Regent Flights - with and without deviation

[rallydave]

3 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

 

Now I am even more confused.  It makes sense that if I only use Regent Air in only one direction, the deviation fee "per person, each way" would apply.   The only way I can see CruzStart's TA making sense to say it is one charge round trip is if that charge is twice the one way charge, or if the last sentence from rallydave is not correct.  

 

I guess the way to know for sure is to ask for quotes both ways before I decide whether or not to drive myself to an approved gateway instead of flying from home.  For my two Regent bookings, I will drive to the port (in my nearest Regent "gateway" city) for the first one and have not decided yet whether or not to use Regent Air for the second in 2021.  The charge for non-gateway airports (in addition to the charge for deviation and the air credit) will probably tip the equation away from using Regent Air in general, which is unfortunate because that is one of the main reasons I was interested in trying Regent in the first place!

Thinking you are confusing Deviation Charge with non-Regent free Gateway Cities.

 

Fee to fly out of  or into a non Regent primary Gateway varies and is per each way.  Fee varies depending on the specific airport.

 

Deviation fee is to deviate no matter the gateway city.

 

These fees are additive if you deviate and leave from a primary city, the 22 named in post above.

 

Hope this helps.

[SusieQft]

I understand that the Deviation Fee is per transaction.  My question is about the non-gateway fee.  If it is $249 per person, per way, that would be $996 per trip for a couple, far more than the cost of renting a car one way (twice) to a gateway city, LAX in our case.  Since we would probably want to use deviation, the total cost, beyond the air credit, would be $1,171.  Or if I can find a reasonably priced flight out of Las Vegas, we can just skip Regent Air altogether, which as I said somewhat defeats the purpose of trying Regent.

Edited January 5, 2020 by SusieQft

[1982CruzStart]

2 hours ago, rallydave said:

It would make sense you TA would say that if you are round trip from a non-gateway city and using the air both ways.  Copied the below from a TA's website regrading non-gateway pricing:

 

"Free" air is not available for all airport gateways.

Air inclusive pricing is offered for 22 primary gateways. The gateways are Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Halifax, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, and West Palm Beach. Other gateway cities, where available, require a supplement of $99 to $249 per person, each way.

Thanks Rallydave. We were booking roundtrip so it does make sense that she would give us the total cost per person. To be on the safe side i will double check with her. All we have been charged is the deviation fee of 175 pp. The rest gets added to the final invoice and we haven't received an amended invoice that includes the additional charge. 

For us assuming the price is roundtrip the cost from Regent Air made sense, if it was each direction it would be cheaper for us to do our own which is what we have done in the past. 

[rallydave]

6 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

I understand that the Deviation Fee is per transaction.  My question is about the non-gateway fee.  If it is $249 per person, per way, that would be $996 per trip for a couple, far more than the cost of renting a car one way (twice) to a gateway city, LAX in our case.  Since we would probably want to use deviation, the total cost, beyond the air credit, would be $1,171.  Or if I can find a reasonably priced flight out of Las Vegas, we can just skip Regent Air altogether, which as I said somewhat defeats the purpose of trying Regent.

Not necessarily $249 each way.  I copied the last sentence from my copy of a writeup on the previous page see below:

 

Other gateway cities, where available, require a supplement of $99 to $249 per person, each way.

 

Price all depends on the Gateway city and your destination.  Also you could buy an inexpensive flight Las Vegas to LAX and take Regent from there.

[slidebite]

I just booked flights back to Calgary (not a primary gateway) from Barcelona and it was a fairly reasonable $174 Canadian (approx $130US).

 

I was actually pleasantly surprised with the itinerary in general - had to do some pretty major deviations from the initial itinerary of our last Regent organized air from Vancouver-Monte Carlo in 2018 but this was almost perfect right out of the gate.

[Travelcat2]

For anyone that wants to check out what Regent has to say about gateway cities, check out this (from the Regent site):

 

 https://www.rssc.com/experience/personalized-options/air-program

 

[Me&Red]

My apologies if this has been addressed in the past.... and thanks in advance for any advice you may have.

