How far in advance do you book flights

[Embracedbylife]

How far in advance do you usually book your flights?

Also has anyone ever disembarked the second-to-last stop instead of the last port to continue your travels/fly home from that port?

[Cathy p]

Check 2 different airlines until I find the cheap flights. I know how much I want to pay and i booked my flight about 3 months before.

[Toto2Kansas]

How far in advance do you usually book your flights?

Also has anyone ever disembarked the second-to-last stop instead of the last port to continue your travels/fly home from that port?

 

I normally monitor flight prices even before I decide to book our cruise (if they are open). I watch them for about a month before I figure out if the pricing is going up or going down.

The only problem these days it seems, is you finally book your flights, you pick the perfect times for arrival and departure, you lock them in, and then you find they have changed the flights 10 times in the following months. ARGH!

 

As for leaving the ship early. That all depends on the itineary you are sailing. And Princess would need to be contacted for permission to do this before they would allow it.

[kubies]

I concur with Cathy P. We monitor the prices for about a week or so and book at least 3 months in advance. In the current market we have been booking as early as an airline will take a reservation. Example: just booked an April flight to Ft. Lauderdale!

[jhannah]

I just booked our flights for next August! I don't usually book quite this soon, but since I was using FF miles, I wanted to grab those seats while they were available on fairly decent schedules. But I do tend to book fairly early, once I've committed to going on the cruise.

[Go-Bucks!]

I fly Southwest Airlines for domestic flights if at all possible and they only open their reservations about 7 months in advance, so I get mine as soon as I can after that. So far I've had very good luck with finding good prices and schedules. I just checked on my flights for Dec. 2008 and the times have not changed. (Knock on wood).

 

I'm going to Europe in March 2009 but booked my flights this past July. Got a very good price! I like to have airline reservations done as early as possible so I have one less thing to remember to do. :o

[mii]

I concur with Cathy P. We monitor the prices for about a week or so and book at least 3 months in advance. In the current market we have been booking as early as an airline will take a reservation. Example: just booked an April flight to Ft. Lauderdale!

 

We also book for next april as our cruise leaves on Easter Sunday and we know how busy that can be so we bought the cruise, reserved the hotel and now the air fare. A sson as Jet blue opened up their route for next april I jumped on it.

 

Marilyn

[mycruz]

We also book for next april as our cruise leaves on Easter Sunday and we know how busy that can be so we bought the cruise, reserved the hotel and now the air fare. A sson as Jet blue opened up their route for next april I jumped on it.

 

Marilyn

 

So that explains why I can't get a good rate the night before our cruise! Didn't even look at the holiday schedule for next year, kind of figured it was close to Easter. Oh well, worse case, we'll drive down day of even though we like to get there the night before even when sailing from one of our home ports. See you on the roll call Marilyn.

 

To answer your question, depends on the time of year and where. International seems to get more costly the longer you wait. But sometimes there is a sale, so I usually buy when I see a price that I feel is reasonable and within my budget. Then I quit looking, if the price goes down, it will just make me very unhappy:(

Mary

[paul929207]

I usually start checking the fares when the flights open up, 330 days in advance. I usually buy the tickets 6 to 9 months in advance.

[lsane2]

I just booked our flights for next August! I don't usually book quite this soon, but since I was using FF miles, I wanted to grab those seats while they were available on fairly decent schedules. But I do tend to book fairly early, once I've committed to going on the cruise.

 

I booked our flights for next July with FF miles from NW a couple of weeks ago. I just checked again yesterday because it seemed Delta's FF fares were dropping for our trip to Orlando in Nov. and I was checking to see if I could get NW's flights for fewer miles (we now have them for 50,000 miles apiece). Well, now our flights are up to 75,000 miles! I'm glad I went ahead and got them, because I booked 7 tickets to Alaska and we wouldn't have enough miles if we had to pay 75,000 miles per ticket.

[Embracedbylife]

Sounds good, i think i'll be booking my flight this week then for our May trip. Now i just have to figure out from princess if they'll let us off the ship in oslo on the last day of the cruise! It would make much more sense for us to spend the night in oslo then on the ship and we can get an 11am flight from oslo instead of a 9am from copenhagen, which we likely would end up missing.

[Bookish Angel]

Hubby and I don't fly unless we can both have aisle seats so booking early is a must even if the price is higher.

[grandmato4]

I start looking for flights as soon as I've booked a cruise and the airlines have opened their bookings for those dates. When I acually book my flights depends on when I find flights that have everything that I consider important which include the times I'm looking for with a minimum of 60 minute layovers for connectioning flights(this could be longer depending on other circumstances) on an airline that has other flights that day that I could reasonably change to if needed because the airline cancels or alters my flight times before its time to fly and of coarse with prices that I can be ok with. Sometimes all those things come together pretty quickly after I start looking and other times I wait months for the flights I wish to book. Booked our flight down to FLL for our Feb 09 cruise in April 08 but didn't book our return flight from FLL until Sept 08.

