Zacharius

Duplicate post, sorry 

1 hour ago, ellcee said:

I have not found that to be true but I'll test it out again when I book my next trip. I also don't like certain airlines and will avoid them if at all possible.

Interesting. I live on the road, I book about 500,000 miles worth of travel per year for myself and colleagues. Much of that is domestic US, and we're always comparing prices. I almost never see instances of two one-ways being more than a roundtrip (for example, AA1234 ORD-DFW and AA4321 DFW-ORD are priced the same whether booked as a roundtrip or two one-ways). 

8 minutes ago, PurdueFlyer said:

last time did a SkyMiles award ticket going into SJU on a Saturday, and booked a one-way on Frontier SJU-ATL for $120 one-way at 4pm coming back.  it was a third of the price of Delta at the same time.  sometimes it helps to split it up, but not always. 

With domestic US flights, there's almost no instances where booking a roundtrip saves money versus two one-ways. The only concern is, if your plans change, there are two change fees to deal with. But that's a calculated risk that is sometimes worth it. I've done it plenty of times. 

My personal number one rule - no beer. RC's beer is too crappy to justify a drink package...just give me the hard stuff

(The only time I ever got a beer on a drink package is when I sprained my thumb and needed something cold to put on it, like an ice pack. A Bud Light aluminum bottle was the perfect remedy. I drank it, too, but that was a distant secondary benefit of the "purchase" of said Bud Light) 

For a more real answer - Tropical Old Fashioned. "Muddled cherries and pineapple stirred together with orange bitters and Malibu coconut rum". 

22 minutes ago, Srp431 said:

The prices I mentioned were per person and NOT a total for the 4 of us.

I'd be finding a way to drive to Puerto Rico

I don't tip too much beyond what is already charged as a tip, such as the 18%. I do tip the porters (something like $5 for two bags), and I do tip my room steward extra IF they have been particularly good (but my last cruise I didn't tip any extra, because he simply didn't do anything beyond basic room cleaning to deserve it). Don't feel like you need to tip someone just because you feel obligated...if they earned extra above what I am already providing them, I'll certainly do it, but I won't do it "just because". 

1 hour ago, Srp431 said:

I know that flights to San Juan are expensive, but wondering how expensive. We're traveling during spring break Mar 2020 on Freedom (family of 4). I'm starting to look at flights out of Minneapolis / St. Paul (MSP) and options are really limited. Delta is offering $1,700 main cabin seats (this is 6 months out) and this isn't even direct, these flights have 1 or 2 stops. I usually book early, but I'm wondering if I should wait another month or 2 or just bite the bullet. Spirit is also high around $1,000, but we won't fly them due personal issues w/ them.

Any advice would be appreciated. Delta is our preferred airline.

So a couple of things:

1) Are you quoting prices per person, or for your family of 4? Of course, $1700pp for MSP-SJU is ridiculous...$425pp during spring break seems very fair. This is a very important distinction. That being said, if it is $1700pp, I still don't know what to tell you because of my second point, which is...

2)  In the case of Delta, the tickets have been out for quite some time now...since approximately April. So, odds are the lowest fare buckets are now gone for a peak season like spring break to the Caribbean. I would say the odds of it coming down are very, very small. They're unlikely to release lower fare buckets due to demand, and a sale for a high travel period like that is something that has about a 5% chance of happening. (Not a real statistic, just stressing it's very unlikely) 

The biggest "issue" is that the US economy is super strong right now, and there is an extremely high market for both vacation and business travel. That is all tied up with a relatively static number of seats for sale, which results in high fares. 

5 hours ago, AnnetteJackson said:

That is a true statement.... depends on the starting point if with the airline you can upgrade or not.  Sorry should have been a little clearer on this.   All airlines have the basic seat to get on the plane that you cannot upgrade your seat later.  Make sure to ask about that when working with Air to Sea so you have a fare that you can pick your seat and upgrade.  Then you can possibly use your points to upgrade if you have enough and you book a fare that allows you to upgrade.

It may even be trickier than that. The people manning the cruiseline airfare desks are not expert travel agents...they're basically glorified salespeople. They may have access to if a fare is upgradeable with a simple "Yes' or "No" note on that fare type. Maybe. But even if they do, they may just say "Yes" without telling, or even knowing, that while the fare is technically ungradeable, it is only upgradeable to a certain group of people. Definitely one of the risks of booking your air travel through people who aren't air travel experts.

