Is the High Cost of Flights Curtailing your Cruising Plan's

With the high cost of flying we have to scale back are cruising. We are not fortunate to live close to ports so we have to fly. While planning a cruise out of Miami area the costs of flight's are as much as the cruise itself. We can sometimes drive to the port but it's a 1000 miles and sometimes we don't have the time to drive. The only flight choices we have are very limited and with very few choices of airlines I feel we have only a few options. I heard this morning on the news that the cost of flying is going up because the fear of flying outside of the US is increasing so that the cost has to be made up in the US.

Thank's for listening to my Tuesday morning rant.

J.

Not only the cost, but the whole ordeal of flying is something we prefer to avoid if possible. We live fairly close to Charleston, SC but there are VERY limited options there and no RCCL. Same for Jacksonville. We can drive to Port Canaveral and prefer to do that but they only have a couple of ships there. Miami is doable but it is a long drive even for us so we fly when we go there. Airfare and airports definitely enter into our decision making process.

We've actually been noticing flights getting cheaper. Our October cruise we actually only booked because we got a great deal on airfare, and we did a spontaneous Hawaii trip last year for the same reason; got a great airfare deal and planned the trip around that. With flexible travel dates (and a willingness to drive to different airports) we always seem to get really good deals. For October we have to drive almost 8 hours to San Francisco, but it cut the flight cost by over $1000 for two of us.

I subscribe to The Points Guy and a few other travel blogs for deal alerts and recommendations on travel credit cards. I was actually able to use credit card points to get a first class flight to FLL for just a couple hundred dollars, and an economy flight to Shanghai for free. We probably get enough points for a free flight every 2-3 years, which isn't a lot, but it definitely helps.

Not sure where you're at in Michigan, but if you can drive to O'Hare or Minneapolis for flights you might get better deals. Or Southwest flights out of Grand Rapids

I will not be tempted to save money by flying on the cut-rate airlines, don't want to take a chance on missing the cruise. Coming home I'll use them, but going there I want to make sure I get there.

I will not be tempted to save money by flying on the cut-rate airlines, don't want to take a chance on missing the cruise. Coming home I'll use them, but going there I want to make sure I get there.

I nearly missed a cruise with a flight on a major airline, but I agree about the cut rate airlines.

Yes, last summer I booked a cruise with Next Cruise for this June on Adventure out of San Juan. But, I ended up having to cancel it because I couldn't afford the airfare. At least I live in Texas, so we can drive to Galveston. But, I was looking forward to visiting the ABC islands. For now, I'll just have to wait until I can earn enough rewards points to get us all there.

I will not be tempted to save money by flying on the cut-rate airlines, don't want to take a chance on missing the cruise. Coming home I'll use them, but going there I want to make sure I get there.

We have the same viewpoint, however we have used the discount airlines when going in a day early (normally we do that) and then coming back as you say. Sometimes when you add up all the charges for the discount airlines it can be just about as much as the major carriers depending on pricing. Airfare shopping is a time consuming process if you are on a budget which we always are.

I have not flown on "cut rate" airlines to my knowledge except once on Allegiant. But major airlines can mess up your trip too. We had a flight scheduled this December on United to fly from Kansas City to Denver (short flight and popular itinerary with many options). That flight got cancelled due to weather and the rebooked flight got delayed twice before being cancelled as well. But that was not due to the weather itself at that point, but ice on the plane and the lack of de-icing trucks. Apparently United only had 1 and it broke down. Because I guess they don't know that it snows in Kansas City in December. They also had a plane full of people headed to Houston who were on the plane and then taken back off because of de-icing issues. I understand the morning flight but the afternoon and evening flights were because of the lack of proper equipment. The flights the next day were all sold out and we ended up missing the football game that we were headed there to see. So stuff happens not matter which airline you travel.

That said, I have not noticed an increase in flight prices either. Actually a decrease. I priced flights to Houston for our Liberty cruise and at the lowest I saw them for $215 pp. In the end, we decided to drive anyway, because with three of us, plus getting from Houston to Galveston, it was adding up. But that price was less than we paid in 2013 to Fort Lauderdale, 2009 to Miami or even 2004 to Miami. We don't really live that close to a major airport- there is small one 45 minutes away but very limited flights. So we have to drive about 2 hours to an airport. So that opens up our options for us, as we have 3 options for us. If we lived close to one, we would feel bound to one or the other.

Flights from the northeast to Florida in Jan and Feb are getting higher and higher every day. I booked a flight for Feb 2018 to Miami recently and it was $125 pp less a month ago.

Fort Lauderdale flights were not much better.

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Agree. I now first look at the Anthem schedules before looking at anything else. The prices are simply crazy. I wish Southwest & Jet Blue would release their schedules much earlier than they do.

United flying out of Newark has a virtually monopoly on direct flights to Florida. What so funny, United has introduced a new economy fare to compete with those cut-rate airlines. However, you cannot choose your seat, cannot bring any carry on luggage unless it's personal small enough to store in front of you, and of course no food. Their new economy fares are still higher than what I paid to fly in Feb. '15.

I will not be tempted to save money by flying on the cut-rate airlines, don't want to take a chance on missing the cruise. Coming home I'll use them, but going there I want to make sure I get there.

Sometimes those low cost airlines are much more dependable than the major carriers. Around here Frontier would rather fly late than cancel. I have seen them run up to 3 hours late and not cancel. Cancellations usually only happen because of equipment or they know they will not be able to fly at all.

