Delayed flight equals missed cruise

We were supposed to be on the Grand Princess (the one with the overboard passengers) last Saturday but due to poor booking of flights by Princess we missed the cruise entirely.

We were leaving Chicago O'Hare airport at 8:20am on American Airlines to a connecting flight in Wichita on Continental to leave at 10:35. This only allowed us 20 minutes to connect in Wichita to a different carrier with our destination being Houston where we were to be picked up by Princess to be transported to the boat in Galveston for a 5PM departure.

When our flight from Chicago was delayed we called Princess right away knowing the booking was tight to begin with. They attempted to get us on another flight directly to Houston but the flights were booked (spring break).

They looked for any other flights but told us that any other flight would get us to Houston too late for pick-up to the cruise boat and asked us if we had cruise insurance. They stated that they might be able to fly us to the first port but we didn't have a passport and then we were told it was up to American Airlines to get us to Houston in time and nothing more could be done by Princess. We subsequently missed the cruise since we ran out of options.

We feel that the travel arrangements were very poor and with any slight delay in either flight (especially the first flight) we were bound to miss the cruise. Had we known this we would have been willing to fly out the night before but we trusted the cruise line to get us there.

Then we were notified by our travel agent that Princess was threatening to charge us a cancellation fee. After what we went through we feel we should be compensated by Princess regardless of cruise insurance... Has anyone had a similar experience??

Katie

Katie, unfortunately that is why they offer insurance and it's a shame you didn't purchase it.

Now I know my sister flew out of ORD last Saturday and there were not ground delays due to weather, was this a mechanical issue?

And unfortunately, the cruise line does not owe a refund back to you. That is quite clear in the cancellation penalties, they can't control the airlines and as long as it was a legal connection they did their part in this. I'm sorry that you missed your cruise and will be out money, that really sucks when that happens.

What a bummer, another reason that we like most people on these boards book our own flights and flight our a day ahead. Hope everything works out for you. We have cruised 10 times and have always booked our own filghts at least a day ahead. There is a similar story like yours on a Disney message board and the same thing happened, they also missed the cruise and the insurance is bulking at payment. They flight was late because of mechanical problems with the plane.

Thats why you see so many posts about not getting your flight thru the cruiseline....they seem to do this a lot. And its not like they save you any money.

Always plan to get to the port of debarkation a day early when flying. I do not trust the airlines as much as I do the cruise lines. Every cruise line offers a pre hotel stay.

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We were leaving Chicago O'Hare airport at 8:20am on American Airlines to a connecting flight in Wichita on Continental to leave at 10:35. This only allowed us 20 minutes to connect in Wichita to a different carrier with our destination being Houston where we were to be picked up by Princess to be transported to the boat in Galveston for a 5PM departure... They stated that they might be able to fly us to the first port but we didn't have a passport... After what we went through we feel we should be compensated by Princess regardless of cruise insurance... Has anyone had a similar experience??

Katie

If your original booking was only allowing you a 20 minute connection, it was not a legal booking and you should be allowed compensation or a refund. This also points out the need to, despite the cruise line policies to never travel these days without a passport. Also evidence of another reason to buy insurance. Did you book this yourself or use a TA, as I would have thought a good TA would have given you an explanation of the pitfalls of this plan. I am so sorry this happened to you.

I won't repeat the sage advice of other posters. You'll know better next time.

Unfortunately, for the reasons stated above, you may be out of luck with Princess. Try to press them, but don't be surprised if you come up empty.

As a last resort you might try writing a letter to the Ombudsman at one of the well-known monthly travel magazines. They sometimes have success getting refunds for folks. Again, this is a very long shot, but for the price of a well-written letter and a 39 cent stamp you at least have a slim chance of recovering a substantial amount of money.

Finally, I notice this was your first post. Keep coming back, so you can learn lots more of the "ins and outs" that will make your next (first) cruise a better experience.

I really think your agent should have recommended to you before booking the possibility of flying in the day before. My first agent never mentioned this and I barely made my connections. 20 cruises later, I now always fly in the day before.