 

We are returning from Athens to LAX in early June on Air France, connecting at CDG.  Air France has tweaked the schedule and we now only have 75 minutes to get through immigration and change terminals at CDG. (Originally had been 2 hours.)

 

I know that there may be further tweaks that improve the connection time, but want to be prepared.

 

Does anyone have experience with any of the concierge, meet & greet services at CDG to help us make the connection?  There are a variety of options, including the Air France Meet & Greet.

 

I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

[GOARMY]

Me&Red: 

 

Have either transited through; landed at; or departed from CDG on numerous occasions.  

 

That 75 minute "window" you are facing is problematical, at best.  Even assuming the Athens flight departs on time (and, our last-two departures from Athens did NOT depart on time),  would put chances of making that CDG connection at way-less than 50-50.  

 

Anyone considering a CDG transit should allocate no less than two hours for that process.  Hopefully, both your segments are on Air France.  If not, this itinerary becomes even more of an issue.  Suggest you "confirm" that your arriving flight will be met by an Air France representative.  There will probably be other passengers in your  situation trying to make that same connection.  This might facilitate navigating the convoluted CDG process.    

 

Sorry to be a "Debbie Downer" on this one; but, that has been our experience.  

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[rallydave]

8 hours ago, Me&Red said:

My apologies if this has been addressed in the past.... and thanks in advance for any advice you may have.

 

We are returning from Athens to LAX in early June on Air France, connecting at CDG.  Air France has tweaked the schedule and we now only have 75 minutes to get through immigration and change terminals at CDG. (Originally had been 2 hours.)

 

I know that there may be further tweaks that improve the connection time, but want to be prepared.

 

Does anyone have experience with any of the concierge, meet & greet services at CDG to help us make the connection?  There are a variety of options, including the Air France Meet & Greet.

I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

As Goarmy stated, too close for comfort and more likely to get worse rather than better with airline and airport delays.  My suggestion is to get your flights changed by Air France.  Since you are flying from and connecting at Schengen/EU countries, no customs or immigration at CDG.  Just like a domestic connections in the US.   For sure with US airlines and believe this to be common world wide any change to your flight schedule allows you to change your flights for any reason at no charge no matter non-refundable, no change, etc. fares.

 

Have done this twice in the recent pass for my convenience and not because if issues like yours with what must be legal connection times.  Once I changed in order to fly on a new aircraft the other I had an extremely long connection time in Miami and the change shortened the connection but still comfortable but, I wanted the extra long connection time for personal reasons.  In both cases a call to the airline and after the agent saying the connections were still legal and good, I simply stated that I had the right to change with any schedule change and the change was made easily and quickly.  Of course seats need to be available however only the seat availability and not any issues with if the fare or booking code is the same.

 

Better to do this right now while it should be easy with almost for sure seats are available.  Have the fight change you want available and should be an easy phone call.  By the way you can change either or both flights so not limited to only changing your flight from CDG.

 

Good luck and have a wonderful cruise.

[Me&Red]

Thanks for your thoughts, GoArmy and RallyDave. Here’s my challenge:

 

Our flights were booked through Regent Air, and since Air France still shows this as a connecting flight, Regent won’t make changes without a big fee. There is an earlier AF flight that leaves at noon from Athens, but Regent won’t let us book that because it’s earlier than they allow. 

 

We we could have chosen flights that leave Athens later than 1pm but connect on the East Coast, but we strongly prefer a direct flight from Europe to LAX.  We may need to do that anyway. 

 

Thanks for the info info that we won’t need to go through immigration at CDG. I thought that we would, since we’ll be leaving Schengen/EU with that flight.  And Sky Priority should shorten the security line??

 

I’d still love to hear about anyone’s experience with Meet & Greet services at CDG. I’ve only flown through there twice. 

 

My TA, who is with one of the luxury agencies, is monitoring things for us. 

