Should you book air with the cruise line? The answer is a firm yes or no, depending on your personal preferences. I can help you understand the advantages and disadvantages, but I am not trying to push your decision one way or another. If you could blink and find yourself onboard the cruise ship like on "I Dream of Jeanie," terrific!
Traditionally, cruise lines have charged a premium of around $200 for the privilege of booking air with them. For that, you can hold your air along with your cruise deposit rather than being forced to pay for the air in full as with independent air bookings, which is a big advantage. However, you won't know your flight schedule until after final payment, unless you pay another $50 to $100 for an air deviation fee plus any supplemental cost of alternative flights to customize your air arrangements.
For those who don't customize air, the air itineraries sometimes leave a lot to be desired. My friend Sam, who doesn't like to fly anyway, found himself flying from San Diego to Puerto Rico by way of Chicago in the middle of winter, just a few days after a snow storm shut down Chicago's airport. It worked out fine in the end, but Sam had a few sleep-disturbed nights to contemplate the situation. Cruise lines are, however, the only ones that can hold a ship for you if your plane is late. As such, you may feel some security in arriving on the same plane as fellow cruisers, finding safety in numbers. That is an advantage, but I should caution you that in some instances, cruise lines have turned their backs on clients (never any booked through me) who purchased air BUT NOT travel insurance with them, so apparently if you want this protection, you'd best add insurance, which in these days of odd circumstances like the volcano in Iceland and the union strikes in many countries really makes more sense than ever regardless of how you book your flights.
This is not about insurance, however, but flights, so let's stay on track. The new air programs like "Choice Air" available with many cruise lines including Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity definitely have made booking air with the cruise a better choice. You can now select your flights in advance with the cruise lines, and the premium is more in the neighborhood of $25. You can decide for yourself how much a nonstop flight or particular airline is worth to you. As you may realize from my recent "Free to Choose" post, I'm all for greater choice, so this has been a positive change. However, these programs require you to pay for your flights in full at the time of booking just like independent air.
Booking air with the cruise line makes adding transfers easier. Some cruise flights come with complimentary transfers which can make the actual differential in price between cruise line and independently booked air considerably less than it may seem, but an increasing number of cruise lines now price the transfers as a separate optional item.
You can book the transfers from the cruise line to go with your independently booked air, as long as you arrive and depart from the designated airport within their designated time schedule. For most cruises where the ships leave around 5:00 PM and the airport is within a thirty minute taxi ride, you can figure about noon for arrival and departure. For more distant airports, like Orlando for a cruise out of Pt. Canaveral or Houston for a cruise out of Galveston, or if the cruise departs earlier, then you need to add extra time for arrival and departure. Even though cruise ships frequently list their arrival time in port as 7:00 AM or earlier, remember that it takes an hour or two to clear customs, and that most people don't get off the ship much earlier than about 9:00 or 10:00 AM.
Then, you still have to pick up your luggage, unless you have packed light and have carry-off bags. If you stand at the ready, you might get off at 8:30 AM, but rarely earlier. If your flight is a little late or there is heavy traffic en route for some reason, you could find yourself missing your cruise embarkation or outbound flight, either of which can be costly.
Some people love to cut it close, and they champion the cause of limiting time in the airport. If that is how you roll, so be it, but for most people, a good rule of thumb is to use the available time limits for available cruise line transfers as the bottom line.
Of course, the longer your flight, the greater the cushion you should allow, because, for example, if you're flying from San Diego to Istanbul with three stops along the way, a lot can go wrong in transit to delay your arrival. I strongly recommend flying in a day early for any cruise with independently booked air, which gives you a chance to enjoy your embarkation port city as well as giving you peace of mind. Why fly in on a red-eye and be a wreck the first day of the cruise?
For most destinations and Europe in particular, I utilize great independent packagers like American Express Vacations, Travel Bound and Apple Vacations, adding a combination of air, hotel, transfers and/or tours. One of the big advantages is that the hotels with these companies have been pre-screened to give you choices I can recommend with confidence. Cruise Planners is a preferred top producer agency.
If you enjoy rummaging through less finite possibilities, you can book independent air at my web site using my new air/hotel/car rental booking engine. Add a hotel for any number of days desired using the same air/hotel/car rental booking engine. The hotel prices are the guaranteed lowest at the time of booking, and the engine itself is essentially the same one used by Expedia and Hotels.com, so why go elsewhere?
By the way, always take a look at your air miles to see if you might be able to use miles to book air. We buy almost everything from groceries to insurance using credit cards that earn sky miles, as long as there is no additional fee involved. We'll be using those sky miles to fly to visit our new granddaughter in New York City soon!
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