ozcruiser

We're thinking about doing the Transatlantic on the Queen Mary 2 Southampton to New York to celebrate my husband's 50th birthday. There are some great specials at the moment but I have a few questions:

Can you pick and choose your flights on these deals? As it is a 24 hr flight from Sydney to London (and it's been a few years since our last visit) we'd like a few days before we cruise. After all, a girl's gotta shop!

The same question in reverse I guess. We've never been to New York and would love to check it out further than just a 'city tour.'

Are these deals worth it or is it better to book flights independently and wear the extra cost to gain the flexibility?

Many thanks!

spurs

First, I doubt Cunard provides airfare from Australia. And even if they do, it will be their pick of schedule not yours. May be your travel agencies over there do. But even if so, chances are you'll pay a lot less by booking air on your own. Especially if you want to come several days before, there is no need to book cruise line airfare.

bo_jack

I also doubt that Cunard is set up to provide air fare from Australia to the UK. However, in my experience, the remainder of spurs' reply is wrong. Although you are not entirely free to pick your flights, I know from experience that both Cunard and Holland America provide a good deal of flexibility as to what days you travel. I.E, if you want to arrive several days early, they can probably support that. Or, if you want to remain several days after the cruise ("crossing" in this case) they can probably support that. I have never extended the trip at BOTH ends; however, I always extend it at either the front end or the back end, with no problem and no added costs with regard to the plane fare. In my case, where the travel is USA to UK/Europe or the reverse, I have generally found the package deal including air travel to be better than I can do on my own. However, that may not be the case with Oz to UK and USA to Oz -- sort of a real wide open jaw ticket. I can highly recommend the QM2 crossing as a good experience. Also, if you have never been there, do try to spend a few days in NYC; it's a truly great city! Good luck!

ROSWALT

Well, cruise lines do provide some flexibility - for extra money they call deviation. This is on top of already very high airfare price they charge. If you plan to come and depart several days before and after your cruise, why in the world would you pay cruise line airfare price first, and then pay deviation to change the dates? Wouldn't you just book your own air for a lot less? Cunard used to offer free air with Transatlantic cruise but now it is history.

ozcruiser

Thanks for your thoughts. The advertised specials are through Cunard flying Qantas and are very cheap considering otherwise we would have to buy one-way fares for both directions. It's good to know there may be some flexibility.

bo_jack

One additional comment. My wife and I travel a lot, making our own arrangements, usually without a travel agent involved. With both Cunard and Holland America we have booked through the phone numbers listed on their web sites -- not with some third party agent. Reasons for this are 1) we have not found a third-party agent that we like and 2) the in-house agent for the lines seem able to provide a little more flexibility than has been offered by the few third-party agents that we have talked with. The one big draw back is that you may spend a lot of wait time on the phone if you need to question or change something about your reservation. My memory of the airfare deviation charge is that it was not required if we agreed to the travel dates (several days before or after the cruise)at the time of booking and then stuck to those dates. It was only if there was an actual change after the booking. Apparently the other posters' experiences are different from mine -- but I could not find a better deal than to package the air fare with the cruise.

spurs

bo_jack,
As you pointed, one drawback is you have to spend a lot of time holding on the phone and not getting perfect service from cruise line. But there is another big one: you are wasting money. Too bad you didn't find a good TA. The difference could be in thousands of dollars if you book an expensive cabin. If need a good TA, I can recommend. As for booking airfare in one package with cruise, you're lucky if you found a good deal. Usually it is a lot more expensive than doing at separately, which is no surprise. Cruise lines charge for convenience, and they have air departments that need to be paid - it comes out of your money.