I don't blame Princess for missing your cruise - they have no control over airline schedules. As far as scheduling the flights - it is amazing how many times my flights have changed. I have gone from having 3 hour lay over to a 30 minute layover just be the airlines adjusting their flights. This is with myself booking the flights and I have no control over when they change the schedules.

This could have happened if you had booked your flights on your own the day of, if your agent did or as in your case that Princess did. This is why it is important to buy insurance and always have a passport when leaving the country. I also always fly in a day or two before.

Sorry that you learned a difficult lesson.

Wow...what a bummer!

A 20 minute connection at any airport is really pushing it. From my point of view, your travel agent is partly to blame for not questioning the tight connection in Wichita.

You should check to see whether your connection was legal. Call American Airlines or Continental...not your agent. If not legal, you may have a case.

Good luck...

Absolutely unacceptable.

Princess should be responsible. It is their fault. I do not feel as though insurance should pick up the tab for Princess's short comings. Why should the insurance company pay for it? This is why insurance is so high. Princess booked you on a connection that was next to impossible to make. Regardless of whether you have insurance I think Princess should pay the price of THEIR mistake.:mad:

As far as your future bookings, it would be wise to add insurance.

If the airlines let them book the connection how is Princess responsible??? But please know this is not a defense of cruise line air - I would never use cruise line air... always book something you are comfortable with. This is just another profit center for (all) cruise lines.

If the airlines let them book the connection how is Princess responsible??? But please know this is not a defense of cruise line air - I would never use cruise line air... always book something you are comfortable with. This is just another profit center for (all) cruise lines.

OP booked with Princess. OP paid Princess. Princess should be responsible for what they sell regardless who their vendor is or how their vendor screwed up. If it were me, my beef would be with Princess. If Airline made the mistake it would be up to Princess to deal with the airline. YES, the airline screwed up. But that is between Princess and their vendor.

:)

No actually it's not Princess' fault, and like I said, as long as they booked it as a legal connection they are not responsible. Good luck collecting, perhaps a phone call to customer relations might end up getting you something like a partial refund voucher to be used towards another cruise? You never know, you might get the right agent. Also, if you booked this with your TA what did he/she say about this? And again, what was the reason for the delay? If it's mechanical then AA is the only one responsible.

That is why I don't book cruise line air or take their transfers. :(

Exactly. I feel bad for the OP though, she may not have had another option for airfare if she booked last minute though. I know that space was near impossible this year for flights to FLL or MIA, and I know that there is not a lot of options into Houston especially last minute. So if that was the case, she didn't have a lot of options other than not going. I think that she should try to contact passenger relations or her TA and plead her case, but we don't know yet why the flight was delayed. Like I said, there was not a weather situation there last Saturday other than light fog and a slight drizzle, with most flights leaving on time. I only remember this due to a non-related situation with a mechanical delay on a different carrier.

You booked a cruise and air package but from your post you purchased with a TA.

You received your Tickets for the cruise as well as the airline prior to when you left. I assume you received the documents at least several weeks prior to your departure, right? You did say you thought the connection was tight but yet you didn't tell us what the reply from your TA or Princess was with regards to your concerns when you saw the connection time? Are you sure you only had 20 minutes between the flights because they can't book a connection with 20 minutes. Perhaps you only had 20 minutes once the delay happened?

PTC

I too would question the 20-minute time to connect. I know we had booked a connecting flight through NWA once, and due to a schedule change, the second leg of the flight was rescheduled and pushed out 3.5 hours. This was because the schedule change for the first leg of our flight now only allowed us 29 minutes to connect to the next flight, and they require a minimum of 30 minutes to make a connection. It sounds like Princess did some creative scheduling ... are AA and Continental even partner airlines? I would check on that. Good luck to you. I am sorry you missed your cruise. :(

No actually it's not Princess' fault,

Oh??

No actually it's not Princess' fault, and like I said, as long as they booked it as a legal connection they are not responsible.

If the original flights had only a 20 minute connecton time, then that is not a legal connection!

