PG Flight question

[etmanch]

I am so excited!!!! I have a 72hr hold on the April 2008 FP cruise for my DH and I. It is our 15th wedding anniversary and the PG is just the place to celebrate! What I am not sure about is whether to book Regent air now or wait till we get a little closer to see if we can get a better price from Regent. We are flying either out of Toronto or Buffalo since we are close to both gateways. This will be our 5th Cruise with the last one on the Westerdam. It just keeps getting better :) Everyone on these boards are so great and the information invaluable. I am hoping someone can help me decide on what to do with the Air. I have till Thursday end of day to firm up with my deposits. Thanks everyone!!

[Westiemom2]

We are going in April '08 too. Which date are you sailing?

[etmanch]

We are sailing on April 19th, 2008. Lots and lots of time for us to plan our trip :p. Are you on this sailing with us in April?

[canadagal]

You can book Regent Air now and drop it before final payment if you decide to arrange your own air. I personally would book the air now as I know that our air went up in price 2 months after booking and it now costs more on the Regent website as well as an additional Fuel surcharge was added later but because we were booked and deposited we were exempt from the 2 increases.

[Iamboatman]

I agree. Book the air now and drop it if you find something better.

 

BTW, air travel to Tahiti is getting quite difficult as many flights have been dropped in the past months. I think this will probably be a changing market, so even if you book your own you may find you eventually will not be able to meet the ship as they days of your flights may change.

[Dreps]

I agree that you should book now with Regent. Except for Tahiti, we always arrange our own air--mostly so that we can get FF business class tickets on long hauls, although sometimes we just get better fares for coach tickets. However, for Tahiti, unless you are flying from JFK or LAX and there is a good special from Air Tahiti Nui, it is difficult to beat Regent's airfares. As others have said, you can always drop the air, if something does come up.

[etmanch]

Thanks everyone for helping me decide. I am going ahead and booking the Air to be on the safe side.

 

Now I just have to wait till April '08 before I can get on this wonderful cruise :(

[Wendy The Wanderer]

etmanch, I'd be interested to hear what you save by booking Regent Air from Buffalo. They've just changed their air rates to separate-off Canada, and Toronto rates are now higher than "Northeast". So you could save a bit by flying from Buffalo.

 

Having flown there and back 3 times from Toronto, the air has always been a fairly good deal, we have never tried to book our own. Air Tahiti Nui does have specials from time-to-time, so it bears investigation.

[etmanch]

Hi Wendy,

 

The difference in price to fly out of Buffalo vs Toronto using Regent Air is $480.00 for two. We figure we will fly out of Buffalo and keep the $480.00 for some fun on our trip. When we priced Princess TP just to see the difference in costs Princess Air was about $1,600 cheaper out of Buffalo ...gulp....I wish I could book Princess Air for my PG cruise :D

 

Well I guess beauty does not come cheap so for the next year no daily Tim Hortons for me. Perhaps that will help cover my flight costs ;)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Wow, that's good to know, and the Princess rate makes me not ever want to do the TP! We live downtown, and flying from Buffalo would be a pain, although we could do it. It would mean driving there and spending the night I would imagine, so hardly worthwhile, especially since it's Buffalo! ;), althought for $1600 bucks it would be worth it!

 

It's amazing how much staying away from Timmies can help with vacation spending! Good luck with the planning.

[Cruising Librarian]

My beef about the Regent air package on the PG is that is you don't buy the precruise deal you most likely won't get to the ship til late on the first day. We didn't check in til after 9 PM on our 7 day, and if we hadn't finagled a little on the 10 day we wouldn't even be scheduled to land in Papetee until 11:30 PM on the first day of the cruise!

 

I've been on 4 other cruises with other lines, and always was scheduled to arrive at the ship in the late afternoon.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Well, that's an artifact of the flight schedules on ATN. I believe the NY flight arrives very late (which is why the PG now leave early the next morning instead of the first evening.) But if you don't fly direct, there's at least one flight from LA that arrives just after sunset, so you would be on the ship by 7 or 8.

 

Since they really don't want people on the ship until 3 anyways, that's not really much you're missing, except for unpacking and relaxing.

