Please help me understand how included flights work

[coldweather]

Hello

 

We are Americans new to P&O but not new to cruising.  We are looking at a February 2024 7 day sailing on the P&O Azura from the Canary Islands.  Flights are included in the price.   As Americans we have to book through the approved P&O vendor serving the USA.  The customer service person really doesn't know that much about how P&O works. They just book transactions. 

 

The customer service person informs me that I book my cruise with a non-refundable deposit and then I receive my flight information 72 hours later.  The departure airport cannot be selected and will be assigned.  

 

Can someone please explain to me how this works in reality.  We will be flying into one of the major London airports on our international flight a few days prior to the cruise.  I don't mind traveling to the assigned airport but some of the airports are many hours from London. Also, what is the policy if the flight assigned is cancelled or does not arrive in time to get on the cruise.

 

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.   Thank you!

[terrierjohn]

7 minutes ago, coldweather said:

Hello

 

We are Americans new to P&O but not new to cruising.  We are looking at a February 2024 7 day sailing on the P&O Azura from the Canary Islands.  Flights are included in the price.   As Americans we have to book through the approved P&O vendor serving the USA.  The customer service person really doesn't know that much about how P&O works. They just book transactions. 

 

The customer service person informs me that I book my cruise with a non-refundable deposit and then I receive my flight information 72 hours later.  The departure airport cannot be selected and will be assigned.  

 

Can someone please explain to me how this works in reality.  We will be flying into one of the major London airports on our international flight a few days prior to the cruise.  I don't mind traveling to the assigned airport but some of the airports are many hours from London. Also, what is the policy if the flight assigned is cancelled or does not arrive in time to get on the cruise.

 

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.   Thank you!

The standard airports will be London based, probably Gatwick.possibly Stansted, or even less likely Heathrow. The regional airports are always at an extra cost, so it's unlikely you would be booked on one of these. Most of the flights are chartered to P&O, but some could be on scheduled flights, in either case they would hold the ship until all passengers are on board, or in extreme circumstances they would arrange for you to fly to the first port, and also arrange overnight accommodation.

 

[coldweather]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

The standard airports will be London based, probably Gatwick.possibly Stansted, or even less likely Heathrow. The regional airports are always at an extra cost, so it's unlikely you would be booked on one of these. Most of the flights are chartered to P&O, but some could be on scheduled flights, in either case they would hold the ship until all passengers are on board, or in extreme circumstances they would arrange for you to fly to the first port, and also arrange overnight accommodation.

 

 Thank you.  I was concerned it would work the opposite.  They would book me out of one of the remote airports or charge me a large difference to upgrade to the London based airports.   This is very helpful.  I appreciate your response.