Airfare thru Cruiseline or on your own?

[TwoWeebles]

I was wondering if there is any difference in price on airfare if you book it along with your cruise through the cruise line or if you book it separately on your own? Can anyone provide some insight?

[Sparkyboi]

I was wondering if there is any difference in price on airfare if you book it along with your cruise through the cruise line or if you book it separately on your own? Can anyone provide some insight?

 

Hey There,

 

I am a travel agent and i can tell you 100% to shop it. Half the time it is cheaper to purchase air seperately then from the cruise line. If you book air seperate you can still purchase the cruise lines transfers.

 

the biggest mis-conception in the industy is that if you miss your flight if you booked it with the cruise line you are protected. This is the farthest thing from the truth.

 

the only way to have protection is with adequate travel insurance. If you miss your flight there is not much to be done, the airline can try to help and the cruise line but they are under no obligation.

 

SO shop the air and dont let a myth make you pay more!

 

Fighting to save you money!

[eandj]

Have cruised many times and have always found my purchasing the air separately much cheaper. Plus I can pick and choose the airlines and times that I find convenient without paying some custom air/ deviation fees. If you want the convenience of someone doing the work for you fine. But you could have any travel agent do it more cost efficiently too.

[spcl4cs_gal]

I have always booked my own air travel when cruising. As the OP has said, you have much more flexibility when it comes to airlines and times to travel. And don't forget to arrive at your departure port at least a day prior to your cruise. The money you spend for a night in a hotel is far less than what you would spend to fly to the ship's second cruise stop. Happy cruising! :)

[2plus2]

In some cases a whole lot cheaper doing it on your own. When we started shopping for air fares we went with the cruise line first. Disney wanted to charge us about $1200.00 per person from Phoenix to Orlando. Doing our own looking through all the normal web sites (ie. Orbitz, Expedia Travelocity...etc) we were able to drop that to anywhere from $500 - $600 per ticket. Then we went straight to the airline websites, adjusted our arrival and departure dates by 1 day and found fares at about $300.00 per. When Disney quoted us their price we nearly choked. By all means do it on your own. If you can book your flights for the middle of the week (Tues, Weds, Thurs). Cheaper air fares than the weekends. For what you save you can probably relax at a nice hotel for a day near the cruise terminal.

[FLACRUISER99]

The real answer is that every trip is different. Domestic flights are usually better to book on your own. However Europe, Asia one ways and open jaws are often better to book with the cruise line. However if you book your own flights make sure you go in a day early. If you use cruise air on the same day you have safety in numbers because often the ship will delay departure (they don't have to) to wait for a large group of passengers. My advice is to book your air with the cruise line, look for a better deal grab it then cancel the cruise air just before final payment.

[paul929207]

I compare the cruiswe air price to what I can get on my own. Usually, I do better on my own. Plus that way I am flying the airline and routing I want, not what the cruise line finds is the cheapest.

[ginagirl]

For decades of cruising, we have never taken cruise air until this year when the cruise line offered a promotional special on the air we would be taking. We were saving over $1,400. All I will tell you is it definitely wasn't worth the worry and aggravation involved. We will never, ever do it again!!!!!:eek:

[FlyerTalker]

Please read the sticky on the mechanics of cruiseline air. Then, you will be better informed as to the apples and oranges comparison between cruiseline air and your own arrangements.

 

My own take....about 10% of the time, cruiseline air MAY be worth the attendant risks. Only each individual can decide what their own risk/reward tolerance is.

[JohnL1935]

I generally book my own flights. My big fear is loss of luggage so I try to fly direct with no aircraft changes and I have MY seats early onl. Seems the aircraft change, even on same airline, has high possibility of luggage loss. The cruise line tries to get the cheapest price and that generally involves numerous stops and you don't know what airline or stops until late in the process. If I can't satisfy myself with my personal booking, I'll check the cruise line for price.

 

On one cruise from Alaska, we flew into Fairbanks and came back to Newark from Vancouver. No matter what I tried, I couldn't beat the price or number of aircraft changes given to me by Princess.

 

John L.

[greatam]

I generally book my own flights. My big fear is loss of luggage so I try to fly direct with no aircraft changes and I have MY seats early onl. Seems the aircraft change, even on same airline, has high possibility of luggage loss. The cruise line tries to get the cheapest price and that generally involves numerous stops and you don't know what airline or stops until late in the process. If I can't satisfy myself with my personal booking, I'll check the cruise line for price.

 

On one cruise from Alaska, we flew into Fairbanks and came back to Newark from Vancouver. No matter what I tried, I couldn't beat the price or number of aircraft changes given to me by Princess.

