anyone used the air/hotel program ?

We are looking at a cruise this November out of Miami. We live by the San Francisco airport.

We have never used an air program from a cruise ship before.

Can you please tell me about your experiences ?

type of seats you got

time of departure

what airline

what was you hotel room like

etc....

thanks for any feedback

We use the air program for almost every cruise. One exception is flights within the U.S. because they will be coach and my DH will not fly coach (plus, it is a long flight when going from one coast to another). Regent will upgrade your flights for a cost. Typically we take the air and hotel credit and book our own flights and hotel.

The negative to booking our own flights is that we lose our transfer to the ship (unless we arrive the day of embarkation which, IMO, is too risky).

To further complicate the issue, we do want Regent Air when we return (when it is from outside from the U.S.) as it will be Business Class. So we take a "partial" air credit.

In terms of seats, Regent books whatever they want to book -- we go into the reservation and change it. While Regent has contracts with most airlines, they only contract for a certain number of seats on each flight. We always "deviate" (cost $175/person) so that we can book 270 days in advance and can select our airline. This greatly increases the odds that you will get the flights that you want.

At the bottom of this post there is a link to a thread about "Air Deviation". Check out post #65 which explains deviation much better than I can.

We will be able to book flights next month and will select 2 or 3 itineraries that we like, will send them to our TA who in turns works with Regent Air to get approval. By deviating, we find that we get our 1st or 2nd choices 98% of the time. If we wait until Regent assigns us a flight, we have to take whatever they give us.

Sorry for bombarding you with so much information. IMO, Regent Air and Hotels are great for those us that want Regent to take care of us from when we land in the embarkation city to when we get to the airport to fly home.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1832227&page=4

thanks travel cat for your reply

Am leery of giving up control of flight but it is cheap

would hope I would not have to pay extras to change...then I would rather do the whole thing myself...that is why I am looking for other peoples experiences

I always do my own flight/hotel arrangements. I would never give up that control.

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The negative to booking our own flights is that we lose our transfer to the ship (unless we arrive the day of embarkation which, IMO, is too risky).http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1832227&page=4

That's interesting - for our forthcoming Explorer cruise from Miami (our first Regent cruise) we have booked our own flights from the UK, but still benefit from the pre cruise hotel (Hyatt Coral Cables) and the transfer to the ship.

Is this unusual ?

...Am leery of giving up control of flight but it is cheap

would hope I would not have to pay extras to change...then I would rather do the whole thing myself...

As far as I know, changing the assigned flights WILL incur the deviation charge of $175. This is exactly why we took the air credit for our April cruise. We are fairly particular about our flights. Since we are taking advantage of the pre night option (highly recommended), we did not want to get stuck with a flight that had us arriving early/late evening and just laying our head down. By taking the air credit and not paying the deviation, we saved $400 by booking on our own AND we guaranteed our own flight times to fit our schedule.

While TravelCat's points about the airport transportation are perfectly valid in many situations, we are flying out a few days early and have arrangements to the hotel and we can easily take a Lyft to the airport after the cruise. Obviously, this plan does not work for everyone, but for simple domestic flights it works for us.

That's interesting - for our forthcoming Explorer cruise from Miami (our first Regent cruise) we have booked our own flights from the UK, but still benefit from the pre cruise hotel (Hyatt Coral Cables) and the transfer to the ship.

 

Is this unusual ?

Yes - to my knowledge it is unusual. When we deviate, we still get transportation but haven't had it when we book our own air (as we have done for our upcoming March Explorer cruise). I've heard that the Hyatt is quite nice. We also took a hotel credit for this particular cruise as we have some events that we'll be attending on the day before the cruise and wanted to be close to where they are taking place.

Just thinking back to our Explorer cruise that ended December 2nd. We did our own air and took a taxi to the airport.

The way things seem to be changing lately, nothing surprises me. Glad to hear that you get a transfer to the ship.*

Side note: One reason we prefer doing our own transportation to the ship (when the ship isn't miles and miles away as it is in London and Rome), is because there are several buses that Regent uses to get passengers to the ship. They assign a time that is later than we like to get there. We are generally at the port at least a half an hour before boarding begins. It isn't simply because we are anxious to get to the ship (which we always are), but we have to check out of the hotel and may as well wait at the ship than in a hotel lobby.

Hope you enjoy your cruise and the beautiful Explorer.

We also book travel keeping control of what we want. But Regents air is a good deal most of the time. The hotel we always book our self as we save $$ doing that-and a cab or car isn't that costly. Plus I wouldn't want to take a bus to the ship. But that's us.

We also book travel keeping control of what we want. But Regents air is a good deal most of the time. The hotel we always book our self as we save $$ doing that-and a cab or car isn't that costly. Plus I wouldn't want to take a bus to the ship. But that's us.

