Princess Air to Tahiti & Upgrades: how does it all work?

[karen_g]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am still in the planning stage of a Tahitian Princess cruise for 2008. I know it's way early but I just can't help myself...

 

Anyway, I have never booked air thru any cruiseline (only having left from the U.S.) but am thinking that this time Princess Air is probably the way to go. So, here are my questions:

 

1) If we want to do a pre-cruise or post-cruise stay but want to book hotels on our own (I've read that this is less expensive), can we still book air thru Princess or would they just book us on flts immediately before & after the cruise?

 

2) What's an "air deviation fee" (?) I think I have read about somewhere?

 

3) My husband is 6' 5'' and has told me that he would like to go on this trip IF AND ONLY IF we can fly business or first class. Well. So how does that work with Princess? Can they guarantee an upgrade for a fee?

 

Sorry to be so clueless. Any info you can provide would be great.

[CruisinCoach]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am still in the planning stage of a Tahitian Princess cruise for 2008. I know it's way early but I just can't help myself...

 

Anyway, I have never booked air thru any cruiseline (only having left from the U.S.) but am thinking that this time Princess Air is probably the way to go. So, here are my questions:

 

1) If we want to do a pre-cruise or post-cruise stay but want to book hotels on our own (I've read that this is less expensive), can we still book air thru Princess or would they just book us on flts immediately before & after the cruise?

 

2) What's an "air deviation fee" (?) I think I have read about somewhere?

 

3) My husband is 6' 5'' and has told me that he would like to go on this trip IF AND ONLY IF we can fly business or first class. Well. So how does that work with Princess? Can they guarantee an upgrade for a fee?

 

Sorry to be so clueless. Any info you can provide would be great.

 

 

Karen, I too am looking to book a Tahitian cruise (but in 2007). I can answer two of your questions (if I am wrong, I am sure someone will correct me) since I had to find the answer for them too. The air deviation fee lets you pick your flights to and from, so if you plan a pre- or post-stay, you have to pay the fee. Otherwise, Princess gets you there on the day of embarkation and you fly back the night of disembarkation. I can not answer your third question, but I am 6-4 and First Class sure does sound nice. Probably won't happen, but at least I will be in Tahiti.

[karen_g]

Thanks for the reply, CruisinCoach. Now I understand about the deviation fee. Hopefully someone will know about the Upgrade situation. About 10 years ago, my husband (then my boyfriend) and I went on a trip to Bali. On the way home, *one* of several legs was 13 hours long! Of course, we were in coach. At the time, since we were still in the dating and trying to make a good impression stage, DH held his tongue and didn't complain about being mashed into a coach seat. But believe me, I have heard about it ** plenty ** in subsequent years!! It's business/first this time or the whole thing is a no-go I'm afraid!

[southwestgal]

Hi Karen,

 

I was in the same situation as you - my husband would only fly first or business class to Tahiti when we went in January 2006. We aren't nearly as tall as your husband, but it didn't matter. This was not negotiable.

 

I did some research and we ended up getting an American Express Platinum card that gave us a free business class companion ticket on Air New Zealand. At the time, ANZ only had business class on their LAX-PPT flights - it may have changed now. Total cost for the two tickets was $4500 (ouch!). But, it wasn't much more than Princess' fare plus upgrades. At the time, Princess was offering coach class ATN tickets for $799. Upgrades at the airports (if you could get them) were at least $600 each way per ticket. So, if you upgraded both ways plus the base fare, each ticket would be $2000 for a total of $4000. For $500 more we were booked in business class. A huge perk was that we were able to access the ANZ lounges in LAX and PPT. This is an unbelievably huge perk - especially in PPT. The airport is hot and there aren't many good places to relax. The lounge was gorgeous with free food, drinks (alcholic and non-alcoholic), nice bathrooms and it was AIR CONDITIONED!!!!

