Regent Flights - with and without deviation

[Travelcat2]

3 hours ago, taxare said:

Just to add another point of information. Today was 270 days from our UK cruise. Provided first and second choices to my TA for MIA-LHR. We received first choice on the outbound using AA and second choice on the return 

using BA, both nonstops. We could have received first choice on return but Regent was concerned it may be a little too tight to make the flight, especially if they make changes to the schedule which they often do. We are one of the odd ones that still like the old 747's upstairs, so BA is fine with us. So we paid our deviation fee, have our reservations and our seats. We both have Oneworld status so I don't know whether that impacted our getting BA seats. We are very pleased.

 

Bill, Unfortunately we still have status on several airlines, but when I buy tickets for the kids, some of the airlines reduce the baggage fees by a few dollars if you pay when you check-in online rather than at the airport.

 

Just a quick "FYI" - when you book BA through Regent, you do not need "status" to book upstairs.  We love flying BA upstairs (as long as they don't run out of dining choices by the time they get to you).  It amazes me that people pay extra to sit upstairs (unless you book through Regent) and they are the last passengers to be asked what their dining choices are.  Fortunately you can pre-book your choice prior to boarding.

[flossie009]

7 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Just a quick "FYI" - when you book BA through Regent, you do not need "status" to book upstairs.  We love flying BA upstairs (as long as they don't run out of dining choices by the time they get to you).  It amazes me that people pay extra to sit upstairs (unless you book through Regent) and they are the last passengers to be asked what their dining choices are.  Fortunately you can pre-book your choice prior to boarding.

 

Just a quick clarification.

This is not the case for Regent passengers booking their flights through the Regent UK office.

For UK guests, whether booking economy or business class on BA, you either need BA status or you have to pay to choose your seat in advance of the 24hr check-in. 

[Travelcat2]

8 hours ago, flossie009 said:

 

Just a quick clarification.

This is not the case for Regent passengers booking their flights through the Regent UK office.

For UK guests, whether booking economy or business class on BA, you either need BA status or you have to pay to choose your seat in advance of the 24hr check-in. 

 

I understand that, however, the poster I was responding to is from Florida.  

[flossie009]

15 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

I understand that, however, the poster I was responding to is from Florida.  

 

Agreed, but posts on this Board are read by Regent guests & prospective guests from around the world.

Don’t want any unnecessary confusion.

[Ep010835]

Please forgive me if I am covering old ground (I searched but couldn’t find anything). How likely is it that we will be assigned American Airlines between DFW and MIA for an upcoming South American RT?

[Travelcat2]

13 hours ago, Ep010835 said:

Please forgive me if I am covering old ground (I searched but couldn’t find anything). How likely is it that we will be assigned American Airlines between DFW and MIA for an upcoming South American RT?

 

Difficult question to answer because American, Delta and United all fly that route and Regent contracts with all three airlines.  Since you are allowing Regent to make the choice, it will likely be on whichever airline has contracted seats available.  If it were a longer flight I would suggest deviating so that you could choose your own flights but it is a relatively short flight and it may not be worth it to you.  

[Ep010835]

2 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Difficult question to answer because American, Delta and United all fly that route and Regent contracts with all three airlines.  Since you are allowing Regent to make the choice, it will likely be on whichever airline has contracted seats available.  If it were a longer flight I would suggest deviating so that you could choose your own flights but it is a relatively short flight and it may not be worth it to you.  

Kinda what I was thinking. I'm loyal to AA and as a result am able to secure much better seating. But as you say, given that it's a relatively short flight, the others would likely work OK too. 

Short of paying $350 for two deviations, do I have any other methods available to me to gently nudge Regent Air toward AA? I've never used Regent Air before this so I'm really in the dark on this.

[rallydave]

20 hours ago, Ep010835 said:

Kinda what I was thinking. I'm loyal to AA and as a result am able to secure much better seating. But as you say, given that it's a relatively short flight, the others would likely work OK too. 

Short of paying $350 for two deviations, do I have any other methods available to me to gently nudge Regent Air toward AA? I've never used Regent Air before this so I'm really in the dark on this.

You can always ask Regent for AA flights.  Worst that can happen is they don't put you on AA.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[Ep010835]

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

You can always ask Regent for AA flights.  Worst that can happen is they don't put you on AA.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Sounds like a plan! Thanks. 

[BBWC]

The other option would be to take the Regent air credit and book your own flights on AA. That would surely be a lot cheaper than paying for deviations.

