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Cruise Air and Air Deviation Explanation


greatam
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In addition to the above post, I notice on RCCI website that if I book without air the stateroom price goes up $600 a person.

 

I don't understand. Sounds like what you purchased is a "package" deal-cruise/air/transfers, maybe even a hotel all packaged together for one price.

 

IF that is what you purchased, there really is no way to take out the air. It is a package. However, if it is the normal cruise/air deal, where you first pick the cruise and then can add or subtract the air, you can continue to search for a better deal.

 

And please be aware that quite a few of the cruise lines DO NOT guarantee the air price until you make final payment, EXCEPT on a "package" deal. So if you were quoted $1099.00pp (does that include taxes and fees???), you may pay $1099pp OR you may pay a higher amount. This policy was instituted last year when oil prices were going up daily.

 

1.You need to find out if you have a package deal. Not much you can do about it if you want the cruise. You will most likely arrive 3-4 hours pre cruise. Really not too much chance of a large problem UNLESS the outbound flight is canceled or in the rare circumstance that you DO NOT have a nonstop from LAX to SYD. Connecting flights and cruise air present the most problems.

 

2. IF you do not have a package price, is your air price GUARANTEED or is there the possibility that you may pay more when you make final payment??

 

You can fly Air Pacific out of LAX through Nadi Fiji (short stopover, although you are allowed to stay up to three days at the same price) for about $1150. Also watch V Australia-they have been running some super cheap fares-$700-850 LAX to SYD and SFO/SYD.

 

There are also other options but no sense wasting time if you booked a "package deal"

Edited by greatam
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The cruise is in Feb of 2010. The cruise air is $1817. the flights are

 

TUS to LAX UA 6391 18:20 to 18:49

LAX to SYD UA 0839 22:17 to 7:50 +2days

 

PEK to SFO UA 5453 16:00 to 12:20

SFO to TUS UA 6352 18:45 to 20:45

 

If I do a booking on United the price is $4510.

 

I like the one connection each way and the non stop on the long haul. The delta flights i looked at all had connecitons in SLC in Feb which can always be a concern for weather.

 

Final payment has not been made. these flights include my requested air deviation for 2 days early.

 

You don't post exact dates and there is often $500 difference between flying on Sunday from Asia to the USA and flying Monday. I fly to Asia 3-4 times per year for business. And the planes are PACKED to the USA on Sundays.

 

I can see Delta flights as low as $1278 taxes and fees included for certain dates in February. Yes, they fly through SLC. NOT a lot of problems in the winter in Salt Lake. I own an international logistics company with 60 semi trucks running coast to coast all winter. RARELY do I have one call in and say there are BIG winter weather problems in SLC. Western Wyoming/Utah border-yes. North of SLC at the Idaho border, yes. But SLC sits essentially in a valley and they just don't get that much snow.

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In addition to the above post, I notice on RCCI website that if I book without air the stateroom price goes up $600 a person.

 

I just checked the RCCL website. For me, your cruise (Jan 7) junior suite/balcony, cruise only price was actually $40 cheaper booking without air (I am sure that was the transfer fee or maybe additional taxes).

 

If you booked with a TA, you cannot compare with the RCCL website. The agent may have put a "package" together. The agent may also have a group going on the cruise and you got group pricing, even though you are not part of the group. OR the agent "blocked" cabins and is a top seller for RCCL. Those agents get better prices per booking.

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Thank you for your response. I lived in Colorado for many years and remember snowy winters.

 

February 17 2010 The cruise leaves on the 21st at 9PM.

TUS to LAX UA 6391 18:20 to 18:49

LAX to SYD UA 0839 22:17 to 7:50 +2days

 

The cruise arrives in Xingang on March 29 with an overnight accomodation provided.

 

March 30

PEK to SFO UA 5453 16:00 to 12:20

SFO to TUS UA 6352 18:45 to 20:45

 

I have not rechecked the prices lately. Is it better to have a layover on the long haul or non stop?

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We were on a quick Bahamas cruise on the Monarch in May. They offered to book future cruises for a $200 deposit with a $300 onboard credit for cruises 14 days or longer. We'd already planned on booking the Oz-NZ cruise on the Rhapsody on Jan 7 2010 so we went ahead and took advantage of the offer. The future cruise consultant asked us if we wanted airfare included and that we could always take it off later. So he booked the cruise with the airfare alone pricing at $1799 each. We booked an outside cabin. Recently I called to change the cabin to a D1 and asked them also to remove the airfare. They lowered the price of the cruise for a D1 category to $2900 each and airfare of $1099 each. That sounded good to us...at least until I read this thread. I don't want to spend 2 days flying around the pacific ocean. That is my concern. We are flying LAX-SYD and flights right now are about $1300 w/tax.

