Need Advise on Return Flight to US

Our cruise won't be until May 2018. We booked our flight thru Princess once it was available over 3 months ago with a return flight of 12:50 PM from Heathrow (I know it is already very tight schedule). Yesterday Delta changed our return flight to 11:50 AM.:mad:.

In order to change the return flight we MUST cancel the whole flight schedules and re-book on a new one with a HIGHER price plus unfavorable departure time (Princess is no help on this). Our current departure time would work out best for us and hate to give it up for the return flight shake and it is not available to select any more on Princess EZAir as of today.

A question for those had traveled on this kind of cruise / schedule before.

1. Is the departure time doable? We will have to get a private transfer with one of recommend company on the board and will do self departure in order to get to Heathrow by no later than 9:00 to 10:00 AM. It will be on Sunday.

2. Ship arriving back to port on time per say around 6 AM. Can we depend on that?.

We will make some calls today (Delta/Princess/Smiths for Airport etc). Since the cruise is 7 months away, should we wait a little longer (few weeks) and hope for a schedule change and re-book our flight schedule?.

Thanks for your opinion and advise.

On a Sunday morning it should only take about 1½ hours to get to Heathrow. Getting there between 9:30 to 10:00 should not be a problem. I know the airline says three hours, but there is some leeway built in. Make sure that the private hire company knows your deadline.

As for the arrival time of your ship, it is not guaranteed, but the vast majority of ships do make it on time.

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It will be on Sunday.

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Magic words :)

Can I presume the port is Southampton?

No worries.

As Bob's post, since it's a sunday you should get to Heathrow in about 90 minutes. Traffic might build on the opposite carriageway, but no worries in your direction.

Even a motorway closure due to late saturday night fatal accident (that's a popular time for killing yourself on the roads :rolleyes:) wouldn't add more than a half-hour on a sunday morning.

Arrival times for most ships are quoted any time from about 5am onwards, but disembarkation starts around 7am unassisted (haul your own bags from cabin to terminal), and about 7.30am for the first slot for assisted disembarkation.

So unassisted disembarkation and a car booked for 7.15am will get you to Heathrow 9am to 9.30.

Although airline check-ins are usually open til 45 mins before flight-time you do need to allow for security & possibly a long walk to your gate so checking in 2 hours ahead would be ideal. You'd almost certainly manage that, but even with delays in disembarking or on the road you'd be there 90 minutes ahead of your scheduled time.

You'd probably be OK if you were allocated to the first tranche of regular disembarkation (Guest Relations will usually bump you forward from a later slot to that tranche if you tell them of your travel plans) but I'd be inclined to play safe & go for unassisted - it avoids hunting the terminal for your bags & potential lines at immigration etc. as well as that extra 30 minute window.

I see no reason why you shouldn't book your transfer now, if they'll' accept it this far out - it gets that job out of the way.

Ship's coach transfer would have been OK for the 12.50 flight, but too risky for the 11.50. But no worries, a private transfer for two should only cost pennies more.

Public transport won't do the job, even in the original time-frame.

JB :)

Hello ChattTenn.

I have no useful information on your question, but since we are also from Chattanooga, I just wanted to say hi and good luck.

Just got off Caribbean Princess in Southampton last Friday, Sept 22.

Ship arrived around 5:00am as scheduled. We had fair weather on arrival. Based on Disembarkation Schedule Sheet, Self-Assist was at 6:15am. Princess transfer with Heathrow flight starts at 6:20am, with 5 min intervals per terminal.

We had a 6:00pm United flight so we chose a 9:45am disembark schedule. We had a private airport transfer and was on the road at 10:15am. We arrived at 12:10pm at Terminal 2, going around Terminal 5 because of heavy traffic on lane going to Terminal 2.

We had 15min checking in with the luggage from getting off at passenger drop-off lane.

Based on our recent experience, maybe you can have an idea if your new flight schedule is doable, or should be considering allowance for any possibility of delays due to different month of travel.

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Most airlines do online check in 24 hrs before the flight now. If you can do that via WiFi from the ship, all you will have to do at LHR is drop your luggage, so you could probably get away with being at the airport 90 mins or a bit less before flight time.

Simon

Thanks everyone for the responses.

The schedule change did stress us out but it will be fine at the end. We might reconsider to change for a later flight later on.

John Bull thank you for taking time out to help all us on this board.

ernieb thanks and hello.

ChattTenn

Thanks everyone for the responses.

