Airfare

Oh yes...I obsess about seats and research it thoroughly on every site I can find. Now to just keep an eye out for those darn flight changes DL makes and be ready to make any changes necessary ;)

Nothing is perfect, is it? We had booked Delta nonstop LAX to Honolulu for a Serenade cruise, and they made one of their infamous changes on us, too. They tried to route us from LAX to Salt Lake City, then to Honolulu. I called them up and said nope, we are getting on a ship, and need the nonstop flight. They changed us back. They are notorious for that. Good luck!

Last year we got round trip per person approx $980 per person which was great. Now I’m checking next May ( we are actually flying in mid June 2019) and RT fares today are at around 2800-3000 RT. How can there be such an increase.

But still. It looks like we are looking at. Tremendous airfare for summer 2019. More than the cruise fare.

:loudcry::loudcry::loudcry:

Whether you are getting good or poor value air fare has nothing whatsoever to do with the price of the cruise, land tour, luxury spa hotel or whatever you are flying to. It is absolutely pointless to compare the two. Trans-Atlantic air fare will always seem to be absolutely outrageous if you're then going on a £199 cruise.

:mad:To previous poster . Your advice below is not helpful and is most redicuclous as I am trying to understand the major increase over last year . Yes oil is higher , I’ll expect to more . Perhaps princess EZAir will be helpful

“Consistent advice here for fixing this problem: Buy a more expensive cruise.”

To previous poster . Your advice below is not helpful and is most redicuclous as I am trying to understand the major increase over last year . Yes oil is higher , I’ll expect to more . Perhaps princess EZAir will be helpful

 

 

“Consistent advice here for fixing this problem: Buy a more expensive cruise.”

It's a common theme on the Cruise Air board to see people comment or complain about airfare being higher than cruise fare. We see it almost weekly. Because so many people seem to think there should be a correlation between them and that flight prices should never be higher than cruise prices, Globaliser is just trying to point out that the two have no economic ties to each other.

A lot of the reason airfare is higher now is demand. The global economy is, by and large, doing quite well, and thus demand for flights are high - both for business and leisure. Oil is going up, but that may or may not be a current issue depending on fuel hedging...different airlines will pay different amounts for fuel, and that may be higher or lower than the current market value.

It's a common theme on the Cruise Air board to see people comment or complain about airfare being higher than cruise fare. We see it almost weekly. Because so many people seem to think there should be a correlation between them and that flight prices should never be higher than cruise prices, Globaliser is just trying to point out that the two have no economic ties to each other.

 

A lot of the reason airfare is higher now is demand. The global economy is, by and large, doing quite well, and thus demand for flights are high - both for business and leisure. Oil is going up, but that may or may not be a current issue depending on fuel hedging...different airlines will pay different amounts for fuel, and that may be higher or lower than the current market value.

Thank you. your second response is whats helpful, not the assumption that I have drawn a correlation between cruise fare and airfare just because I question a $980 roundtrip airfare in 2017 vs $2000 RT in 2018. Some people although obviously not you or Globalcruiser actually have to save and budget for a trip like this.

:mad:To previous poster . Your advice below is not helpful and is most redicuclous as I am trying to understand the major increase over last year . Yes oil is higher , I’ll expect to more . Perhaps princess EZAir will be helpful

 

 

“Consistent advice here for fixing this problem: Buy a more expensive cruise.”

Actually he is correct. If you are trying to book more than about 330 days before you are supposed to leave, major airlines have not yet loaded their fares for your dates...and the system will default to the fares that you see.

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, because I post about this often, but budgeting for airfare is important to us, too. We have used Chase Sapphire points, and transfer them to other airlines' frequent flyer programs if flying domestically, or British Airways if flying internationally. For BA I use the points for award flights.

We have done this several times to / from Europe, and countless times flying domestically. The card awards 40,000 to 50,000 points for a new card, and you can cancel and apply for a new card every 2 years (which I have done successfully). Any charges to the card for travel or restaurants earns double points, so paying for your cruise gets you double points toward your airfare.

Plus, if you can't use the points for airline programs, then you can convert the points to a credit on your statement. So, the orginal bonus points are worth a $400 - $500 credit on your statement.

I just booked BA award points for international travel next year with a combination of Sapphire and bonus points from 2 new British Airways credit cards. I am looking at roundtrip airfare to Fort Lauderdale next year transferring points to Southwest, and flying for around $24 for both of us, roundtrip.

Those of us who have to budget have to get creative!

PCUR - you are likely to be running into 5/24 soon, and Chase is significantly tightening up on bonuses.

:mad:To previous poster . Your advice below is not helpful and is most redicuclous {sic} as I am trying to understand the major increase over last year . Yes oil is higher , I’ll expect to more . Perhaps princess EZAir will be helpful

Then perhaps read through the reply again because this is 100% correct:

Possibly because you're looking too early. The cheapest fares are not always released or available at the beginning of the booking cycle.

As others have noted a significant percentage of those who come to whinge about the cost of airfare draw some erroneous correlation between the cost or airfare relative to cruise.

Thank you. your second response is whats helpful, not the assumption that I have drawn a correlation between cruise fare and airfare just because I question a $980 roundtrip airfare in 2017 vs $2000 RT in 2018. Some people although obviously not you or Globalcruiser actually have to save and budget for a trip like this.

Tremendous airfare for summer 2019. More than the cruise fare. :loudcry::loudcry::loudcry:

Working to reconcile these two postings.

Perhaps the statement about "more than the cruise fare" was merely an irrelevant observation with no intent for causation or correlation. Same as if one said "more than day at Disneyland".

Thank you. your second response is whats helpful, not the assumption that I have drawn a correlation between cruise fare and airfare just because I question a $980 roundtrip airfare in 2017 vs $2000 RT in 2018. Some people although obviously not you or Globalcruiser actually have to save and budget for a trip like this.

Curious what part of my statement made you think I don't have to save for trips...but whatever.