Flights by Celebrity Booking Experience (A Cautionary Tale)

[ericosmith]

As I posted on another thread, I had booked a round trip flight on the Celebrity website but never received a confirmation email nor did it show up in my account even though the the booking was confirmed online when I made it.  I noted a phone number on the Celebrity site for flight bookings that said it was available 8 to 5 Monday through Friday.  I had intended to call today but when I looked more closely the 8 to 5 hours stated IST.  After a bit of research I determined that was India standard time which meant it could be reached from the US only in the middle of the night.  So around midnight, I made my call.

 

The agent who answered stated that there were no flights attached to my account.  When I explained that I had booked online and gotten a completion, he stated that you couldn't book online if you were doing "back to back" cruises.  The fact that I did it was apparently a system error and that you could only book those flights over the phone. 

 

I said I would like to book and he quoted me the same price as I got from the Celebrity site from the supposed sale.  Once I agreed, he put me on hold for several minutes.  When he came back he said that fare wasn't accepted by the airline and he quoted me a new fare several hundred dollars more.  After going back an forth with him trying several other things in their system,  I told him I wanted to try booking online myself again.  He told me it wouldn't work but I went ahead anyway.  This time I printed the web page confirmation and gave him the booking numbers.  After some more times on hold, he was finally able to do something with those numbers and confirm my flights at the online price.  Finally some sleep after about 45 minutes of on and off hold.

 

Moral of the story, use caution, keep good records, and follow up quickly if you don't see a confirmation.

 

 

[jelayne]

I’m happy this worked out for you.  There is a 24 hour customer support # I have used to book.  I never book online as I want to make sure the fare isn’t a “basic” fare and I want the Airline  Reference # so I can get seat assigned.  In case you need the phone number it is 800-533-7803.  This # is for both Celebrity and Azamara.

[CruisinCons]

Thanks for sharing your experience.  We're sailing on a repo, so only need a one way fare back.  I'm going to send my TA an email and let him deal with it.  😄 

[msmayor]

When I used Celebrity Air for my flight, I let the Celebrity Vacation Planner handle the booking for me.  It was an easy phone call to her, letting her know exactly which flight I wanted and then getting it booked.  

[wpgcycler]

In 2019, more than 20 years after the “e-business” revolution, there is no excuse for dysfunctional online services - in any industry. 

[cricketgirl]

Thanks for sharing your experience; this can help others (myself included) in the future.

[cruisestitch]

When I have tried to book for back to back, I get an error message that says this can only be done by phone.  I'm very surprised the system allowed you to book those flights.  Did you attach one flight to the first cruise and the other to the second cruise?

 

[bigdawgs]

We also booked our air on line with Flights by Celebrity. It was a slightly complicated booking in that we were flying to another destination prior to the cruise. Our flight itinerary was MIA/PRG/FCO prior to the cruise and then FCO/FLL following the cruise. The flight from PRG to FCO was the problem in that there was no written confirmation. After a number of phone calls to my TA and Celebrity, who said we were confirmed, I decided to send an email directly to the airline (Czech Airlines) because I wanted to be sure that a reservation did exist. I had tried entering the booking code but it was rejected as non existent. Finally I did receive an email with written confirmation although they could not give us actual seat assignments. Since this is a fairly short flight, I am not concerned about that.

 

However, please be aware that if you decide to book your flights with Choice Air (Flights by Celebrity) and opt to delay paying for your airline  tickets until final payment of your cruise, in many cases you will not be given a seat assignment until you pay for your ticket. 

 

Happy and and safe travels.

 

Larry

[shofer]

We let our travel agent arrange our flight to London and our return flight from Ft Lauderdale through Celebrity.  She sent us the confirmation email.

Cost to London: $200/pp on United and we upgraded to Economy Plus for another $150.  It cost more to fly home from Florida because it was the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  We were happy to get a flight at all.

Edited May 15, 2019 by shofer

[CruisinCons]

So we still have not received an email, so I contacted my TA today.  He doesn't see my flight either.  I did write down the confirmation number, and when I go to the airline's website I not only can pull up my reservation but it let me choose our seats.  We chose the Pay Later deal.  Interesting...

[ericosmith]

Since the back to back cruises began and ended in Auckland, it was just a round trip flight.  I simply booked flights using the first cruise and changed the options from multi city to round trip and the dates to match the beginning and end of the back to back.  In my case I was able to get seat assignments on my domestic leg myself, and the Celebrity agent got them on the Air New Zealand flight as I was unable to do that online.  I did the pay later option and subsequently called Air New Zealand myself and they confirmed my seat assignments.