Is there a reason I SHOULDN'T book Celebrity Cruise Air?

[Elusive_Cruiser]

We used it last cruise.  Seemed to work well.  Didn't pay for airfare until final payment date. Booked flights early. Able to make changes if flights were changed.  Received direct airline notices and not through a third party (i.e. Celebrity).

 

Anyone?

[Jim_Iain]

Personally if the prices are the same or similar I would go with Flights by Celebrity.    On all of the cruises that have had deviations or cancellations,  the letters have said if booked with Flights by Celebrity rerouting and refunds were done automatically. 

[ipeeinthepool]

Are the refunds from Celebrity Air now in FCC?

[luckyinpa]

ive never flown to a cruise but ive seen threads where people dont get their preferred flight times or they have changes thrust upon them that they arent happy with. 

[sippican]

48 minutes ago, luckyinpa said:

ive never flown to a cruise but ive seen threads where people dont get their preferred flight times or they have changes thrust upon them that they arent happy with. 

 

That has not happened to us in the multiple times we've used them. When we call to book, I request a preferred itinerary, based on researching the options before the call. The changes in times, etc.,  come from the airline itself, not Celebrity Air. If they occur, you can call to request a change just like you would if you booked direct.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

On 3/11/2020 at 12:11 PM, luckyinpa said:

they have changes thrust upon them that they arent happy with. 

 

To be fair, those can happen even when you book your own flights. Difference being when you've booked your own, you can call the airline and tell them - politely, of course - that those changes don't work and ask what other options there are. If the change is more than something like an hour, you are entitled to ask for other alternatives at no additional cost.

 

Oops... I see that @sippican said the same thing. 🙂 Great minds.

[TeeRick]

I use them routinely.  No issues.  Some very good advantages.

[cachouonacruise]

I agree with the above posters. In one case, Flights by Celebrity had fewr departure time options than the airline had. However, in my opinion, advantages of Flights by Celebrity far outweigh the inconvenience, especially, in the event of cruise itinerary change or cancellation.

[39august]

What TeeRIck said. You can change Celebrity Air schedule any way you wish. 

[maryann2]

On 3/10/2020 at 5:46 PM, ipeeinthepool said:

Are the refunds from Celebrity Air now in FCC?

My flight for May 2020 was refunded to my credit card as after final payment. My flight for Sept 2020 was cancelled with no charge as did not need to be paid until final payment. I changed my booking to Sept 2021 before it was cancelled by Celebrity.

[bubbachief]

I was told that they are booking only refundable fares now. I have used them in the past, not sure now.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 hour ago, cachouonacruise said:

I agree with the above posters. In one case, Flights by Celebrity had fewr departure time options than the airline had. However, in my opinion, advantages of Flights by Celebrity far outweigh the inconvenience, especially, in the event of cruise itinerary change or cancellation.

 

Agree with the much fewer choices! I looked at their options for my Feb 2021 cruise and they pretty much only offered me Delta connecting through Atlanta. There was like one American option.Obviously all into FLL. I was not given the option (that I could see) to fly into MIA which gives me MANY more options.

 

Once the flights for my July 2021 trip open, I'll see what they offer but I'll also look on my own and compare.

[39august]

Do not go by what you can see on the web site! Call for accurate information. There will be more choices.

[4774Papa]

We have used Choice Air by Celebrity once, when we were doing and TA and only needed a one-way ticket.  It worked great.

I still compared against Kayak.com

[K.T.B.]

When I had booked my flight for my now cancelled cruise, I got a fantastic deal with Celebrity.  I was also lucky in that they had a 20% off deal going at the time, too.  I got first class through them for about $300 more than if I booked elsewhere for domestic.  Well worth the money spent.  Damn shame I never got to use it though....

 

So if you're not looking to save money, don't book through Celebrity.  

[wrk2cruise]

Just curious if I book Celebrity air does my TA get additional compensation?  Wondering if I should expect additional perk from him.  

[alcpa1]

Cruise Air generally has benefits but booking overseas flights or one ways provide the best options. Booking domestic flights generally are best self booked.

I always "shop" around via Kayak, ITAMatrix or any of the travel sites before I compare with any cruise air program. Also note that there could be extra charges for deviations. Captain Clubs members can have extra fees waved.

There is a Cruise Air Forum under the Discussions section here on CC and the best advice is available there.

 

wrk2cruise,

Your TA does not get compensation for booking air. Any perks would come booking the cruise not the air component.

[grandgeezer]

On 7/31/2020 at 8:02 AM, cachouonacruise said:

I agree with the above posters. In one case, Flights by Celebrity had fewr departure time options than the airline had. However, in my opinion, advantages of Flights by Celebrity far outweigh the inconvenience, especially, in the event of cruise itinerary change or cancellation.

 

Though I never used it, I read on this board, that people who found flights, not a Flights by Celebrity's list, were able to call them and get favorable pricing on the ones they wanted.

[terrydtx]

10 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

Just curious if I book Celebrity air does my TA get additional compensation?  Wondering if I should expect additional perk from him.  

No they do not.

