Cruise Air vs. Separately Booking Air

I know this has been asked before, in many shapes and ways, LOL, but i'm going to ask again in my own way ;-)

 

I used to work years ago at a AAA office, and the travel agents there always told me that even though it was more expensive, it was always better to book your air through the cruise line, because if something happened and you couldn't go, you wouldn't be stuck with an airline ticket, and also because if the flight was delayed and you missed your ship, the CL would get you to the ship, whereas if you purchased your air separately on your own, you were pretty well screwed and had to figure out your own way to get there on your own dime.

 

But reading through some of these boards, it seems like no one advocates buying cruise air anymore. Mostly, what I'm seeing is, "Buy your own air, and fly the day before!" Well, I guess I just don't understand that part...if I'm booking my own air because it's cheaper, and going the day before, I'm probably spending MORE in the end by having to get a hotel for the night, and two taxis (one from airport to hotel, and one from hotel to port)...so tell me again what the appeal of separate air is?

First off, welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

With regard to added hotel expenses diluting any savings you might enjoy by booking your own air, you also have to factor in the "peace of mind" theory. And it's hard to put a price tag on peace of mind.

 

Our first experience booking air through the cruise line was for a Caribbean cruise out of Ft Lauderdale with Princess back in 1999. At that time Princess charged $400 round trip from San Francisco. We were assigned a Delta flight that departed SF at 6:00am. The flight was a "milk run" that first stopped in LAX and Tampa before finally arriving Ft Lauderdale at 6:10pm. And the ship's scheduled departure time was 7:45pm. As soon as we were given the itinerary we immediately smelled the possibility of disaster. So we cancelled our air, got our $400 back, and rebooked ourselves on Continental for $225 and flew in a day early. The savings more than covered our one night hotel & meal expenses. Plus it gave us the chance to board the ship relaxed, rather than flying across country all day biting our nails wondering if we'd make the ship. On that particular itinerary, the first two days were at sea before arriving St Thomas. As we disembarked for a shore excursion in St Thomas, there was a large group of people and their luggage waiting to board. They had missed the ship in Ft Lauderdale and had lost 3 out of 7 nights aboard the ship. Not what I call a vacation!

 

Since that experience, we've used cruise line air fare on two occasions when they were running some incredible air-inclusive deals. In the first case, we deviated to fly in a day early from the port of embarkation (again, the peace of mind theory at work). In the second case, the air was return-only following a Transatlantic cruise, where there was no way you could miss the ship.

Please note this post refers to things as they USUALLY occur. Your mileage may vary!!!

 

1. You can pay for the hotel/taxi with your air savings. This is especially true for Alaska cruisers out of Vancouver. Fly into Seattle, spend the night, take the train to Vancouver to board the cruise the following morning (beautiful scenery). The savings usually average $100.00pp AFTER paying for hotel, taxi etc.

 

2. You pick your airline, flights, time and airports. You can usually get FF miles (no FF miles on cruise air tickets). You do not have to pay a "deviation" fee to get your choice. With "normal" cruise air, you are stuck with whatever the cruise line has available-early/redeye flight, milk run (as noted in previous post), no FF miles.

 

3. Customer service in the air/sea dept is NOT the greatest. If you have a problem with your flights on a weekend, you will NOT get a lot of help. The big cheeses don't work the weekends. So you are stuck with someone who may or may not have the ability to help you. I kept getting some lame-o person on the phone that told me ALL tickets were sold out. NOPE-just cruise air tickets.

 

Example: I BEGGED my son and his new wife to let me book their air for a NCL Hawaii cruise. DS wanted "convenience"-all one place to pay, someone to "watch" over them-they had not traveled at all. Flight out of Cedar Rapids Iowa left late due to ice conditions-Sunday. Missed their Chicago nonstop to Hawaii. The BEST the cruiseline could do for them-put them on a flight to Los Angeles and HOPE for an opening on United out of LAX (this was Thanksgiving week, 2005). Arrived LAX, had to pay for their own hotel. Next day, NCL still had no openings to get them to Hawaii. Back to the hotel. NCL finally got them on a flight to KAUAI on Tuesday. They missed 2.5 days of their cruise, missed their pre paid helicopter excursion (my present to them), and ran up almost $400.00 in bills (food, hotel, rental car) in Los Angeles, waiting to get out of Dodge.

