Cruise Line airfares, why so high?

"Warren" wrote in message
...
On Dec 31 2009, 6:11 pm, "Tom K" wrote:

Sometimes you might pay a bit more for cruise air, but get free transfers
from a place like Heathrow Airport to Dover, England, which puts cruise
air
cheaper if you buy your own air and have to pay for transfers..

On what planet?

Even for European cruises the cruise air is usually much more
expensive than most
flights booked independently (sometimes double). That buys plenty of
independent transportation plus one or two nights in a hotel, which I
prefer since it allows you to be on your own schedule without being
herded on to a bus.



Had it happen a few years ago when we did the Fjords and British Isles
(first time to the Fjords) on Connie. Cruise air wasn't that much more
expensive (less than $100 IIRC), and with free transfers to/from Dover, it
ended up being cheaper. And since I was "elite", I could get free
deviations so I got to pick the flight I wanted (a morning flight from
Newark to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic, to avoid the red eye).

Getting herded onto a bus was the typical hassle... but not knowing anything
about Dover, I had no idea where trains stopped in Dover, if taxi's were
available at the train station in Dover, etc. So I opted for the bus. And
it wasn't a short ride from Heathrow to Dover, so I couldn't just take a
taxi at an inexpensive price.

--Tom

In article
,
Warren wrote:

On what planet?

Even for European cruises the cruise air is usually much more
expensive than most

The Alaska cruise on HAL that I had to cancel a couple of years ago
that was a one way cruise. We tried every way of figuring out the air
and transfers with independent air arrangements but the cruise line
price was less expensive. And the arrangements were good too. The
flight to Fairbanks had one stop, there is no way to do a nonstop from
here to Fairbanks, but there was no change of plane.

--
Charles