p.s. Here are three other advantages of booking air travel thru the cruise line. It occasionally happens that the cruise line alters the itinerary. For example, a hurricane damages an arrival or departure port or the State Department issues a travel advisory against a port. (A couple of years ago Seabourn on short notice determined not to end a cruise in Istanbul due to safety fears.) If you have booked thru the cruise line I believe they will re-route you at their expense. Per cruise critic reviews I believe Seabourn assisted all of its passengers when it decided not to end the cruise in Istanbul but I believe they only paid the extra expenses of people who booked air thru them.) Second, if booking far in advance and you check Seabourn's website periodically and you see that they are now offering, say, $500 toward airfare, if you booked air thru Seabourn before the air credit was offered and call them I think they will retroactively apply the credit. Third, if you book yourself far in advance and don't pay the huge premium for flexible fares, you take a hit (unless you buy travel insurance) if you can't do the trip. If you book your air thru Seabourn, you have a longer window to pay and cancel w/o penalty. I also add that when I book air thru Seabourn I get the same elite qualifying miles and redeemable miles that I would have gotten if I had booked directly with the airline.