 

The schedule change did stress us out but it will be fine at the end. We might reconsider to change for a later flight later on.

 

John Bull thank you for taking time out to help all us on this board.

 

ernieb thanks and hello.

 

ChattTenn

Good luck! We travel in May 2018 as well, but on NCL Jade. I'm booking flights this week, after watching the fares drop to a comfortable amount. Just deciding Delta versus Virgin versus British Air! We had considered that 12:50pm flight from LHR, but it stressed me out:( I feel more comfortable with a 5:30pm departure, even with sitting around the airport a long time. We'll just people watch :-)

Safe travels!!

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IF it was the airline that changed the flight time you shouldn't have to pay to change to get a later flight out that day. Press your case up the chain of command.

UPDATE

We reserved the air portion from Princess EZAir, Delta prep stated he CAN'T HELP but admitted the 11:50 is very early and told us to call Princess.

We called Princess again and this time got to speak to a person whose seems to know/understood the situation, she asked the air department to allow her to change to a later flight with no additional cost. Thanks goodness we are so glad.:D

As langleyflt said. We will be people watching for a few hours in Heathrow. Just hate to stress out and rush to the airport after a cruise we have been waiting for all these years.

Sauer-kraut. This is our first time to book air portion from Princess. Just do not know if we will do this again in the future to save money. Delta is very BAD on changing schedules and very hard to speak with.

Thanks again everyone.

ChattTenn

Glad it has worked out. Have a wonderful trip~

Chatt Tenn,

Glad it was solved! We booked our flight yesterday on British Air and chose them mainly for price and departure time from LHR. Our flight leaves at 5:20 pm, so a lot of wiggle after disembark in Southampton. We might even tour something before arrival at airport. Sorry, chatty...Just excited!

may I ask what airfare rates did you all get and what is your itinerary? We too are headed over in August 2018 from Atlanta and trying to decide when to pull the trigger on air. TIA. Enjoy:)

may I ask what airfare rates did you all get and what is your itinerary? We too are headed over in August 2018 from Atlanta and trying to decide when to pull the trigger on air. TIA. Enjoy:)

We fly British Air next May 2018 from Dulles to Heathrow. I kept watch on the fares from this past April until I booked the end is Sept.

I felt comfortable with the cost which was less than $2600 total (for 2 people/round trip and we booked World Traveler Plus seats).

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may I ask what airfare rates did you all get and what is your itinerary? We too are headed over in August 2018 from Atlanta and trying to decide when to pull the trigger on air. TIA. Enjoy:)

Forgot to mention, this rate was for

non-stop flights :-)

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may I ask what airfare rates did you all get and what is your itinerary? We too are headed over in August 2018 from Atlanta and trying to decide when to pull the trigger on air. TIA. Enjoy:)

Hello,

We will be cruising with Princess and reserved the air through EZAir Delta with a non-stop from Atlanta to Heathrow the price is $774 pp (regular economy class with a reserved seats) that was a few months ago. At that time Virgin Atlantic was a little less but since Delta is ok with us we decided to pay a little more to stay with something we knew and have traveled with before.

Good luck

Hope it all works out for you. It wouldn't be a bad idea to be aware of later flights, though, just in case you have to make a last minute change. I say this because we sailed out of Southampton on Crown Princess in May this year and couldn't board till late afternoon because the ship had come into port 3 hours late, due to storms in the Bay of Biscay. So problems can occur, even at that time of year,

Hope it all works out for you. It wouldn't be a bad idea to be aware of later flights, though, just in case you have to make a last minute change. I say this because we sailed out of Southampton on Crown Princess in May this year and couldn't board till late afternoon because the ship had come into port 3 hours late, due to storms in the Bay of Biscay. So problems can occur, even at that time of year,

Thank you. We got our return flight changed to 3:30PM and breathe much better with this flight. We probably will have to wait a little longer at the airport but it is a bigger headache on missing a flight and trying to get on another with/without empty seats.

I am happy to hear that you have the afternoon flight.

Now you can take your time getting off the ship and spend not a second worrying about any of this.

We have spend time at the airport and I would rather do that then spend time worrying about this.

Great news.

Keith

I am happy to hear that you have the afternoon flight.

 

Now you can take your time getting off the ship and spend not a second worrying about any of this.

 

We have spend time at the airport and I would rather do that then spend time worrying about this.

 

Great news.

 

Keith

Thank you.

People watching is not too bad sometimes. Can't wait for the cruise...

ChattTenn