[Ep010835]

18 minutes ago, BBWC said:

The other option would be to take the Regent air credit and book your own flights on AA. That would surely be a lot cheaper than paying for deviations.

That might work too. Thank you.

 

 

[jeb_bud]

This is a question for people who have flown out of Venice after a cruise.

 

We are booked Barcelona to Venice in April.  We deviated to get our preferred flights and did pretty well.  Today I logged into one of the airlines we are using to double check the itinerary and seat assignments.  Lo and behold, our flight from Paris to SFO has been changed to a flight that leaves Paris before our flight from Venice even departs, obviously impossible.  I'm sure Regent Air will fix this but I want to be proactive to get the best possible flights.  

 

I'm on ITA Matrix looking for alternatives to discuss with my TA and/or Regent Air on Monday.  I had originally scheduled a noon departure which made for a leisurely disembarkation and transfer.  Naturally the best options currently available leave significantly earlier.  My question is, how early can I reasonable schedule a flight out of Venice Marco Polo and still use Regent's airport transfer?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[makai 7]

This may have been answered earlier but I couldn't find the information... to which date does the 270 days prior apply?  We are doing the 2020 Bali to Shanghai and want to do a deviation home from Shanghai, staying a few extra days at a hotel not booked through Regent.  Since the cruise ends about 35 days after we fly to Bali, is it still 270 days from embarcation in Bali?

And do you pay the same fee if you only want to deviate on one vs both flights?

Thanks!

[wcsdkqh]

270 days from embarkation date. Same fee covers both flights as long as both flights are booked at the same time.  If you go back and make additional changes at a different time, then a new fee applies.

[Travelcat2]

Although we have 33. Regent cruises under our belt and almost always deviate, we recently selected flights that did not work (connection times too close).  So, before deviating, make sure that you leave yourself enough time betweeen flights OR check to see if there are later flights - just in case you miss your flight. Learned the hard way.

[makai 7]

Thanks for the clarification.   I have the date on my calendar to work with my TA.

 

Travelcat... We have traveled for both business and pleasure for many, many years.  We never accept a connection less than 1.5 hours, if at all possible.  Too many "O.J. Simpson" runs through the terminals.  It is not the way we want to travel.

[Flgreg]

I'm betting this has been answered but I honestly can't find it. We are booked on Explorer 10 day Baltic Stockholm to Copenhagen embarking July 12. We're in Concierge E class so have the pre-cruise hotel night and will be leaving from Tampa July 10.  Anyone know what airline is likely to be used and whether it's usually a morning or afternoon arrival in Stockholm? Also curious as to airline departing Copenhagen.

 

Thanks very much for any replies.

[Travelcat2]

On 7/16/2013 at 2:36 PM, rallydave said:

 

Mark, you are correct that you have to pay your deposit in order to deviate but, there is more than that.

 

Regent generally won't take a deviation until the 270 day mark and it can be later if you choose an airline where Regent has not yet negotiated a contract.

 

 

Interesting response but is not the “norm”. Of course, one must make a deposit on your cruise or you would not be booked.

 

We have deviated approximately 90% of our 33 Regent cruises. Only one time was there an issue with a contract and that was for a cruise that went int a new year. The rest of the time, our TA booked flights at 270 days prior to embarkation (and the return flights, even though they wer longer than 270 nights)

 

Would you kindly share your experiences. What year (approximate) airline, etc.  

 

Also, most TA’s will allow you to book flights directly with Regent.  However, we find that sending our TA our top two or three choices for our flights is easier than calling the Regent Air department.  In addition to it being easier, you have written documentation of the flights that you want vs. the flights that Regent came back with.

[rallydave]

10 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Interesting response but is not the “norm”. Of course, one must make a deposit on your cruise or you would not be booked.

 

We have deviated approximately 90% of our 33 Regent cruises. Only one time was there an issue with a contract and that was for a cruise that went int a new year. The rest of the time, our TA booked flights at 270 days prior to embarkation (and the return flights, even though they wer longer than 270 nights)

 

Would you kindly share your experiences. What year (approximate) airline, etc.  

 

Also, most TA’s will allow you to book flights directly with Regent.  However, we find that sending our TA our top two or three choices for our flights is easier than calling the Regent Air department.  In addition to it being easier, you have written documentation of the flights that you want vs. the flights that Regent came back with.

Interesting quoting a post from 5 1/2 years??????

[Travelcat2]

6 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Interesting quoting a post from 5 1/2 years??????

 

Obviously someone quoted your post before I did or it would not be on this page. How time flies — it has been. 5 1/2 years since you last sailed on Regent.

