Choice air and Galapagos cruises

[MisterBill99]

I'm trying to figure out what people's recent experiences using Celebrity (aka Choice) Air to book airfare for their Galapagos cruise on Celebrity. I am booked for an October 2020 cruise so it's too early to look for flights for my cruise. However, I have to decide if I want to add a Celebrity promo that gives a $1000 per person cruise discount instead of the $250 discount promo I currently have (they are not combinable). You're supposed to be able to find a link to look for airfare for a cruise you're thinking of booking on the Itinerary page, but it isn't showing up for me.  I called the Celebrity Air folks and asked the rep to look for a flight for this year's sailing and unless I misunderstood, she found a price of over $2000 which makes no sense since I can find pricing in Kayak for around $600. Celebrity supposedly guarantees low airfare price but they refund the difference in the form of non-refundable OBC, which is fairly useless on a Galapagos cruise since its all-inclusive (even TA's give you a credit towards final payment instead of OBC). 

 

In the thread I've linked below (which is a few years old and no longer open for posting), people claimed that Celebrity doesn't allow you to book (or look for) Galapagos flights on your own because they want to make sure you book correct times. I'm not sure I believe that but I do know that I have been unable to find online pricing pre-booking.

 

Anyway.. hopefully someone(s) who have used Celebrity to purchase airfare to their recent Galapagos cruise can post their experience.

 

 

 

 

[vermonter16]

That's a really good question.  Hopefully someone can answer it.  The Celebrity site is so screwed up sometimes.  I'm glad they have better technology on their ships!

[MisterBill99]

1 hour ago, vermonter16 said:

That's a really good question.  Hopefully someone can answer it.  The Celebrity site is so screwed up sometimes.  I'm glad they have better technology on their ships!

 

Thanks. If I can't get any answer here, I will call Celebrity again when I have some time and see if I can get someone more competent and be clearer on what I want. I asked my TA to try and she apparently ran into the same problem I did when I checked online (when I was able to find the link), not finding any flights.

Edited March 12, 2019 by MisterBill99

[waterbug123]

12 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 Celebrity supposedly guarantees low airfare price but they refund the difference in the form of non-refundable OBC,

 

 

 

 

Be very careful reading "guarantees" like that.  Often it is nearly impossible to meet the terms of the guarantee, as the lower price must be for the exact same fare code ticket as what you purchased. 

[MisterBill99]

1 hour ago, waterbug123 said:

 

Be very careful reading "guarantees" like that.  Often it is nearly impossible to meet the terms of the guarantee, as the lower price must be for the exact same fare code ticket as what you purchased. 

 

To be honest, given that I get a $750 savings by using the promo cdde that requires me to use Celebrity/Choice Air over the one I'm using now, they don't even have to be the cheapest, so long as they're not ridiculously expensive.

 

And the Choice Air flyer that talks about the price guarantee does not mention the fare code needing to be the same. Given that I would expect Celebrity at least sometimes uses a special fare code if they have a special rate, I can't imagine how they could require that.

 

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by MisterBill99

[Gonzo70]

Below is a photo of an email I received from Celebrity about this situation (back in 2014)  with their explanation as to why Galapagos flights could not be booked online; they did say they hoped this was a temporary issue, but five years later apparently nothing has changed. Not surprising I guess considering the quality of their IT department. 

[Beachlover1989]

Last week I tried to book a flight for our March 2020 Galapagos cruise, because you're currently getting 10 captain's club points if you use Flights by Celebrity.  As you stated in your opening remarks, flight options aren't available for me.  I called my Celebrity Vacation Planner (he's fantastic) and he told me that a lot of airlines don't allow you to book until 330 days before the flight, and definitely not a year out, which is why it wasn't available yet.  His explanation made sense to me because when we were trying to book flights for our September 2019 Iberian Peninsula cruise, not all flight options were available until October 2018.

 

I do like using Choice Air so that you can book your flight, it's refundable, and you don't have to pay for it until your final cruise payment is due.  Helps just in case something changes prior to that.

[MisterBill99]

8 minutes ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Last week I tried to book a flight for our March 2020 Galapagos cruise, because you're currently getting 10 captain's club points if you use Flights by Celebrity.  As you stated in your opening remarks, flight options aren't available for me.  I called my Celebrity Vacation Planner (he's fantastic) and he told me that a lot of airlines don't allow you to book until 330 days before the flight, and definitely not a year out, which is why it wasn't available yet.  His explanation made sense to me because when we were trying to book flights for our September 2019 Iberian Peninsula cruise, not all flight options were available until October 2018.

 

I do like using Choice Air so that you can book your flight, it's refundable, and you don't have to pay for it until your final cruise payment is due.  Helps just in case something changes prior to that.

 

Yes, 330 days and not a full year. That is pretty standard for airlines. I'd really like to use JetBlue, they fly to Quito (from FLL) and the prices are pretty reasonable. But they don't open bookings until something like 6 months out (maybe a little more).  Maybe I should call back and ask about pricing for a date where I know that Jetblue is selling for and see if they can get it.

 

Choice Air is only refundable and payable at final payment if you buy a refundable ticket. 

