Pricing cruises that include airfare?

When a river cruise line offers trips that include the airfare (from certain airports), can you get a credit for air and not take the "free" air option? We have done that with Oceania Cruise Lines, although, the credit we received was below what we actually paid for our own airfare. The cruiseline airfare doesn't always involve the most direct route to get to a destination, so we prefer to book our own flights.

For Scenic, at least, the answer appears to be Yes. I can't speak for any others.

In the US and Canada markets, Viking packages and prices the cruise and the airfare separately. You may take the airfare or not but there is no reduction in the cruise price if you don't. Moreover, if Viking is offering a free airfare deal, when that deal is over, the cruise price will not drop.

IMHO, if you are flying economy and not planning on upgrading with points, free airfare is a pretty good deal. You can still use custom air ($50pp) to select your flights and in most cases your seats.

... also worth considering that having separate flight arrangements can bite you if there are changes due to water levels as people are currently experiencing ...

Good point, Mark. My DH and I took our first river cruise a year ago. We had it handed in our laps less than two weeks before the trip started. :eek: We didn't know about water levels...or much of anything about river cruising. We booked our own flights. Luckily, we did not have any of the ship positioning problems. However, we always fly in at least a day ahead (more when cruising in Europe) and fly out a day or more later. So that should help.

It took us about half a year to realize that we actually liked river cruising. It was so odd to us after having sailed on over 40 ocean cruises.

In the US and Canada markets, Viking packages and prices the cruise and the airfare separately. You may take the airfare or not but there is no reduction in the cruise price if you don't. Moreover, if Viking is offering a free airfare deal, when that deal is over, the cruise price will not drop.

 

 

IMHO, if you are flying economy and not planning on upgrading with points, free airfare is a pretty good deal. You can still use custom air ($50pp) to select your flights and in most cases your seats.

Exactly what I need to know...thank you! :)