 

Thanks!

 

 

[rallydave]

6 minutes ago, Me&Red said:

Thanks for your thoughts, GoArmy and RallyDave. Here’s my challenge:

 

Our flights were booked through Regent Air, and since Air France still shows this as a connecting flight, Regent won’t make changes without a big fee. There is an earlier AF flight that leaves at noon from Athens, but Regent won’t let us book that because it’s earlier than they allow. 

 

We we could have chosen flights that leave Athens later than 1pm but connect on the East Coast, but we strongly prefer a direct flight from Europe to LAX.  We may need to do that anyway. 

 

Thanks for the info info that we won’t need to go through immigration at CDG. I thought that we would, since we’ll be leaving Schengen/EU with that flight.  And Sky Priority should shorten the security line??

 

I’d still love to hear about anyone’s experience with Meet & Greet services at CDG. I’ve only flown through there twice. 

 

My TA, who is with one of the luxury agencies, is monitoring things for us. 

 

Thanks!

 

 

I was speaking about going thru immigration upon arrival at CDG.  You may need to get your Passport stamped before going thru the transit process at CDG but, don't believe security as you will remain within security while taking the transit process but, never being thru CDG not completely sure.

 

As to the change of flights, would absolutely not involve Regent in the process at all.  The Regent T's and C's clearly state that third parties including air carriers are third parties and Regent is not responsible for those third parties.  Do know that at times Regent does help people with third party and air carrier issues like this however, you are free to work directly with Air France and that is where I was saying in my previous post to go thru.  You have a ticket and contract with Air France and they should be able to work directly with you.

 

Really glad there are other flights you can take and even though Regent would not book you on the noon flight, you have the ability due to the flight change to change either or both of your flights as you have the ability to change your entire itinerary.  Tried googling to make sure Air France allow these changes as all the US carriers do but, could not find the answer

 

You have nothing to lose if you or your TA contact Air France and see if they will make the changes you are comfortable with.  Including a third party like Regent simply adds unnecessary complexity and cost as you have found.  You might have to wait until Regent actually pays for the ticked and the final ticket is issued at approximately the 75 day mark which should allow enough time for you or your TA to exercise this process.  I had forgotten that while you do have a flight schedule you may not have ticketed flights and Air France may or may not change your flights at this time but, assuming Air France makes changes when they change the schedule like US Carriers, you should have no issues once a final ticket is paid for and issued.

 

In any case, good luck.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

1 hour ago, Me&Red said:

I’d still love to hear about anyone’s experience with Meet & Greet services at CDG. I’ve only flown through there twice. 

 

Not sure what you mean here.  Who do you expect to meet and greet you? Do you have mobility issues?

 

(BTW, we haven't found CDG too bad at all--very well organized I thought.)

[Foggyzx9r]

15 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

Not sure what you mean here.  Who do you expect to meet and greet you? Do you have mobility issues?

 

(BTW, we haven't found CDG too bad at all--very well organized I thought.)

Meet and Greet services with Air France

Escorted Fast Track,  I think this is what Me&Red is referring to.

[Flgreg]

I sincerely apologize if this has been addressed but I simply don't have time to go through the multiple of posts on the topic of air deviation.

 

If we use Regent for deviation and for some reason (for example if the ship can't dock at the original disembarkation port or something like that) is Regent still responsible for arranging alternative flights?

 

Thanks very much.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Flgreg
addition of "thanks"

[Travelcat2]

On 2/18/2020 at 12:54 PM, Flgreg said:

I sincerely apologize if this has been addressed but I simply don't have time to go through the multiple of posts on the topic of air deviation.

 

If we use Regent for deviation and for some reason (for example if the ship can't dock at the original disembarkation port or something like that) is Regent still responsible for arranging alternative flights?

 

Thanks very much.

 

They will rebook all passengers that booked through them (which includes air deviation).  Don't worry - Regent will take care of you!

