Flights by celebrity

[shipster60]

I have read many posts about flights by celebrity but now that I’ve book one I’m having trouble finding them. I found an unbelievably good price on Barcelona round trip, business, so I jumped on it. I booked the “pay at final payment” option which comes on July 2. Will this fee actually hold? Should I go ahead and pay now? How does seat assignment work? Thanks for any input on your experience. 

[Cruise a holic]

The fee for our cruise with choice air held without any problem.  We paid when the final payment was due.  That is a great advantage of dealing with choice air.  If for some reason you need to cancel your cruise before final payment is due, you also aren't responsible for the airfare.

[39august]

Your  price is safe. I always  pick my seats on the airline's web site just after making the booking with Celebrity air.  If you purchase Celebrity's travel insurance it also covers your air travel.  

[waterbug123]

Seat assignments vary according to the airline, routing, and exact fare class booked (not just coach or business class, but the specific fare class within a particular category; there can be many.). That said, more often than not, if one is booked in business class they will likely be able to select seats in advance if it is an international itinerary.  Call Celebrity to inquire regarding your specific flights. 

[chicagopaul]

1 hour ago, shipster60 said:

I have read many posts about flights by celebrity but now that I’ve book one I’m having trouble finding them. I found an unbelievably good price on Barcelona round trip, business, so I jumped on it. I booked the “pay at final payment” option which comes on July 2. Will this fee actually hold? Should I go ahead and pay now? How does seat assignment work? Thanks for any input on your experience. 

 

I'll share our experience. We've had very good luck with Flights by Celebrity (Formerly Choice Air). However, there are a few quirks to be aware of to avoid some issues people have complained about on CC. What airline did you end up booking? Are you flying on that actual airline or are you code sharing?

 

1) Yes, your pricing is safe and will hold even if you don't pay now. However, chances are you may not be able to pick your seats until you pay in full. This has at least been our experience flying AA, even in first class. Once paid in full you can choose your seats. But as stated previously above this can vary depending on your airline, however, most, regardless of class, will not allow you to choose your seat until your reservation has been fully ticketed, meaning they've received payment. But don't let this scare you. Your fair is still safe!

 

2) The great advantage however is not having to pay right away until final payment. I would look at your airlines seat map for your flight directly on the airlines website to see how booked up the cabin is. If it is not that full then I'd wait on paying until July 2nd. However, if it looks pretty full and only a few good seat pairings left then I personally would pay now to choose your seats. However, this is assuming you cannot choose your seats now.

 

2a) - Choosing seats might be tricky even after booking depending on the airline. Usually you can choose them directly with the airline, but in some cases you may either have to use a specific link from the airline (because you booked through flights by celebrity) or you may have to contact Flights by Celebrity to choose your seat.

 

3) Add your flight confirmation to your frequent flyer account for the airline. If you don't have a FF account for the airline then get one and add your confirmation number. One thing we noticed is that booking in advance you might have equipment changes or flight time changes. Flights by Celebrity has notified us of these changes and they have also not notified us of these changes. However, if you have it linked to the airline frequent flyer account and have alerts set up you will be notified immediately by the airline.

 

Sorry for rambling. Hope this helps!

 

[TFree]

We have used Celebrity Air on two of our last three cruises.  In the two cases, they had business class fares that were WAY below the fares otherwise available directly on the airline websites.  In both cases the carriers were Sky Team (Delta, Air France, KLM).  In the third case, Celebrity Air had nothing special to offer and we ended up booking instead through American Express Platinum, which got us a slight discount, but more importantly refundable tickets.  Maybe whether Celebrity Air has good fares depends on the itinerary, or maybe it depends on how far out you book, or maybe they have better contracts with Sky Team than with others, so if Sky Team doesn't really serve your itinerary they can't do much for you.  Bottom line: we have only checked them on the last 3 cruises, and 2 out of 3 times they got great fares for us.

This next cruise we are taking with them is the first time we have used the "pay later" option (I'm not sure they had it on the prior cruises).  Our experience is that after the reservation was made, we were immediately able to pick seats through our account on the Delta website without any difficulty.  These tickets are supposed to be completely cancellable until final payment - which makes sense since DL/AF currently has none of our money.  After final payment, they are cancellable for $200 pp, and changeable for $200 pp.  The beauty of that is that it basically means it is not necessary to insure the value of the airfare, since it can be cancelled or changed for a small fee.