I went to RCCL's website and picked a D1 Cat as if I were just purchasing it. It gave me $3499 each. Then I went back and added airfare and it showed $2900 each and airfare of $1099. So I'm wondering if I drop the airfare with RC will they raise the price of the cruise?

Sorry for the long post.

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I would call and ask RCCL and then decide.

 

I too for a repositioning booked air with RCCL this time only as the prices are as good as any I can book, one way one way. And I am going to use my free benefit of selecting my own flights and go down 2 or 3 days early. Panama is just too far to try to get down just one day out.

 

I am flying same day on my cruise for Labor Day weekend, its a non stop on Jet Blue out of Dulles and gets in by 11am. Plenty of time to make the ship I hope. I just do not have the time to spare to go down the night before.

 

But normally I always wake up in the city I am cruising from.

 

I love this thread, its great. I suggest to everyone that if they are curious as to whether a flight is filling up, go to a search engine, ie expedia and put in your flights, you can check the number that way.

 

K

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I love this thread, its great. I suggest to everyone that if they are curious as to whether a flight is filling up, go to a search engine, ie expedia and put in your flights, you can check the number that way.

Which will only show you if there are seats available for sale on that flight. Not how many have been sold, how many are remaining, or whether you are in an oversold situation. Only when it will not sell a seat can you know that you have a "sold-out" flight. And even then, that doesn't mean you will be on a full flight. Bad advice, IMO.

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Which will only show you if there are seats available for sale on that flight. Not how many have been sold, how many are remaining, or whether you are in an oversold situation. Only when it will not sell a seat can you know that you have a "sold-out" flight. And even then, that doesn't mean you will be on a full flight. Bad advice, IMO.

 

I do not believe that person was asking all that other stuff, but thanks for telling us!!

 

;)

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Thanks for the info. I called RC. They said that if they removed the airfare my cruise price would remain the same for the D1 cat. @ $2900 pp plus tax. :) I left the air on right now b/c @ $1099 it is still cheaper than anything out there. I can keep looking & decide before final payment Oct 29.

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Which will only show you if there are seats available for sale on that flight. Not how many have been sold, how many are remaining, or whether you are in an oversold situation. Only when it will not sell a seat can you know that you have a "sold-out" flight. And even then, that doesn't mean you will be on a full flight. Bad advice, IMO.

 

Please take over any advice I have posted. You are SOOOOOOO much more knowlegeable than I am. Even though I have higner status and do this stuff every day for a living; PLEASE post all the routings and pricings-your reign. I am out of here.

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  • 2 months later...

BTW here is a recent experience. the cruise line wanted $1086 plus $175 deviation fee for flight to EZE(Buenos Aires) and back from Santiago chile. I got decent flights for $608.00 pp. The savings is over $1200! When you use custom air you lose the transfers anyway. It pays for all the hotels before and after that I would have wanted anyway. I did pay $39 to the TA but I consider that money well spent.

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  • 2 months later...

For our Panama Cruise in 2006, ( 17 day Panama FLL to Seattle, WA) we initially had booked with the Cruise lines, LAX to FT Lauderdale ( FLL ). We live in Palm Springs and have our own International Airport. For us it is a good 2 hr drive to LAX, requiering an overnight stay before flying, figuring Hotel, food, fuel, we would lay out min $200 for the night. We decided to have our flight changed to flying out of PSP, connecting in Dallas to FLL, with a return home at our disembarkation City, Seattle , WA direct on Alaska. The cost for the change at the time was $198, but we flew out of and back to our home city. We didn't save anything by the change, except the convenience of using our own airport and not spending 2 hrs on the road driving back & forth to Los Angelas + Hotel etc. We still kept the Transfers, and we ended up connecting with most of the cruisers in Dallas.

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  • 3 weeks later...

In the past, I've read this thread with only passing interest since we always make our own flight arrangements. But now we're tempted to consider an Oceania "free" air package on a transatlantic crossing in 2011.

 

I'll still do the comparison of purchasing flights directly ourselves or hopefully using FF miles, but the "free" air looks pretty attractive. If we pay a deviation fee AND we request specific carriers/routings AND we pay any additional surcharge for the flights, would we still get consolidator tickets?

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We are taking a river cruse in August to the Danube. The co. we booked thru. was offering 1/2 off on airfare. I looked at prices on different airlines and the prices were twice as much as we are paying. My biggest problem is the airline is British air and although we could pick seats from a group, we could not upgrade. British air will not except any of the programs for upgrades even if they are partners. But we are getting our tickets half price.

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My biggest problem is the airline is British air and although we could pick seats from a group, we could not upgrade. British air will not except any of the programs for upgrades even if they are partners.
With one exception, you can only get mileage upgrades on British Airways flights if you have bought tickets directly from the airline (or a very limited number of Preferred Selling Agents in North America) and use BA Miles to upgrade them. (The exception is to use Asia Miles to upgrade.)