 

The AMEX Platinum card costs around $300 or so per year. But, if you book your cruise using the card (and paying both the deposit and final payment with it), you will receive a $300 on-board credit and you don't have to use the AMEX travel agents. So that alone pays for the card. (The airline tickets had to be booked through AMEX travel as a condition for getting the free companion ticket.)

 

You might want to contact Princess and see if they can book you First Class and what the cost might be. Then call AMEX travel and check out the ANZ business class with free companion ticket. Personally, I wouldn't chance upgrading at the airport. There aren't that many seats and if you don't get one - you will be stuck.

 

Hope this information helps. We booked our trip about 18 months in advance so it is never too early to plan Tahiti. It was the best trip we ever took!!

[karen_g]

Wow, Southwestgal, I will definitely check into that. I would never have stumbled upon that deal on my own. Thanks for the great info!

[dot73]

Air France and Air New Zealand both have overnight flights from LAX to Tahiti. I was able to book directly with ANZ for about $200 less than the Princess fare. Also, I travel solo and Princess was charging per person rates for the Intercontinental Hotel in Tahiti. I was able to get a much better rate (Per room not per person) directly from the hotel website. Since Polynesia is so expensive, it helps to save a few hundred dollars.

[dog]

We are flying LA to Tahiti on ATN and I phoned and asked about the upgrades: it is now $700 US each way per person, at the airport, if seats are available.

So this adds $2800 US on to the economy tickets we have booked.

 

We wanted to choose our flights with ATN so we could spend a few days pre and post cruise, booking our own hotels, so we are paying $75 US each for the flight deviation.

[Spikesgirl]

Even with the $700 pp cost, it's worth the cost, just for the lounges, especially on the flight back! My DH is also 6'5" and he used every bit of leg room. Are you booking yourself or do you go through a TA? We just told ours when we wanted to go and where we wanted to stay (Sheraton Tahiti pre and Le Meridien post) and she took care of it for us. We did opt for the Princess transfers to the hotel (pre)because we were getting in at 12:30 a.m. and didn't want to have to worry about taxis, hotel shuttles and the like. Post tour, we did our own thing, took a taxi and didn't have any hassles.

 

We did book our hotels separately (air through Princess)and didn't have any trouble with that.

 

We did love first class on ATN - they spoil you silly - but it's still a long flight. For us it was six hours and it seemed like forever. Makes me wonder how we will survive the 18 hour flight we have to Bangkok in July.

 

Have a fabulous trip - this still ranks as our #1 cruise.

 

Charlie

[margaritagirl424]

We are flying LA to Tahiti on ATN and I phoned and asked about the upgrades: it is now $700 US each way per person, at the airport, if seats are available.

So this adds $2800 US on to the economy tickets we have booked.

We wanted to choose our flights with ATN so we could spend a few days pre and post cruise, booking our own hotels, so we are paying $75 US each for the flight deviation.

 

Dog -

So the $700 price for an upgrade from economy to business class is only that price at the airport? You could not upgrade over the phone with ATN at that price? My TA tells me that if I book Princess air, and I want to go early and stay later, I have to pay the $75 deviation fee, plus any overage on the airfare. Did you have a difference in the cost of your flights in addition to the deviation fee? Or was the price the same (plus deviation) for the flights you chose as opposed to the ones Princess would book you on?

Am I clear as mud??:o

[karen_g]

Even with the $700 pp cost, it's worth the cost, just for the lounges, especially on the flight back! My DH is also 6'5" and he used every bit of leg room. Are you booking yourself or do you go through a TA? We just told ours when we wanted to go and where we wanted to stay (Sheraton Tahiti pre and Le Meridien post) and she took care of it for us. We did opt for the Princess transfers to the hotel (pre)because we were getting in at 12:30 a.m. and didn't want to have to worry about taxis, hotel shuttles and the like. Post tour, we did our own thing, took a taxi and didn't have any hassles.

 

We did book our hotels separately (air through Princess)and didn't have any trouble with that.

 

We did love first class on ATN - they spoil you silly - but it's still a long flight. For us it was six hours and it seemed like forever. Makes me wonder how we will survive the 18 hour flight we have to Bangkok in July.