Most passenger would rather be late than have to get another flight. An hour Fog-in and American is canceling flights.

We really have no alternative but to fly for any cruise, but we try to maximize the value of the flight by doing longer cruises and adding stays before and/or after. We could drive to Florida, but the cost of fuel and two nights accommodation do not make it a very cost effective option, besides which Caribbean cruising has lost its appeal. The only time the cost of air fare has put us off cruising was when we found a great last minute deal to South America and the Antarctic. When we checked the fare, it was nearly twice the cost of the cruise so we decided not to book.

This is a true story and no names have been changed to protect the innocent. Several years ago we had a group of six and we booked one of the original "no frills" airlines called SkyBus out of Greensboro which is about an hour away from us. The flight went into St Augustine for our Port Canaveral Cruise. We rented a van for the drive down to PC. The flights were so cheap all of this made sense. The plane was very nice and the crew were outstanding. We flew down a day early and made it to the Radisson at PC where my wife realized she left a suitcase in St. Augustine. It was late evening so two of us drove back up to the airport where we got there 10 min before closing (it is a very small airport) and we rescued the bag. After a great cruise, we repeated the process to get back home, less the derelict luggage. Two days later, on Tuesday, we woke up to read that SkyBus was in bankruptcy and had cancelled all flights immediately. No airlines were honoring their tickets. Had this happened one week earlier we would have returned to port finding that we had worthless airline tickets.

Despite that, we have tried Alliegant and Frontier with no problems. We filed that one under "sometimes you get lucky".

I will not be tempted to save money by flying on the cut-rate airlines, don't want to take a chance on missing the cruise. Coming home I'll use them, but going there I want to make sure I get there.

like who?

With the high cost of flying we have to scale back are cruising. We are not fortunate to live close to ports so we have to fly. While planning a cruise out of Miami area the costs of flight's are as much as the cruise itself. We can sometimes drive to the port but it's a 1000 miles and sometimes we don't have the time to drive. The only flight choices we have are very limited and with very few choices of airlines I feel we have only a few options. I heard this morning on the news that the cost of flying is going up because the fear of flying outside of the US is increasing so that the cost has to be made up in the US.

Thank's for listening to my Tuesday morning rant.

J.

free air with southwest. 40,000 points right now but sometimes 50000.

I find flight prices have increased a bit. We usually fly out of Detroit because it's closer amd usually cheaper then toronto. But with the exchange rate right now it what it is and flight cost we may have to cancel our southern caribbean next year as we have to fly to san juan.

I find flight prices have increased a bit. We usually fly out of Detroit because it's closer amd usually cheaper then toronto. But with the exchange rate right now it what it is and flight cost we may have to cancel our southern caribbean next year as we have to fly to san juan.

I would keep an eye on Jet Blue. My husband's family is from Puerto Rico and when we go visit we've usually gotten the best deals flying Jet Blue. Not always, but more often than not they've been the best flights to PR.

I would keep an eye on Jet Blue. My husband's family is from Puerto Rico and when we go visit we've usually gotten the best deals flying Jet Blue. Not always, but more often than not they've been the best flights to PR.

They are cheap and so is southwest but when I have to had an extra .41 to .43 onto every dollar my 1000 airfare just became 1400

Yes, last summer I booked a cruise with Next Cruise for this June on Adventure out of San Juan. But, I ended up having to cancel it because I couldn't afford the airfare. At least I live in Texas, so we can drive to Galveston. But, I was looking forward to visiting the ABC islands. For now, I'll just have to wait until I can earn enough rewards points to get us all there.

We got an excellent price on an Owner's Suite on Adventure for Christmas but will almost certainly end up cancelling the cruise b/c the airfare to San Juan is almost $2K !! I really hate to give up that wonderful cabin but I just can't justify the airfare ! We have cruised out of SJ for Christmas a number of times but never have they gauged us for air like this !

 

Despite that, we have tried Aliegant and Frontier with no problems. We filed that one under "sometimes you get lucky".

You may want to read up on Allegiant before stepping into another one of their planes. Look up FAA and pilots issues with Allegiant. Especially their older MD80's.

We live close enough to use Trenton Airport which Allegiant recently started flying out of along with Frontier that has been there for several years. After reading up on Allegiant I will only continue to only fly Frontier from there.

For sure, we live in California and are a family of 5, so tickets to Florida add a chuck to a cruise. If we lived in Florida, I can tell you I'd be jumping on more than one cruise a year. Being able to drive to the port would even make long weekend cruises worth while. Tried to cruise to Mexico, that just wasn't worth it even with the convenience.

Why has this subject been MOVED, it sure is relevant to cruising.

Why has this subject been MOVED, it sure is relevant to cruising.

It was moved from the Royal Caribbean forum because it is relevant to cruising in general, not specifically to Royal Caribbean. It is still in a cruise forum, specifically, Cruise Air for threads about flights to/from cruises.

While planning a cruise out of Miami area the costs of flight's are as much as the cruise itself.

What one must always do when travelling (and not just for a cruise) is to work out one's total cost of travel. The different elements will cost different amounts depending on what you're doing. Too many people on CC think and see "cheap cruise" and buy one - and then discover that the total cost of travel isn't quite what they thought. But then, sometimes such people really do think that the flight to the cruise must never cost more than the cruise.

the costs of flight's are as much as the cruise itself.

J.

Actually, I've started to cut back on cruising because the cruise costs as much as the flights.