Princess Air

[Pamelazzz]

We are first time cruisers. I have been reading a lot of the posts here so I feel like an experienced cruiser already, thanks so much for this invaluable resource. We are sailing on the Caribbean Princess Sept 11, 2004. The air through Princess is more than double what I can purchase it for on my own. My question is this - is it worth the additional expense to book air through Princess? Any and all feedback is welcome.

 

[CruiseAholic]

I many times do my own airfare, however, there are risks involved, namely, that it takes 'getting you there' out of the hands of the cruise line.

If you choose to do so, I'd advise to:

1) purchase good travel insurance
2) build in plenty of time to arrive for the cruise, even go a day or so early.

I did my own air for the Sun Princess in July (Anchorage to Vancouver) and even flying out the day before, we were delayed (I'll never fly thru Chicago again), not arriving until midnight the night before sailing.

 

[Princess Pat]

Princess Air can be a real bummer but, on the other hand, we use it all the time and just complain during the process. We've been routed in strange directions, the latest being flying to Memphis, TN from San Juan, PR (after a six hour wait), and then back to Atlanta, GA (arriving after midnight the next day but the parking didn't charge us for an additional day--thank you Parking Corp of America coupon program). When Delta had a new European route to Boston we flew there and sat for about 4 hours.

Sometimes they even don't seat spouses together. Princess lets you complain to the airline personnel who look at your ticket, see the class, and then sometimes give you good seats and sometimes give you bad seats, and not always together. Oh, well, I usually sleep anyway. We had great seats at the bulkhead on our flight to New Zealand, and with friends too. I think we have a charter on our next cruise.

Best of luck whatever you decide. You'll enjoy the cruise part immensely and barely remember the yucky flying arrangements.

Pat

 

[pna]

We purchased our own air fare for the first time for this, our third cruise. If you purchase your own, do go a day early to be safe. We used Princess air arrangements the first time. It was pre 9-11 so Princess took care of your luggage from start to finish, which was wonderful. However we were not seated together and even families were split up coming home. It was chaos. Our last cruise we did Princess air arrangements also. When you do their air, you have no choice of times and connections. However ours (for six of us) was not too bad and we were seated together. We are booking our own this time so we can choose times and prices. We figure as long as you have to handle your own luggage why not go at our convenience and get a say in the price. We are going the day before though!

 

[p.g.]

I always hear about these great prices you can get on your own, but we haven;'t been able to beat Princess air for our cruise. We are flying form Vancouver B.C. to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and they include a "forced overnight(which means they pay for a hotel, bus us there form the airport and then to the port the next day) it came to about 500 us dollars. There is no way we could book that individually and save money. How do you do it. Last time they flew us to Toronto, then to Miami and bussed us to the hotel .It was a fairly direct route considering the distance involved and that there are no direct Vancouver -Ft. Lauderdale flights available.
Plus there is the piece of mind factor, we know they get us there and the night before to boot.

 

[Pamelazzz]

Thanks all for the input, pretty much what I was thinking. And to p.g., I booked air directly through the airlines website for internet fares(in this case American), and then used Expedia for my hotel. In this case we have very easy requirments as we are flying from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale. I suspect on an international agenda, or a less popular routing we would want to leave the hassles to Princess. Thanks again.

 

[DL111255]

What about using Princess air, but with air deviation, you get to pick your flights but still have the peace of mind?

 

[paulfredo]

In the case of open jaw flights, or if there are few or no options, it may be better to book the air through the cruise line. However, that's the exception, not the rule. In most cases, it will be less expensive and more convenient to book your own air.

Some people believe that if they book air through the cruise line, then they cannot be in a situation that they will miss the ship due to delays... that the ship will wait on them if they book through the cruise line for the air. This isn't always so. The ship MAY wait on a group of pax if there are several of them, and the wait time isn't going to push the ship too far out of schedule. However, if you read many posts, as I have, there are plenty of reports out there of people who have booked air through the cruise line, then they had delays, and the ship left without them, leaving them stunned. The cruise line does take financial responsibility for helping to get the pax caught up with the ship. But you would be astounded to hear the stories of the difficulties that pax have in getting this done, and in any case, they are still missing part of their cruise.

Bottom line, in most cases, even if we book with air with the cruise line, we go into the departure port AT LEAST one day early. Pay for the air deviation to go early and get reasonable flights. Always remember that even if it seems more convenient to let the cruise line do all the arranging, YOU are still responsible for your vacation plans, and it's dangerous to abdicate that responsibility to someone else. Stay on top of your arrangements whether you make the air arrangements or you let the cruise line do it.

paul