 

Have a fabulous trip - this still ranks as our #1 cruise.

 

Charlie

 

Hi Charlie,

 

Could you clarify this a bit for me? Your travel agent booked you *confirmed* in first class on ATN? Was this using Princess Air or did your travel agent just book this separately? Do you mind me asking how much this cost per person? My trip is still too far off to check for actual prices on the ATN website (summer 2008), but I just plugged in a fake date and business class LAX-PPT-LAX, and a round-trip came up at approx $5000 per person. WOW!

 

Oh, one more question: were your flights LAX - PPT - LAX ?

[karen_g]

Hi Karen,

 

I was in the same situation as you - my husband would only fly first or business class to Tahiti when we went in January 2006. We aren't nearly as tall as your husband, but it didn't matter. This was not negotiable.

 

I did some research and we ended up getting an American Express Platinum card that gave us a free business class companion ticket on Air New Zealand. At the time, ANZ only had business class on their LAX-PPT flights - it may have changed now. Total cost for the two tickets was $4500 (ouch!). But, it wasn't much more than Princess' fare plus upgrades. At the time, Princess was offering coach class ATN tickets for $799. Upgrades at the airports (if you could get them) were at least $600 each way per ticket. So, if you upgraded both ways plus the base fare, each ticket would be $2000 for a total of $4000. For $500 more we were booked in business class. A huge perk was that we were able to access the ANZ lounges in LAX and PPT. This is an unbelievably huge perk - especially in PPT. The airport is hot and there aren't many good places to relax. The lounge was gorgeous with free food, drinks (alcholic and non-alcoholic), nice bathrooms and it was AIR CONDITIONED!!!!

 

The AMEX Platinum card costs around $300 or so per year. But, if you book your cruise using the card (and paying both the deposit and final payment with it), you will receive a $300 on-board credit and you don't have to use the AMEX travel agents. So that alone pays for the card. (The airline tickets had to be booked through AMEX travel as a condition for getting the free companion ticket.)

 

You might want to contact Princess and see if they can book you First Class and what the cost might be. Then call AMEX travel and check out the ANZ business class with free companion ticket. Personally, I wouldn't chance upgrading at the airport. There aren't that many seats and if you don't get one - you will be stuck.

 

Hope this information helps. We booked our trip about 18 months in advance so it is never too early to plan Tahiti. It was the best trip we ever took!!

 

So, just to make sure I understand (I looked at the AMEX website and found it a little confusing...)

 

1) The free companion ticket on ANZ: did you use this to go LAX-PPT-LAX?

 

2) The $300 on-board credit. Was this for the Tahitian Princess? (The website does not seem to indicate that Princess is one of the participating cruiselines.)

 

Sorry to ask so many questions. I really appreciate all the good information you have given me!!

 

Thanks again!

 

Karen

[cwc]

Here is the link for the cruise privileges program. Just FYI, the card is now 395$ per year and you will only get the 300$ onboard credit if you book a suite (not mini-suite) on Princess, but any cabin on the Paul Gauguin:p.

 

BTW, in order to get "THE" platinum AE card, you need to have an AE first, for at least 1yr afterward with "certain" :eek: spending amount in that year and you will get invited to join.

[karen_g]

Thanks cwc.

 

Drat. Since I don't already have an Amex card, I'll have to check into it further. You're right, I wouldn't get the onboard credit, since we'll only be in a mini-suite. I'd have to get a regular card for a year before I could get the Platinum card and I'm thinking that my level of spending might not put me in the right bracket for the Platinum upgrade anyway. Sigh. Well, it was a nice fantasy while it lasted. I will do some further reading. Thanks for the link!

[MichTraveler]

... My TA tells me that if I book Princess air, and I want to go early and stay later, I have to pay the $75 deviation fee, plus any overage on the airfare. Did you have a difference in the cost of your flights in addition to the deviation fee? Or was the price the same (plus deviation) for the flights you chose as opposed to the ones Princess would book you on?

