ok now that I know I shouldn't use princess air

[honeydog714]

Thanks for all the tips about princess air should be avoided, especially on a long flight the day of a cruise. So now my question is the air to San Juan is really high right now for the February cruise I am trying to convince my husband we need to go on. (long story but I have a bunch of trips booked and he thinks I may need help as I am constantly thinking about cruising;) ) Anyhow the price of the cruise is good and none of our other trips are on princess and we haven't sailed with them for two years, I miss them:D

SO... do I wait until closer and hope the air comes down, it is still pretty far out right now. I was thinking that I could book the cruise and if I can't get reasonable air by final payment time I could cancel. My TA is really nice and she won't charge me for cancelling. Or do I wait to book in case there is a great princess sale that could help offset the air. DH is not buying the entire price as it stands right now including air (mean man)

Besides telling me that I need a 12 step program for cruise-aholics any words of wisdom as to book now vs. later?

[edste]

I always book princess air and then if I get a better deal I cancel it before final payment is due. That's just me but I would rather book and cancel then be sorry later. Also I always got good flight with princess air. I've only used them for international flight, but I've always been happy with their arrangements. Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

[Druke I]

We also use Princess air, particularly for "open jaw" and international flights.

 

Sometimes very hard to beat Princess' air fare on "open jaw".

[CrusinAgain]

It probably depends which airport you fly out of as to the airlines discounting the prices more. I have found where I fly out of that the earlier I book the best pricing and from then on it goes up since it starts out as so many seats to each code.

 

Also I have read that alot of times you can't beat the price of Princess Air. Personally I have had no problems in using the Princess Air and transfers. You could always say you want it and then start looking the best pricing on air that beats Princess Air. They don't book the air until after you make final payment.

 

As far as booking the cruise now, my only problem with booking too early is when a sale does come up nothing will be done to reduce my earlier price if it says for new bookings only. My TA has instead even gone to the extreme of dumping his commission just to make me happy. If you care about a certain cabin then you need to book right away of course but if you are open I have noticed the best cruise fares to be about 5 months out from the sailing. Will be interesting to read others thoughts on this.

[derf5585]

Thanks for all the tips about princess air should be avoided, especially on a long flight the day of a cruise.

 

Referenced from

princess air....anyone get a good flight??

from

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=573816

 

And

Help Me Understand Princess Air

from

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=571391

[bhopal21]

This is awfully early for a February flight and according to farecast.com there is greater than 80% chance that the fares will drop.

 

I am also cruising in February and will wait until after the summer travel season is over.

 

Mike:)

[kendon]

Two years ago we had to cancel a cruise out of San Juan as the RT airfare NY/SJU was more than the cruise! Other times we were lucky. Well, I put a cruise on hold last Saturday out of San Juan (Crown in February) and I had my fingers crossed about the airfare. Looking for good airfare must become a full time job as it changes by the minute. After looking for three days, I got a great deal on Spirit ($248/pp, 1 stop over) so I grabbed it. Previously it was from $650 and up on every other airline! I looked this morning and the same flight is now $599/pp. I booked with Spirit directly as they don't often show up on the usual sites. Also, using cheapair.com (the mix and match option) often yields a good deal. Stick with it. Now my latest problem is a clean and safe hotel in San Juan....

[honeydog714]

I have not even begun to think of the hotel situation, we switched planes in san juan coming home from st. lucia and to say the least it was not the most desirable place-well at least the airport itself. I debated risking flying in that morning since the cruise does not leave until 8pm but with my luck and such a long flight something is sure to happen. Thank goodness for you people who understand my illness (being a cruise -aholic) DH does not even want to discuss it with me, he is sure I am out to bankrupt him LOL

My TA is great and she has in the past cut her comission way down so that we could make up for a late sale, but then again I do give her an awful lot of business;) I try not to bug her with air since I know they don't make anything on that. Ok I guess I will wait until our July trip is over and work on paying off the december one and then decide what to do. Although in the meantime I am going to keep hunting for air, that certainly could seal the entire deal, what a great price you got on spirit! FYI I heard they charge you now on that airline for your luggage per piece, thanks for the tips about cheapair.com I am determined to get on the crown, it will cross of a bunch of the islands we have not made it to yet.

[FlowerBlossom]

Don't know where you are from in CA., but we booked a flight to SJU out of OAK via DFW in November for $223 on American. I though that was a pretty good price. The layover in DFW is a couple of hours but I know how big the airport is and would rather be able to take my time and not stress out about delays, etc.

