RCI "choice air" for transatlantic cruises?

[39august]

Will some of you who have purchased this option please give me a ballpark figure for what the cost was from/to ports such as from Miami and back from Rome or Barcelona, please? I am hoping to book a spring 2012 TA ending in one of those cities. Yesterday when I put in multi-city on AA's website, the price was about $4000 pp, coach. Surely with choice air it is not that expensive!

[dzcruisers]

Choice Air had great prices for us. Cheapoair.com has good prices and choice air had better but you can look at the least expensive prices on cheapoair and guage. For international flights Choice Air has had the best prices for us! Have a great cruise

 

www.celebritycruises.com/choiceair

www.rccl.com/choiceair

 

A lot of people use Choice air for the international flight and then Southwest or an airline they book separately for domestic part of the flight.

[kijjy]

Thanks for the link but it doesn't allow you to check prices without having a cruise to enter.

[baggal]

We just booked through Choice Air for roundtrip flights for a Med. Cruise this summer. Choice Air came in at only $18 per person more Continental!

[pollux]

I am on the Liberty next week. Bougth Air fare to Miami for 214 one way on AA from LAX..

From Barcelona on Swiss Air oneway 775 dollar that included 25 euro insurance. The plane flys from Barcelona to Zurich-LAX. One way from Barcelona to California is cheaper on Air Berlin but they start flying here May 9. Maybe other cities they fly all year.

[Sequim88]

I'm currently waiting for the May 1 MIA to Rome TA pricing to come out. Our agent says next week because RCI is still dithering on the pricing.

 

I priced out air from FCO to MSP and it came out at $3,500 :eek::eek::eek: So I then priced flights from FCO to Dublin then to Chicago and in to Minneapolis and most combos came out at around $800. For grins I also tried FCO-REK-MSP via Iceland (cuts out change in Chicago) and it was $819 and Icelandair lets you stop over enroute. Always wanted to visit the Blue Lagoon. :)

 

On last TA we did similar to above from London via Dublin on Aer Lingus and it was similarly significatly less than a straight booking on other carriers.

[Florida Fan]

We are thinking of doing a TA in 2012 in the spring and again in the fall. How would we get airfare on Choice Air? Would we just enter the dates for the two trips and ask for a roundtrip fare?

[IwannaGo Now]

I am flying on AA booked by RCCL thru Choice.

Apr 24. 2011 MCO (Orlando FL) to MIA (Miami) to PTY (Panama city)

May 9, 2011 PMI (Palma de Mallorca) to MAD (Madrid) to MIA to MCO

Total $1096.21

The original price I got from RCCL was $3500.....When I cancelled, they called me, and within 10 min had the new air price! Try again!

[Clarea]

We got a one-way fare from STL to BCN on Delta for $620 on Choice Air for October. That includes the $25 per person service charge. This was their "Flex" rate which is a little more than their least expensive rate, the difference being we don't pay for the air until cruise final payment.

[Petunia1950]

We arranged airfare through Choice Air from New Orleans to Barcelona for this October. Cost per person was $527, with only one change of planes (in Atlanta).

[digital_curator]

Will some of you who have purchased this option please give me a ballpark figure for what the cost was from/to ports such as from Miami and back from Rome or Barcelona, please? I am hoping to book a spring 2012 TA ending in one of those cities. Yesterday when I put in multi-city on AA's website, the price was about $4000 pp, coach. Surely with choice air it is not that expensive!

 

Don't worry, none of the prices will be that high when you get closer to the cruise. We were looking at about $350 pp one way from Toronto to London through Iceland this year. Start looking around one year before the cruise and check a site that searches for all available flights, which you can compare with the offerings at choice air.

 

Cheers,

[39august]

Thanks. Many of you have been very helpful. I hope to book that Mariner May 1 TA when it becomes avaiable.

[cruisenfever]

We got a one-way fare from STL to BCN on Delta for $620 on Choice Air for October. That includes the $25 per person service charge. This was their "Flex" rate which is a little more than their least expensive rate, the difference being we don't pay for the air until cruise final payment.

Bob, is this the first time you've used Choice Air? Did you do it online or actually speak to somebody?

 

We are looking at using Choice Air for next year, but because we are doing a b2b, when trying to book on line the bookings have to be unlinked to book flights and then re-linked when we are finished.

 

I was hoping to avoid that and actually just speak to a human being.:D

[Clarea]

Bob, is this the first time you've used Choice Air? Did you do it online or actually speak to somebody?

 

We are looking at using Choice Air for next year, but because we are doing a b2b, when trying to book on line the bookings have to be unlinked to book flights and then re-linked when we are finished.

 

I was hoping to avoid that and actually just speak to a human being.:D

Patti, this is the first time we will use Choice Air. We're not doing consecutive cruises on this TA, so we didn't have the linking problem. However, next March we are doing consecutive cruises on Adventure, so we did as you said - we unlinked the cruises so I can use the Choice Air website.

 

I used the Choice Air website for the October TA, however you can talk to someone. I think they call this Choice Air Plus, and this is free for Platinum and better. You still pay the non-refundable Choice Air service fee ($15pp domestic, $25pp overseas), but nothing extra for the Plus service.