Tom & Judy

[jelayne]

I have found great one way business class fares using CA in the past.  Now looking for return for our April, 2020 TA and prices are the same as booking direct $3500 per person❗️

[shipster60]

Thank you so much everyone for your input. My flights are through United. I was able to use my record locator provided and select my seats for all flights except those with Lufthansa partner. I’ve flown with them before and believe that would be the case even if I booked myself. I plan to call them directly. I’ve read what great rates people have gotten through celebrity before, but like Tfree said, for my particular itineraries I never found them to be different than what I could book myself. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a good price this time. We’re able to fly business for less than what I can book premium economy myself. Thanks again for everyones’s reassurance. 

[Tomato53]

I had wanted to select different seats (Lufthansa business class in October) prior to payment and wasn't able to do so online.  I called Flights by Celebrity and offered to pay early to get the seats I wanted (Lufthansa flies some new-ish 747's and we like the upper deck; it's out of the way and quieter).  

 

The agent checked and was able to get the seats I wanted without having to make the early payment.  Very happy with the price and the service.

[Mike981]

I believe it's been said before, but my experience has been that it works best for international flights. I've tried on flights to Florida from Minnesota and have never found a deal.

[waterbug123]

5 hours ago, chicagopaul said:

 I would look at your airlines seat map for your flight directly on the airlines website to see how booked up the cabin is.

 

2a) - Choosing seats might be tricky even after booking depending on the airline. Usually you can choose them directly with the airline, but in some cases you may either have to use a specific link from the airline (because you booked through flights by celebrity) or you may have to contact Flights by Celebrity to choose your seat.

 

 

Actually, looking at the seat map is not an accurate way to determine how booked up the cabin is.  There could be many seats sold but not assigned and the seat map would look like all seats are available when they're not.  Ex. the cabin you're booked in has 20 seats.  You look at the airline seat map and it shows 2 seats unavailable and the remaining 18 available.  But what if a tour group has reserved 16 of those seats, yet individual passengers haven't been assigned yet to specific seats?  You'd be thinking the cabin is practically empty, no worries.  In reality, if those other pax end up paying for their tickets in full and selecting their seats before you, you'll have slim pickings when you go to choose your seat.

 

2 hours ago, Tomato53 said:

The agent checked and was able to get the seats I wanted without having to make the early payment.  Very happy with the price and the service.

 

If your ticket hasn't been paid for, your seat selection could get changed.  Just FYI

[new-frog]

FbC website issues - cannot select flight

Reflection booked for 06/29/2023 departing Barcelona.

On the FbC website, I entered the booking number, last name, ship and departure date. I then entered the flight search criteria, and it took me to the page displaying outbound flight choices. So far - so good.

However, on all of the choices, all flights, all classes, the SELECT button is greyed out - you can't select it. Which means you can't get to the next page of return flights in order to get a price and book.

I've tried multiple searches over the last week. I've tried multiple browsers, laptop, iPads, and it's the same on all of them.
I called FbC today, and they gave me some quotes (I can fly from a few different airports), but I want to book online myself. They said they'd make a note of the website issue, but I'm not too hopeful.

Has anyone else experienced this?

TIA!

[klaine99]

6 hours ago, new-frog said:

Has anyone else experienced this?

Yes many times.  I also have tried many browsers and phone, laptop.  Keep trying as it fixes itself for a few hours or the day and then the SELECT button greys again and is useless.  Have had this problem for several years. Told Flights by Celebrity many times but still not fixed.

[Cruise a holic]

We like to call to reserve air- easy- also we booked  via choice air and for our december/january and march cruises  flight  time and flight numbers change multiple times.  So be aware.  Not carved in stone if the airline moves planes around.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Cruise a holic

[new-frog]

On 9/2/2022 at 6:51 AM, Cruise a holic said:

We like to call to reserve air- easy- also we booked  via choice air and for our december/january and march cruises  flight  time and flight numbers change multiple times.  So be aware.  Not carved in stone if the airline moves planes around.

Sorry, but calling these FbC amateurs is a PITA. I've tried three times and keep getting a "Sally" in the Philippines. We finally arrived on an itinerary (and she had no idea what codeshare meant), but she couldn't even book the return - something about the price changing. Was on for a total of 49 minutes, and the result is that I have to call back later to book. Maybe in an hour, maybe in a day - she wasn't sure.

Why can't they have professional agents who likely have actually been on a plane before, to service cruisers who are in many cases seasoned world travelers like us???

