booking air with a cruise

[texasnana]

Is is better to book air with a cruise package? I am looking at cruise out of Seattle to Alaska in june 2009. They quoted me 500.00 which i found was good air. My question what if the flight is late and i bought trip insurance am i covered somehow to get on the ship? What if the ship is late getting into port and I miss my flight. My other option is buy my own air and go a day before and aleave a day later?

 

Any ideas on buying air with the cruise?

 

Thanks..

[Krazy Kruizers]

It has been years and years since we purchased the cruise line air.

 

We much prefer to buy our own air.

 

And we always fly in early and stay a day after the cruise. As you said - the ship could arrive in port late -- it happened to us a couple of times.

 

Right now HAL is requiring those people who book air through them to pay for their entire cruise right now as HAL can't guarantee what the cost of air will be in a few months. Don't know if the other cruise lines are doing this.

[MNfamilycruiser]

Is is better to book air with a cruise package? I am looking at cruise out of Seattle to Alaska in june 2009. They quoted me 500.00 which i found was good air. My question what if the flight is late and i bought trip insurance am i covered somehow to get on the ship? What if the ship is late getting into port and I miss my flight. My other option is buy my own air and go a day before and aleave a day later?

 

Any ideas on buying air with the cruise?

 

Thanks..

There have been many stories of problems with cruise air. We decided against it and booked our own, arriving the day ahead.

I read this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

 

and asked a few additional questions before deciding against it.

[paul929207]

If you are flying in a day early and staying an extra day at the end, most cruise lines will charge a diviation fee of aabout $75/person, unless you purchase your hotels from them. This may eliminate your savings.

[NCTribeFan]

I recommend you go to the "Cruise Air" board and do some reading. I've learned a lot about flying, in general, and flying for a cruise, specifically, since I started reading over there.

 

Until my December 2007 Miracle cruise, I'd always either driven or booked cruise air and had no problems.

 

But air travel has changed over the past year or so. When I started reading all the horror stories about stranded passengers, cancelled flights, airlines shutting down, I decided I had to start booking my own and going the day before.

 

Did that in December and found air and hotel for less than the cruise air was going to be. Was going to drive to Florida in May, and got lucky and found air on Southwest for $306 total for 2, so flew down the day before. The air, plus 1-way car rental, plus hotel was still less than cruise air.

 

I'm going to drive in December and go the day before.

[Sea Hag]

We only booked cruiseline air once, when it was a special package price. Won't do that again. We flew back from Hawaii on a flight leaving at 10:00PM. Got into LAX so early that even the Starbucks wasn't open. And we needed the Starbucks after flying all night! Had a two hour layover there before getting on the plane to take us to San Jose. Very bad. I'd rather pay a bit more if need be and not go through that again.

[tothemall&beyond]

It has been years and years since we purchased the cruise line air.

 

We much prefer to buy our own air.

 

And we always fly in early and stay a day after the cruise. As you said - the ship could arrive in port late -- it happened to us a couple of times.

 

Right now HAL is requiring those people who book air through them to pay for their entire cruise right now as HAL can't guarantee what the cost of air will be in a few months. Don't know if the other cruise lines are doing this.

 

We live in So. Fla. and have mostly sailed in/out of here. But we have had to fly in conjunction with a cruise twice.

Once in Nov. 2006 from FLL to LAX for a TransCanal cruise that sailed back to FLL. We got our own air and flew out a day early.

Another time was just two months ago when we sailed from Seward, Alaska to Vancouver. We found our own air ($478 pp rt) on Delta from FLL to ANC (thru ATL) and SEA to FLL (thru ATL). We had out TA look at Princess' air and it was much more.

By the way, for anyone else who is interested - we flew back from SEA because it is MUCH cheaper than from Vancouver. We took the Amtrak Cascades train from Vancouver to Seattle. It leaves at 6pm and arrives at 10pm. The train rides literally along the coast and is mostly in daylight, but the sun sets as you get closer to Seattle and it's gorgeous. And it only costs $28 pp for the spacious doubledecker train.

 

We are now planning a transatlantic cruise for Nov/Dec 2009 sailing back into FLL. We had our TA book air with Celebrity just to lock in what seems to be a decent fair. If we can find something better on our own, we'll do that. But with Celebrity, we only had to pay the normal fully refundable cruise deposit, and the airfare (including fuel surcharges) is included and guaranteed to not go higher.

 

We never feel comfortable flying on the same day for anything, be it a cruise or a family event. That is more true than ever now that the airlines are cutting back flights and crews while overbooking seats. Don't risk it. And for sure, get travel insurance., with a company other than the cruise line. If you do it through the cruise line but book your air on your own, they won't cover you for trip interruption, delay or cancellation caused by the airline or other non-cruise line provided carriers.