 

John L.

 

Don't know what you paid to Alaska, but creative bookings on your route most likely would have saved you money. Nonstop-JFK to YVR on Cathay (one of the BEST airlines in the world) and a one way ticket on Alaska to Fairbanks saves a lot of money from the East Coast as a general rule.

 

Creative routings, "out of the box" thinking usually saves a lot of money over booking a "normal" routing found on online websites and airline websites.

 

Examples: Generally CHEAP fares to Europe out of East Coast gateways. So get yourself to JFK, BOS and sometimes Washington, DC the best/cheapest way you can. Then book a separate ticket to Europe.

 

Same thing to Australia/Asia. The best prices are generally found out of Los Angeles. So get yourself to Los Angeles the cheapest way you can, THEN use another ticket to get to Australia/Asia.

 

Often when you try to put the entire trip together on one ticket, the price skyrockets, ESPECIALLY if you are flying from a smaller airport to a hub.

[mindy2]

I think it also depends on the time of year, destination, etc. When we booked our cruise many months ago, I took the option of cruise/air at the time. I figured I'd have lots of time to check for air fares on my own as I could have cancelled the cruise/air portion anytime up until final payment.

 

Although our curise is not until Dec 20/08, it looks like I made a good choice with taking the cruise/air. The price was almost half of what it would be by booking my own air and that was with an air deviation fee as we are staying for a few days in Ft. Lauderdale after our cruise. With four of us travelling the cruise/air saves us at least $2500. I do know what our flight times are returning, but won't know what our departing flights are until closer to the cruise date. The return flight times work out great for us. Also, by choosing the cruise/air....the cruiseline pays for our hotel the night prior (and we have two bookings, so that's two rooms) so that is also a another savings of about $200 per night per room.

 

I think everyone's situation is different and you just have to research both options. A lot of people are able to book direct flights, but from our home airport to FLL, that is not possible anyway so wasn't an issue for us. Also, many of the flights for the time we are leaving/returning are now sold out so I think you don't want to leave it too long depending when you are going. Just check out your options thouroughly.

 

M

[greatam]

I think it also depends on the time of year, destination, etc. When we booked our cruise many months ago, I took the option of cruise/air at the time. I figured I'd have lots of time to check for air fares on my own as I could have cancelled the cruise/air portion anytime up until final payment.

 

Although our curise is not until Dec 20/08, it looks like I made a good choice with taking the cruise/air. The price was almost half of what it would be by booking my own air and that was with an air deviation fee as we are staying for a few days in Ft. Lauderdale after our cruise. With four of us travelling the cruise/air saves us at least $2500. I do know what our flight times are returning, but won't know what our departing flights are until closer to the cruise date. The return flight times work out great for us. Also, by choosing the cruise/air....the cruiseline pays for our hotel the night prior (and we have two bookings, so that's two rooms) so that is also a another savings of about $200 per night per room.

 

I think everyone's situation is different and you just have to research both options. A lot of people are able to book direct flights, but from our home airport to FLL, that is not possible anyway so wasn't an issue for us. Also, many of the flights for the time we are leaving/returning are now sold out so I think you don't want to leave it too long depending when you are going. Just check out your options thouroughly.

 

M

 

You are still flying on consolidator class tickets. IF there is a glitch, you are essentially STUCK with the originating carrier. Cruise/Air tickets are NON ENDORSABLE to another carrier. Doesn't matter what the problem is, IF there is a misconnect, you will wait until the originating carrier has SPACE available to your destination. May be two hours or two days. When you strictly buy on price, you could find yourself in deep do-do. As someone posted, when things go bad with airline connections, they go REALLY bad with cruise air.

 

And unless you got a very special deal, cruise lines do not provide hotel rooms for free. Somehow, someplace, those hotel rooms were added in.

[mindy2]

Well, considering the thousands of people that need to fly to a cruise port.....I'm sure that "mis-connections" happen with or without cruise/air.

 

As I mentioned, we havn't taken the cruise yet and I'll be sure to report on how the cruise/air works out out for us but I am hoping that all goes well. I have spoken with several friends that have chosen cruise/air from here and they've never had a problem whatsoever. Regardless, xmas is not the best time for air travel but is the only time that works for us.

[greatam]

Well, considering the thousands of people that need to fly to a cruise port.....I'm sure that "mis-connections" happen with or without cruise/air.

