Anyone not cruising because of airfare cost?

I'm just curious. Not that you wouldn't take a planned cruise because of airfare per se, but do you think about it more?

My example: We took a cruise in the spring and had not planned another cruise this year. We usually do two a year, but because of scheduling had already made a conscious decision not to book another one this year.

Then about 3 weeks ago, I saw a drop in prices for Thanksgiving week Caribbean cruises. We then decided if we could get a decent price on airfare we would book and go over Thanksgiving.

As I watched airfare from my local airports (3 of them), the price of airfare into FLL, MIA, and PBI were outrageously high (at least for what I am used to seeing). I kept watching them daily and they have bounced down and then up a bit, but no significant change.

Finally last night we decided to drop the idea. That is the kind of thing I am asking out. Not that you would scrap your family vacation because airfare or other costs go up a bit, but if you were on the fence would it prevent you from going?

Well, in fairness, you were looking during Thanksgiving week which are some of the highest flight prices of the year. As a random example, looking at a flight long in the future, I see flights from Louisville to FLL for $227 each way. That's not great, but it's not ridiculously expensive either.

We are cruising next with mostly points from our Chase Sapphire Visa to pay for the air.

Then, we are driving to the port for our next cruise.

Then, we have a b2b booked, but will cancel it if the airfare doesn't come down.

So, to answer your question, a modified "yes". We just won't spend more than a certain amount of money, depending on where we are going. But, the major cost must be the cruise, not the transportation to get there.

It's about an 11 1/2 hour drive from Louisville (don't know where you are in KY) to New Orleans. Would driving work for you? If you'd consider Carnival, they have the Conquest sailing from there for as little as $459 for that week. That sounds plenty cheap. Yeah, it's not Princess if you're a Princess fan. But for $459 I'd be tempted anyway if money is tight.

We have a cruise booked for Nov. 2013 but were thinking of a quick cruise in February. We found a cruise but will not book because all the airfares are up to double the price of the cruise. How I wish we lived in Florida and could just drive.

While the air prices are high there is also the problem for us that we tend to catch some sort of cold/respiratory problem almost every time we fly. So we have a similar issue.

• Consider Princess out of Galveston next year.
  
• Cruise between the Thanksgiving week and Christmas week.
  
• Look at airline fares for "off" departures. For instance FLL departures before about 9:30 AM are usually much cheaper, which might justify an overnight stay post cruise.
  
• Same thing with pre-cruise, but then they've gotten a little greedier.
  

RCCL has the Navigator out of New Orleans on 11/24, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If you can drive, as Earthworm says above, it's a great deal starting at $379. I've taken this cruise and enjoyed it very much. I consider a pre-night in New Orleans like part of the cruise, and the trolley going down to the French Quarter is right outside the cruise terminal building.

Well, in fairness, you were looking during Thanksgiving week which are some of the highest flight prices of the year. As a random example, looking at a flight long in the future, I see flights from Louisville to FLL for $227 each way. That's not great, but it's not ridiculously expensive either.

Yes, I was only looking in the future about 8 weeks or so, so that's a fair comment. I am planning a cruise in the spring (kind of our annual cruise), and right now the airfare from any of the local airports to FLL are rediculously high still and that is about 6 months off.

That is kind of what spurred the question. Normally when I'm looking that far out I see fares fluctuate between reasonable and (what I consider) unreasonable. I've been watching for spring next year since the window opened back in May of last year and prices have been 30% than in the past. I guess the airlines are getting people to pay, but geez.....

It's about an 11 1/2 hour drive from Louisville (don't know where you are in KY) to New Orleans. Would driving work for you? If you'd consider Carnival, they have the Conquest sailing from there for as little as $459 for that week. That sounds plenty cheap. Yeah, it's not Princess if you're a Princess fan. But for $459 I'd be tempted anyway if money is tight.

I've only done Princess so I'm not really interested in Carnival, but point taken. I could drive to a handful of ports if I had to.

While the air prices are high there is also the problem for us that we tend to catch some sort of cold/respiratory problem almost every time we fly. So we have a similar issue.

• Consider Princess out of Galveston next year.
  
• Cruise between the Thanksgiving week and Christmas week.
  
• Look at airline fares for "off" departures. For instance FLL departures before about 9:30 AM are usually much cheaper, which might justify an overnight stay post cruise.
  
• Same thing with pre-cruise, but then they've gotten a little greedier.
  

yes, I've been looking at the Galveston cruise as well (did the Grand in 2007 out of Galveston), but those prices are higher than I'm used to as well.

Part of the answer here that I have to face is that airfares are higher in general and I need to plan for it...:eek:

We were booked on the Caribbean Princess' upcoming 4-day cruise to Bermuda, but canceled because of high airfares... it just wasn't worth spending that kind of money for just a few days... and because we wanted to have more money available for our New Year's cruise... :p

Not sure how it works in the US, UK or elsewhere but here in Canada flights open up 330 days prior to takeoff. I book my cruises up to two years out and my flts as soon as they are available. In all the times and to all the places DW and I have flown only once have we seen a fare drop that would have saved us some significant money. Most times fares have only gone up from what I have paid. As other posters have mentioned, short notice, peak holiday periods, direct flts and most popular routes drive prices up.

From the west coast it is a Big factor in our decisions.

I answered your question. *sniffs armpits* Do I smell or sumptin?

Not at all, I got your point. I think reasonably cheap airfare is a thing of the past. I appreciate the response! :)

We try to use our frequent flyer miles whenever possible. This December we will be returning from Floridai to LA after a Panama Canal cruise (San Pedro to Fort Lauderdale). A couple of years ago we got a Delta/American Express card. We were shocked that Delta required over 60,000 miles/passanger for FFL or MIA to LAX. And mot many flights to choose from. American required only 12,500 miles/passanger and had lots of flights. American even had a non-stop or a one stop-business class for 25,000/passanger. Our Delta miles will now be used for four nights in a hotel on Key West following the cruise!

