Savings offered on first two Crystal World Cruise segments for 2009

Luxurious Crystal Cruises is offering free airfare back to the U.S. and special savings if you book the first two back-to-back segments of its 2009 World Cruise aboard the Crystal Serenity, departing Los Angeles in January of next year for Tahiti, New Zealand, and other Pacific stops.

Besides the free air back to some 20 U.S. cities, the perks include a five-percent combination-fare discount (ordinarily applied only to non-World Cruise back-to-back bookings), a full payment discount (if paid in full by October 27, 2008), and no fuel surcharge. Total savings could range up to around $6650 per couple.

The airfare is valued at $600 per passenger (or you could take an air credit in its place); the five percent combination-fare discount could save up to $2,900 per couple; the 3.5 percent full-payment discount could save up to $1,924 per couple; and the fuel surcharge rollback would save $624 per couple.

Additionally, you would receive a $200 shipboard credit for taking two segments and complimentary shore excursions in Cabo San Lica, Mexico, and Noumea, New Caledonia.

Besides those ports, the first two segments of the World Cruise -- one 12 days from Los Angeles to Tahiti, the next 14 days from Tahiti to New Zealand -- will call in the Marquesas Islands, several ports in French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, before finishing in Auckland. (The entire World Cruise visits 46 ports in 17 countries throughout the South Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Europe, and has seven distinctive segments.)

Cruise fares for the two segments start at $12,910 per passenger (including the five percent combination savings, but not including the other discounts or airfare savings).

For more information or reservations, call a travel agent or Crystal at 888/799-4625, or go to the Crystal website here.

Photo of Crystal Serenity from Crystal Cruises.