[Virginia100]

Well, early this morning I got a notice on my Jet Blue return flight from San Juan on 11/12 having changes. Oddly though it did not identify the change nor which flights. I went on Jet Blue app to see. I could see my return flight changed from 2:30 pm to 9:00 am, over a 5 hour difference. The app didn’t identify the change as a change. I had to call Flights By Celebrity to discuss the “new” flight was obviously too early. As explained FBC could not just change the booking immediately but send a formal request to Jet Blue for the flight change we agreed on due to the airlines change. This was necessary to protect my pricing and would take about a week to get resolved. Just seems odd it can’t be immediately changed in this circumstance. I’ll see how this works out by the end of the week.

[mandream]

On 9/11/2022 at 11:09 AM, Virginia100 said:

Well, early this morning I got a notice on my Jet Blue return flight from San Juan on 11/12 having changes. Oddly though it did not identify the change nor which flights. I went on Jet Blue app to see. I could see my return flight changed from 2:30 pm to 9:00 am, over a 5 hour difference. The app didn’t identify the change as a change. I had to call Flights By Celebrity to discuss the “new” flight was obviously too early. As explained FBC could not just change the booking immediately but send a formal request to Jet Blue for the flight change we agreed on due to the airlines change. This was necessary to protect my pricing and would take about a week to get resolved. Just seems odd it can’t be immediately changed in this circumstance. I’ll see how this works out by the end of the week.

 

Something similar to us happened a few months back.  We originally had a connecting Flight to Europe with a comfortable layover.  AA changed one of the flights giving us only 1 hour to make the connection.  I called FbC to see if they could change to a direct flight given the reduced connection time.  The direct flight was more expensive, so they had to check with the airline to see if they would accommodate for the same price.  They did and we were very happy.

 

This all happened before final payment, so there was never any question of the separate FbC change fee.  But now I wonder (because I am about to make final payment for a Dec cruise) - if the airline changes the flight and I am not happy with the new flight and ask FbC to change again - will they charge the change fee? 

 

@Virginia100 - I assume they didn't mention a change fee to you since it isn't in your post - but was this ever discussed?

 

Mike

 

[drakes2]

On 9/6/2022 at 8:43 PM, new-frog said:

Sorry, but calling these FbC amateurs is a PITA. I've tried three times and keep getting a "Sally" in the Philippines. We finally arrived on an itinerary (and she had no idea what codeshare meant), but she couldn't even book the return - something about the price changing. Was on for a total of 49 minutes, and the result is that I have to call back later to book. Maybe in an hour, maybe in a day - she wasn't sure.

Why can't they have professional agents who likely have actually been on a plane before, to service cruisers who are in many cases seasoned world travelers like us???

Its not part of their training just like some TAs have never cruised. I remember calling my bank and asking to be transferred to a county in North America she didn't have a clue. Appears Geography is not part of their training 

[Virginia100]

5 hours ago, mandream said:

 

Something similar to us happened a few months back.  We originally had a connecting Flight to Europe with a comfortable layover.  AA changed one of the flights giving us only 1 hour to make the connection.  I called FbC to see if they could change to a direct flight given the reduced connection time.  The direct flight was more expensive, so they had to check with the airline to see if they would accommodate for the same price.  They did and we were very happy.

 

This all happened before final payment, so there was never any question of the separate FbC change fee.  But now I wonder (because I am about to make final payment for a Dec cruise) - if the airline changes the flight and I am not happy with the new flight and ask FbC to change again - will they charge the change fee? 

 

@Virginia100 - I assume they didn't mention a change fee to you since it isn't in your post - but was this ever discussed?

 

Mike

 

No fee change was ever discussed. FBC emailed JB with the new flights we agreed on and gave me a request number. When I also called Jet Blue to change they only would do the change immediately if I paid a $50 per person to move the reservation from FBC to ownership by JB. Not very happy about that too.

[mandream]

17 hours ago, Virginia100 said:

No fee change was ever discussed. FBC emailed JB with the new flights we agreed on and gave me a request number. When I also called Jet Blue to change they only would do the change immediately if I paid a $50 per person to move the reservation from FBC to ownership by JB. Not very happy about that too.

 

Thanks for the update.  Let us know how it turns out.

 

Mike

[Virginia100]

Well, now the 5 days to do the change/modification will take 15 business days. With that delay I hope my revised flight remains available. This is definitely a drawback to using FBC. If I had booked directly with Jet Blue the change would have immediately been done.