Choice Air International Travel - Read this

[SeagoingMom]

For the most part, choice air is just another way to book air tickets available only to those who book a cruise with any of the Royal Caribbean brands....however, if you only need to fly one way (eg a transatlantic), they offer rates on major airlines that aren't even offered by the airlines. A one way ticket to London on American booked at american is well over $1000....on choice air, that exact same ticket is under $400. There may be some other reasons to use them....but someone else will have to address those.

Thanks for the info -- that was exactly what I needed to know!

Edited April 22, 2014 by SeagoingMom

[Us Two]

Thanks so much re getting passport name in full on other documents, to match passport.

 

Called our TA and she called Celeb and they assured her that the TSA has our middle names, he even told her what they are. So all is right with the world :D. But feel it is important info to get straight, thanks again.

[Kwenz]

Thanks for the tip. Our tickets did not include our middle names. Fixed now and a headache averted.

[ghstudio]

Could you clarify something for me? Are you saying that our Choice Air tickets, our passports and our Celebrity reservation must ALL match?

 

I do have an issue with there being a hyphen in my first name (i.e., Jo-Ann). My Choice Air reservation on USAir's website wouldn't allow me to put in the hyphen, so it reads Joann. My middle name is included on the Choice Air reservation, as well as my passport (although my passport has my name as Jo-Ann). DH has his middle name on his passport and his Choice Air reservation. Neither of us have our middle name on our Celebrity cruise reservation.

 

Are we okay?

 

We live in an electronic age where things are compared without human intervention so joann does not equal jo-ann so reject. This entire thread really only applies to international travel where the TSA gets involved....the agency that's there to help :)

 

The TSA information on the US Air site (any airline) should exactly match your passport as well as the information on the online checkin at Celebrity.

 

We have never had our middle names/initials on airline tickets themselves or on our celebrity reservations....which is what caused this illogical snafu on Choice Air reservations because they won't let you add a middle name to your reservation in the TSA identification information because they use the reservation name on your celebrity ticket.

Edited April 22, 2014 by ghstudio

[jerseygirl3]

We live in an electronic age where things are compared without human intervention so joann does not equal jo-ann so reject. This entire thread really only applies to international travel where the TSA gets involved....the agency that's there to help :)

 

The TSA information on the US Air site (any airline) should exactly match your passport as well as the information on the online checkin at Celebrity.

 

We have never had our middle names/initials on airline tickets themselves or on our celebrity reservations....which is what caused this illogical snafu on Choice Air reservations because they won't let you add a middle name to your reservation in the TSA identification information because they use the reservation name on your celebrity ticket.

 

Therein lies my problem. Our Choice Air reservation (which has my name as Joann rather than Jo-Ann) IS for an international flight (Philadelphia to Rome). Now I can easily have my TA fix the name on my Celebrity cruise reservation, but USAir's website will not allow me to insert a hyphen into my name. My passport has my correct spelling.

 

Any suggestions?

[Wine-O]

Therein lies my problem. Our Choice Air reservation (which has my name as Joann rather than Jo-Ann) IS for an international flight (Philadelphia to Rome). Now I can easily have my TA fix the name on my Celebrity cruise reservation, but USAir's website will not allow me to insert a hyphen into my name. My passport has my correct spelling.

 

Any suggestions?

 

You need to call Choice Air and ask them to make the change. The airlines wouldn't change mine since the reservation was made by a travel agent (Choice Air).

[shoreham01]

Therein lies my problem. Our Choice Air reservation (which has my name as Joann rather than Jo-Ann) IS for an international flight (Philadelphia to Rome). Now I can easily have my TA fix the name on my Celebrity cruise reservation, but USAir's website will not allow me to insert a hyphen into my name. My passport has my correct spelling.

 

Any suggestions?

 

We have a hyphen in our surname, but Celebrity are unable to process the hyphen on our booking form and so our name has gone from one hyphenated name to two names. Our passports have the correct spelling with the hyphen and therefore the two would not match. We have had the same problem with some airline tickets although we have always been allowed to travel without any problem.

[happy 2 b cruising]

As most know, when you book an international ticket (actually any air ticket these days) you have to provide your information to TSA and it must match your passport or you may have serious trouble at the airport. Normally, this isn't a problem because you enter it correctly....but not with choice air.

