Booking your cruise through the airline

Looking at booking our next cruise with United, do you still get the same service as if you were booking with the cruiseline? My other question do you still pay the same deposit rate and booking with the airline can you add your airfare to your booking and pay it off as if you were paying your cruise off?

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Check with a travel agent, they often add perks.

When you book thru an airline, they are actually a travel agent- ship company rules still apply.

There is almost never an advantage to booking direct with a cruise line.

We have booked with United and have been happy with the service. I suppose, like everything else, it depends on which agent answers your call when you book. The main advantage of booking with United is the bonus miles. Otherwise, they match the cruise line's pricing and promotions as far as deposits and incentives. Sometimes we have gotten extra on-board credit. There are booking and cancellation fees.

The only down side is that customer service is rather ineffective in dealing with upgrades/upsells if your agent is not available for some reason. Since the email goes to your agent, I would always follow availability and call if there seemed to be an opportunity. The generic customer service agents were useless, but my agent got it when he returned.

We use the miles to fly so we haven't tried to book air with the cruise agent.

We have booked with United and have been happy with the service. I suppose, like everything else, it depends on which agent answers your call when you book. The main advantage of booking with United is the bonus miles. Otherwise, they match the cruise line's pricing and promotions as far as deposits and incentives. Sometimes we have gotten extra on-board credit. There are booking and cancellation fees.

 

The only down side is that customer service is rather ineffective in dealing with upgrades/upsells if your agent is not available for some reason. Since the email goes to your agent, I would always follow availability and call if there seemed to be an opportunity. The generic customer service agents were useless, but my agent got it when he returned.

 

We use the miles to fly so we haven't tried to book air with the cruise agent.

I am in your same position -- booking flights through United and cruise ? Well for what it is worth -- this is what works for me. I book my cruise through a long trusted and wonderful travel agent (Lois) with a large discount cruise seller on-line. She is the greatest at answering questions, follow up, spotting new deals and being responsive to ME. She also arranges for independent travel insurance even if travel is not booked through her agency (small ship cruises/eco tours) which allows flights and non refundable hotel rooms, tours etc to be in one policy. She has already saved one of our party $3000 on our Feb. booking with a price drop and kept the cabin and benefits of earlier booking. She has saved me thousands of dollars over 10 years and 25 cruises in the family. So Book cruise through a large service oriented discounter. Pay for the cruise with a credit card (United or Chase Sapphire is what I use) that gives you double miles -- benefit of booking United.

Flights I almost always book with the flight carrier. Third party OK if everything goes well BUT if something goes wrong you really get much more service and benefits from being the customer of the airline itself. Third party ticket sellers include Expedia/cruiseline air/tour companies etc and all of their kind. Read the sticky at the top of the forum cruise air to understand this. So buy airline tickets from carrier using the double miles or better credit card.

This gives me the most control over what I want to do and how I want to do it. I usually spend a week before and after the cruise in the area of embarkation/disembarkation so Choice air is even less an option.

Good luck. folks here will help you make good decisions but they give you some attitudes and prejiduces also:p

Flights

I booked with United Cruises for my NCL Med cruise last month. I booked back in June 2013 and I got 8 miles per dollar spent by paying with the United Chase CC.

If you don't require a lot of hand holding and just need to buy a cruise then they should be ok. You are not going to get 5* service but I didn't require that.

As far as upsells, I just watched the prices and when the Mini Suites came down in price to where they were only $300 more than my original booking price, I called them up and booked my own upgrade.

They were also consistently about $300 cheaper than the price quoted on the NCL website.

I booked with United Cruises for my NCL Med cruise last month. I booked back in June 2013 and I got 8 miles per dollar spent by paying with the United Chase CC.

 

If you don't require a lot of hand holding and just need to buy a cruise then they should be ok. You are not going to get 5* service but I didn't require that.

 

As far as upsells, I just watched the prices and when the Mini Suites came down in price to where they were only $300 more than my original booking price, I called them up and booked my own upgrade.

 

They were also consistently about $300 cheaper than the price quoted on the NCL website.

I just went back and looked at my miles I earned. I got 8 miles for every dollar spent and that was for the entire cruise fare.

I was surprised to see that when I prepaid my DSC that it was rolled up into my cruise charges as well. I got an additional 2016 miles just prepaying my tips.

My big thing is can you book it through a US airline being from Canada, we find it cheaper to fly out of Buffalo than Toronto.

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Verify your pricing by doing a search.

 

Check with a travel agent, they often add perks.

 

When you book thru an airline, they are actually a travel agent- ship company rules still apply.

 

There is almost never an advantage to booking direct with a cruise line.

I noticed that Delta give skymiles for booking a cruise through Delta.

We tend to book early, like a year and a half away and don't do Caribbean. I always research for bargains through a TA. Only about 1/4 of the cruises that I book are even offered by a TA. I have never seen a significant benefit going through a TA.

Therefore, I book direct. That gives me a key benefit, control over my reservation. If there is a price drop, I call and immediately get the new price. I have read numerous stories on cc of people that couldn't contact their TA when they noticed a price drop and missed out.

However, if I can obtain skymiles, I may just book through Delta.