 

Moreover, if you upgrade from normal economy, you can only upgrade from the top three economy booking classes, which leisure travellers are unlikely to book. In any case, upgrade availability is usually rarer than hen's teeth at peak travel times.

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  • 1 month later...
In the past, I've read this thread with only passing interest since we always make our own flight arrangements. But now we're tempted to consider an Oceania "free" air package on a transatlantic crossing in 2011.

 

I'll still do the comparison of purchasing flights directly ourselves or hopefully using FF miles, but the "free" air looks pretty attractive. If we pay a deviation fee AND we request specific carriers/routings AND we pay any additional surcharge for the flights, would we still get consolidator tickets?

IF they don't charge you a surcharge, you are definitely on consolidator tickets. IF they do charge a surcharge, you may or may not be...but the cruise line still owns your tickets, not you.
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This may be beating a dead horse, but for anyone who read this far and still is thinking that Cruise Air will get you re-routed or re-booked or re-anythinged in a travel emergency, please note that none of the Star Princess cruisers posting on this site who had cruise air received any help in getting to their ship on-time in Santiago, Chile this week. In fact, many were told to try and handle it themselves as Princess Air was so swamped and without up-to-date information on available flights.

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I posted this on the Princess board in response to ANOTHER missed cruise due to cruise air. Hope the info is helpful.

 

Let me just clarify a couple things. Cruise air/air deviation and how it works behind the scenes was explained to me by an airline industry rep at an industry conference four years ago. For the example, she used LAX/MIA, both cruise air and air deviation. She was also an AA rep, so the following reflect AA routings. I thought the analogy was great and easy to understand:

 

Imagine you have 4 stacks of cards in front of you, each containing 30 cards. The 30 cards represent the allotment the cruise line bought from the airline at consolidator rates.

 

Stack one is LAX/MIA nonstop. 27 request air deviation-nonstop to MIA. Stack one is now down to 3 cards and the 27 pax paid the same price as "regular" cruise air (where you don't know what you are getting until 30-60 days out).

 

Stack two is LAX/DFW/MIA. Again, 27 people request deviation, same scenario. Pax accept one stopper at their choice of times.

 

Stack three is LAX/ORD/MIA. Again 27 people request deviation-ditto

 

Stack four contains these tickets-LAX/SEA, LAX/ORD, LAX/DFW, LAX/JFK, ORD/JFK, ORD/MIA, JFK/MIA

 

20 additional pax request air deviation-want LAX/MIA nonstop

 

3 people get air deviation at the same price as cruise air, 17 have to be booked on "free call" tickets. These are NOT the same as the original 30 tickets. They are generally booked in Q or O class (the lowest, generally available AA class) IF there are tickets available in those classes. If there are no tickets available to the cruise line in those classes, then AA will make available tickets in higher fare classes. Please note that Q and O class tickets are HIGHER priced than the "regular" consolidator class air deviation tickets, so the 17 pax will definitely pay a higher price than "regular" cruise air pax or deviation pax with consolidator class tickets.

 

IF and this is a BIG IF, the cruise line/airline contract ALLOWS the cruise line to purchase more nonstop tickets, these are FULLY ENDORSABLE tickets, the same as purchasing direct from AA. Depending on time of year and demand, you may be told there are NO air deviation tickets available.

 

What does the example tell us: Quite a few of the air deviation pax are booked on consolidator class fares. These are group rates given under contract from the airline to the cruise line. The airline states "you will pay us $200.00 per ticket. We don't care what you sell it for". That is how ALL consolidator tickets work. However, there are some VERY stringent restrictions on these types of tickets. USUALLY-very large change fees, if a change is allowed at all, and NON ENDORSABLE tickets (they have no value to another airline).

 

So most of the pax who requested air deviation are still using consolidator class tickets. If there is a problem, depending on the goodwill of the airline/cruise line, you may or may not (most likely) be put on another carrier to reach your destination.

 

To be placed on another carrier with a consolidator ticket, the originating carrier has to pay the flying carrier IN CASH-there is no tit for tat exchanging seats, as is common with endorsable tickets. With most airlines in financial trouble, most likely the airline will NOT pay for a ticket on another carrier. And Southwest, AirTran and JetBlue for the most part DO NOT participate in tit for tat exchanges with any carrier, but you will not find cruise lines buying those tickets.

 

The few lucky people who paid extra have fully endorsable tickets, good on any airline the originating carrier has agreements with and seats available. But they paid EXTRA. They could have booked their own seats and saved money.

 

What happens to the "regular" cruise air pax? See the remnants of piles 2 and 3? See pile 4???