We did Princess Air with deviation in March. We wanted to go 2 days early and book our own hotel (using FF points). We paid the $75/pp deviation. The difference in price of tickets was minimal (less than $20/pp). But like all airlines, some days are more and some are less -- without much obvious logic. The Princess price plus $75 + $20 was still less than we could find on our own then.

[dog]

We booked our flights through our TA with Princess. There wasn't any difference in price for the extra days we chose ( 3 pre and 1 post cruise ). Then we had to pay an additional $75 US per person for the deviation. We were told at this point to make sure we had the days right because we would get charged an extra deviation fee if we changed our flight dates after booking.

We booked economy seats and I phoned ATN directly with my booking number and chose my seats ( window & aisle ) , and I understand that this could change. We will be at the airport early and try to upgrade to business class seats for the extra $700 each. You can only do this type of upgrade at check in, if the seats are available.

To book the seats inadvance it would have been over $4000 US each/return instead of the $950 US ( approx ) each/return for our economy seats.

We always fly to Europe from Toronto business class so I'm really hoping for the upgrade, but we are not willing to pay $4000 each for it.

We're also breaking up our flight with a couple of days in LA.

[PaulS]

We leave Saturday for our trip from Hawaii to Tahiti on the Tahitian Princess. We booked our air through Princess and paid the deviation fee to get the flights we wanted.

 

We asked our TA to ask Princess if we could just upgrade the flight to business from Tahiti to Los Angeles on the way home, and Princess said we would have to upgrade the entire trip. Since we did not want to upgrade the domestic flights, we are just going to play it by ear when we get to the airport in Tahiti and decide if we think it is worth it to try to upgrade.

[karen_g]

We booked our flights through our TA with Princess. There wasn't any difference in price for the extra days we chose ( 3 pre and 1 post cruise ). Then we had to pay an additional $75 US per person for the deviation. We were told at this point to make sure we had the days right because we would get charged an extra deviation fee if we changed our flight dates after booking.

We booked economy seats and I phoned ATN directly with my booking number and chose my seats ( window & aisle ) , and I understand that this could change. We will be at the airport early and try to upgrade to business class seats for the extra $700 each. You can only do this type of upgrade at check in, if the seats are available.

To book the seats inadvance it would have been over $4000 US each/return instead of the $950 US ( approx ) each/return for our economy seats.

 

Dog, this was an excellent explanation. I think I finally understand all the ins-and-outs of how it all works. I appreciate it.

 

Karen

[Spikesgirl]

We went in '04 and it cost us it cost us $7,000 per person for the entire cruise. At with ATN was listing at $1,798 pp. Hmm, prices have changed just a bit since we flew there last.

 

We booked everything through our TA. Told her what we wanted (pre and post hotel without excursions), first class with ATN (through Princess), OS on the ship and left it in her capable hands. All we did was check things to make sure they were what we had asked for and paid the bill. We really do have a great agency working for us. The only complaint I had was with the times we had to fly, but that really wasn't the TA's fault. I think they have added more flights now, but we arrived at 12:30 a.m. (3:30 am our time) and left at 11:30 p.m. It made for very long travel days. Still, I'd do it again (and will in '08).

 

Have an incredible cruise - we loved the ship so much that we purposefully booked our Asian cruise on her sister ship.

 

Happy sails!

 

Charlie

[karen_g]

Thanks again Charlie. Sounds like having a good TA makes things a lot less stressful. I've never used a TA since I've always done cruises relatively close to home, but this time the whole thing seems a lot more complicated. It sounds like a good travel agent would be helpful. Problem is, since I've never used one in the past I hate to just pick one out of a hat and hope that they are good!! Ah well, I'm sure it will all work out in the end and we will have a great cruise. 2008 will be here before we know it!

 

Karen

[southwestgal]

Hi Karen,

 

Sorry about the delay for the reply.

 

I used ANZ for the LAX-PPT-LAX route. Other airlines do the same route (ATN & Air France), but AMEX only had the free companion ticket offer on that route with ANZ.