[MisterBill99]

39 minutes ago, Gonzo70 said:

Below is a photo of an email I received from Celebrity about this situation (back in 2014)  with their explanation as to why Galapagos flights could not be booked online; they did say they hoped this was a temporary issue, but five years later apparently nothing has changed. Not surprising I guess considering the quality of their IT department. 

 

 

That (not getting the lowest price) could explain the ridiculous pricing I got when I called yesterday to check pricing.

[Beachlover1989]

1 minute ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Yes, 330 days and not a full year. That is pretty standard for airlines. I'd really like to use JetBlue, they fly to Quito (from FLL) and the prices are pretty reasonable. But they don't open bookings until something like 6 months out (maybe a little more).  Maybe I should call back and ask about pricing for a date where I know that Jetblue is selling for and see if they can get it.

 

Choice Air is only refundable and payable at final payment if you buy a refundable ticket. 

You can actually still go back to the old Choice Air website, which is what I've done to look at possible prices.  And yes, you have to be careful whether it's a refundable or non-refundable ticket.

[MisterBill99]

8 minutes ago, Beachlover1989 said:

You can actually still go back to the old Choice Air website, which is what I've done to look at possible prices.  And yes, you have to be careful whether it's a refundable or non-refundable ticket.

But presumably it still doesn't show Galapagos pricing, does it? If it does, please post the link.

[Beachlover1989]

57 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

But presumably it still doesn't show Galapagos pricing, does it? If it does, please post the link.

No it does not.  Even though it shows the Galapagos ships, sails date, etc., it always says they didn't find any flights.

[waterbug123]

2 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

And the Choice Air flyer that talks about the price guarantee does not mention the fare code needing to be the same.

 

 

Perhaps you missed the part on page 2 that says "The flight was must be available and the flight itinerary must be identical, including airline, fare rules, flights, dates, and times."   Different fare codes have different fare rules.  There have been posts in the past in which people had little to no luck getting anything from the low price guarantee because when they found a lower fare, the rules (fare code) were not identical to what they had booked.

 

[MisterBill99]

14 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

 

Perhaps you missed the part on page 2 that says "The flight was must be available and the flight itinerary must be identical, including airline, fare rules, flights, dates, and times."   Different fare codes have different fare rules.  There have been posts in the past in which people had little to no luck getting anything from the low price guarantee because when they found a lower fare, the rules (fare code) were not identical to what they had booked.

 

 

Fine, fare code does matter. However, the price guarantee is really tangential to this issue of not being able to see pricing and my request to see if anyone has purchased Galapagos airfare thru Celebrity recently.

[MisterBill99]

15 hours ago, Beachlover1989 said:

No it does not.  Even though it shows the Galapagos ships, sails date, etc., it always says they didn't find any flights.

 

Right, that was probably the link I was using when I was on Edge before booking the cruise and trying to figure out the flight cost. It was likely on the "free links" list when connected to Celebrity Wi-fi.

Edited March 13, 2019 by MisterBill99

[waterbug123]

3 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Fine, fare code does matter. However, the price guarantee is really tangential to this issue of not being able to see pricing and my request to see if anyone has purchased Galapagos airfare thru Celebrity recently.

 

If you say so; I simply responded to a topic you brought up though.  I said to be careful with those types of guarantees, as they almost always come with fine print that makes it difficult to make a claim....a good point of information for anyone reading who may have thought as you did.

[MisterBill99]

On 3/11/2019 at 7:58 PM, vermonter16 said:

That's a really good question.  Hopefully someone can answer it.  The Celebrity site is so screwed up sometimes.  I'm glad they have better technology on their ships!

 

FYI (and for others), I found a discussion in the Xpedition Roll Call forum (not lots of roll calls there but there is one big discussion thread about Xpedition cruises) and posted my question there. After posting I found some fairly recently posts from of a couple of people who had booked Celebrity Air and were happy.

 

 

[vermonter16]

That's great.  I have booked Celebrity Air...but don't go until May.  Celebrity was unhelpful but we knew our flights and had watched them for almost a year (I know, right).  We knew we wanted first class....prices weren't coming down and on a Monday they plummeted for the times we were looking for.  Celebrity was about 200 per person less than if we booked straight through the airline.  However, a time change occurred with the flight and we were not notified so I just went into Delta and set his up for alerts.  We also were able to pick out seats through them as well.

[MisterBill99]

11 hours ago, vermonter16 said:

That's great.  I have booked Celebrity Air...but don't go until May.  Celebrity was unhelpful but we knew our flights and had watched them for almost a year (I know, right).  We knew we wanted first class....prices weren't coming down and on a Monday they plummeted for the times we were looking for.  Celebrity was about 200 per person less than if we booked straight through the airline.  However, a time change occurred with the flight and we were not notified so I just went into Delta and set his up for alerts.  We also were able to pick out seats through them as well.

 

Thanks, that is good to hear. The answer from the other thread seems to be that it works and tickets are indeed cheaper than the airlines but you need to know what flights you want when you call and should not rely on the employee to find anything for you. Also someone there reported booking tickets on Jetblue, so that is reassuring.