Early flight out of FLL

My sister and b-i-l got off the "Noordam" this morning. They did the self "walk off". They were not flying, but they called me at 5 after 8. They were off, had been taken to long term parking and were in their car driving away at 8AM. So if they were flying, they probably would have had no problem with a flight anytime as early as 10AM. If there are no snafus with docking, customs, immigration, etc and you do the self walkoff, a cruise arriving in FLL with a flight out of FLL as early as 10AM could be doable. I, personally, would NOT book anything earlier than noon, just in case, but.....it could be doable. If you did book something later in the day but arrived at the airport early enough for an earlier flight that had seats on it, they MIGHT put you on the earlier flight for no additional $$$$. Especially if the later flight you had a reservation for was already overbooked.

The airport is packed on cruise days. They would also need to have no long lines at baggage check and security at the airport. That can really add a lot of time. I wouldn't risk this, as planes were probably pretty full.

Also bear in mind that not that many Caribbean cruises disembark on Fridays. If someone is flying home on a Saturday or Sunday, the lines to check baggage and go through security could be horrendous. So it could possibly work on an "off" day like a Friday if everything went according to plan, but I would imagine that it would be pretty tough to pull off on a weekend.

All the "if's" you list is why you don't want to book a flight that early.

My only time arriving in Port Everglades, nobody got off the ship until after 10AM and it took us another 1.5 hours to get through immigration. There were only 2 officials dealing with immigration for the entire ship.

I think it's unwise to assume y9ou will get out of th port area in time to catch a flight before mid-day.

Trust me, they will not "put you on an earlier flight" free gratis. Unless you have status with the airline, there will be a $25-$50 fee to take the earlier flight. The airline has no idea whether the later flight is actually overbooked until it's boarding. 98% of the time it isn't. Airlines have become extremely good at forecasting how many tickets to oversell in order to compensate for no-shows, and employees are under strict "no waivers / no favors" rules.

Not so sure about the above...... We've arrived early enough several times (as recently as this past October) and were put on an earlier flight at no charge. In fact, THEY asked US if we wanted to take the earlier flight. We are NOT platinum, elite, 4-star, or whatever other names airlines have for frequent flier clubs.

Not so sure about the above...... We've arrived early enough several times (as recently as this past October) and were put on an earlier flight at no charge. In fact, THEY asked US if we wanted to take the earlier flight. We are NOT platinum, elite, 4-star, or whatever other names airlines have for frequent flier clubs.

Interesting...what airline(s) on your most recent experience with this? I can see Southwest or JetBlue doing this but if it was a legacy carrier you've been really fortunate.

Not so sure about the above...... We've arrived early enough several times (as recently as this past October) and were put on an earlier flight at no charge. In fact, THEY asked US if we wanted to take the earlier flight. We are NOT platinum, elite, 4-star, or whatever other names airlines have for frequent flier clubs.

Agree - US Airways computer always asks us if we would like to check for an earlier flight. Last Nov our friends who went to the airport early, got rebooked at no cost onto an earlier flight. Got them home 2 hours early.

For us, it was United.

For us, it was United.

Agee, especially when you check in online, you will sometimes be given the choice of changing to an earlier flight, at no cost. No guarantee though. You can always ask at the airport, as, despite their written policy, you never know what an agent will say.

Interesting...what airline(s) on your most recent experience with this? I can see Southwest or JetBlue doing this but if it was a legacy carrier you've been really fortunate.

Or maybe the poster's connecting flight had an issue and the airline was proactively trying to rebook pax, with options that included an earlier originating flight.

And with the HUGE blizzard last weekend, our neighbors were flying out on Saturday. The airline called them (don't know which one) and asked them if they could go on Friday rather than wait and be rescheduled after the fact as they (airline) knew all flights on Sat would be canx. No additional charges, and they ended up on a flight that initially was more expensive than the one they booked.