Cruise Air In Panic

[gumbypee]

I've never heard of choice air. Is it like Travelocity and expefia?

 

 

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[WpgCruise]

I doubt anyone wants to be a "Debbie Downer" and that isn't my intention, rather as dadroy has suggested research the information available and then make an informed decision.

 

The reason ChoiceAir can offer less expensive tickets is for a reason, and it is our responsibility as consumers to understand what it is we are buying. Are the tickets "restricted" and if so what are the restrictions and how will these restrictions impact me ,would be a question I would ask. As mentioned are the tickets transferrable to another airline if the booked airline has a flight disruption would be another

 

If everything goes right, ChoiceAir can be a great value. But if there is a glip, it may be prudent to have a Plan "B".

 

Many many many people have used ChoiceAir with no problems at all, and I hope the same for everyone, however my advice would be know what you're buying and what will be your options if something goes wrong.

[Spurschick]

I've never heard of choice air. Is it like Travelocity and expefia?

 

 

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It is RC flight department. Select your sail date in the search option, and before you click on book now you will see underneath the orange book now button a picture of a plane and it says RC choiceair.

[rubrrick]

Choice Air, which as someone mentioned, is the air arm of Royal Caribbean, is an air consolidator. Sometimes when using Choice Air, you will be paying the same price as quoted by the airlines, and sometimes, you will be paying the "consolidator fare" which is a better price.

 

Consolidators are used by Travel Agents, to obtain better fares for their clients.

 

Where Choice Air really benefits their customers, is where the cruise line, and in this case, it's Azamara, is offering up to $1,000.00 per person off of the cruise fare, starting in their lowest club suites, if they book air using Choice Air. That is a bargain!:)

 

Rick

[Clarea]

I've never heard of choice air. Is it like Travelocity and expefia?

If you go to this website:

 

http://www.choiceair.com

 

You can click on the "Quick Flight Search Only" and look at the air prices for any cruises you might have.

[SPacificbound]

Thanks guys for quick response :). Our cruise leaves Oct. 26 in Barcelona and we leave KCI on Oct 22 in the evening. Our flights are on American airlines. I will just have to stop peeking over there in the cruise air section.

 

Christy

 

:D That is probably a good idea. :)

[WestfieldTraveler]

I looked at prices but it says you cannot book on this site.....:confused:

 

No booking, just fare info (it actually provides the fare engine to some selling sites) with lots of options that allow you to figure out what the lowest fare is. I'm still of the belief that (as it used to be) the airfares displayed by some selling sites may not always be the best possible for when you want to go.

 

You'll just have to book the routing and fare you found on one of the other sites - it should be doable.

Edited July 15, 2014 by WestfieldTraveler
more info

[gordiej]

As others have mentioned, the cruise line airfare programs really only provide meaningful savings when you're booking a one-way international trip. Published airline fares for these types of bookings are typically very expensive. Cheaper international fares are usually available only for round-trip travel that includes either a Saturday night stay or minimum stay (e.g., 7 days), which are targeted at leisure travelers who obviously can't pay that much. But business travelers who don't have the flexibility to book longer stays or over weekends will pay much more, and the airlines structure their prices accordingly. Clearly, a cruise passenger is a leisure passenger, but often has the need for a one-way international ticket. There are enough of them that the airlines work with the cruise lines to provide them more reasonable pricing.

 

And for what it's worth, this round-trip/minimum stay stuff used to be the same on domestic routes until the discount carriers like Southwest and JetBlue came in and did away with them -- the legacies were forced to drop the requirements. However, there are still some routes where there is little/no discount carrier competition and one-way fares are still expensive, like EWR-IAH.

[TravelerThom]

...get a free port bus...

Some years ago we paid 1 Euro for the port bus. In May of this year it was 2 Euros (or 3 Euros for a round trip [for crew and B2Bers or transit cruisers]). Given that it is probably a mile and involves going up and down a high bridge I's say it is worth it. If there really is a free bus I haven't found it, and I'm usually pretty good at finding "deals". Other than little detail advice on this thread seems pretty spot on.

 

Yes there are some potential downsides with consolidator tickets, but savings for one way international often compensate. I have used Choice Air a number of times for TransAtlantic cruises. Two years ago we flew Washington to Rome on Delta for about $420 one way; I checked over a number of months and the fare on the Delta site never went below $2500; hard to pass up savings like that. BTW I have been usually been able to get advance seat assignments, frequent flier miles, etc using Choice Air (not on all airlines, but Choice Air lets you select the airline, flight, etc that you want - you are not buying it blind as with some hotel and rental car consolidators). Note that the Choice Air default has you flying to the port city on the day of sailing, but this can be overridden. As an example if your cruise starts in Rome, they will let you fly into Venice any number of days early if you want to spend some time there. Our May Liberty of the Seas TA ended in Barcelona, but we flew home from Madrid a week later (for $421).

 

US domestic fares are generally no bargain on Choice Air, and if you are doing a TransAtlantic cruise ALWAYS look at the international one-way fare and a separate fare for the domestic only portion (eg Fort Lauderdale to Kansas City or wherever) versus bundling those two on Choice Air. For my last several trips to or from a Barcelona TA, I could get Choice Air Washington-Barcelona in the mid $400s and book directly with JetBlue non-stop FLL-DCA for $89. The best bundled price on Choice Air was about $900 and involved a FLL-JFK-DCA routing (apparently they were keeping you on the same airline group that handled the international portion).