12 hours ago, AnnetteJackson said:

Not a dumb question as we all like to use our points!  You cant use the points to purchase, but you can buy, link to your account, and use points to upgrade your seat if you wanted.

 

I believe this may depend on the fare. Not all fares are "upgradeable" so you may want to make sure you get one. On some airlines, upgrades are limited to those with certain status, too. So it's not always as simple as "I have miles, upgrade me". And of course, most are space available and those with status may have the ability to upgrade long before those without status.

15 minutes ago, Lovestotravel said:

I am SURE this is a really dumb question, but, is it possible to use airline miles with Air-to-Sea?  So, if the tickets RC purchases are from American (for example), I don't suppose I can use miles I have for reduced fares?  Obviously,  I know I can just book my own flights and access my miles.  However, if i want the Air to Sea protection of a missed departure etc., I am guessing I can't combine the two?  TIA for a really silly question! 

Not a stupid question, but no I am not aware of any way.

On 9/16/2019 at 12:44 PM, Floski said:

Thank you for your service.

I was AF, but my wife had it a lot harder than I ever did.  

People always forget to thank the spouses.

 

 

I do a lot of work with the military, and one of the interesting things I hear when I speak with higher ups at bases is how much they're having to change what they do with military spouses these days...because so many of the older stuff they did was guided towards women only, and there's an increasing number of military spouses who are men. I hear it from multiple bases, and multiple branches.

Doesn't change your post at all, but I found it interesting and thought I'd share as the demographics of military (and those who stay home) change quickly.

17 hours ago, BeatArmy2010 said:

We sailed on a spring break cruise once. It was fine, but we like to tell people there were so many kids in the pool that when one jumped in, two were squirted out!

Oh man...hilarious picture but that sounds truly awful to me. My wife and I do anything and everything possible to travel (cruise or otherwise) when there is the least chance of any kids/families. February and early May are perfect North America vacation times because of that

On 9/12/2019 at 12:19 PM, Pima1988 said:

@Jolly Ogre.  In essence you are talking 23 pp per meal upgrade.   The dinner at Chops is on the equivalent level impo as Capitol Grill or Ruth Chris, where you would be paying a couple hundred for a couple before drinks, tips and taxes. 

I have to completely disagree with you on this. I like Chops...I have always been pleasantly surprised with how good my steak is. But, I get to Capital Grille at least 6x yearly and Chops is definitely not the quality of steak as Capital Grille, nor is the cooking temp as consistent.

Almost never. Admittedly, we've only done a few cruises on Royal Caribbean, but I've always been underwhelmed by the MDR - food and atmosphere alike. We'll either pay extra for a specialty restaurant, or just chill in the buffet. Occasionally will do room service on our balcony, but that's rare and usually just breakfast.

12 hours ago, morgan94 said:

Thank you all for all of your suggestions and tips!! To answer a few people, the closest airports to me are either Charlottesville (CHO) or Richmond (RIC) in Virginia, and Richmond is the only one with a direct flight. I don't mind layovers, but I would prefer not to go through Atlanta, which is where I would have to go through for Southwest if they have the cheapest flights. 

 

Again, thank you for all of your help so far, I feel very welcomed and I can't wait to begin this journey!

Not sure where exactly you are, but would you consider driving to DCA or IAD for a lower fare and/or more nonstops?

I fly 125,000 BIS miles a year, and book flights for others totaling close to 500,000 miles a year. So, I look at flights just about every day...sometimes months out, sometimes just a few days (or day) out. I've been doing this for about 13 years. I have never, ever been able to find a reliable trend, and that's even more the case for something like a vacation destination during a spring break period. The only certainty there is that it won't be cheap, even more so now than later (for reasons I'll explain below).

You could wait until 30, 60, 90, 120 days out...but it may not do a darn thing. Can you afford it now? More importantly, can you afford it if you wait a few months and it goes up by hundreds? What if that one nonstop (which is, technically, different than "direct") fills up, or any remotely low fare bucket sells out...are you willing to connect somewhere, or would you rather get the exact flight you want? The US economy is very strong now, meaning there's a lot of demand for vacations AND business travel, and of course higher demand = higher prices due to a mostly fixed number of seats and aircraft.