 

Sorry for not noticing the year. It is annoying when people post comments that are so old.  So many things have changed since then.  

[rallydave]

10 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Obviously someone quoted your post before I did or it would not be on this page. How time flies — it has been. 5 1/2 years since you last sailed on Regent.

 

Sorry for not noticing the year. It is annoying when people post comments that are so old.  So many things have changed since then.  

Nope, went back over a year and nobody else quoted that 5 1/2 year old post of mine

[Travelcat2]

14 hours ago, rallydave said:

Nope, went back over a year and nobody else quoted that 5 1/2 year old post of mine

 

If it was not quoted, I am clueless how this happened.  

[SWFLAOK]

On 2/27/2019 at 7:41 PM, Flgreg said:

I'm betting this has been answered but I honestly can't find it. We are booked on Explorer 10 day Baltic Stockholm to Copenhagen embarking July 12. We're in Concierge E class so have the pre-cruise hotel night and will be leaving from Tampa July 10.  Anyone know what airline is likely to be used and whether it's usually a morning or afternoon arrival in Stockholm? Also curious as to airline departing Copenhagen.

 

Thanks very much for any replies.

I'm wondering why your flights haven't been booked by this time since you are less than 270 days out. That's what others have mentioned and what we thought as well. We're  Concierge E with a pre-cruise hotel night in Barcelona. We'll be leaving from Miami. We recently asked about our flights from Miami to Barcelona and back to Miami from Venice in July. We can actually leave from one of a number of airports in Florida, but thought Miami would be most likely to get us to Europe based on some searches for nonstop flights to Barcelona. From what we understand from our TA, we had to pay a deviation to ask for a flight from MIA to Barcelona. I'm not sure why. On our Alaska cruise, we had to pay for a deviation from FLL to Vancouver, even though we didn't really want that flight since it had a stop in Atlanta that we could have more easily made with a flight from RSW which was much closer to us.

I have no clue when you need to pay for a deviation with Regent, and our cruise TA , who is always great,  can't really explain it. But I will say that paying for a deviation got us some great business class seats from MIA to Barcelona, and from Venice to Madrid to MIA on the way back. The AA flights from MIA to Barcelona were over 6000 dollars one way when I looked them up on AA's website, so 175 each is fine with us.

[Flgreg]

Thanks SWFLAOK. We were told by Regent we won't get flight details until 75 days prior to departure.  I think we'll just keep checking or consider a deviation.

[Travelcat2]

While not an expert, I have been through deviating flights as recently as two days ago.  This information is only valid for those residing in the U.S. or Canada.

 

As has been said, deviation opens 270 days prior to the date of embarkation.  Those passengers that wish to select their flights can do so with a charge of $175/person.  A lot of work can go into fight deviation.  Many passengers do not know which airlines Regent contracts with.  And, if if you do, they do not necesssarily have “contracted seats” on every flight that that they have.  There can be a lot of back and forth discussions with Regent Air and your TA before a satisfactory itinerary has been reached.

 

Speaking for myself (and have said this before on this thread), we look up flights on airlines that we have booked before (on Cathay Pacific, British Airways, American Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa and many more).  We provide the flight information to our TA. (2- 3 flight choices).  On day 270, he submits this information to Regent. Our TA generally knows if our flights are accepted the same day.  The itinerary is sent to us via our TA and it up to us to approve.  On the rare occasion that the flights are not contracted, Regent will give options to our TA for us too approve.  Note:  There are some contracted airlines (Emirities comes to mind) where there is an additional charge in some routes. If you do not wish to pay extra, there will be other options.

 

Keep in mind that during the 270 day mark and the time Regent assigns flights, people are deviating and contracted seats are filling up (a flight may not be full but Regent’s allocated seats may be full).  So, choices become fewer.  

 

We find that, for instance, flights from your home airport to Europe may be easy to obtain.  The flight from the city where you change planes may be full going on to your destination city.  The flights that we just had approved for deviation, stops in Heathrow on the way to Lisbon.  Many passengers have stops in Frankfurt, Heathrow, etc.  The planes out of those airports are smaller and can fill up quickly.

 

In our opinion, when you pay luxury cruise prices, an extra $175/person is not really that much for piece of mind.  While you may get flights that are just fine, it is nice to have a choice.

 

Sorry for being long-winded.  Currently on Explorer on an unscheduled sea day so I have the time.

 

Flyertalk is the expert on this topic and I hope that he chimes in.  For better or worse, things change in terms air flights, deviation, etc.  You pretty much need to have worked with Regent within the past year to keep up.