 

Note:  For those that did not book air through Regent, they will try to assist you after they have finished rebooking others.  Not sure how it works when you don't book through Regent but read during a previous emergency that Regent did help all passengers but did the Regent Air booking first.  In my opinion, during the current world health epidemic, it is a good idea to book by air and hotel through Regent.

[Flgreg]

Thank you Travelcat---we did request air deviation and while not exactly what we were looking for may work out better.  Their alternative to what we requested involves only one connection each way and all flights business class. We'll let them know whether we are accepting later today or early tomorrow.

 

It brings up another question though. Disembarkation is early am and departing flight home is at 1:50AM following day. Our itinerary on RSSC MyAccount now shows a "Forced Hotel" before the 1:50AM flight. Regent told our TA there is no charge to us for that.

 

Is that typical? I assume we will be provided transfers from ship to hotel and hotel to airport. 

 

Thanks.

[Travelcat2]

On 2/20/2020 at 10:38 AM, Flgreg said:

Thank you Travelcat---we did request air deviation and while not exactly what we were looking for may work out better.  Their alternative to what we requested involves only one connection each way and all flights business class. We'll let them know whether we are accepting later today or early tomorrow.

 

It brings up another question though. Disembarkation is early am and departing flight home is at 1:50AM following day. Our itinerary on RSSC MyAccount now shows a "Forced Hotel" before the 1:50AM flight. Regent told our TA there is no charge to us for that.

 

Is that typical? I assume we will be provided transfers from ship to hotel and hotel to airport. 

 

Thanks.

 

It is done but not often.  We have had a "Forced Hotel" in the past but out of 34 Regent cruises, it has only happened once.  Sometimes it is better to spend the night at a hotel (on Regent's dime) that to try to find something to do after disembarking the ship and when your flight departs.  I am fairly certain (not 100%) that you will receive transportation to the hotel and to the airport.

 

So, did you accept the air deviation offer?  It is typical to get only 1 stop.  While most of us prefer non-stop, there are not many flights that offer that option.  I'm guessing that Regent either cannot get discounted seats on those flights or they book up very quickly.  

[Flgreg]

We did accept the air deviation. Well worth the $175 per person charge.

[Foggyzx9r]

Our cruise is for Jan 2021 Bora Bora beaches. As it is my DW’s birthday 2 days after we disembark we will continue our stay on Moorea.

Now having read through this I expected that we would looking at mid April I.e 270 days out before we could book flights with a deviation.

Well far from it. Outbound was booked last month Upper Class with Virgin to LAX and then Delta to Honolulu. Now we had confirmation today inbound Air Tahiti Nui to LAX then Virgin Upper Class to Heathrow. Not complaining, far from it. Yes paid the one deviation cost @ £99 each with an upgrade to Upper Class of £1499.00 ea.

Has anybody else had their flights booked so early in advance?

 

[SWFLAOK]

On 3/30/2020 at 6:08 PM, Foggyzx9r said:

Our cruise is for Jan 2021 Bora Bora beaches. As it is my DW’s birthday 2 days after we disembark we will continue our stay on Moorea.

Now having read through this I expected that we would looking at mid April I.e 270 days out before we could book flights with a deviation.

Well far from it. Outbound was booked last month Upper Class with Virgin to LAX and then Delta to Honolulu. Now we had confirmation today inbound Air Tahiti Nui to LAX then Virgin Upper Class to Heathrow. Not complaining, far from it. Yes paid the one deviation cost @ £99 each with an upgrade to Upper Class of £1499.00 ea.

Has anybody else had their flights booked so early in advance?

 

No, we just had to rebook our cruise on Paul Gauguin from April to next January. We have not been able to book airfare on our own, or through PG with Air Tahiti Nui. We were told that it's not currently available. If you have it booked, good for you. We might need to rebook further into the future.

[Kate-AHF]

So, we a thinking about next fall.  Flying into the departure city 5 days ahead, then taking a Regent post-cruise.  Here's what I've gleaned from the 7 pages of this thread I've read (no... I didn't read all 30 pages).  Is this correct?