 

Choice air will only issue a ticket in the exact name that is on your cruise reservation. If your cruise reservation says John Doe, that's what choice air will enter on the TSA form and although there is a field for middle name, you can't enter anything...it will be rejected because your cruise booking doesn't include the middle name. This has nothing to do with on-line check in which does allow you to enter the correct info...choice air uses the reservation names.

 

In order to book a ticket you have to either call choice air or book the ticket online without a middle name and then call choice air. Believe it or not, they can't just add the middle name/initial...they had to cancel the reservation I made and rebook it with my middle initial (which is what's on my passport)...and I now have a new record locator with American Airlines.

 

In my book, that's a serious programming flaw...and if you don't catch it, or if you say it won't matter, you could be heading for real difficulty at the airport....including American (or other airlines) not allowing you on the plane.

 

We booked through Choice Air but just called Delta directly after reading your thread. After being transferred many times I finally got mine and my husband's middle name added to our airline tickets to match our passports. One of the agents told us it would cost $50.00p.p. to add our middle names, that is when we asked for a supervisor who took care of the problem with no charge. Your information was so timely for us being we are leaving shortly for Europe. Thank -You again and to all the CC's out there who share important information, you save us a lot of heartache.

[Christine Frances]

Choice Air has been available for almost 3 years. You would think that if there was a problem with middle names it would have been reported by now.

[Knolmom]

Booked our tickets JFK/ LHR and CDG/ JFK through Choice Air last October to take advantage of the Celebrity promotion. When booking, the choice air rep asked for " the exact names on you passports" he provided a record locator for both flights and the next day I chose all seats. Our trip is next month. A few weeks ago BA sent me an e- mail asking for our passport numbers for their system. Air France has not yet contacted me. I am going to re confirm with them tomorrow to make sure everything is OK. BTW, the RT fare is now almost $400 higher than when we booked using choice air. This is our first experience with them. Come to think of it, I never recieved written confirmation from them and I do not have a receipt. My cruise contract from my TA sYs Air In lauded, but I did not book the air through them, but directly through choice air. Strange?

[Christine Frances]

Just ask your TA to email you a Celebrity " Guest copy" invoice. You will see it there along with the specific airline booking numbers.

 

 

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[jerseygirl3]

You need to call Choice Air and ask them to make the change. The airlines wouldn't change mine since the reservation was made by a travel agent (Choice Air).

 

I called USAir and they said they have both mine and DH's names listed on our reservation with our middle names. But they said there is no way a hyphen can be added to my name because their system does not take hyphens. He said my name is listed as JOANN (all caps), but even after speaking with a supervisor, they told me they cannot add the hyphen. He assured me that TSA will not give me a problem.

 

I do wonder why our cruise reservation needs to match? What does Celebrity's reservation for the cruise have to do with TSA? I can understand our airline tix matching our passports, but why would our cruise tickets need to match our flight?

[Christine Frances]

Found this thread on the Cruise Air Forum. First and last name must match to passport, middle name not so important

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=41718336&highlight=middle+name#post41718336

[jerseygirl3]

Found this thread on the Cruise Air Forum. First and last name must match to passport, middle name not so important

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=41718336&highlight=middle+name#post41718336

 

I'm not going to get myself riled up over this. I have traveled internationally before and never had a problem that my passport has my name as Jo-Ann (correct spelling) and my airline ticket has it JOANN.

 

There is no way it is going to match. Since many computer systems besides USAir's (Motor Vehicle has the same problem with their computer system not allowing them to insert hyphens in a first name), there's nothing I can do about it. And again, I'm not sure why people are saying our cruise reservation with Celebrity has to match our Choice Air flight reservation. I can't see why TSA would care if my name has a hyphen or not.

[ghstudio]

I'm not going to get myself riled up over this. I have traveled internationally before and never had a problem that my passport has my name as Jo-Ann (correct spelling) and my airline ticket has it JOANN.

 

There is no way it is going to match. Since many computer systems besides USAir's (Motor Vehicle has the same problem with their computer system not allowing them to insert hyphens in a first name), there's nothing I can do about it. And again, I'm not sure why people are saying our cruise reservation with Celebrity has to match our Choice Air flight reservation. I can't see why TSA would care if my name has a hyphen or not.