I thought when you booked with the cruiseline for your air fare or a tour (as you pay an additional unlisted premium for that service) that if there was a delay that the cruiseline would then make sure you got to the boat? Isn't that the reason to book with them to have a smooth transition? If they have years of experience then why did they book a 2nd plane with just a 20 minute window? Isn't an hour the minimum? Something doesn't sound right there?

Note to TNTLAMB...love your icon of beating your head against the desk. Thanks for the laugh!! Where did you get it? It so fits my life lately. We've been thinking we need a paper door to smash our heads through daily as work has been that stressful lately!

If your original booking was only allowing you a 20 minute connection, it was not a legal booking and you should be allowed compensation or a refund. This also points out the need to, despite the cruise line policies to never travel these days without a passport. Also evidence of another reason to buy insurance. Did you book this yourself or use a TA, as I would have thought a good TA would have given you an explanation of the pitfalls of this plan. I am so sorry this happened to you.

Agreed. Continental's terms of carriage require that you be at the gate, ready to board at least 15 minutes before your scheduled departure time, even if you already have a boarding pass. There is no practical way for you to have met this requirement even if your first flight landed on time. (Even if your flight had arrived on time, if you got to the Continental gate ten minutes before departure you could have found that your seat had already been given away.) This should be dumped back into Princess' lap -- they booked you on an illegal connection that could not be made even if the flights were on time. Unless you were travelling first class, you'd likely have been more than five minutes after noted arrival time before you even got off the aircraft. You paid a premium price to have Princess make the travel arrangements, and they messed up. To those who suggest that the OP should have had insurance, while I'm generally strongly in favor of insurance, I don't know that insurance would pay if the connection wasn't a legal one in the first place.

Next time, save yourself and everyone you're travelling with great heartburn: arrange to fly in the night before, and buy insurance. I'm also not a fan of connections through really small airports -- if the connecting flight cancels, you're generally really out of luck.

Even with this, it still doesn't mean you might not miss a cruise (the Denver airport was closed for three days during the Christmas blizzard this year) but it certainly minimizes the chance and reduces your possible out-of-pocket loss.

It must have been incredibly frustrating to watch this all happen.

I thought when you booked with the cruiseline for your air fare or a tour (as you pay an additional unlisted premium for that service) that if there was a delay that the cruiseline would then make sure you got to the boat?

I just wanted to address the issue of "cruise air."

I didn't even want to address the fact that they had no passports. This has been on the news for at least 9 months as well as on these boards. In addition, our TA reminded us about the need for passports over 1 yr ago when we booked our cruises for this yr. It just stunned me that the OP didn't have a passport.

Wow...what a bummer!

 

A 20 minute connection at any airport is really pushing it. From my point of view, your travel agent is partly to blame for not questioning the tight connection in Wichita.

If I understand the OP, her travel agent for the air was Princess.

Wow, I can't tell you how sorry I am that your flights didn't work out. The very first time I cruised I flew in the same day with a connecting flight. When I got to the airport at 5:30 am they had overbooked the flight and we were told we could not get on the flight. After about an hour there were enough people that were willing to take the next flight out that we got onto the plane. However, we almost missed the connection. We literally ran from one terminal to the next and were the last 2 people on the plane. I will never, ever, ever, book a connecting flight again. By the way, this was booked by the cruiseline. From that point I always fly out a day before and never book a connection. So sorry that things did not work out.

They stated that they might be able to fly us to the first port but we didn't have a passport and then we were told it was up to American Airlines to get us to Houston in time and nothing more could be done by Princess. We subsequently missed the cruise since we ran out of options.

Katie,

I believe your first port was Costa Maya [Majahual, Mexico].

Americans and Canadians do not need a passport to enter Mexico by land, sea or air.

They should have flown you (one-way) into Cancun and arranged for ground transportation to Majahual. (4-5 hrs, I think).

At least you would have had a 5-day trip.

I think you should pursue this with them. They booked the original flight (with the illegal connection) and should be taking responsibility.