Great Princess Air Arrangements to Tahiti

[flamomo]

I just returned from a cruise in Tahiti.

Princess did our air bookings, and they were very good. I flew from Tampa to LAX on a 7 AM flight, arriving there 3 1/2 hours before the time to board Air Tahiti Nui.

 

The flight on ATN was wonderful. Despite it being an

8 1/2 hour flight, and sitting in coach, there was excellent service and attention from the flight attendants, the food was great (a hot lunch and a light meal of sandwich, fruit, dessert about an hour before landing), and the beverages free, including alcohol and wine. The attendants made frequent rounds with water throughout the flight. The seatback entertainment screen was good, offering about 6 movies, multiple games, several music channels, and a map screen so the progress of the flight could be checked. The seats were at least as comfortable as those in coach on other airlines.

The return flight departed Tahiti at 10 pm. Shortly after reaching cruising altitude, a hot dinner was served. The cabin was darkened after dinner to allow people to sleep. About an hour before landing at LAX, we were served a hot breakfast. Again, great attentive service from the flight staff.

The ATN company knows how to treat their passengers, no matter what class of seating one chooses. American airline companies need to take a lesson from them.

 

Despite Customs and Immigration lines being a PIA in LA, the flight home was good, and the timing of the flights was nicely done. They provided a comfortable amount of time to get through C&I, and get to one's next terminal.

 

There are so many negative remarks about cruise air arrangements on CC, and I wanted to tell other posters that they CAN turn out well.

[greatam]

I just returned from a cruise in Tahiti.

Princess did our air bookings, and they were very good. I flew from Tampa to LAX on a 7 AM flight, arriving there 3 1/2 hours before the time to board Air Tahiti Nui.

 

There are so many negative remarks about cruise air arrangements on CC, and I wanted to tell other posters that they CAN turn out well.

 

Glad your flights worked out well.

 

HOWEVER, there are VERY limited flights to Tahiti. ATN, Air France, Qantas and Air New Zealand are about all I can think of that fly nonstop from LAX. So there are NOT a lot of options that even a cruise line can even put together on a cruise air or deviation cruise air ticket.

 

Where you could have truly been in deep doo-doo with your cruise air tickets-IF in either direction, you would have missed your connection. You would have been essentially STUCK until there was space available on the originating carrier. Could have been 1 hour or several days. And outbound, you could have missed your cruise, very easily.

 

And Princess had absolutely NOTHING to do with the service you received on ATN. Almost ALL foreign carriers provide service like that. Asian and European carriers provide meals, blankies and all the things missing in the USA on most flights, even short haul ones. I am always amazed that Vietnam Airlines manages to provide a full meal (not just a snack) on flights from Hong Kong to Hanoi, Hanoi to Saigon or Saigon to Bangkok. Those flights are barely over 1.5 hours long.

 

All in all, if you TRULY understand the restrictions with a cruise air/consolidator type ticket, have plan B, C and D in mind to solve problems and KNOW that the cruise line will do LITTLE to help you out if there is any kind of problem, you may save a few dollars. But if you are NOT prepared to get yourself out of a mess with a cruise air ticket, the cost in dollars and time could be HUGE. You very well could miss your cruise.

[flamomo]

greatam

 

I DO realize that Princess had absolutely nothing to do with the wonderful service on ATN!! It was just such a treat to be so well cared for by an airline, that I got carried away!

 

I DID have backup alternatives in mind, should the flight schedule have gone awry. And I DID fly to Papeete 2 days early, both to assure that I would be there in time for boarding the ship, as well as a chance to have a little more time in paradise.

 

I DID understand the potential for problems that Princess may not have been able to help with, because I read all the dire warnings here on this thread. And I worried for months leading up to the cruise that something would go wrong. That added a negative tone to the anticipation of the cruise that I have never had before, and didn't like.

 

We spoke with quite a few passengers on the ship, from various parts of the US, Canada, England, who had cruise air, and not one of them expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangements the cruise line had made.

 

My purpose in posting was to let other who might be considering cruise air know that it CAN work. Maybe not every time, BUT it is possible.

 

And when it does not go well, it's likely not the fault of the cruise line, but rather the airlines, at least here in the US.

[Jack1]

Our experience to and from PPT through Princess air was positive both times we went. First time no problem. Second time we encountered the famous customs lines in Vancouver airport and our connecting flight to LAX was a few hours delayed while they waited for everyone to get through the long line up at customs/immigration. As we landed in LAX we saw our plane (or imagined it was our plane) leaving. Air Tahiti Nui are such distinctive planes we sighed as we saw one leave as it probably was ours.

I knew we could be hooped as it was cruise air arranged. We got ourselves to the Air Tahiti Nui desk and told the nice woman there our tale of woe. Our son was a little freaked about missing the plane but we too had made arrangements to fly in couple days early. And I also knew there was another flight leaving later that afternoon. She went to the back and talked to someone for a few moments and did her magic and within a few minutes, we had boarding passes for the next flight.

Greatam is correct, I knew there was no responsibility to get us there once we had missed the flight. We were very fortunate there were seats for the 3 of us on the next flight. We had a big sigh of relief once we boarded the plane and it left for PPT.

By the way, Air Tahiti Nui was a great airline to fly with. I wholeheartedly agree with you flamomo. Great service.

[6rugrats]

Glad you had such a good experience. Overall, I agree that US carriers give inferior service compared to foreign carriers.

[imacruizer]

Thanks for letting us know about your experience. I remember that you asked a lot of questions and tried to cover all the bases before your cruise. I'm delighted that everything turned out so well. Many times we only hear about the experiences that aren't good. It is nice to hear a postive report.