[mizLORInj]

We book our fall cruises in Feb or March of the same year of the cruise, and buy the airline tix at that time. I haven't noticed prices go down because once the x number of seats in a certain class of coach are sold out, you are on the next upward tier (cost-wise). I booked seats for all of us a few years back and got 2 in the low $300s, and the rest got high $300s because I got the last 2 seats in the specific class of ticket (not first vs. coach--classes within coach section). This is why I buy early. I don't keep checking back to see if it went down though. I don't think in this economy prices are going to go down!

Also we live near a Continental hub which is great. Lots of non-stop flights from which to choose. Other airlines are usually more $ or have inconvenient flight times.

Regarding flight time changes in that period, yes, there are usually one or two but it's within 30 minutes or so--no biggie.

[Treven]

I book the cruise 12-18 months in advance; I booked my upcoming April '09 cruise this past April - about 3 weeks after I returned from my March '08 cruise.

 

I'll do my airfare reservation in January - after I've finished paying off the cruise. I figure my airlines ticket is going to run me about $900, round trip from the Left Coast to FLL; last spring it cost me $8something & I figure a new ticket is going to run me an extra $100.

[jhannah]

Hubby and I don't fly unless we can both have aisle seats so booking early is a must even if the price is higher.

It's aisles-across for us, too. We'll avoid the three-across seats as much as possible. We also like to fly aircraft with just two seats on either side.

[ttadpole]

It's aisles-across for us, too. We'll avoid the three-across seats as much as possible. We also like to fly aircraft with just two seats on either side.

 

 

jhannah,

 

Are you my husband in disguise? He has gotten to the point where he will not even consider a plane with 3/3... must be 2 on either side. We recently had aisle/aisle for 5 hour flight, and we were both so miserable with the people that we sat next to that now aisle/aisle is no longer option for him..

[Toto2Kansas]

It's aisles-across for us, too. We'll avoid the three-across seats as much as possible. We also like to fly aircraft with just two seats on either side.

 

 

Exactly what we do. We try for the 2 X 2 configuration, but if there are three seats across, we take both isle seats across from each other.

It keeps me from being squished in that middle seat as I have had to do so many times in the past. ;)

[MaryPoppinz]

We have a lot to coordinate. We are always traveling on my husband's miles, we are coordinating flights (also on miles) for my parents to come to our house to babysit, and we obviously need our flights to fit in with our cruise.

 

So, I usually do this backwards and have the flights lined up first. I start with a general idea of when/where we want to go and when my parents are available, check flight availabilities, and see what cruises fit into that time frame.

[Kineticoh20]

I booked our flights for next July with FF miles from NW a couple of weeks ago. I just checked again yesterday because it seemed Delta's FF fares were dropping for our trip to Orlando in Nov. and I was checking to see if I could get NW's flights for fewer miles (we now have them for 50,000 miles apiece). Well, now our flights are up to 75,000 miles! I'm glad I went ahead and got them, because I booked 7 tickets to Alaska and we wouldn't have enough miles if we had to pay 75,000 miles per ticket.

 

Acouple of weeks ago I booked FF on Delta for a April trip. 4 round trip first class for 45,000 per person. You have to check on a daily basis as the matrix changes constantly. I have even seen it change from click to click.

[DrivesLikeMario]

I usually start checking the fares when the flights open up, 330 days in advance. I usually buy the tickets 6 to 9 months in advance.

 

Ditto. ;)

[DanJ]

How far in advance do you usually book your flights?

Also has anyone ever disembarked the second-to-last stop instead of the last port to continue your travels/fly home from that port?

 

I usually start following the airfares as soon as I book the cruise. After a couple weeks if I start to see an up and down pattern, I'll buy when I think the pattern is at a low. Done that for both of my recent cruises, and have had it work out fine. In both cases, on Northwest for January flights, I got the deals on a Wednesday at 1am in the middle of October.

 

As for leaving the ship early, I have personally never thought of doing that. But there would have been no reason to for us as far as ease of getting home goes. Not sure what port you are thinking of disembarking at, but be aware it is not legal to disembark at a US port if your ship sailed from another US port.

[Paulchili]

Sounds good, i think i'll be booking my flight this week then for our May trip. Now i just have to figure out from princess if they'll let us off the ship in oslo on the last day of the cruise! It would make much more sense for us to spend the night in oslo then on the ship and we can get an 11am flight from oslo instead of a 9am from copenhagen, which we likely would end up missing.

 

I am sure Princess will accommodate you if you notify them before the cruise.

Can you not stay in Copenhagen an extra day and fly out the next morning? It's a great city. Just a thought, unless you have been to Copenhagen before.

[jpg1747]

I usually book my cruises before flights are available. I book airfare as soon as I can to get the best price. In both cases, I can generally get refunds/credits if the fares go down.

[Paulchili]

I usually book my cruises before flights are available. I book airfare as soon as I can to get the best price. In both cases, I can generally get refunds/credits if the fares go down.

 

How do you manage refunds/credits (without penalty) on your air? Do you fly Southwest?