[canadagal]

It makes you wonder what's in Tim's besides the coffee........it's the first thing I'm craving as soon as I land back home and have to stop enroute to get my fix. Here is some new info about Air Tahiti Nui flights.

Pat

 

Tourism : 03/21/2007 at 5:26PM

Air Tahiti Nui to add 2 LAX-PPT flights to offset impact of no Air NZ flights

 

(Tahitipresse) - Air Tahiti Nui has announced it will add a seventh weekly Papeete-Los Angeles flight on April 2 and an eighth weekly flight on June 16 to help compensate for the seating capacity loss due to Air New Zealand's April 2 curtailment of its three weekly Los Angeles-Papeete-Rarotonga-Auckland flights.

 

Tahiti's international carrier also will continue its three weekly non-stop Papeete-New York flights during the high season from June 17 to Aug. 26, but will switch to two weekly flights during the low season from Aug. 26 to Oct. 29, according to an airline communiqué sent out on March 20 with its April 1-Oct. 31 flight schedule.

 

The main priority for the two low season flights on the New York route is the same that the airline is using for its decision to suspend one of its current three weekly Papeete-Sydney flights from March 26. That priority is to improve the average number of seats filled on those flights, or what is known as the passenger load factor.

 

However, Air Tahiti Nui reportedly plans to resume the third weekly non-stop Papeete-Sydney flight on Dec. 9 for the rest of December and probably into January. The third weekly flight will be added during other high season peak traveling periods next year.

 

On the Auckland route, Air Tahiti Nui will suspend one of its three weekly flights as Air New Zealand increases its non-stop turnaround flights from one to two weekly. The two carriers will use a reciprocal code share agreement to offer seats on the four weekly flights.

 

For the Papeete-Los Angeles-Paris route, Air Tahiti Nui will continue its five weekly flights from April 1 to Oct. 31, but will add two flights during the peak summer traveling period when the demand for seats to Tahiti is traditionally the greatest. A sixth weekly flight will operate from June 11 to Oct. 29. A seventh weekly flight will operate from June 27 to Sept. 29.

 

Noticing a slight improvement on its route to Japan, Air Tahiti Nui said there would be no changes to its two weekly Papeete-Tokyo flights and one weekly Papeete-Tokyo-Osaka flight.

 

Air Tahiti Nui operates its seven-destination network with five 294-passenger Airbus A340-300 aircraft.

[Iamboatman]

As I said, the air schedules are ever changing...and I am sure they will change again after they try the new schedules and adjust those!

 

BTW, the best cure for the late night arrivals is to arrive a couple of days early and chill out on land so you can truly enjoy the cruise. It may not be an option for all, but if you can do it I would highly suggest it.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I agree boatman, we've been three times, and always managed at least an overnight before the cruise. Absolutely worth it.

[azgkrudi]

Well, that's an artifact of the flight schedules on ATN. I believe the NY flight arrives very late (which is why the PG now leave early the next morning instead of the first evening.) But if you don't fly direct, there's at least one flight from LA that arrives just after sunset, so you would be on the ship by 7 or 8.

 

Since they really don't want people on the ship until 3 anyways, that's not really much you're missing, except for unpacking and relaxing.

 

I was disappointed that they revised their flight schedule - for our PG cruise last June, we left LAX at 1:00pm and arrived early evening. We are booked on the New Year's cruise set to leave PPT on December 29th, and the earliest flight now out of LAX is at 4:30pm, arriving PPT 9:30pm!!! Ugh. We are currently on that flight but are trying to see if we can get an extra day off from work in order to leave the day beforehand, which, as luck would have it, still has the 1:00pm flight.

 

If not, we'll just hope they revise their schedule again to operate an earlier flight. The RSSC website says the ship leaves PPT at 23:59 on 12/29. With what you said, Wendy, I bet they state that time and it ends up actually being whenever all passengers arrive in from the late night flights...?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I think so, yes. That's too bad that ATN has changed their scheds.

[Iamboatman]

FYI, Air Tahiti Nui has just announced some flights in April to June which are between $518 (LAX) and $618 (JFK).

 

Maybe someone can use them for a last minute cruise!