 

My husband and I have had the regular Green and then Gold AMEX cards. We do not spend a lot of money on them - no more than you would on any other typical credit card and probably a bit less since you typically pay it off at the end of every month. I just called them to change it to the AMEX Platinum and it was no problem. Took 5 minutes. I was not sent a specific invitation to join. I think if you have good credit they will probably just issue you one right over the phone. It doesn't hurt to give them a call and ask.

 

The credit would have been for the Tahitian Princess. I spoke to my TA about the credit and she was very familiar with it. Unfortunately, when we booked the deposit we didn't use the AMEX Platinum since we didn't have one at that point. That was the only reason why we didn't get the credit. I didn't get any indication from anyone at either my TA or AMEX that it would not be available on the mini-suite. But, policies do change rapidly and it is always wise to check everything out.

 

I hope it all works out for you.

[karen_g]

Thanks Southwestgal for answering my long list of questions!

[BethIRC]

We did the PG in July '03 and did air with AT with the cruise package. We were able to get the 1st Class upgrade going but all seats were full on the return and we ended up in coach. I will tell you that the 1st class is worth every $$$. The coach was a horrible experience. The flight does not leave until 10:00 at night and trust me, you will not sleep.

 

Also, if you are going to roll the dice on the upgrade at the airport, be sure and get there early because it is a first come, first serve upgrade.

[patnlcc]

DH and I are just back from cruising on the TP - it was sensational. We also decided to upgrade, and called Princess about two weeks before we left. They wanted $2100 each for the upgrade (return). Called ATN and at that point they wanted $1000 each for the upgrade (each way). We waited until check-in and got upgrades outbound to Tahiti for $700 each, and for some strange reason, the return upgrade was $600. Worth every penny as far as we were concerned as it is a LONG flight. But you have to be prepared for this - we were first in line at LAX (about 4 hours before departure) and on the return trip, we told Princess we would not require the coach transfer as we went by taxi (again, about 3 or 4 hrs in advance) we reckoned if we waited for the Princess transfer, we'd be way back in line and we didn't want to risk it. We got the upgrades no bother both ways, but as I said - BE EARLY! By the way, our TA warned us that ATN are inclined to keep the window seats (which are in 2's) for regular customers, and the centre 4's for Princess, so that's another reason to upgrade.

[Hulagirl]

We also just returned from our 2 cruises in Tahiti 7/2 - 7/24, 2006, husband, daughter and myself. There is a lot of excellent information in this thread for anyone wanting to upgrade with ATN. We had 3 open ended flights for our cruises. We flew Seattle-LAX-Papeete for the first cruise and then Honolulu to Seattle coming home. Being that we had the B2B cruises, it was even more expensive for our air since nothing would be round trip.

 

Rarely anymore do we ever book air with Princess, but this time they were so much cheaper for the same flights. If you are really wanting to upgrade at the airports, the main thing is getting there very early. We were lucky to get in line at LAX about 10 minutes before ATN actually opened their window at 9:00 AM. There are only 6 first class seats on the plane and then several business class seats. We were lucky that there were 3 business class seats left, so we grabbed them. They charged us $700 per person for the upgrade, but that was much less than had we done this ahead, so the gamble paid off this time. Made the flight so much more comfortable.

 

Definitely pay the $75 per person deviation fee and pick your flights and times. It is truly worth it for this trip. ATN wants you to be checked in around 3 hours early for their flights, so be sure and allow enough time between flights if necessary. Also, if you are flying to LAX, check and see if your first carrier and ATN have an agreement with transferring the luggage. We flew Alaska and they did, so we didn't have to claim our luggage and drag it over. When checking in at the ATN counter, make sure you have the luggage claim tags with you. ATN needs to scan the bar codes so your luggage with actually end up on the plane.

 

Hulagirl

[ParrotTops]

If you do want to book upgrades through Princess, how far in advance can you call them to do it? Thanks!