[Stevesan]

Thanks for all the tips about princess air should be avoided, especially on a long flight the day of a cruise. So now my question is the air to San Juan is really high right now for the February cruise I am trying to convince my husband we need to go on. (long story but I have a bunch of trips booked and he thinks I may need help as I am constantly thinking about cruising;) ) Anyhow the price of the cruise is good and none of our other trips are on princess and we haven't sailed with them for two years, I miss them:D

SO... do I wait until closer and hope the air comes down, it is still pretty far out right now. I was thinking that I could book the cruise and if I can't get reasonable air by final payment time I could cancel. My TA is really nice and she won't charge me for cancelling. Or do I wait to book in case there is a great princess sale that could help offset the air. DH is not buying the entire price as it stands right now including air (mean man)

Besides telling me that I need a 12 step program for cruise-aholics any words of wisdom as to book now vs. later?

 

I booked Crown out of San Juan while on GP last April. For grins, I asked the Princess air rep for a price quote. He named a higher fare for economy than what I'm paying for first class. You have received good advise re Princess air.

 

BTW - the price for my airline ticket I purchased last month has gone up. It's not likely to go down. There is a web site that has tracked air fares to/from various cities and attempts to project what a given fare will do in the future based on past data. I don't know how accurate it is, but it doesn't reflect any lower pricing for San Juan as a destination.

 

http://www.farecast.com/

 

BTW Nr 2 - don't get the wrong profile for me. I don't normally book first class, but the fare differential (less than 2X) was not too bad so I decided to treat myself. That's not nearly as bad as the $3,000 more I'd have to pay for my Europe trip in September. A 4.5X upcharge for first class is a bit out of my range.:p

[kendon]

Yes, I noticed after I booked with Spirit that they charge $5.00 per bag (under 50 lbs). Okay, still a deal overall. I really wanted a non-stop to prevent delays and lost luggage, but I couldn't be choosey in this case. As we have to work around the school schedule, I get what I get! If I were you, I wouldn't wait. Just look every day, several times a day for good rates. Which cruise will you be on? For us it is 2/16, we have a roll call going. I'll keep an eye out on airfare for you also.

[sunsetme]

flights from cal to san juan are expensive. the lowest i ever found was $399 and that was before 9/11. I think the cruises out of san juan are cheap because the air is high. you might be better off finding a good cruise rate out of florida and get more reasonable air.

[iggy's mom]

DH and I live in southern California, and we flight out of the John Wayne airport. We have always booked Princess air as it has been less expensive for us. We have been lucky and have always gotten really good flight times.

[chasetf]

We also use Princess air, particularly for "open jaw" and international flights. Sometimes very hard to beat Princess' air fare on "open jaw".

We have been able to beat them almost all the time. We like to do pre and post cruise stays for our international trips. About the only time we have taken their air was our Tahiti trip (not a lot of competition there).

 

We did LAX to Sydney / Auckland to Fiji / Fiji to LAX for about what Princess wanted LAX to Sydney / Auckland to LAX. One interesting thing we found was by switching our Sydney arrival by one day we save over $300 ea.

 

We also did SFO to Rome / Venice to London / London to SFO for less than Princess wanted for SFO to Rome / Venice to SFO. That gave us pre / post cruise time in Rome / Venice / London.

[kendon]

The problem with taking Princess air is that it only applies the day you leave for the cruise, not the day before. Often, we like to arrive the day ahead so things are not so hectic.

[Desert Cruizers]

Our Last Cruise, initially booked 15 days, FT Lauderdale to Los Angelas, continuing on to Seattle ( 17 days), flights were out of LAX. When they dropped Los Angelas, making cruise a full 17 days, we changed our air to go out of our home city, with a direct flight from Seattle back. We live 120 miles E of Los Angelas and have service to the East Coast. We traded cost of overnight in Los Angelas for the change in tickets. Well worth it for us.

[WeBeGone]

The problem with taking Princess air is that it only applies the day you leave for the cruise, not the day before. Often, we like to arrive the day ahead so things are not so hectic.

 

Actually you CAN fly in early (as much as a month) by paying a non-refundable $50-75pp air deviation fee and any price difference.

[geoherb]

If it's possible, check out the fares for arriving a day early and leaving a day or two after you cruise. Sometimes I've saved enough in airfare to pay for our hotel.

[starfamily]

Would love to do the 2/16/08 crown out of PR. Rates for the cruise are good, problem is here in the northeast it is school vacation week. So far the least expensive air I can find is running us over 600.00 per person, there is no way my husband will pay 1800.00 just to get us there. Darn airlines who gave them the schools schedule already?:mad:

Every day I keep checking hoping to find a deal, princess is offering us 600 pp but on top of the almost 4K for the mini suite that is one expensive little school vacation jaunt. We will probably end up having to just go out of florida or do an all inclusive again which rots as I really wanted to cross bonaire and grenada off my caribbean list....