 

First - flying out of Dulles, which with other cruiselines has always been a gateway.  We would pay a $175pp fee for a deviation for flying in early... and being able to ask for certain connections to get to the departure port city. (Though we may not get our desired connections)

 

We would not have to pay an additional deviation fee for the delayed trip home, as we are taking a Regent post cruise.

 

But.... if I wanted specific flights home and not just take what they give us on the way home, we would need to pay another deviation fee of $175 pp.  Am I good so far?

 

Now.... at day 270 would Regent custom air be able to tell us what the plan would be for the flight home so I can gauge whether additional deviation fees should be spent?

 

 

[Foyt]

9 minutes ago, Kate-AHF said:

So, we a thinking about next fall.  Flying into the departure city 5 days ahead, then taking a Regent post-cruise.  Here's what I've gleaned from the 7 pages of this thread I've read (no... I didn't read all 30 pages).  Is this correct?

 

First - flying out of Dulles, which with other cruiselines has always been a gateway.  We would pay a $175pp fee for a deviation for flying in early... and being able to ask for certain connections to get to the departure port city. (Though we may not get our desired connections)

 

We would not have to pay an additional deviation fee for the delayed trip home, as we are taking a Regent post cruise.

 

But.... if I wanted specific flights home and not just take what they give us on the way home, we would need to pay another deviation fee of $175 pp.  Am I good so far?

 

Now.... at day 270 would Regent custom air be able to tell us what the plan would be for the flight home so I can gauge whether additional deviation fees should be spent?

 

 

The $175 per person deviation fee covers both ways. No way to find out until about 75 days your routing without deviating. 
 

if Dulles is not a regent gateway you have to pay the non gateway fee as well but only one deviation fee covers round trip.  Keep in mind if later you want to change your flights it would be another $175 pp whether one way or round trip. 

[DaveFr]

7 minutes ago, Kate-AHF said:

So, we a thinking about next fall.  Flying into the departure city 5 days ahead, then taking a Regent post-cruise.  Here's what I've gleaned from the 7 pages of this thread I've read (no... I didn't read all 30 pages).  Is this correct?

 

First - flying out of Dulles, which with other cruiselines has always been a gateway.  We would pay a $175pp fee for a deviation for flying in early... and being able to ask for certain connections to get to the departure port city. (Though we may not get our desired connections)

 

We would not have to pay an additional deviation fee for the delayed trip home, as we are taking a Regent post cruise.

 

But.... if I wanted specific flights home and not just take what they give us on the way home, we would need to pay another deviation fee of $175 pp.  Am I good so far?

 

Now.... at day 270 would Regent custom air be able to tell us what the plan would be for the flight home so I can gauge whether additional deviation fees should be spent?

 

 

You’re partially correct. 😀 The $175 deviation fee covers a deviation both to and from the cruise. So you can make your reservations in both directions at the 270 day mark for one deviation fee. You can let Regent suggest the deviated flights or specify flights you would like them to book for you. I always give my TA several flights I am interested in. I suggest calling the Regent Air Desk a few days before the 270 day mark and they will tell you which airlines they have a contract with for your city pairs. Hope this helps.

 

Dave

[Kate-AHF]

1 minute ago, DaveFr said:

You’re partially correct. 😀 The $175 deviation fee covers a deviation both to and from the cruise. So you can make your reservations in both directions at the 270 day mark for one deviation fee. You can let Regent suggest the deviated flights or specify flights you would like them to book for you. I always give my TA several flights I am interested in. I suggest calling the Regent Air Desk a few days before the 270 day mark and they will tell you which airlines they have a contract with for your city pairs. Hope this helps.

 

Dave

 

That's good news!  This would be our first Regent cruise, and I usually book our own business air.  Not having to do that is kinda wonderful.  

[Kate-AHF]

Okay, the above begs the question.... does Regent usually (I know all bets are off in the current environment) contract with Turkish Air?  I can live with Lufthansa, but would like not to.