Regent's included transfers work both ways, though - a few years ago, Regent took us from our hotel to the Barcelona airport in a Porsche Panamera. That was fun.

No pat answer. It depends on your circumstances and the cruise itinerary. It definitely pays to consider all the options.

We live near Dulles airport (Washington D.C.). For our 8 Regent cruises we have done (I think) all the options.

For our recent Miami to L.A on Explorer, we went Concierge level (we have been G level on the other ships); this time without "air deviation". For us and this itinerary we only wanted to be in Miami a day early and we were going to LAX directly from the boat. We stayed at the Hyatt Coral Gables (nice room and O.K. breakfast); took one of the two Regent buses for the 30 minute (traffic at 12:30) ride to the dock; rode the Regent bus to LAX (1hour from being called for embarkation). Downside, the assigned flight to Miami left at 6:00 AM (at least it was non-stop).

Normally, I've found Regent's hotel to be very costly and do our own hotel booking.

For an upcoming Voyager cruise in Asia, I found that I could do far better than Regent Air and took the refund for air.

If your staying at the Hyatt Coral Gables, I recommend lunch at "Hillston" restaurant (superb) on the Miracle Mile and a delicious dinner around the corner from the hotel at Graziano's (a Spanish wine shop).

That's interesting - for our forthcoming Explorer cruise from Miami (our first Regent cruise) we have booked our own flights from the UK, but still benefit from the pre cruise hotel (Hyatt Coral Cables) and the transfer to the ship.

 

Is this unusual ?

This is my understanding (for Regent bookings made in the UK):

- Transfer from airport to hotel, airport to ship or ship to airport is included if air is booked through Regent

- Transfer from hotel to ship or ship to hotel is included if hotel arrangement made with Regent

I am surprised that this is different for US bookings.

Our experience of pre/post cruise hotels arranged by Regent has been good.

Our experience of Regent transfers is mixed; generally acceptable, but seldom a 'luxury' experience

"Included" hotels can be a crap shoot. We've had both the sublime and the ridiculous. Over the top wonderful was the Fairmont Monte Carlo (lives of the rich and famous!), most recently the Miami Epic (see above, very European in feel and service) and then there were the turkeys....Stockholm Scandic Grand near train and bus station, with homeless stationed at the breakfast buffet, etc.

Depending on what you want, "do your own thing" is great if you're a world traveler and have loads of points to help with cost. Hailing a cab or arranging for transport is good if you know where you're going. Not always, but most of the time, we let Regent do it. I'm on vacation and I don't want to "think" or plan all the details. Some folks live for control! haha!

"Included" hotels can be a crap shoot. We've had both the sublime and the ridiculous. Over the top wonderful was the Fairmont Monte Carlo (lives of the rich and famous!), most recently the Miami Epic (see above, very European in feel and service) and then there were the turkeys....Stockholm Scandic Grand near train and bus station, with homeless stationed at the breakfast buffet, etc.

Depending on what you want, "do your own thing" is great if you're a world traveler and have loads of points to help with cost. Hailing a cab or arranging for transport is good if you know where you're going. Not always, but most of the time, we let Regent do it. I'm on vacation and I don't want to "think" or plan all the details. Some folks live for control! haha!

My wife and I "used" to have a lot of travel points; not so much any more. We've pretty much always used Regent Air/Hotels. The air is usually a good deal, the hotels - not so much. But as Mudhen said, it's a vacation - with the amount we're spending on these trips, for us it's worth a few hundred more to let Regent deal with it - and we just show up! I've spent my younger days doing the 'freelance' thing, fly-and-drives, train treks, etc...and they were great trips, great memories. But I'm at the point in my life where I just want to make a few calls and take the trip. No worries. :D

We tend to look at air/hotels, etc. more like Bill does. Losing control is not an issue for us. We paid $175.00/person to deviate (it is now included for us due to our loyalty status) and pick our own flights which is control enough for me. Plus we have the assurance that if something were to go wrong, Regent would assist us. Also, as I've mentioned, we often do not wait for the transportation from the hotel to the ship and simply get a taxi.

When you book your own flights you have to deal with change/cancellation fees, etc. This seems to come up almost every time we book our own to or from Miami.

flossie - not familiar with having hotel included but doing your own air. It makes sense - just not something that comes up often. IMO, if you are going to do your own air, you may as well do your own hotel since you can generally get a good hotel for the credit you receive.

In any case, when on vacation, we like to be taken care of and not worry about flights, hotels, etc. If we were using frequent flyer miles, it would be a different thing. Most of the deviated flights have been on British Airways, Quantas, Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific. Regent also books on Emirates. These are all, IMO, top airlines and you are in Business Class so most people would be happy with that.