50 minutes ago, Pima1988 said:

My husband use to fly fighters (AF).  I can tell you that the person on twitter does not know their airframes.  The F4 has been gone for about 25 yrs+, the AF boneyarded the F4 by 1993 or so. If it is/was US Navy it probably was an 18 or maybe even a 35.  

 

It wasn't even a fighter, it was a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet. Some military's also use it for transport, but not the United States.

EDIT: I misread the article that the video was this incident. I'll blame it on jet lag...

20 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

'bout to find out!

1 hour ago, Crabbycruiser said:

I have never had a Sea Day that I didn't like....

I never have either, but on my last cruise it was pretty clear many people were not having a nice cruise day...my wife included. Rain, rough seas, and I was the only person out of 4,000 in the pool (and only about 25 people on the pool deck as a whole). This was for multiple hours. Overheard lots of people saying they were sick and sounded like a lot of people didn't like that particular sea day.

1 hour ago, Flacruiser99 said:

But not what will happen.

Of course you're never going to know exactly what's going to happen months in advance. But looking at trends from years worth of data is about as good as you can get.

1 hour ago, devbak150 said:

So, unfortunately the cruise we were supposed to go on Monday we will have to cancel due to emergency.  It was a me and mom trip and they have put my grandmother (my mothers mom) in hospice.  She is expected to pass any day.  Luckily I did purchase insurance.  Maybe a blessing in disguise with the storm as well.  So wondering about doing the same itinerary (Coco Cay/Nassau) from PC on the Mariner in December.  It would be early Dec.  I have cruised several times, but always in warmer months.  Is this a decent time to go?  Will water be warm enough for beach and pools onboard? 

What I always do is google "Weather in (Nassau, Paris, Walla Walla, ...) in December" and the first result is usually a calendar with average weather for that month, day-by-day. Gives a great idea of what is likely to happen.

2 hours ago, mworkman said:

What is going on down there the second week of Jan. 2020?  Lodging has gone crazy with pricing...

Holliday Inn Express on 17th $297.35

Embassy Suites on 17th $309

Renaissance on 17th $273

Might I offer one alternative that we do - don't stay near the port. We like to fly in the day before, rent a car at the airport, have the ability to stay and go anywhere in the metro area that day (and eat anywhere) with said rental car, then drop it at the port the next morning. Even with the (usually cheap) one day rental car + gas, we often come out ahead by having access to often cheaper hotels and restaurants away from the port area.

Just something to look in to and budget, especially if you already think you may be using Uber/Lyft/Taxi in any capacity whilst there. We've done Alamo and they have a free shuttle that allows you to drop the car at port and head to the ship.

21 hours ago, sles said:

That is the thing I am trying to figure out. My original plan was to fly the family in a couple days early to EWR on Southwest, stay at a hotel around Jersey City and do some touristy stuff in Manhattan before the cruise.

With Southwest pulling out of EWR I am VERY torn on if I should keep that plan and just pay more to fly United and keep the plan, OR still fly Southwest into LGA and stay in Manhattan. I know that adds some expensive transfers and a much longer trip from ship to airport on departure though.

Definitely a priority of time versus money. LaGuardia is a mess right now...a true mess. You couldn't pay me to fly out of it. I have a friend that lives what is usually 15 minutes from LGA, and she's currently avoiding it at all cost in lieu of JFK or even EWR. And good on you to factor in ALL expenses, not just flight related, when making the decision...too many people ignore that.

15 hours ago, Jolly Ogre said:

So that will make it a $9.00 milkshake. That better be one Mfing good shake.

Just now, monctonguy said:

Well then here is no purpose to ever fly Rouge...why would you?..unless you're gullible enough to pay the same price for less....

 

But now there is pretty much no options....flying out of many cities in Canada they use Rouge now...

 

Hence why we always travel to the US for flights..way more options but bottom line is price...

I agree, I wouldn't fly Rouge for the same price. But that's kinda the trick they've pulled...are there any routes where Rouge and "regular" operate together so that you can compare? I think a new domestic routes, but I can't think of many/any outside of Canada.