Unacceptable handling of missed cruise by Celebrity

[AnnaNicole]

When your flight is delayed or cancelled, immediately get on the phone with the airline.

 

Last Saturday, my 22 year old daughter was flying to London on a 5pm flight.   She had a connection in NY with a 90 minute layover.  Bad weather caused her flight to be delayed 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 75 minutes.   I immediately got online and looked at alternative arrangements for her.   She called United with the alternative schedule and got rebooked on a Luftansa flight (luckily  weather delayed - 3 hours until 9:30p). 

 

Breathing a sigh of relief, she got some food and sat at the gate.   At 8:45pm, the Luftansa flight was cancelled.   Immediately, I got on the phone with United.  I explained the situation.  I explained that I was worried about my daughter being stuck overnight in an unfamiliar airport by herself.  The agent put me on hold for about 5 minutes then came back and said he rebooked her on an American Air nonstop flight leaving at 10pm.   She hustled over to the gate.   She arrived in London 1 hour earlier than her original itinerary.

 

Moral of the story:   Look up alternative air arrangements and flight numbers and get on the phone ASAP with the airline; especially on weather delays and cancellations.   Don't bother waiting in line at the gate.   Seats will go fast. 

 

United was a real MVP in this instance. 

 

OP, I am sorry this happened to you.    

[Algebralovr]

When stuff happens during travel, one must be flexible.  Assuming all 4 people were adults, If two seats were available to get people to the ships on one flight, those should have been taken, and then CA would have found two more seats on another flight.  It might have taken 3 flights, as 2-1-1 to make it work.  Happens.  Part of the issue was demanding that you all fly together.  

 

You may also need to fly ahead of the ship and spend a day or two waiting for it to arrive where you are.  I’ve seen that, even in the Caribbean.

Best wishes on your next adventure.  Remember, things happen.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I think it’s important to understand the full fine print when booking something. Choice Air helps you get to your cruise, but I don’t think it allows you to just not accept their offer and stay home for a full refund. In this case, the travel insurance probably wouldn’t pay because Celebrity offered to still get you to your cruise. I know it’s an awful situation, and I’m sorry you missed your cruise, but I would have taken Celebrity’s alternative flights to at least make part of the cruise. I understand it can be intimidating being in a foreign country, but it would only be for a short time. There are taxis just like everywhere else and nice hotels. I hope you can take this cruise another time.

[Mike981]

3 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

I still say a simply hang up, call again approach might have yielded a more satisfactory outcome, at least in terms of assuring them of the transit plans upon delayed arrival in Buenos Aires.

 

^^^^This^^^^

I have done this so many times I have lost count. I even play the, "it's lunch there right now so I bet they have a different person". Or if I can, wait till later in the day or a weekend evening. Just don't do the same thing each time you call, try different approaches.

Just a lousy situation OP. I'm sorry it happened to you, but know you have helped others by bringing this up.

Don't lose faith and travel on my friend.

[sanger727]

OP is missing the mark a bit. The connection time wasn’t the problem. It sounds as though their flight was delayed 2 hours, so even the 1 hour and 15 minute connection time they are saying they needed wouldn’t have worked. If you are booked on a legal connection via one ticket through an airline (and I do think 40 min is considered by some to be the min connection time); the airline is responsible to get you to your destination. No need to call choice air to get rebooked, the airline will get you there. Choice air should help with the hotel and catch up flight, but if the options were not reasonable, then why not get on kayak and book your own and submit through insurance.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

On 5/10/2019 at 8:54 AM, bigdawgs said:

We booked with Choice Air for a flight from MIA to PRG via FRA, prior to a Greek Island Cruise a few days later out of Rome. CA feels that a 1 hr. Connection time in FRA is sufficient. We disagree and CA will not agree to book us on a later flight. However, since there is another flight one hour later, I presume that if we miss our connection, that the airline will book us on the later flight without penalties.  Is my thinking correct?

 

Larry

 

 

What if there are no seats available on the next flight?  They can't book you on a flight that has no available seats.

 

The moral of this story is, no matter who you are booking with, it is ultimately up to you to vet the connection times and decide what is suitable and what is not.

[villauk]

On 5/11/2019 at 3:29 AM, Marelaine said:

 

I think there were only 2 seats available on that flight. When OP rejected that offer, CA offered to get flights for the 4 of them, but they would be 5 days into the cruise before they could get them onto the ship. OP rejected that offer because they didn't speak the local language and were worried about how they would manage travel arrangements to the port. It seems like Celebrity refunded them the first 5 days of the cruise because there was no way to get all 4 of them onto the ship prior to that. 
 

 

 

Was it a 7 day cruise and they were missing the first 5 days?

[villauk]

19 hours ago, AnnaNicole said:

When your flight is delayed or cancelled, immediately get on the phone with the airline.

 

Last Saturday, my 22 year old daughter was flying to London on a 5pm flight.   She had a connection in NY with a 90 minute layover.  Bad weather caused her flight to be delayed 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 75 minutes.   I immediately got online and looked at alternative arrangements for her.   She called United with the alternative schedule and got rebooked on a Luftansa flight (luckily  weather delayed - 3 hours until 9:30p). 

 

Breathing a sigh of relief, she got some food and sat at the gate.   At 8:45pm, the Luftansa flight was cancelled.   Immediately, I got on the phone with United.  I explained the situation.  I explained that I was worried about my daughter being stuck overnight in an unfamiliar airport by herself.  The agent put me on hold for about 5 minutes then came back and said he rebooked her on an American Air nonstop flight leaving at 10pm.   She hustled over to the gate.   She arrived in London 1 hour earlier than her original itinerary.

 

Moral of the story:   Look up alternative air arrangements and flight numbers and get on the phone ASAP with the airline; especially on weather delays and cancellations.   Don't bother waiting in line at the gate.   Seats will go fast. 

 

United was a real MVP in this instance. 

 

OP, I am sorry this happened to you.    

 

 

We have done this on more than one occasion, but we book our own flights direct with the airline.

[rhblake]

15 hours ago, sanger727 said:

 If you are booked on a legal connection via one ticket through an airline (and I do think 40 min is considered by some to be the min connection time); the airline is responsible to get you to your destination.

You may be correct but only if both legs of the flight are with the same carrier.

[Quilter69]

Retired travel agency manager here. Airline computer systems will not allow an agent to book what is  called an illegal connection. There are minimum connecting times established for each airport, each terminal change, each airline change. There was a major screw up if the legal connecting time was more than 40 minutes and a connecting time of 40 minutes was booked. And it is Choice Air's responsibility to make that right for the traveller. No traveller is offered an improper connecting time unless someone or some system goofed badly. If you book yourself on an airline web site, and choose flights that are not preset connections, that is on you, but if any agency did it, red flags should have gone up.