crowds arrive .

 

If you must fly in on the day of the cruise I think it is well worth booking the airfare with the cruiseline. If you miss the ship due to an air delay and it can happen due to numerous reasons , the cruiseline will pay to get you to the ship. If you bought your own airfare you are on your own to get to the ship ....... something to consder.

[drfeelgood]

Until you have a confirmed assigned seat you are basically a standby passenger. If you are told you will get your seat assignment at the gate what they really mean is the flight is already over-sold and there are no seats to assign at the time.

 

I found this out the hard way last year. Exactly as you said airbusdrvr, I booked the cruise with air to Miami through RCCL and called to confirm my seats the day after I received the cruise documents. I was told by the airline that my seat assignments would be given at the gate, I never thought about the flight being over-booked. We show up at the ticket counter and asked for our seat assignments while we were checking luggage. The lady said we would get our seat assignment at the gate, now they had me wondering. We arrive at the gate and the sign said "volunteers needed" , which is not a good sign to see if you must be on that flight and don't have an assigned seat.

 

Luckily we were going down the day before the cruise so time was not critical. We had tickets but did not get on that flight due to an over-sell situation. In the end it worked out ok, the airline flew us to Fort Lauderdale 2 hours later and put us on a van to Miami . We also received 2 free round-trip tickets from the airline that we used last summer to fly to San Francisco. I agree with ABD 100% about buying air with the cruise if you fly in on the day of the cruise. If you buy your own airfare to save a few dollars but miss the ship , those few dollars you saved sure will cost you later.

[SeaMeSmile]

Hi all! First time poster here :)

 

I booked my cruise with RCCL but after seeing what they were charging for airfare (N. California to Miami, well over $500 per person - ouch!), I did some research of my own. Here are 2 great sites that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

 

FareCompare.com

 

Farecast.com

 

I booked us a red-eye out of Sacramento ($378 per person), arriving in Miami at 11a.m. Sunday morning, the day before our cruise to the Bahamas. I'd also booked a Hotwire deal for a 4+ star hotel and economy car ($140 total cost - what a great deal!), so we picked up our car at the airport and hit South Beach for the day. Later that evening, we retired to our luxurious room, had a wonderful sleep, waking up rested and relaxed the next morning. Did some more sightseeing, returned the rental car to the airport, took a taxi to the Port of Miami, and was onboard and eating a fantastic lunch by 1:30p.m.

 

Sorry about the long diatribe (although I enjoyed reliving it! :D ), but my point is this: had we booked our airfare through the cruiseline, we wouldn't have been able to afford spending an extra day beforehand in Miami, plus we got full control over what flights/seats/airports we used.

 

It never hurts to see what the cruiselines charge for airfare, but I'd be pretty darn surprised if, dollarwise, it comes out in the customer's favor. (kinda like those over-priced shore excursions - but that's a whole other can o' worms ;) )