Outrageous Airfare

Just looked up the airfare for my 10/29 Sky cruise out of Miami and they want $450 r/t pp out of Cleveland(and surrounding airports) :eek:. That's $900 total for me and my mom...almost the price of our 4 day cruise :eek:. After doing some research, I discovered the Jewel out of NY. For about $200 total, we can switch to the Jewel and drive 8hrs to the port. I'll be willing to give up my Aft-facing balcony for an oceanview if it means I get 3 extra days onboard a beautiful ship. :D

Anyone else come across some outrageous airfare?

Airfare prices may or may not come down closer to the cruise. But either way, I would be seeking a longer cruise...four days is not long enough since I too fly in from the Midwest. I want at least a week if at all possible.

I also often find flying into FLL cheaper than MIA. Ground transportation in Fl is affordable ($15 pp each way on SAS). Discount airlines like SW fly into FLL so I see better fares. You may even decide to price flight from Cleveland to LGA if you decide on the NY cruise...you may find gas, wear and tear and parking cost as much as two airline tickets.

Yeah. We're flying SLC to Miami for our Sky cruise, and w/o credit card points, our flights would cost more than the cruise. It's ridiculous.

Airfare prices may or may not come down closer to the cruise. But either way, I would be seeking a longer cruise...four days is not long enough since I too fly in from the Midwest. I want at least a week if at all possible.

 

I also often find flying into FLL cheaper than MIA. Ground transportation in Fl is affordable ($15 pp each way on SAS). Discount airlines like SW fly into FLL so I see better fares. You may even decide to price flight from Cleveland to LGA if you decide on the NY cruise...you may find gas, wear and tear and parking cost as much as two airline tickets.

Looked into the price of flying into LGA and it would be $550 total. Alot better than $900 and the Jewel would probably end up being a couple hundred bucks cheaper in the end. Going to make the decision tomorrow if we're going to stick with the Sky or switch to the Jewel.

Yeah. We're flying SLC to Miami for our Sky cruise, and w/o credit card points, our flights would cost more than the cruise. It's ridiculous.

Same here! SLC to Miami is outrageous....

yes it is messed up when the cost of four hours of flying costs more than 4 days on a cruiseship!

:eek:

yes it is messed up when the cost of four hours of flying costs more than 4 days on a cruiseship!

To top that off, they don't even feed you any longer either. Cruise parking at the NYC piers is now $35 a day. It's beneficial to look around area airports. As an example, in January a flight from Newark to San Fran was $538 r/t. From Scranton PA to San Fran was only $300.80 r/t. Remarkable, since it connected with the exact same $538 Newark to San Fran flight (a $238 savings). Do some searching around.

Last year I got r/t tickets from my small hometown airport in West Virginia to Miami for around $285 and I thought that was a great deal then! This year I am enduring MegaBus from PIT-NYC and the r/t cost is expected to be between $25-$100 depending on if I can jump on the cheap 'first come, first serve' deals. If I was going to pay in excess of $500 for an airplane ticket I would seriously rethink my plans.

We flew to Fort Lauderdale and got transport to Miami. That total was cheaper than flying to Miami. You might want to check on that before you switch your cruise.

DW and I needed a one-way air fare PHL-MIA for the Epic to Barcelona tomorrow. The best (cheapest) we could find was a bit over $300 each, ONE-WAY. Then about 2 months ago AAL's email news letter included PHL-MIA @ $89 ea. WOW! However, only on Tue & Wed. Found a cheap hotel at MIA airport (Days Inn) that even has a free shuttle to the ship tomorrow morning. So we are having two extra days here in Miami, to be followed by 11 days on the Epic. Can it get much better?

via iPod touch and Tapatalk.

DW and I needed a one-way air fare PHL-MIA for the Epic to Barcelona tomorrow.

How are you flying home from Barcelona?

We're booked Epic 15 night transatlantic for 2013 and NCL offered the lowest return airfare BCN to MIA.

Anyone else come across some outrageous airfare?

Yes, air fare is stealing my joy! We need tickets from somewhere in the northeast to somewhere in south Florida (I've tried every airport I could). It's nearly $900 everywhere I look. We need it in August though so we'll wait a little longer to book.

We flew to Fort Lauderdale and got transport to Miami. That total was cheaper than flying to Miami. You might want to check on that before you switch your cruise.