 

Please understand-it is NOT that a mis-connection happens. It is how it is handled by the airline. And with a cruise air ticket, you are RESTRICTED to the originating carrier. With a published fare ticket, your ticket is ENDORSABLE to another carrier. BIG DIFFERENCE

 

Example: NYC to Los Angeles with a connection in DFW. Your cruise air ticket is a Delta ticket. Your plane arrives late into DFW, causing you to miss your connecting flight to Los Angeles. With a cruise air ticket, you are RESTRICTED to Delta (which does not have many flights out of DFW to Los Angeles). You may wait a couple of hours or a couple of days until Delta has SPACE AVAILABLE to get you to Los Angeles.

 

With a published fare ticket, your ticket is good on another airline. AA flies about hourly to Los Angeles. So your Delta ticket is ENDORSED to AA and you get on the next AA plane that has seating. Would be a rare occasion if your cruise air ticket was handled the same way.

 

Please read through the first few pages of this thread so you know how to handle it if a glitch arises. You MUST be proactive and DO NOT count on the cruise line helping much. The fine print in cruise contracts puts TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY on you, the passenger. And Xmas only adds to the problems. Good luck!!!

 

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

[Hamburg Avon Lady]

Well, this will be the first for us taking our return airfare through the cruise line. This will be at the conclusion of our trip so if there are flight delays, I

won't be happy but I can deal with that - that's what travel insurance is

for - however, domestically, we always book our own air. Much more reasonable that through the cruise lines. For our upcoming 30 day cruise around South America - the airfare on my own would have been $ 2200 pp

but through RCCL - it's down to $ 800 - can't complain about that savings. So even if I have to spend an extra nite or two in Florida - I am

on my way home. Only thing I don't like is that I won't know my air schedule until about 30 days prior to sailing. So to be on the safe side, I

booked the last flight of the day back home. :cool:

[dclark]

 

Although our curise is not until Dec 20/08, it looks like I made a good choice with taking the cruise/air. The price was almost half of what it would be by booking my own air and that was with an air deviation fee as we are staying for a few days in Ft. Lauderdale after our cruise. With four of us travelling the cruise/air saves us at least $2500. I do know what our flight times are returning, but won't know what our departing flights are until closer to the cruise date. The return flight times work out great for us. Also, by choosing the cruise/air....the cruiseline pays for our hotel the night prior (and we have two bookings, so that's two rooms) so that is also a another savings of about $200 per night per room.

 

M

 

Sounds like you are going on the Freedom (that's where I'll be this xmas). That far out, you could have gotten your own air cheaper. You say you saved $2500 for airfare for four? Geez, my family of four went on the Dawn Princess last NYE for less$! You could have gotten your own air for less if you just shopped and waited, shopped and waited.. I can say this without even knowing what you paid! As for hotels, they can be cheap in south Fl, you can simply sign up for a Starwood AMex card and they'll give you enough points after your first purchase for one free night at the Yankee Clipper! Also, I have had nothing but excellent luck with 3* plus hotels booked through PL, the most I paid was $100 a night for a two bedroom mini suite on South Beach two days after xmas (I think it was worth it!).

To go cross country to catch the Freedom for xmas, I am paying $410 rt pp. I could have gotten it down to $260pp if I was willing to drive 7 hours to Las Vegas, but you never know about snow and such...

If anyone is looking into holiday airfare, good luck! In the past, I noticed that holiday airfare always seem to take off once Oct came around and this year,with the grounding of planes, I think they took off a bit sooner. I say this because some people look at airfare and think "Wow, it is a lot of $!" , but airfares go up and down. For the holidays, the lowest fare is 4 months out, for summer, about three months out. Book further or closer and I can almost guarantee you'll pay too much.

[mindy2]

Actually, I have not been able to find the airfare for less. Believe me.....I checked almost daily since last March when I booked the cruise. With a deviation fee, I am paying $899 p/p. To book on my own has been in the range of $1600 p/p...so, yes a very big difference. There were one or two more reasonable fares, but they were a day or two away from when we were able to leave. I think those that live in some areas in the U.S. as well as the bigger cities in Canada have a little more choice of fares and airlines which gives some more flexibility with airlines.

[greatam]

Actually, I have not been able to find the airfare for less. Believe me.....I checked almost daily since last March when I booked the cruise. With a deviation fee, I am paying $899 p/p. To book on my own has been in the range of $1600 p/p...so, yes a very big difference. There were one or two more reasonable fares, but they were a day or two away from when we were able to leave. I think those that live in some areas in the U.S. as well as the bigger cities in Canada have a little more choice of fares and airlines which gives some more flexibility with airlines.

