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pdreams
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I've seen that I have the option to book airfare and the cruise together thru the cruise line website. Has anyone booked air thru the cruise line and willing to share their experience, price, pros/ cons etc .?Or does anyone have suggestions for booking airfare?

 

 

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Do post on the Cruise Air forum BUT it would be very helpful if you would include departure and arrival airport options and dates.

There is a STICKY amongst those at the top of the page that explain CRUISE AIR in detail. There are some very knowledgeable posters who will be glad to help.

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Cruise Lines tend to buy the cheapest airline tickets that they can find. But it could mean that your flights could be terrible.

Just one example:

We used to cruise with friends who let HAL book their flights. They were going from Ft Lauderdale to Seattle. At that time there were direct flights. But HAL booked them with 2 connections. They barely made one of the connections. They spent an entire day getting there. They were so exhausted by the time they got on the ship (after only a few hours sleep) that the husband got shingles.

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Cruise Lines tend to buy the cheapest airline tickets that they can find. But it could mean that your flights could be terrible.

]

 

Not always true. It depends on which cruise line you are booking with and what options you choose. I've booked air with Choice Air (Celebrity) and have purchased regular tickets that were identical to what I would have purchased from the airline. I wasn't looking for the cheapest tickets, I was looking for good flights with good connnections. I was able to choose the specific dates, airline and flights that worked best for me. Some cruiselines however do not let you choose your flights/airlines and subject you to what they can find.

 

As mentioned you'll find more information on the Cruise Air section.

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We will sometimes go ahead and book air with the cruiseline, find our own flights/seats/pricing, and cancel the airfare portion of our booking, to have our own arrangements.

 

It's usually cheaper to book your own flights, as you can choose times/seats......with cruiseair, you generally have to take what they give you.

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We will sometimes go ahead and book air with the cruiseline, find our own flights/seats/pricing, and cancel the airfare portion of our booking, to have our own arrangements.

 

It's usually cheaper to book your own flights, as you can choose times/seats......with cruiseair, you generally have to take what they give you.

 

That's generally NOT true with Princess, since they went to a different system a few years ago. Their EZAir offers numerous flight options with a variety of airlines, usually in both refundable and nonrefundable categories, and the cruisers are able to select the flights that best suit their needs and preferences. Best of all, often the fares are significantly cheaper than anything one can find themselves. For example, I needed a one way flight to London for a transatlantic cruise last Fall, and with Princess Air, my refundable ticket on American Airlines was only $400. After much searching online the best fare I could find on my own was nearly $1000 and nonrefundable on an airline I was unfamiliar with.

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We have used HAL's and Celebrity's air services - but did not have to let them do the actual booking. We picked our airlines, flights and specific seats. Particularly when booking a one way trans-Atlantic flight to pair with a re-positioning, it is by far the least expensive way to fly.

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I guess it depends on the line, but we've used Celebrity air several times for T/A's and never had a bad experience. They've always offered us an option of flights/airlines and prices. As we live close to and leave from JFK there's always several non-stops offered. We are going in Oct. Flying to Rome, returning by ship. The price was little more than 1/2 of what I could get on my own. We are going to London in June, coming home on the QM. Cunard is flying us to London from JFK for $310. I couldn't get anything on my own that wasn't near double that. But I think "their" air is not such a great deal on domestic travel.

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I have had the same experience. Pretty good for international travel, not so good for domestic. One time I used cruise air (it was either Princess or more likely RCCI) was for a transatlantic and involved both domestic to Ft. Lauderdale and international return form Europe. I booked both with the line because the Europe portion couldn't be beat; it came as a package and I had to accept both the domestic and Europe portions. I booked separate domestic on my own even though I paid for their package including the whole trip. I still came out ahead.

Edited by jamessemaj
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We have cruised on many lines. We usually check their cruise air offerings. So far, we have only used cruise air once. This includes numerous European cruises, including a one way TA.

 

The one time that we did use cruise air was after a TA cruise...we were going one way from FLL to Costa Rica. Even then, the saving was only about 5 percent.

 

Others have had much better luck than us. We were are very aware that cruise air tickets are quite often consolidator tickets that are in the lowest fare category. This can cause major challenges when it comes to flight reschedules-bad weather, etc.

 

We travel frequently and we typically check the fare category on the ticket. We always want a ticket that can be changed even with a change fee and we avoid completely non refundable, non changeable fare codes.

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Not always true. It depends on which cruise line you are booking with and what options you choose. I've booked air with Choice Air (Celebrity) and have purchased regular tickets that were identical to what I would have purchased from the airline.

 

You keep posting the same thing about being IDENTICAL tickets.

 

Very, very often those Choice Air tickets are NOT identical from what you would have purchased from an airline direct. Maybe be the same flight, same time, same plane, same price. You MAY even be able to choose your seats.

 

BUT the underlying FARE RULES may be FAR different with a lot of the Choice Air tickets from what you would purchase direct from the airline. And since you can't read the ENTIRE fare rules, how in the heck do you know what you are purchasing????

 

IF you can produce the ENTIRE fare code (NOT just, H, Q, L, M or some other such variation-the ENTIRE 6 digit code-which will be available in SABRE and sometimes in ITA). OR the ENTIRE FARE RULES-sometimes a page or more long with lots of confusing language vs what little bit is on the Choice Air website and gives about 1/3 of the rules of your ticket (the super shiny rules without the downsides) and which have the BARE MINIMUM fare rules posted, then you can keep stating that you are getting the SAME IDENTICAL tickets. If you cannot produce this, I will bet a lot of my paycheck, your tickets are NOT the same as what you would have booked direct from the airline, even in the lowest discount fare class booked directly with an airline.