 

Obviously you haven't dealt with the TSA :)

 

As far as travelling internationally many times and never having a problem...we have also...but we have never booked with Choice Air...and when we fill out the pre-boarding information for celebrity and for our air tickets, we naturally put our middle initials/names in the form. I have never tried to use an international air ticket where the TSA pre-board information doesn't match my passport....so you may or may not be right that it's important for it to match. I only caught the potential issue because when I booked using choice air's web site and it asked me for the TSA information as part of booking the ticket, the web site would not let me enter my middle name/initial to match the passport....it rejected anything I tried to enter.

 

I think most do what I do...you fill out the TSA form when you buy an air ticket...and most, if not all, just naturally follow instructions that say the name entered must exactly match your passport.

 

Big deal or little deal...the choice air site should certainly let you enter a middle name/initial irrespective of how your TA booked your cruise reservation.

[Christine Frances]

For our TA in the fall I booked by phone with Choice air as even though we were cruising out of Barcelona, we wanted to fly to Edinburgh a week early. CA booked us on British Airways for the YVR - EDI leg and Alaskan Airlines for the FFL - YYJ return. We received the invoice from Choice Air with no middle name and no passport numbers, but because once booked I always go directly to the Airlines website and fill in the required "Advanced Passenger Information" for BA & "Required Traveler Documentation" for AA. Then we check our seats lol This is where I enter the correct passport names, numbers, and our Nexus/GOES information. So this will ensure our boarding pass will have the same info as our passports. Really don't worry about what Celebrity/Choice Air has for our names though.

[RickT]

Not sure how this is an issue unless it's specifically related to overseas flights from the US and perhaps TSA is more anal than I originally thought.

 

I regularly travel from Canada to the US and only use my first and last name on my airline reservations. The names always match my passport exactly (even tough I don't go by the first name on my passport).

 

When booking overseas flights from Canada I have also never entered my middle name including my most recent booking on KLM/Air France.

 

As far as Celebrity itself I always make sure my bookings are in the name of my passport. No point in causing confusion and grief trying to explain why the first name on my reservation is different than the first name on my passport.

[jerseygirl3]

Obviously you haven't dealt with the TSA :)

 

As far as travelling internationally many times and never having a problem...we have also...but we have never booked with Choice Air...and when we fill out the pre-boarding information for celebrity and for our air tickets, we naturally put our middle initials/names in the form. I have never tried to use an international air ticket where the TSA pre-board information doesn't match my passport....so you may or may not be right that it's important for it to match. I only caught the potential issue because when I booked using choice air's web site and it asked me for the TSA information as part of booking the ticket, the web site would not let me enter my middle name/initial to match the passport....it rejected anything I tried to enter.

 

I think most do what I do...you fill out the TSA form when you buy an air ticket...and most, if not all, just naturally follow instructions that say the name entered must exactly match your passport.

 

Big deal or little deal...the choice air site should certainly let you enter a middle name/initial irrespective of how your TA booked your cruise reservation.

 

We have used Choice Air (in 2011) and had no problems. I just checked my online reservation at Celebrity's website and it has my middle name, however, it also will not allow me to enter my name with a hyphen.

 

So basically my passport says Jo-Ann, my Celebrity express pass says Jo Ann, and my USAir ticket (booked through Choice Air) says JOANN. All do, however, have my middle name.

 

Oy vey....what were my parents thinking when they decided to hyphenate my name!!!

Edited April 24, 2014 by jerseygirl3

[cpl100]

Thanks. I just double checked to be sure.

 

My Captain's Club card lists my middle initial; my Celebrity reservation lists just first and last names; my Choice Air booked American Airlines LHR/LAX ticket shows middle name.

 

I don't get it, but I feel better now.

 

How did you see your ticket? I only got a confirmation from Choice Air but cannot seem to view the actual ticket. Thanks!

[Christine Frances]

How did you see your ticket? I only got a confirmation from Choice Air but cannot seem to view the actual ticket. Thanks!

 

The confirmation from Choice Air shows your booking number with the Airline. Its at the top, RHS where it says Record Locator. Then you just go to the Airlines website where you can view your reservation, select different seats, fill in the Advance Passenger info etc.