Air travel

From personal experience and working in the travel industry for 10 years, the few times when I ran into issues and needed to get someone to help, the best customer services were always provided directly by the airline, and almost never through any Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Hotels, Expedia, Booking or Priceline.

Booking with OTAs almost invariably end up with the flight operator (airline) and the OTAs pointing fingers at each other when something goes wrong. Therefore, if you’re looking only to purchase standalone airfare, I highly recommend booking directly through the airlines’ websites.

For fly-in cruises, it sometimes makes sense to book your air travel through the cruise line. Unlike OTAs, cruise lines have a vested interest in making sure you get to your cruise. I can often help with these purchases.

If you book your flight through them, some cruise lines will make the necessary arrangements at their expense to get you onto the ship if you miss the embarkation (potentially including additional flights, rerouting, other transportation, and accommodation arrangements)

Policies vary greatly between cruiselines, so make sure to ask about it when planning your cruise. The best bet is often to buy direct from the airline to arrive the day before embarkation, and stay one night at the port city.