booking air through Carnival

[YooperGale]

Hi,

 

We are thinking of booking our flights through Carnival.

 

I would like to hear experiences ofpeople who have done this.

 

Do we have any say in flights or airlines?

 

Can we fly in a day early? If so, will Carnival book a hotel for us?

 

Thanks for any information and/or suggestions you can give me!

 

Gale

[gazingm42]

Normally its more $$ than booking on your own. You don't have alot

of control of the flight times. They normally will not confirm until 2 weeks

before you leave.

 

We seen/heard stories on how they have you make short (but leagal) connections which would cause you to miss flights.

 

I personally would make your own vs having ccl do it.

[imlulu]

I would ask you what cruise you are doing? If it is Caribbean, why book through Carnival even with increases in fairs you can still get a decent deal out there.

[lcpagejr]

To answer your questions.....NO, NO, NO. Your under their control. If Carnival does fly you in a day early it would not be based on your request...just how their reservation system located flights for you.

 

I do not recommend planning air through Carnival (very costly) unless you live in a remote area with limited flight options. If you do, Carnival's pricing may be competitive. However, if you live near a major airport....you usually can do much better and then plan your own time of departure, etc

[sparkscruiser]

You can pay for deviations to Carnival Air - you need to contact your PVP or TA to inquire what the cost is. If you voluntarily go early you will pay the hotel costs and the devviation fee. If, on the other hand you were to be sent a day early because of flight times - Carnival would pay for the hotel. But I would bet that the would put you on a red eye (for example West Coast to East Coast).

[Frohoss]

We will be cruising in November '08 out of Tampa. We originally we're going to go with the Carnival Airfare, until I made a similar post as yours.

 

Take the advise of others and try to fly in a day before your cruise. Just to make sure you get there and have plenty of time to get to the port. Bellow is an example of our schedule.

 

Carnivals Airfare for 2 was $920 total. HOWEVER....we decided to book on our own to save some $ and be in control of OUR TIME.

 

We booked an Embassy Suites Hotel room and Round Trip Airfare for 2 for $770 total through Expedia.

 

We'll have the peace of mind that we will be in Tampa a day before our cruise and our savings of $150 can be applied towards an excursion or a nice night out in Tampa before we set sail!

 

Happy Cruising

[Blissed Out]

We're kicking around the same thing right now....book on our own or use CCL. Something to think about is the transfers from the airport to the ship. Maybe check into how much a taxi ride is going to cost you, or how much a shuttle will cost you.

 

I've read that shuttles can cost about 54 per person, round trip. So maybe look into that before you decide. We're still undecided. I guess we'll wait and see what air pricing does between now and next year.

[TortieGal]

I second the don't do its! You'll have a lot more flexibility if booked on your own. Keep checking the airlines websites daily. I have to head back East for business in a few weeks and because I needed to tack on a side trip to my family, I watched airfares for about a week. They were up and down the whole time. Eventually I found a combo that was cheap enough for my company to pick up the cost for that side trip.

[Wennfred]

We used to do this all they time because we flew in from San Diego to Miami a day before and they would also put us up in a nice Miami Airport Hotel, this also included all transfers. It was a done deal, didnt have to ever worry about booking air etc. For those cruising for the first time, I would recommend this and after your second or third cruise you can start booking your own air to see if you can save more that way.

 

 

 

Fred

[sodsmom]

For those cruising for the first time, I would recommend this and after your second or third cruise you can start booking your own air to see if you can save more that way.

 

Fred

 

I agree with Fred! But it would depend on how comfortable you are with booking your own travel arrangements.

The deviation fee is $50/person.

When we 1st booked our cruise, we wanted to fly in the day before as we are in the snow belt, and booked it with CCL.

If you book hotels and transfers with Carnival they will not charge you the deviation fee but "the package" is significantly more expensive than if you do it yourself. Also there are a limited # of hotels to choose from and of course they are the more expensive ones. For our group of 8 it was cheaper to book our own hotel rooms(3 rooms vs carnivals 2) and rent 2 cars! But with CCL it is easier because you have "no worries" it is taken care of.

