Upcharge on Published Air Prices

[Payd]

I have heard from other travellers that the cruise line reserves the right to charge more than the published rates for cruise air.

 

Airfare from Calgary to Fort Lauderdale is as high or higher than the published rates. Could the cruise line upcharge?

 

Payd:)

[LHT28]

Airfare from Calgary to Fort Lauderdale is as high or higher than the published rates. Could the cruise line upcharge?

 

Payd:)

 

Why not just book your own air it will probably be a better routing than the cruiseline will give you. You can then fly in a day or so earlier

check out kayak.com for fares

[Payd]

Why not just book your own air it will probably be a better routing than the cruiseline will give you. You can then fly in a day or so earlier

check out kayak.com for fares

 

Thanks for your response...but I really am wondering about the upcharge.

 

We did book on our own and it was big $$. We will end up paying a bit more than the Carnival air program, but wanted control of our flight times.

 

Payd:)

[greatam]

I have heard from other travellers that the cruise line reserves the right to charge more than the published rates for cruise air.

ice

Airfare from Calgary to Fort Lauderdale is as high or higher than the published rates. Could the cruise line upcharge?

 

Payd:)

 

Definitely-upcharges on any services, tours, flights, etc. are all part of a cruise lines profit stream. Below is from Princess, but similar caveats are in all cruise contracts.

 

Direct from the Princess website (and in the fine print in your cruise contract)

 

"Excursions, Shoreside Services and Other Transportation: All travel facilities, tours, products or services, other than aboard Carrier’s vessels and tenders, provided in connection with, before, after or during Your Cruise, including but not limited to pre and post cruise activities, shore excursions, hotel accommodations, meals, or transportation of any kind by any vessel, vehicle, aircraft or other conveyance, are provided, owned and/or operated by independent contractors whose employees, facilities, conveyances, products and services are not subject to Carrier’s supervision or control. In providing or selling reservations or tickets in connection with any such facilities or services, or by accompanying You during such activities, Carrier does so as a CONVENIENCE to Passengers and shall be ENTITLED TO IMPOSE a CHARGE and EARN a PROFIT from the sale of such excursions, services or transportation, but does not undertake to supervise or control such independent contractors or their employees, conveyances or facilities, and accepts no liability for any loss, delay, damage, injury, death, misrepresentation or disappointment whatsoever resulting there from.

 

Carrier makes NO warranty, either express or implied, regarding the suitability, safety, insurance or other aspects of any such contractors, transportation, tours, services, products or facilities, and Carrier’s liability for non-performance of any independent contractor providing such facilities or services shall be limited to a refund of the amounts received by Carrier on the Passenger's behalf, if any. Any liability for such services will be governed by the terms and conditions of the Passage Contract and the contracts and/or tariffs between You and such service companies." (Emphasis mine)

[greatam]

One other thing-the MAJORITY of cruise air tickets are CONSOLIDATOR class tickets. Airlines sells tickets to XXX cruise line for YYY. Cruise line can now sell those tickets for whatever the market will be. O, S and some Q class tickets on AA are sold as consolidator class to cruise lines/vacation packages, even though there are also "published" O, S and Q fare classes. Very confusing. You have to read each fare rule VERY carefully.

 

But to answer your question-YES-the cruise lines can charge anything they want for the same tickets you can buy at an airline website or Travelocity/Expedia, etc.

[CruiseCentric]

Thanks for your response...but I really am wondering about the upcharge.

 

We did book on our own and it was big $$. We will end up paying a bit more than the Carnival air program, but wanted control of our flight times.

 

Payd:)

 

You do know about air deviation dont you? You can pay like $50 more per person and pick your own flight and airline.

 

What is the price difference between booking on your own and what Carnival is charging?

[greatam]

You do know about air deviation dont you? You can pay like $50 more per person and pick your own flight and airline.

 

What is the price difference between booking on your own and what Carnival is charging?

 

There may be a BIG upcharge for air deviation. IF the cruise line is sold out of consolidator class tickets for the flights you want, the air/sea dept will purchase tickets for the flights you want., IF they are available from the airline. I have seen differences of over $300pp on the same cruise-same origination/destination- just not the cheapest flights which the cruise lines buy on contract.

 

Please don't assume that because you pay the air deviation fee, you will pay the same price as "normal" cruise air. There can be VERY large differences.

[CruiseCentric]

There may be a BIG upcharge for air deviation. IF the cruise line is sold out of consolidator class tickets for the flights you want, the air/sea dept will purchase tickets for the flights you want., IF they are available from the airline. I have seen differences of over $300pp on the same cruise-same origination/destination- just not the cheapest flights which the cruise lines buy on contract.

 

Please don't assume that because you pay the air deviation fee, you will pay the same price as "normal" cruise air. There can be VERY large differences.

 

Thats alot of IF's. :) The OP should atleast explore the option.

[greatam]

Thats alot of IF's. :) The OP should atleast explore the option.

 

Not a lot of IF's at all. Just realistic advice. Cruise lines VERY rarely have nonstop tickets available-deviation or not. They are more expensive due to limited availability and do not work well with airline's hub and spoke system.

 

They also make long flights into VERY long flights. Example: NYC to Tahiti/Australia/New Zealand-most flights to the South Pacific leave from LAX/SFO late in the evening. But the cruise lines put a NYC passenger on a flight from NYC at 8:00AM, to arrive LAX at noon. The pax now gets to sit at LAX for 10 hours, waiting to board the onward flight. WHY??? The morning flight is cheaper than the 4:00PM flight, which would arrive about 7:00PM. So you will pay any upcharge to board the 4:00PM flight.

 

And again, a MAJORITY of cruise/air tickets, deviation or not, are CONSOLIDATOR class tickets. I cannot stress that enough. The tickets have NO value to another airline. If something happens, your tickets are only good on the issuing airline, essentially making you STUCK and at the mercy of the originating airline. You will wait for space available seating on the originating airline.

 

The OP purchased the tickets already.

[Strawberry]

We paid for an air deviation last year with Princess and two days before we were to depart Princess notified us that on our return from Quebec City they had "cancelled their contract" with Continental so they were putting us on an Air Canada flight to Newark where we were to change to a USAir flight for our final destination Philadelphia. The exact routing and airline (USAir) that we were trying to avoid. (By the way, not for the first time, USAir misplaced our luggage and it took two days to catch up with us.)

We had foolishly thought that paying extra for a deviation assured we would get exactly what we wanted. Of course, by the time Princess told us about this, it was too late to work out any other arrangements on our own so we were stuck.

This was for a Trans-Atlantic cruise and the cruise air was SO much cheaper than arranging for it ourselves--that is the only reason we used cruise air in the first place.

[Payd]

Yes we have purchased our flights already. One way with West Jet the other way with Air Canada. We were aware of the deviation fee but were told that if we chose flights that brought us in a day ahead and stayed a day later we would be responsible for hotels (even if the only option was to bring us in the night before).

 

In the end we will likely pay approx $1200 ($1200 Can $$) including flights, hotels, and taxi to hotel and port. It took a lot of research but we are happy with all decisions made.

 

If Carnival went with the advertised $529 + $50 deviation the conversion to Canadian $$ would be about $25 difference.

 

I guess I was hoping to find out if anyone had run into this circumstance and been charged more than the advertised "flyaweigh" price.

 

Thanks to all for your responses!

 

Payd:)