We've also been checking on flights to Europe for a Baltic cruise. The airlines are now adding on a new fee of over $500/passanger. Even if you use frequent flier miles the fee has to be paid. From what I can find out this fee is from the airlines, not the FAA or airports.

I have found the airfares from Syracuse, NY high also. I am always ready to cruise but the airfares hold you back. Last Nov. I was holding a one week Carib cruise in Nov. The airfares hovered for over 6 months at $850! ( It wasn't Thanksgiving week either.) The cruise rate was great. The final payment was due and I researched other alternatives. I found a 10 day cruise on the Emerald to the Southern Carib. We left on a Tuesday and returned on a Friday. The airfare leaving midweek made the difference. The airfare was 40% less !!!!!! Cancelled the first cruise and took the 10 day cruise. With the much lower airfare, adding 3 extra days , the total trip cost was only about $150 more.

The trip was super with a great M & G.

I have written to the Princess CEO asking him to consider offering some cruises out of FLL leaving and returning mid week. I think there would be a lot of people interested in doing that. I thought the argument would be that people wouldn't want to return midweek. Well to pay much less for the airfares would be great. Returning on a Wed or Thurs you would only have 1 or 2 days of work and then a whole weekend to regroup.

I wrote that to the CEO but never received any acknowledgement at all.

Sali

I'm just curious. Not that you wouldn't take a planned cruise because of airfare per se, but do you think about it more?

 

My example: We took a cruise in the spring and had not planned another cruise this year. We usually do two a year, but because of scheduling had already made a conscious decision not to book another one this year.

Then about 3 weeks ago, I saw a drop in prices for Thanksgiving week Caribbean cruises. We then decided if we could get a decent price on airfare we would book and go over Thanksgiving.

As I watched airfare from my local airports (3 of them), the price of airfare into FLL, MIA, and PBI were outrageously high (at least for what I am used to seeing). I kept watching them daily and they have bounced down and then up a bit, but no significant change.

Finally last night we decided to drop the idea. That is the kind of thing I am asking out. Not that you would scrap your family vacation because airfare or other costs go up a bit, but if you were on the fence would it prevent you from going?

Hi.

Well, it certainly weighed into our decision to cruise out of FLL as opposed to SJU, which airfare to was outrageous.

Wow! I'm feeling pretty good about our airfare costs now. We have a cruise booked in April 2013, sailing out of Fll. We are going to Florida early to spend a few days with my in-laws. Our flight from CAK to RSW is $160. Our return flight from fll to cak is $182. I was concerned prices may drop later, but I'm not going to worry about it now. One of the advantages of having a smaller airport nearby!

Have noticed recently the Government fee and taxes have gone up.On a trip to London UK from Vancouver the fare can be reasonable but add $635 for the Government fees and taxes charged from the home and overseas arrival for an economy ticket really adds up.I don't know how a family with children manage those prices (Unless they have won a lottery);)

I really have to consider the airfare these days before I book a vacation.

Its not the airlines doing but our Governments .

Yep, airfare is a factor. I'm in Denver and it used to be outrageous before Southwest got here. I just got a smokin deal to Galveston for next cruise in February, $274.10 roundtrip pp! My poor brother is in Minneapolis and it's bad there. I've started really working hard for airline miles on my Southwest card. I've already got one free roundtrip ticket. I talked to a guy who hasn't paid for an airline ticket in years. I want to be that guy. Oh to live within driving distance of a cruise port! Especially when I get to retirement, airfare may be the difference between one cruise a year or two.

The airfare to Europe has kept us from jumping on some of the deals earlier in the year for Europe cruises...add to that the hassle of flying...

We have not taken some cruises due to airfare. I would love to do the Western Coastal and Mexican cruise but our airfare from Ontario to LA is ridiculous! We did do a Hawaiin on the Golden out of LA a couple of years ago and got a super deal....$362/pp return for a direct flight from Syracuse, N.Y. It is a 2 hour drive for us so I always book out of that airport. Usually I can find a flight to Ft. Lauderdale for under $300 and I think that is terrific. Our flight next week is $311/pp return including taxes and a flight I booked last week for our January cruise was $238.80/pp return including taxes. Both have 1 stop. The big problem I find is the cheap return prices are for flights early in the morning and it is not worth it to stay over as there goes $100 or so for the hotel room and food so you are aren't doing any better. One problem flying out of Syracuse is that it is in a snow belt. Next week is okay but we do have to really watch the weather in January. Our taxes on flights in Canada are just so high. I heard last week that Canadians traveling out of U.S. airports is up 30%. No wonder. I looked at a flight to Ft. Lauderdale with one of our carriers and it was $375 for a direct flight out of our local airport. I thought WOW and went to book it. By the time all the taxes were added on it was over $1000 for the two of us. Now you see why we fly out of the U.S.

Even air on SWA to FLL is high this year. We've been using up lots of our FF points; they're becoming increasingly worthless every year.

Like most people, we have a vacation budget and "everything" needs to fit within it (including airport parking and hotels/meals when one must fly in a day early). I actually scout out air first then see what cruises will work. From here, (with the exception of Vancouver for Alaska, which holds no interest for us) there is NO PORT we can cruise out of that won't more than double the price of the trip. Our latest was out of SJU, which at about $900.00/pp for flights is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime itinerary. Honestly, if I lived within 12 hours drive of a port we would cruise at least twice, maybe thrice as often as we do now.

Not not cruising, but choosing more carefully and doing more local or domestic cruises to avoid the $$$ international fares! Bummer for all.....