RCI Flights?

From memory with P&O, if you purchased the flights through them, the ship would wait if the flight was delayed etc.

Does anyone know if this is the case with the RCI flights (for Rhapsody / Radiance cruises out of Australia)?

Or is it better to book own flights? Thanks :)

From memory with P&O, if you purchased the flights through them, the ship would wait if the flight was delayed etc.

 

Does anyone know if this is the case with the RCI flights (for Rhapsody / Radiance cruises out of Australia)?

 

Or is it better to book own flights? Thanks :)

Luckie, i would call RCI and ask them because if anything happened you would be covered if you can book the flights thru them

From memory with P&O, if you purchased the flights through them, the ship would wait if the flight was delayed etc.

Does anyone know if this is the case with the RCI flights (for Rhapsody / Radiance cruises out of Australia)?Or is it better to book own flights? Thanks :)

Luckie, I think I would check the fine print on that one.

I know the ship will wait for ships tours to return to the ship, and re your flight question, they would probably wait if there was not a long delay.

If you do book air through them , they are responsible to get you to the ship, and if it is missed they will get you to the next port to catch up.

We always book our own air and fly in at least a day earlier, (except if we are flying to Sydney as there are heaps of flights) and budget into the total cost , a pre cruise Hotel night.

We did do a fly/cruise deal once, but that was because the price was just so good we could not refuse , but that was also the only time we got caught out as the tickets home were to be picked up at the airport, and the cruise line forgot to pay for the ticket, so we were refused boarding.:eek:

Agree with Kiwi Kruzer, there are no guarantees.

It's less of an issue here (in Australia) but if your flight was substantially delayed the ship will still need to leave - there are many reasons, but consider there are over 2000 passengers on the ship and probably less than 40 on the flight.

However, they are responsible for getting you on the cruise so will work around any issue and not charge extra. If you do the booking yourself then any issues become your responsibility and at your cost, and they definitely won't wait at all for you, rather than e.g. waiting an hour or two for a late connection if you were with them.

Luckie, i would call RCI and ask them because if anything happened you would be covered if you can book the flights thru them

Thank you RKMW for your help! I did phone RCI but they didn't have much information on the policy so was hoping someone here would know from experience. They did not seem have a package price like P&O does (ie, Melbourne to Sydney Price $A), although they did advise that they would have further pricing information in a month or so.

Luckie, I think I would check the fine print on that one.

I know the ship will wait for ships tours to return to the ship, and re your flight question, they would probably wait if there was not a long delay.

If you do book air through them , they are responsible to get you to the ship, and if it is missed they will get you to the next port to catch up.

 

We always book our own air and fly in at least a day earlier, (except if we are flying to Sydney as there are heaps of flights) and budget into the total cost , a pre cruise Hotel night.

 

We did do a fly/cruise deal once, but that was because the price was just so good we could not refuse , but that was also the only time we got caught out as the tickets home were to be picked up at the airport, and the cruise line forgot to pay for the ticket, so we were refused boarding.:eek:

 

Agree with Kiwi Kruzer, there are no guarantees.

 

It's less of an issue here (in Australia) but if your flight was substantially delayed the ship will still need to leave - there are many reasons, but consider there are over 2000 passengers on the ship and probably less than 40 on the flight.

 

However, they are responsible for getting you on the cruise so will work around any issue and not charge extra. If you do the booking yourself then any issues become your responsibility and at your cost, and they definitely won't wait at all for you, rather than e.g. waiting an hour or two for a late connection if you were with them.

Thank you Kiwi Kruzer & The Big M for your help! From what I could gather from RCI, they did say that if they would wait for a short delay, but for a long delay, they would not wait but instead arrange flights to meet the ship at a port.

I am thinking that I would prefer to book our own flights, and like you said, just leave a day earlier and stay the night before the cruise in Sydney