Edited by greatam
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Not always true. It depends on which cruise line you are booking with and what options you choose. I've booked air with Choice Air (Celebrity) and have purchased regular tickets that were identical to what I would have purchased from the airline. I wasn't looking for the cheapest tickets, I was looking for good flights with good connnections. I was able to choose the specific dates, airline and flights that worked best for me. Some cruiselines however do not let you choose your flights/airlines and subject you to what they can find.

 

As mentioned you'll find more information on the Cruise Air section.

 

My experience also. I just booked Choice Air last weekend and got the same flight, business class, chose seats, and at a very substantial savings.

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I do wish some of you would "listen" to Greatam!!!!!!!

She has asked and asked, for years, for anyone to prove to her that cruise air tickets are exactly the same as airline booked tickets. NO ONE has done so and she deals with travel issues for her business every single day. She is really trying to help and deserves your respect.

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I do wish some of you would "listen" to Greatam!!!!!!!

She has asked and asked, for years, for anyone to prove to her that cruise air tickets are exactly the same as airline booked tickets. NO ONE has done so and she deals with travel issues for her business every single day. She is really trying to help and deserves your respect.

 

I don't need to prove to greatam or anyone else that my tickets purchased through Choice Air were identical to what I could have purchased directly from Air Canada for my cruise last summer. I have a friend who works at Air Canada who verified that.

 

I have "blocked" greatam's posts as I no longer have a desire to read her "the sky is falling posts". She is often rude and condescending to people who are legitimately looking for advice and there is no need of that.

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I do wish some of you would "listen" to Greatam!!!!!!!

She has asked and asked, for years, for anyone to prove to her that cruise air tickets are exactly the same as airline booked tickets. NO ONE has done so and she deals with travel issues for her business every single day. She is really trying to help and deserves your respect.

 

I did read the post on this thread and didn't learn anything, such as how the tickets are different. That was a pretty long post to not say much.

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I've seen that I have the option to book airfare and the cruise together thru the cruise line website. Has anyone booked air thru the cruise line and willing to share their experience, price, pros/ cons etc .?Or does anyone have suggestions for booking airfare?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I usually check to see what the cruise air fare is, but I usually end up booking my own flights, especially on domestic flights. I have used the cruise air on two TA's I did, because they were much cheaper than what I could find on my own. If you are flying overseas, the cruise air can be a very good deal, if you are flying domestic, the cruise air is usually at least $200 more expensive in my experience.

 

But as others have said, sometimes you have to really watch the flights you end up with. On one of the TA's I had a flight from Dulles with a stop in Munich on the way to Rome, that only had a 30 minute layover. I had my travel agent call the cruise company and they switched it to a non stop flight from Dulles to Rome with no additional charges, as even they could see that was not a doable flight that they had given me.

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Oceania includes air with their cruises or you can opt out & get a small discount for not using their air program

 

I have found it a lot better than I can do in some cases

We usually fly in a day or more so pay their deviation fee & get to choose the flights I want

Before I commit I do check what the airlines are charging & see which is a better deal for me

 

Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't ...pleased so far with the cruise air package

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We went to Thailand in Jan/Feb. We narrowed it down to United and Delta.

 

United fare code was no change, no refund. Delta fare code was change-for a $300. fee.

 

We selected Delta for that reason. As luck would have it we had to return a few weeks early. Glad we paid attention to the fare code rules.

 

We booked on the airline sites. Sometimes on third party sites you do not seem to be able to get the fare code until AFTER you have made the purchase.

Don't like this aspect at all even though we have booked this way once or twice.

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For all of you who THINK you know what you are purchasing when you can't read the ENTIRE fare rules with Choice Air tickets, please read through this thread and see the differences of how people were treated with their Choice Air tickets. It is all in the details and those pesky RULES very few read, most discount because they "got the same flight, were able to pick their seats, etc. etc." and are generally NOT available on the Choice Air website. You TRULY have no idea what you are purchasing. And if things go pear shaped in your trip, you may be at the mercy of the cruise line, the airline or have NO TRIP at all without a VERY heavy layout of additional cash.

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2036880

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greatam....people either don't care or don't want to know. But they may find out in a hurry if they experience an air travel interruption.

 

We are currently shopping for air to Europe for Sept/Oct and air to Thailand/Australia in Dec/Jan/Feb.

 

Price is an issue be we could never make a decision without an understanding of the fare codes. It is a key component of the value proposition.

 

All tickets are not the same. An economy ticket can very easily have 10 or more fare classes, with separate provisos, attached to it.

Edited by iancal
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Face it...the the think they know it alls here will be the first ones b#!@$/&g when tbeir flight gets cancelled and the cruise air that they THINK will help them will not...

 

Those of us who DO know the difference will be on the ship drinking wine...because we booked a ticket that is not bottom of the barrel non endorsable non changeable..must fly on the exact same routing...and we got to our ship on time...

 

You are NOT NOT NOT buying the SAME kind of ticket..if you think you are...you are totally wrong...

 

Power fliers know their stuff...if you think they do not..have I got a deal for you...

 

Sent from my Galaxy S3, somewhere in the galaxy

Edited by megr1125
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