Good Luck!

[gazingm42]

I would also advise if you have the time to fly in the night before. You never

know what air traffic will bring you on the day of travel. If you can get there

and pay for a hotel it good money spend IMHO.

 

Besides it gives you time to relax before the vacation, which you will

need on a cruise.

[Queen B1]

We originally booked Carnival Air for our cruise out of San Juan this July. After reading the CC boards, we cancelled and booked our own air. We not only saved $500 for the both of us by doing so, but were able to book the exact non-stop flights we wanted. It also allowed us to fly in a day early to enjoy San Juan ( again, on the advice of CC members) and not have to worry about cancelled/delayed flights. Had we kept Carnival Air, we would have had to pay a deviation fee to come in a day early and could easily have gotten stuck with flights that had connections at times we didn't like! We are so appreciative of the advice given on these boards!

[ShedQueen77]

We used Carnival Air when we flew to San Juan last year. We were unable to find anything cheaper so we went with it.

 

We wanted to arrive the day before and we were able to dictate what day we arrived by paying the deviation fee. However, we had no control over arrival times or the airline we flew on. We ended up with good times for our return flight, but we didn't arrive in San Juan until almost 10pm, which defeated the main purpose of going a day early. We wanted to see San Juan. Didn't happen, but at least we arrived in plenty of time for our cruise. Other than that, we had no problems with the arrangements.

[zqvol]

Hi,

 

We are thinking of booking our flights through Carnival.

 

I would like to hear experiences ofpeople who have done this.

 

Do we have any say in flights or airlines?

 

Can we fly in a day early? If so, will Carnival book a hotel for us?

 

Thanks for any information and/or suggestions you can give me!

 

Gale

 

I am going to be the odd one out in this discussion, but with increasing air fares and decreasing capacity on most air routes (USA Today has reported that you can expect capacity to decrease 20%), it may be time to seriously consider booking air through the cruise lines.

 

You can book 330 days out. See what fare you can get and if it is cheaper go with your own air, if not go with cruise air. If you book cruise air you can cancel up until final payment without penalty, so you will have plenty of time to decide.

 

Everyone needs to realize that the days of inexpensive air travel are over.

[honeymooners11]

Hi all,

My husband and I used Carnival Air for our second cruise with them. We live in Newfoundland which is the most easterly point in North America (Canada) and flights to Miami from here can be quite expensive...so for the $599/person through the cruise line, we saved a nice bit since when we priced it, it was $1900 for the 2 of us on our own...so for us it was worth it. They flew us a day early, put us in a Hilton in Miami and all our transfers were included...for us it worked out very well...I would definitely do this again!!!

 

KT

[loveJake]

We have always booked our own airfare, but have never taken a cruise that left out of the country, have always flown the day before and save a bundle. Flights for our September cruise are $400 per person thru Carnival flying the day of the cruise. I have flights booked on SW for $298 for the 2 of us a hotel room for $100 and 2 way rental cars for $75 which is just a little over the cost for 1 to fly with Carnival. This time the flights, with no taxes, we $64. We have always paid between $49 and $59, so the airfare is not really not that much higher out of Philadelphia.

[Tbay-eh]

Hi,

 

We are thinking of booking our flights through Carnival.

 

I would like to hear experiences ofpeople who have done this.

 

Do we have any say in flights or airlines?

 

Can we fly in a day early? If so, will Carnival book a hotel for us?

 

Thanks for any information and/or suggestions you can give me!

