Tahiti Cruise

[deemeister]

Hello,
I hope someone can answer questions regarding flight times from LAX and back. We booked a Tahitian cruise for next year. The cruise begins on Monday April 16th and ends on April 26th. Our travel agent booked only our air from LAX and back, but we want to book our air from Chicago to LAX (and back) ourselves. Our question is when does the flight from LAX to Tahiti leave LAX if the cruise itinary says the cruise starts on April 16th? Does the flight leave LAX that same day? On the return trip, the cruise ends on April 26th. Is that the day our flight would leave Tahiti (probably late at night), returning us to LAX on April 27th morning? I hope someone would be able to help with these questions. Thanks in advance!

[ChucksOK]

You mean your TA doesn't know when you leave and when you return to LAX - and he/she booked your tix? Is he/she the same TA that booked your cruise? If that's true, you need a new TA!

[7thSon]

One of the nice things about flying from the east to the west is that it is possible to arrive to your destination before you leave, the bad thing is when you return the flight is so long. A 4 hour flight to LA will become a 8 hour flight, you leave at 4 pm and arrive in Chicago at midnight but the flight is only 4 hours??? I guess the way to over come this is to keep flying west. When you return from Tahiti instead of flying back to Chicago using a eastern route go by way of a western route circumventing the globe then it may be possible again to arrive before you left. My neighbor was a pilot. The airline he worked for kept all the pilots on routes that always flew west. He was never able to retire because he never aged according to their time. He would go to work and always arrived home the same day he left.

Seriously. The cruise lines are always on the local time and will post the local time of arrival into the port. They are very stick about time. The airlines will also go by local time. The time that they leave is the local time in that city and will also go by the local time arrival in the destination city. As mentioned above if you leave Chicago going to LA. The flight may be 4 hours and the zone may be 3 hours differnce. If you leave Chicago at 9am you will arrive in LA at 10 Am. Comming back on the same trip you will leave LA at 9am and arrive in Chicago at 4pm.

[ChucksOK]

Our question is when does the flight from LAX to Tahiti leave LAX if the cruise itinary says the cruise starts on April 16th? Does the flight leave LAX that same day? On the return trip, the cruise ends on April 26th. Is that the day our flight would leave Tahiti (probably late at night), returning us to LAX on April 27th morning?

First, you are not crossing the international date line.

So, IF you are flying on Air France (as I did) from LAX to Papeete and your cruise BEGINS on April 16th, your flight would begin at LAX on April 16th at 12:20 AM (just after midnight) and arrive in Papeete at 5:30 AM (same day). Your cruise ends on April 26th - the Air France flight leaves Papeete at 8:20AM arriving LAX at 7:15PM (same day). You will need to be at the airport by 5:30AM to get through security (long, slow lines) to make the flight.

The cruise line knows all of this and will make sure you are off the ship and on your way in plenty of time.