 

I don't know where you looked for tickets but I believe you are flying Calgary to FLL for the Freedom cruise on Dec. 21. So you have to fly Dec. 20 and return Jan 2, correct???

 

I can see American flights bookable TODAY for $834.00pp that work with your cruise. And taxi fare from FLL to the port is no more than $20.00 (and MUCH better than the cruise line bus). The airfare was most likely available cheaper a few months ago.

 

And if you flew AA to JFK or Boston, then a JetBlue flight to FLL, you could shave another $30.00pp off the price.

 

So you just have to look at OTHER than Travelocity, Expedia, etc. etc. for routings and prices. Thinking out the the box provides savings.

 

Good luck with your flights. PLEASE be prepared with alternative routings/alternative planes if you have a glitch. Weather can be a real problem, both out of Canada and with your connection which will most likely be on the East Coast (unless they put you on Continental). PLEASE make sure you have GOOD travel insurance and read the trip delay provisions. You will get VERY little help from the cruise line. They do NOT have to give you any help at all. Your cruise air tickets were booked strictly as a CONVENIENCE to passengers (it's in the fine print of your cruise contract).

[dclark]

Actually, I have not been able to find the airfare for less. Believe me.....I checked almost daily since last March when I booked the cruise. With a deviation fee, I am paying $899 p/p. To book on my own has been in the range of $1600 p/p...so, yes a very big difference. There were one or two more reasonable fares, but they were a day or two away from when we were able to leave. I think those that live in some areas in the U.S. as well as the bigger cities in Canada have a little more choice of fares and airlines which gives some more flexibility with airlines.

 

 

I wouldn't have even started looking at airfare until last August. Also, it pays to be flexible with airports and dates. I am flying to West Palm as it was cheaper than Miami or Fort Lauderdale. It also helps to rent a car as that will be cheaper than getting a cab.A rental car saves you money in other ways like it allows you to go to an affordable restraunt rather than be at the mercy of the hotel and their overpriced grub. Lastly, generally, the cheapest days in the holiday time to fly are usually 12/31 and 1/1.. Just looking at Kayak, right now,it is $808 pp to fly from Calgary to PBI, 12/18, return 1/1. That $380 savings can be enough( if you go through PL) to pay for all of your hotel rooms and even a day or two or a rental car.

[mindy2]

No, I'm flying Dec 19. Cruise is on the 20th. Leaving Edmonton, not Calgary. Returning on Jan 2. Spending three additional nights in FLL. I did look at American Airlines and others but I'm certainly not seeing any $800 flights after taxes, etc. Calgary may be slightly cheaper, but I have no desire to drive 3 hours to another airport and pay for parking for two weeks.

 

I have looked at many options and have looked "outside the box". For me, the cruise/air seems to be a good option and thinking positively, it'll all work out. Also, as I've mentioned with the hotel included for the pre-night and transfer to the port, I think we have a pretty good package as I've seen the price of our cruise has gone up since I booked.

[dclark]

No, I'm flying Dec 19. Calgary may be slightly cheaper, but I have no desire to drive 3 hours to another airport and pay for parking for two weeks.

 

I have looked at many options and have looked "outside the box". .

 

One of the "out of the box " ideas is to use rental cars to get to and from your airport- the cost of the rental can be much less than the cost of parking (I've done this before).

[AZDENNY]

When I checked with RCCL they wanted $1000 pp from Phx to San Juan. I found R/T on my own for $325 (booked in Mar for Jan flight. Some friends did cruise air with Princess and prices for that were same for book on own and cruise air. Guess it just depends. Beside I was afraid they would put me on US Airways and do not want to use them.

[greatam]

When I checked with RCCL they wanted $1000 pp from Phx to San Juan. I found R/T on my own for $325 (booked in Mar for Jan flight. Some friends did cruise air with Princess and prices for that were same for book on own and cruise air. Guess it just depends. Beside I was afraid they would put me on US Airways and do not want to use them.

 

FORGET the PRICE. Look at the type of tickets you get with cruise air. There are MANY, MANY restrictions and they are no good on another airline.

 

In this day and age, cruise air tickets could very easily cause you to miss a day or even all of your cruise unless you pay for air deviation and fly in a day early. It's not a chance most would be willing to take, but few know about the downsides.

[Sugar67]

We are flying in the day early and have booked our cruise with airfare from Carnival. Because we are on the east coast of Canada flights to Florida don't seem to come at the great rates some of the more major cities see. Can anyone tell me a couple of the hotels that Carnival uses in Orlando? Also, if anyone has some positive experiences (with flying in the day early) I would love to have some reassurance. TIA