[kendon]

Starfamily, keep checking several times a day! I was lucky with a $248 R/T NY-SJU on Spirit. Used mobissimo.com.

[juliette2742]

Really, everyone on here is right, there are really, really good deals on air, but other times, you would do a lot better doing the air yourself, it's just a matter of when or where, for example...over seas air is usually cheaper through us, a lot agents find that to be true, but on the other hand if you have air miles, there ya go!, it's a matter of just getting the air schedule conditions and making sure that it fits the guidelines and you're good to go, if you really don't know how to book air just right and/or you're worried that you might not make it, then you might want air through us, or even if you want the "all inclusive" vacation, it's the piece of mind and taking the break that can sometime make it worth it. if you find a really good deal on air, take it, but you can be on the computer looking at air while on the phone with us, no problem. :)

[starfamily]

Thanks for that mobissimo site, I have added it to my list which includes, kayak, farecompare, sidestep, and smart fares plus good old orbitz and my own website. I keep checking several times a day I don't intend to five up. I am just so annoyed at myself I didn't scoop up those direct ones at 300pp when I saw them, but at the time the Feb cruise was a fleeting thought not something I was sure I wanted to do.

[crusinbanjo]

It probably depends which airport you fly out of as to the airlines discounting the prices more. I have found where I fly out of that the earlier I book the best pricing and from then on it goes up since it starts out as so many seats to each code.

 

Also I have read that alot of times you can't beat the price of Princess Air. Personally I have had no problems in using the Princess Air and transfers. You could always say you want it and then start looking the best pricing on air that beats Princess Air. They don't book the air until after you make final payment.

 

As far as booking the cruise now, my only problem with booking too early is when a sale does come up nothing will be done to reduce my earlier price if it says for new bookings only. My TA has instead even gone to the extreme of dumping his commission just to make me happy. If you care about a certain cabin then you need to book right away of course but if you are open I have noticed the best cruise fares to be about 5 months out from the sailing. Will be interesting to read others thoughts on this.

 

I rarely use Princess air, but it can be OK. I am more likely to use their air if the flight is short and direct. Longer flights can have really long wait times between flights, (I hate that), or really lousy routings, so I mostly book my own flights.

 

As far as the fare changing, I have booked many times long in advance, only to see the price drop, sometimes significantly. My solution is to call Princess and ask for the lower rate. If I get the story that it is only for NEW BOOKINGS, I ask them to cancel my old booking and rebook me at the lower rate. All else remains the same. I have done this more than once, and as recently as 2 months ago. On the last voyage it saved me $1,200, ($600 pp), I got the same cabin & everything. It took all of 5 min. for the Princess on the other end of the line to get it done.

[starfamily]

We can go out of Hartford (preferred) Boston, Providence, and I guess if I had to Albany. I am not worried about the price changes cruise wise as I am a TA and can handle that on my own even if it means eating my commission (the huge amount it is lol) it is just these darn flights are so high, I have never seen them like this, 1200pp direct that is crazy. Also since it is February and chances are there will be snow in MA at that time it would be prudent to fly in the night before (incase i have to get bumped to the next day) which includes a hotel, it looks more and more like we will end up going out of Florida instead but I really wanted to do the southern, we are doing the flip side route for christmas (the one they are doing in april) and it would just about complete all of my caribbean check island check off list. I will continue to search daily- several times a day!

[Stevesan]

Really, everyone on here is right, there are really, really good deals on air, but other times, you would do a lot better doing the air yourself, it's just a matter of when or where, for example...over seas air is usually cheaper through us, a lot agents find that to be true, but on the other hand if you have air miles, there ya go!, it's a matter of just getting the air schedule conditions and making sure that it fits the guidelines and you're good to go, if you really don't know how to book air just right and/or you're worried that you might not make it, then you might want air through us, or even if you want the "all inclusive" vacation, it's the piece of mind and taking the break that can sometime make it worth it. if you find a really good deal on air, take it, but you can be on the computer looking at air while on the phone with us, no problem. :)

 

Handing off your air travel to a TA is an excellent choice. My DW returned to Japan periodically to visit family.

I always used a travel agency (in this case one that specialized in travel to Japan) to track air fares and notify us when the time was ripe.

 

Times and the internet have changed things, but our TA had access to air fare schedules that were not open to the public (Sabre?) so was able to find prices unavailable to the casual traveler. This may no longer be true, but using a TA for air travel is better than spending hours and days trying to save a few bucks. let the TA do it.

I enjoy researching cruise itineraries and looking for the best prices, but air fares are too volatile to play that game. It ain't worth my time and effort. I either Leave it to the pros or bite the bullet and book what I think is a fair price and never look back.