 

I also noticed that the Choice Air website has a new feature called Quick Flight Search Only. It appears you can check out flights without having a booking number. I tried this a few days ago and it didn't work. Sent an email to Choice Air and they said they were having website problems. Haven't tried since, but it would be a welcome feature if a booking number was not needed to check air pricing.

 

Bob

[cruisenfever]

Patti, this is the first time we will use Choice Air. We're not doing consecutive cruises on this TA, so we didn't have the linking problem. However, next March we are doing consecutive cruises on Adventure, so we did as you said - we unlinked the cruises so I can use the Choice Air website.

 

I used the Choice Air website for the October TA, however you can talk to someone. I think they call this Choice Air Plus, and this is free for Platinum and better. You still pay the non-refundable Choice Air service fee ($15pp domestic, $25pp overseas), but nothing extra for the Plus service.

 

I also noticed that the Choice Air website has a new feature called Quick Flight Search Only. It appears you can check out flights without having a booking number. I tried this a few days ago and it didn't work. Sent an email to Choice Air and they said they were having website problems. Haven't tried since, but it would be a welcome feature if a booking number was not needed to check air pricing.

 

Bob

Thank you so much for the information. The Quick Flight Search would eliminate having to unlink of booking numbers. Maybe by the time I'm ready, they'll have the site fixed.

 

Appreciate the information, thanks again.:)

 

Edit: Bob, I went over to Choice Air and click on Quick Flight Search and it looks like it is functional now. It allowed me to enter sail dates and such.

[barbyj]

When I first started checking air prices with Choice Air for my Trans Atlantic Cruise from Galveston, air from Atl to Iah, then Bcn to Atl I was quoted about $1500.00. I kept checking and a few weeks later it was $640 ttl.

 

I had RCCL reservations check for me since I would not book the cruise until I knew what the air fare is.

[Motorman23]

I booked a choiceair flight on Continental from ROC to Heathrow and it was $440.90 pp one way including all charges. That was a great price. That was booked last November for a Sept flight this year. Choice air purchases very restricted tickets similar to what is called consolidator pricing which you can look up on Google. It is low prices with limited refunds or transferability if something happens en-route but for the price it is a great deal.

 

I purchased insurance to help if I get into any issues with my airfare as I would suggest you also do.

 

Choice air is a great deal but does have some limitations.

 

Mike

[PH]

We are paying $639 to go from Roam to Atlanta in may. We are staying in Italy 9 days after the cruise are were still able to get choice air. PH

[crzndeb]

I am cruising the Mariner TA in Oct. this year....I paid a 1 way San Diego to Rome (change in Philly) for $635 through Choice Air. I thought this was a great price.

 

Glad I saved my airmiles, since I plan to use them on my 1 way home from Australia in 2012.

[stewpapa]

We arranged airfare through Choice Air from New Orleans to Barcelona for this October. Cost per person was $527, with only one change of planes (in Atlanta).

 

 

That is amazing! We hope to do the TA as soon as our kids are old enough for us to be gone two weeks. One is our limit now. Nice to know the TA flight can be so reasonable! Enjoy your TA's everyone!

[Desert Cruizers]

Our TA thru his consolidator, got our flights to Barcelona from our city in So Calif, not LAX for 1228.20 total. Several of our East Coast RC members were looking at $545 pp out of NJ. Our flight is on US Air, connecting in Phoenix, AZ to Phil and taking the 6:30 PM flight direct to Barcelona. Check this site, we booked our return from FLL to Palm Springs.http://www.bt-store.com/. One thing I was told by our TA when checking, if the day of departure for your flight isn't open yet, select the same day in an earlier week.

[sailnsee]

had prob. with choiceair-got airfare thru airberlin back from Malaga in May-to Ft. Myers-for $344 per person-thought that was great! our fare to San Juan was $250-good thing the cruising is cheap for the TA

[FLACRUISER99]

I use the airfare search engine on http://www.itasoftware.com/ to check best prices then book with "choice air"

[3dogmom]

I booked a choiceair flight on Continental from ROC to Heathrow and it was $440.90 pp one way including all charges. That was a great price. That was booked last November for a Sept flight this year. Choice air purchases very restricted tickets similar to what is called consolidator pricing which you can look up on Google. It is low prices with limited refunds or transferability if something happens en-route but for the price it is a great deal.

 

I purchased insurance to help if I get into any issues with my airfare as I would suggest you also do.

 

Choice air is a great deal but does have some limitations.

 

Mike

 

For our TA, we do not have the option of arriving in London prior to the cruise and will be heading to Harwich right from Gatwick. Tampa has one direct flight on BA, so I'm thinking of using Choice Air since there's already risk involved.:o

 

Can you tell me what insurance you bought? I wasn't sure if buying trip insurance would refund Choice Air if we missed the one and only flight out.

 

Also, does Choice Air Plus buy you anything more than delaying your air payment?

[traveling1969]

Just a note. Most of you may know this but you usually can't get rates farther out than 330 days. Also, most folks know this but it doesn't hurt to reiterate. Round-trip air is usually just a few dollars more than one way. If it's possible for you time-off wise, you can save a ton of money by booking two t/a's at once; either spring-fall or fall-spring. Then you book a flight back in the spring and a flight over in the fall on the same r/t ticket. Since t/a's are a good deal anyway, you can save even more this way. Bon Voyage!