 

4. The BIGGEST REASON not to buy cruise air tickets. Cruise air tickets are CONSOLIDATOR class. They are NON ENDORSABLE to another airline (they have no value to another airline). Therefore, whatever airline the cruise line ORIGINALLY books you on is the ONLY airline you can fly on with your tickets. Unless the originating airline itself (not likely with cheap consolidator tickets) decides to PAY for a ticket on another carrier to get you to your destination, you are STUCK.

 

Exactly what happened with DS. Cruise line issued United tickets. I found both AA and ATA flights which would have made him miss only one day of his cruise. But we could not use the United tickets to get on either airline. We had to pay for entirely new tickets, which at the last minute were more expensive than the entire cruise/air package.

 

Sure, the cruise line will EVENTUALLY get you to the cruise. But you may miss 1-4 days, depending on cruise and time of year. Book YOUR OWN air, pick your flights and times, go a day early and enjoy the savings and peace of mind. Enjoy!!!

I have booked my own flights on some, and also have purchased Cruise/Air package on other cruises. Here are my observations.

 

1. In most cases, airfare from the cruise companies are higher (sometimes ridiculously higher) than getting it on your own. However, in some cases, it is lower...more on this below.

 

2. In general, the amount of money saved by booking independently will result in enough savings to get a hotel room the night before...also even if you purchase cruise/air package, if you INSIST that you arrive the day before, in most cases, you have to pay for the hotel. And my understanding is that, if you have the cruise line arrange for the hotel stay as well, you will be paying UNREASONABLE price for a hotel room you can get on your own.

 

3. Obviously, if the price is right on cruise/air package, and if the cruise line actually decides to fly you into the port city the day before, and if the cost of the hotel is included in the price...by all means that's a great deal. However, in most cases, you have no idea when you are arriving at the post city if you let the cruise line decide on your flights.

 

4. Some cruise lines actually have a way to inform you on your flight schedule (if you buy cruise/air, of course) a few months ahead of time. However, in most cases, this happens after your final payment. Also, my experience with cruise/air packages is that your flights could change even a week before the cruise, which can make it very confusing.

 

5. However, if you want to let someone take care of everything for you, and if you don't mind potentially paying more, cruise/air is a good option. Most cruise lines will let you customize your air/cruise package to allow for arrivals one day before the cruise, especially if you pay for that.

 

6. *THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT* I'm sure this does not happen all the time, but with our recent cruise with a "six star service" cruise line, we decided to do the cruise/air package, since the price was right. We assumed, like some of you do, that the cruise line will actually help you if something goes wrong with the flights...that was a very incorrect assumption. Our first leg of the flights out of Buffalo was fogged in, we called our "24 hour emergency number" for cruise/air customers. We were put on hold for 45 minutes, then we spoke with someone who was "screening the calls" for another 15 minues, then finally spoke with a highly unhelpful customer service agent who told me she has nothing to offer, since the cruise line has no obligation to help us.

 

Really, from a legal standpoint, the cruise line has very little obligation to help a cruise/air passenger. We actually were somewhat aware of this issue, so we got up that day a lot earlier than usual, and did our own travel research, and bought a one way ticket to our port city in Central America about 2 hours before the flight departed from Rochester. We were lucky that Rochester was not too far from us, and fog was not a problem there. I'm still surprised homeland security people did not stop us from flying one-way to Central America, the day after Thanksgiving on such a short notice.

 

I'm not going to waste your time telling you all we had to endure that day, but I must tell you that cruise lines do not necessarily help you that much if your flights on cruise/air goes wrong.