Did that. And the price was the same. Even looked at surrounding airports by me and the savings would be around $50pp. Wondering if prices are higher since that's about when the snow birds make their way to Florida?

Yes, air fare is stealing my joy! We need tickets from somewhere in the northeast to somewhere in south Florida (I've tried every airport I could). It's nearly $900 everywhere I look. We need it in August though so we'll wait a little longer to book.

EXACTLY! I'm sailing President's Week next February and the air from NY to south FL is absurd. I actually watched the same flights go from $395 to $475 to $620 back to $395 in a matter of hours. It's ridiculous!

We paid around $500 each rt to Miami out of JFK a few months ago to catch the Pearl. :mad:

Won't be doing that again. Hurry up and get here, Breakaway.

Just looked up the airfare for my 10/29 Sky cruise out of Miami and they want $450 r/t pp out of Cleveland(and surrounding airports) :eek:. That's $900 total for me and my mom...almost the price of our 4 day cruise :eek:. After doing some research, I discovered the Jewel out of NY. For about $200 total, we can switch to the Jewel and drive 8hrs to the port. I'll be willing to give up my Aft-facing balcony for an oceanview if it means I get 3 extra days onboard a beautiful ship. :D

 

Anyone else come across some outrageous airfare?

I hear your pain! I was pricing airfare for our upcoming CCL cruise from VT to MIA one way and US Air was over $600pp. I know JetBlue to FLL will be cheaper so am waiting for that to open up to book. Then I have to book one way from San Juan home. The airfare when all is said and done will cost as much as the cruise.

For those of you flying into Miami, look at the cost of flying into Ft Lauderdale as well. The two airports are fairly close but sometimes FLL is cheaper to fly in/out of.

Air fare is sucking my joy too. I still have plenty of time before my sailing but if it doesn't come down then I'll drive to MIA but I'm on a 7 day cruise.

If it were me, I think I would switch to the Jewel. The drive to NYC is easy and pretty along the way. If you want to fly, try AirTran out of Akron Canton into Laguardia, we got $70 each way for a quick weekend trip.

Thanks dmwnc1959 for mentioning Megabus. Looked them up and if I can catch one of the cheap buses to and from NY out of Pittsburgh(2hr drive from me) I might only be paying $20 r/t all together for 2 ppl :D. Now I just have to wait for my dates to open up. Figured it would be alot easier to pay a family member to drive me to Pittsburgh than it would be to fly anywhere.

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If it were me, I think I would switch to the Jewel. The drive to NYC is easy and pretty along the way. If you want to fly, try AirTran out of Akron Canton into Laguardia, we got $70 each way for a quick weekend trip.

What are you "saving", when it takes 2 days to drive, hotels, gas, tolls and parking?? I wouldn't think much.

Airfares have gone up. Look at the cost of fuel. I would not expect them to drop anytime soon, and think, the higher prices are here to stay.

With Florida, also look at W. Palm Beach airport. You can get to Miami with a rental car, or Tri Rail. Sometimes those are lower rates.

according to clark howard (who is a well known financial wiz) the best time to book airfare is 3 months before. perhaps if you wait a little longer you may find a better deal :)

I had to chime in here. We (7) had a cruise booked out of Tampa last week. Just before final payment in January, I searched every airline and every nearby city (Orlando, Sarasota, even Ft. Myers) looking for cheapER airfare out of Detroit. Couldn't find anything, so I bit the bullet (didn't want to disappoint the family) and booked the cheapest air I could find - on Delta for $762 a person, and they weren't even non-stop flights. The first leg of each flight was first class, but we were only offered snacks (chips, pretzels, peanuts, etc.) and no food.

Airfare, New Orleans to Detroit in Nov.'12: Terrible! 2 persons can take Amtrak including a sleeper room w/free meals for less than 1 person can fly! We are waiting for Southwest to post their fall schedule (late May).

In the future we will book fewer cruises but longer ones, or b2b, to help offset the awful air prices.

Anna

Living on Long Island, we are fortunate to have a good variety of cruises sailing year round out of Manhattan, Brooklyn & Bayonne, NJ. We have NCL to thank for being the first cruise line sailing year round out of New York. Now many others have followed in their wake and we can avoid all the flight hassles.