 

Gale

:cool: Without going into unwanted details we had the trip from hell and back with our flights booked through Carnival - booked us in a day early because of location etc - booked hotel, transfers etc sounds great eh - NOT!. Flight out cancelled due to mechanical problems - had to drive to Duluth (4 hours) to make a connections to get to cruise on time, finally boarded the ship 3:15 day of the cruise. Much more went on - on way back was even worse - like one poster said they book you on flights that you have no physical way of making so you miss flights etc. I am still fighting with NWA over this as per Carnival "that is between you and the airline" - they hang you out to dry. We saved a potload of money going with them but not worth it - would never do it again. Hope you get better responses.:cool:

[grandmato4]

You may want to read this thread from another board here in cc called "Cruise Air". Its gives some good information and answers many questions about how cruise air works. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

 

We booked cruise air many years ago for our first cruise and everything worked out fine but NO way would I use it today. Much has changed in the airline industry over the years and I need control over our flights that I can not get through cruiseair beside the fact that for domestic flights I can always book them less expensive.

[garptsmqt]

All I can say is - DON"T DO IT!!!!

 

by clicking on my name you can check the posts we did from our April Victory cruise - our experience with Carnival Air was awful to say the least.

[big_duck]

:cool: Without going into unwanted details we had the trip from hell and back with our flights booked through Carnival - booked us in a day early because of location etc - booked hotel, transfers etc sounds great eh - NOT!. Flight out cancelled due to mechanical problems - had to drive to Duluth (4 hours) to make a connections to get to cruise on time, finally boarded the ship 3:15 day of the cruise. Much more went on - on way back was even worse - like one poster said they book you on flights that you have no physical way of making so you miss flights etc. I am still fighting with NWA over this as per Carnival "that is between you and the airline" - they hang you out to dry. We saved a potload of money going with them but not worth it - would never do it again. Hope you get better responses.:cool:

 

All of which is horrible, but has absolutely nothing to do with booking air through Carnival.

[happy cruzin]

A view from the other side....

 

We have used Carnival Air on several occasions - but ONLY when it was cheaper than what we could book ourselves. True...you have no input to the selections unless you pay the deviation fee.

 

Yes we flew in the day of the cruise and it was several years ago - but we always had nonstops that got us there in plenty of time.

 

Not sure how well the system is working lately - but we never had any major problems. Once our seats were not together - but the gate agent took care of it after we checked in.

[Tbay-eh]

All of which is horrible, but has absolutely nothing to do with booking air through Carnival.

:cool: Yes it does - why we are able to get reasonable or cheap flights by booking through Carnival is that they buy blocks of seats and the airline sets everything up. I have booked on my own and can dictate when I want to fly and with what connects without paying deviation fees. Carnival booked flights with airline and if I don't like them or want to arrive day early etc then I have to pay - I pay Carnival for my flights not the airline. they in turn pay the airline so yes this has everything to do with Carnival. Our cruise was awesome and this in no way will deter me from booking with Carnival again just no my air.:cool:

[big_duck]

:cool: Yes it does - why we are able to get reasonable or cheap flights by booking through Carnival is that they buy blocks of seats and the airline sets everything up. I have booked on my own and can dictate when I want to fly and with what connects without paying deviation fees. Carnival booked flights with airline and if I don't like them or want to arrive day early etc then I have to pay - I pay Carnival for my flights not the airline. they in turn pay the airline so yes this has everything to do with Carnival. Our cruise was awesome and this in no way will deter me from booking with Carnival again just no my air.:cool:

 

Your problems were caused by a broken plane, the odds of which you would have booked the same flight yourself.

 

It's not like there is a lot of choice out of Thunder Bay.

[Tbay-eh]

Your problems were caused by a broken plane, the odds of which you would have booked the same flight yourself.

 

It's not like there is a lot of choice out of Thunder Bay.

:cool: :cool: I see your point, but just one small add on - I would definitely have gone Westjet. We were booked on NWA and I don't know if you have ever flown in one of their smaller crafts - not pretty. Almost every flight out of Tbay on NWA has issues of some type but like you say - sometimes there is no other choice.:cool:

[mr. cruiser]

Hi,

 

We are thinking of booking our flights through Carnival.

 

I would like to hear experiences ofpeople who have done this.

 

Do we have any say in flights or airlines?

 

Can we fly in a day early? If so, will Carnival book a hotel for us?

 

Thanks for any information and/or suggestions you can give me!

 

Gale

Hi Gale, did you decide on going on the Panama cruise.