 

When I have two booked TAs less than 11 months apart I also sometimes buy a round-trip ticket (not nearly as much savings on round-trip versus consolidators). I assume the OP is on Liberty; I'm on Celebrity Equinox the following day.

 

Thom

[John&LaLa]

Does choice air include flight from port to home

 

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[Clarea]

Does choice air include flight from port to home.

Choice Air includes whatever you want it to include. You pick the flights.

[candiac]

Hi,

 

Yes, I also use ChoiceAir if the price and routes are what I want, after I check the airline prices. I found for my upcoming TA in October that the Choice Air one way to London was the best but then I booked the FLL to home separately for a better price. I saved over $2500 from the round trip price offered on ChoiceAir.

 

My one caution is to give consideration to customs and immigration. Some of the choices offered by ChoiceAir if not direct, require one to go through multiple immigration and custom stops. For example, one passenger on our TA last year let his Travel agent choose his flights and he routed him from Boston, through Toronto (customs and immigration) and change in terminals, and them to Barcelona. From Canada, many of the choices took me through NYC.

 

The site offers many choices, just ensure the price savings are worth the flight offered. If not continue looking. For my TA ChoiceAir offered more than 100 choices from Montreal to London.

 

Be careful what you choose is what you want.

 

Elizabeth

[John&LaLa]

Choice Air includes whatever you want it to include. You pick the flights.

 

Understood, I was asking more about the $600 pp price

 

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[Clarea]

Understood, I was asking more about the $600 pp price

Sorry, I'm not getting what you are asking.:confused:

[John&LaLa]

Sorry, I'm not getting what you are asking.:confused:

 

OP stated price from KC to Barcelona was $600 pp with choice air. I was curious if this included the flight home after cruise

 

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[gordiej]

...if you are doing a TransAtlantic cruise ALWAYS look at the international one-way fare and a separate fare for the domestic only portion (eg Fort Lauderdale to Kansas City or wherever) versus bundling those two on Choice Air. For my last several trips to or from a Barcelona TA, I could get Choice Air Washington-Barcelona in the mid $400s and book directly with JetBlue non-stop FLL-DCA for $89. The best bundled price on Choice Air was about $900 and involved a FLL-JFK-DCA routing

Major caveat doing this. If your inbound flight is delayed and you didn't book long enough of a connection, and you miss your next flight, there's a good chance you may be SOL and have to buy a new ticket for the domestic leg, at the then-current walk-up fare. When you purchase the itinerary on one ticket, you'll be rebooked on a later flight at no expense to you.

 

I'd be especially careful at certain airports (e.g., JFK, MIA, LAX) and at certain times of the year when delays are more likely.

[Clarea]

OP stated price from KC to Barcelona was $600 pp with choice air. I was curious if this included the flight home after cruise

Based on our experience with Choice Air, the $600 was likely a one-way price.

[ChristyGodfrey]

The $600 was one way to Barcelona. We booked southwest coming home from Florida separate.

 

Christy

[hazmat1]

Thanks guys for quick response :). Our cruise leaves Oct. 26 in Barcelona and we leave KCI on Oct 22 in the evening. Our flights are on American airlines. I will just have to stop peeking over there in the cruise air section.

 

Christy

 

We are on the same cruise and booked through choice air with no problem. Great rates and love the ease in working with them.

 

See you onboard

[lhanson38]

We are on the same cruise flying from TPA to MIA then straight thu to BNC.

Flying out on the 22 we also used choice air paid 524.00 for our flights:)

[John&LaLa]

The $600 was one way to Barcelona. We booked southwest coming home from Florida separate.

 

Christy

 

Thanks, thought that was the case

 

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[cruisenfever]

Keep in mind that you are buying "ECONOMY" Coach/No frills seats and that you will probably have limited/or no seat selection (same as purchasing the cheapest tickets from any airline). If you want all the frills, you are going to have to pay $$$$.

Before I book "international" flights with Choice Air, I research the same flights directly on the airline's website. I look at the seat map and select the seats I would like to have. I then request those seats with the Choice Air agent and have always gotten what we wanted.

 

You can save a lot of money booking International flights through Choice Air. For Domestic Flights, you are better off booking direct with the airline.

Edited July 16, 2014 by cruisenfever

[TravelerThom]

Major caveat doing this. If your inbound flight is delayed and you didn't book long enough of a connection, and you miss your next flight, there's a good chance you may be SOL and have to buy a new ticket for the domestic leg, at the then-current walk-up fare. When you purchase the itinerary on one ticket, you'll be rebooked on a later flight at no expense to you.

 

I'd be especially careful at certain airports (e.g., JFK, MIA, LAX) and at certain times of the year when delays are more likely.

Maybe I didn't explain myself well. Lets say I am taking a TA from Europe to Fort Lauderdale. I book the entire flight arrangements from my hometown to the international destination with Choice Air (and this usually does involve connections). Separately I book the flight from Fort Lauderdale back to home directly with the airline. I am not splitting the ticket for any single day of flights. Interestingly looking at DC to Barcelona flights one option is USAir connecting in PHL. Washington is easier for me, but PHL is drivable, so I checked both prices: DCA-PHL-BCN was almost $200 LESS than PHL-BCN alone (apparently USAir has to match the competition for DC to BCN [all of which involve a connection], but they have the only non-stop PHL-BCN and can charge a premium for it).

 

Thom