 

By the way, we are saving about $1300 per person for our flights to our New Zealand-Australia cruise by not using cruise/air package.

... I'm probably spending MORE in the end by having to get a hotel for the night, and two taxis (one from airport to hotel, and one from hotel to port) ...

Booking from the UK on NCL, until very recently we have had no option but to buy a package that includes flights, one night's pre-cruise hotel, and transfers from airport to hotel, hotel to pier, pier to hotel (day room before evening flight), and hotel to airport.

 

Much of this is not comparable to a cruise passenger who originates in the US for an ex-US cruise. For example, for us arriving on the day of the cruise is sheer madness, if not simply impossible in practice.

 

But one thing in your post made me laugh. Saving on taxis? We've long since given up on using NCL's included transfers and paid for taxis out of our own pocket as an additional expense. On occasion, I've been having dinner in a Miami restaurant, having first checked-in at the hotel, before the transfer bus even arrived at the hotel with those who stuck with the included transfer.

Fortunately, I've never needed assistance with cruise line booked air (and I have done it once, when it was a real bargain--$199 RT Barcelona from Boston). I have missed one flight, independently arranged to San Diego; I managed to catch a later flight that day and made it to the city late that evening. Since we went in a day early, it had no effect on our cruise.

 

Generally, I find that the cruise air is extremely more expensive and the flight choices sometimes absurd--especially for domestic US flights. Rather than purchase cruise air for security, I purchase travel insurance. The insurance covers not only my cruise, pre-paid expenses (hotel, excursions) but also my airfare. Thus, if I have to cancel, I am not out the cost of my airfare. Ironically, the cost of travel insurance--which covers lots more than airfare--can, depending on itinerary, be purchased with the savings from booking airfare independently rather than through the cruise line.

 

If a travel agency told me that they would recommend that I purchase the cruise air as a general proposition, I would run as fast as I could away from that agency. Occassionally, cruise air is a bargain, but rarely so. It can always be used as insurance--to lock in the highest amount you will need to pay until final payment--and cancelled at final payment.

" With "normal" cruise air, you are stuck with whatever the cruise line has available-early/redeye flight, milk run (as noted in previous post), no FF miles.

 

 

We booked the cruise/air package on our NCL 11-day Hawaiian Cruise in 2005. When our Air Package was e-mailed to us, I called Delta and added our Frequent Flyer #'s for NWA (Sky Miles Program?).

 

For our other cruises we purchase our own airfare and fly in the day before. Then we are totally rested before the cruise. We were so exhausted at the beginning of the Hawaiian cruise that we couldn't even stay awake till departure. They held up departure for an hour because they were waiting for a delayed flight. So, sometimes, they do hold the ship.

" With "normal" cruise air, you are stuck with whatever the cruise line has available-early/redeye flight, milk run (as noted in previous post), no FF miles.

 

 

We booked the cruise/air package on our NCL 11-day Hawaiian Cruise in 2005. When our Air Package was e-mailed to us, I called Delta and added our Frequent Flyer #'s for NWA (Sky Miles Program?).

 

For our other cruises we purchase our own airfare and fly in the day before. Then we are totally rested before the cruise. We were so exhausted at the beginning of the Hawaiian cruise that we couldn't even stay awake till departure. They held up departure for an hour because they were waiting for a delayed flight. So, sometimes, they do hold the ship.

 

If you reread my post, I stated in bold letters USUALLY. Some people do get FF miles. They are not supposed to, due to the class of tickets. However, the airlines don't check that thoroughly. So some people may get miles.

 

Yes, a ship will be held for a LARGE group (20-30 or more) of people on a late flight. One or two-no way for more than a few minutes (flight has arrived, cruise line rep has "custody" of pax, they are on the way to the ship). Otherwise, you will be left standing on the dock.

2. You pick your airline, flights, time and airports. You can usually get FF miles (no FF miles on cruise air tickets).

 

I have always received FF miles when having a cruise line arrange my air flights.