Early Flight Out of Miami

[siouxrose]

Airline changed my filght to 10:40 am out of Miami. We are on a Celebrity cruise (first time on X) and I'm wondering if anyone has caught a flight this early. My DH & I will do self disembarkation if offered & walk off the ship carrying our own bags. Do you think we'll make it?

p.s. I booked directly with the airline, not thru Celebrity.

[Keith1010]

I wouldn't go for a flight this early. If everything goes well you will make it but if somethng goes wrong you may have a problem and sometimes that happens at Miami. The ship could arrive to port later than planned, or there can be a delay getting cleared or a customs agent could stop you and make you open your luggage (this does happen at Miami).

 

Since the airline moved up your flight I would at least call them and explain your situation assuming there is an early afternoon flight to see if you could be switched to that.

 

Again, there will be some people who say "I had no problem" whether it is on this board or the Florida board but delays do happen causing missed flights and I have seen them happen more frequently in USA ports than in other ports around the world.

 

Keith

[SueG]

I would take it. I had a 10:50 flight in May and I still had to wait over 2 hours for my flight. I recently just started booking earlier flights. If something happens, I figure I will deal with it then. Use self-assist if they have it.

[FlyerTalker]

Yes....there are people who have made such a flight. There are also those who have not.

 

There are far too many things that can go wrong, but if you have a high risk tolerance level and are willing to accept the downsides (such as not leaving for a day or more if there are no available seats), it's your choice.

 

As for the SueG post about "still had to wait over 2 hours".....that has little to no bearing on what would happen with normal operations. ANY FLIGHT has the potential for delay for any number of reasons. If you are going to buy seats even earlier to "compensate", then my bet is that you will end up being a sorry consumer who most assuredly will have to "deal with it then". I hope you have a patient personality.

[Host Mike]

I'll just tell you my experience.

I book the same flight from MIA to RDU - over the years it has been as late as 11:05 and as early as 10:05.

I have made it every time. We cruise on RCI.

Can something go wrong? Yes. Can you miss your flight? Yes.

But - for 19 times - I have made it 19 - missed it 0. Still had time for coffee at the airport.

Your call.

[MamaParrotHead]

Whenever airlines change your flight, you have the right to call and they'll most likely change it without fees. Same thing just happened to me on Saturday. I personally wouldn't go earlier than noon.

[biker1972]

And while host Mike made his flights, I have waited twice to board cruises at 11:00 am, once looking at an empty dock until 12:30 (fog) and once because there was a problem clearing the ship. I could tell both times that there were people trying to scramble because of missed flights. Why stress at the end of a vacation? (And why are the early flights cheaper than the later ones?)

[Keith1010]

I always say why worry about the flights. So, I go with the later one.

 

I agree with flyertalker. While some will have no problem that doesn't mean that each person will have the same experience.

 

To me it's all about risk. One might not stop at the stop sign and not get a ticket or get into an accident but in time it will catch up with them.

 

For me, I would rather not spend half the cruise worrying about this.

 

Rather than worrying and pushing to be the first one off the ship, I just go with the latser flight.

 

I have been in situations where weather does delay the ship, or the clearance takes longer than expected or a piece of luggage takes longer than expected to find. I have also been on a ship where we were delayed getting into port because of a medical evacuation a few hours earlier which required the ship to anchor for awhile. And, I have also embarked a voyage with the same experience that biker1972 had. It happens. And the odds say it will catch up with someone who goes with early flights.

 

Keith

[siouxrose]

Host Mike - Thanks so much for your response. I'm mostly interested in if anyone has actually caught a flight this early out of Miami and you've done it 19 times! Yea!!

 

The 10:40 am flight is a direct flight to LAX. If I change my booking to a later flight I'd have to make connections in DFW or ORD (ugh!) in January. Given the possible weather problems, I feel safer with the direct flight, even though it's early. For me, once the cruise is over, it's done. I'm happy to grab my own bags & go. I've cruised many times on Cunard & used self assist disembarkation and been off the boat by 7:30am. I just hope that X's system is as seamless. I'm flying MIA to LAX on AA, so there are lots of flights and if the worst thing that happens is that I spend another night in Miami, so be it - there are worse places to be stuck! THANKS EVERYONE :-)