 

That is what is left. So somehow, the cruise line has to get those pax from LAX to Miami. Six lucky people will get a one stopper, either ORD or DFW. The rest-Take a combination of cards-lets say LAX/SEA/ORD/JFK/MIA. The cruise line has now fulfilled their obligation to get you to the ship. And because the cruise line does not put the flights together until AFTER final payment, regular cruise air pax are left with PILE 4.

 

It does not matter that it will take you 12 hours to get to the cruise and you had to leave home at 2:00AM to arrive in MIA at 4:00PM for a cruise that departs at 6:00PM. OOOPS!!! Just missed the connection at ORD. If things weren't bad enough already, you just missed your cruise. Hope the next port stop is within a day and seats on the next flight are available.

 

This was very hard to write down. It is much easier to tell it in person. Hope it made sense and clarified some issues!!!

 

It make perfect sense. Don't buy cruise air.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Cruise Critic has now posted an article under Cruise Planning discussing what Cruise Air will or will not get you

 

My professor in Transportation began his textbook with the words "We live in a world of rapid change", and it would appear that this CC article will soon need to be updated. Noting the common mantra, CC says: "That's because the cruise line won't reveal your flights and seats until 30 to 60 days prior to departure". However, starting on September 1, 2010, Princess now says: "Princess passengers will have access to real-time pricing and flight availability, immediate flight confirmation, competitive airfares, and something no major online air booking website offers -- next port protection in the event of flight delays."

 

http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na1095

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  • 2 weeks later...

It only gets more confusing, not less, when I try to figure out if it is better to do it alone, through my travel agent, or through the cruise line.

1. Is "pax" really a word or an abbreviation for a word I know? What does it mean?

2. What in the world is a consolidator ticket? Are people saying it is a bad thing?

3. Does "air deviation" only apply if the cruise line makes all airfare arrangements?

I thought I was here to get answers to my questions. Instead, I just got lost because of unfamiliar terminology. :confused:

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It only gets more confusing, not less, when I try to figure out if it is better to do it alone, through my travel agent, or through the cruise line.

1. Is "pax" really a word or an abbreviation for a word I know? What does it mean?

2. What in the world is a consolidator ticket? Are people saying it is a bad thing?

3. Does "air deviation" only apply if the cruise line makes all airfare arrangements?

I thought I was here to get answers to my questions. Instead, I just got lost because of unfamiliar terminology. :confused:

 

1. pax = passenger

 

2. Consolidator tickets are a VERY bad ticket to have if you have a problem. You are essentially left to fend for yourselves and are at the bottom of the barrel for rebooking on an airline.

 

Cruise Air passengers on the Star Princess, March 2 during the Chile earthquake were totally left to fend for themselves. Most passengers with cruise air were simply STUCK wherever they were and totally missed their cruise. There were repeated problems with cruise air passengers and the volcano ash problem also. The tickets are NO GOOD on another airline and are generally non reroutable.

 

3. Yes

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My professor in Transportation began his textbook with the words "We live in a world of rapid change", and it would appear that this CC article will soon need to be updated. Noting the common mantra, CC says: "That's because the cruise line won't reveal your flights and seats until 30 to 60 days prior to departure". However, starting on September 1, 2010, Princess now says: "Princess passengers will have access to real-time pricing and flight availability, immediate flight confirmation, competitive airfares, and something no major online air booking website offers -- next port protection in the event of flight delays."

 

http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na1095

 

Two things-Choice Air is powered on the backend (software) by Travelocity. I wonder who is powering Princess' new system. Do you know?

 

At least Celebrity was honest about the class of tickets they sell with their new product. The Choice Air tickets are also "highly restricted"

 

"Airline tickets we issue are highly restrictive and you may find that your ticket cannot be exchanged, reissued or revalidated for another carrier or routing."

 

After speaking with my inside contacts at AA, it appears the new airline programs are still selling cruise line bulk booked tickets, just via the new computer interface. AA's new contract with various cruise lines are still all consolidator class tickets. It simplified it for AA and the cruise line. Instead of XXX tickets from AAA to BBB on separate contracts, now it is all tickets using the cruise line software. We won't know about Princess' program until it is unveiled, but I booked (and then canceled) a cruise to use the Choice Air system. NO COMPLETE FARE rules-just a bunch of flights listed with prices and a minimal blurb for the fare rules. Even tried business class and could not determine whether the ticket was a fully refundable ticket or a heavily discounted business class ticket (some of which cannot be refunded). When you can't read ALL the fare rules, you are advised to stay away.

 

And second-next port protection is questionable at best. Some ports there is no airport-like the private Caribbean islands. Cruise lines won't allow passengers to fly into certain airports-Haiti and now I am sure Jamaica. So how is Princess going to handle that? I will bet in all the legalese they will go back to the original cruise contract-CASH REFUND for the unused air and you better hope you took out insurance for the cruise portion or you are SOL. JMHO

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