[terrydtx]

We used Celebrity Air for our RT air to Venice next May. We did the research and found the flights and airline we wanted before we called Celebrity to book. We saved over $600pp for Rt Business/First class from San Antonio over what we could find directly with the airline and $200 less than a Consolidator we used in the past. Best part is we do not pay for the tickets until our final payment in February 2021 and can make any changes for no cost until then. Unlike the old days with cruise company provided air we chose our route, airline and our seats when we booked. We can even go on the Delta Airlines website and change our seats if we want. The only thing we were not able to do with Celebrity air was book going over Business class and return Premium Economy but the price we booked for RT Business class was only $100 more pp if we had booked this way directly with Delta. We prefer the lay flat seats in Business class for the overnight flights and PE for the daytime flights home.

 

For flights to Europe from the US Celerity has their best deals with Delta and Lufthansa airlines and you can book one airline one way and another on the return without any penalty.

Edited August 3, 2020 by terrydtx

[cachouonacruise]

6 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

 

Though I never used it, I read on this board, that people who found flights, not a Flights by Celebrity's list, were able to call them and get favorable pricing on the ones they wanted.

 

Thanks Grandgeezer for the information, but in our situation, it did not quite work.

 

Pricing was not at issue. Leaving from Montreal to Hong-Kong in March,  Celebrity wanted to book us on a flight leaving Montreal at 07h AM, leaving us only a one hour gap to catch our connecting flight in Toronto. March in Montreal involves a significant risk of weather delay, due to snowstorms, aircraft deicing etc.

 

Being a frequent traveller, I knew and verified on line on the airline website, that the airline had flights departing Montreal every half hour from 5h30 AM. Seats were available at the same price, on the earliest flights.

 

Concerned to miss our connecting flight in Toronto, due to weather, I would have preferred booking the 05h30 or 06h AM departure from Montreal. So, I did call Flights by Celebrity to book an earlier flight, and the best they could see in their system was the 06h30 AM flight. ( Which we booked).

 

Not a big deal, however, it did not make sense to me.

 

I was trying to minimize the risk of missing a connecting flight due to weather at the same price, willing to wait a bit in Toronto, if the flight was on time; thus reducing the risk to Flights by Celebrity of having to reroute us last minute. The answer was no. The earliest flights were not showing in the system of Flights by Celebrity.

 

This is what, in my experience, I was referring to, when I mentioned « fewer departing options ».

 

But, Covid came, and our flights itineraries had to be completely changed since our cruise departure and arrival ports were modified. Than the cruise was cancelled and ...so were the flights. Flights by Celebrity handled the change and subsequent cancellation very professionally, at no additional cost for the change and a full refund for the cancellation, which occurred one month prior to cruising time.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

5 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We used Celebrity Air for our RT air to Venice next May. We did the research and found the flights and airline we wanted before we called Celebrity to book. We saved over $600pp for Rt Business/First class from San Antonio over what we could find directly with the airline and $200 less than a Consolidator we used in the past. Best part is we do not pay for the tickets until our final payment in February 2021 and can make any changes for no cost until then. Unlike the old days with cruise company provided air we chose our route, airline and our seats when we booked. We can even go on the Delta Airlines website and change our seats if we want. The only thing we were not able to do with Celebrity air was book going over Business class and return Premium Economy but the price we booked for RT Business class was only $100 more pp if we had booked this way directly with Delta. We prefer the lay flat seats in Business class for the overnight flights and PE for the daytime flights home.

 

For flights to Europe from the US Celerity has their best deals with Delta and Lufthansa airlines and you can book one airline one way and another on the return without any penalty.

 

So when you called Celebrity, you had all the information and just said "These are the flights and seats we want?"

[terrydtx]

12 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

So when you called Celebrity, you had all the information and just said "These are the flights and seats we want?"

That is exactly what happened. We got the flights dates and seats we wanted.  After a few hours we  also could see the flights and seat selection on Delta's website after using the record locator number Celebrity gave us. We added our FF number and all of our personal information.  A  week later  we did change the seats on two of the flights on Delta's website. Our flights from Amsterdam to Venice are on KLM Airlines and we could change seats on these flights from the Delta website too. It was so easy and I will always use them for future cruises. 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

17 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

That is exactly what happened. We got the flights dates and seats we wanted.  After a few hours we  also could see the flights and seat selection on Delta's website after using the record locator number Celebrity gave us. We added our FF number and all of our personal information.  A  week later  we did change the seats on two of the flights on Delta's website. Our flights from Amsterdam to Venice are on KLM Airlines and we could change seats on these flights from the Delta website too. It was so easy and I will always use them for future cruises. 

 

FABULOUS!!! Thank you so much!! And do you tell Celebrity that you want the payment due with Final Payment or is that automatic?

[wrk2cruise]

Just booked air for June Baltic cruise today.   Boy prices are expensive.  Lowest price on Kayak for Economy RDU to LHR is over $2,000.   Flights by Celebrity had a couple of Premium Economy flights on the website for $1695.

 

Agent started by quoting me including a non-stop outbound which was over $2300.  When I asked about the United flight she found that for $1695.  Then a couple of minutes later she said she could get me back on American cheaper.  Times were better too, it was $1586, of course then I was on hold and got disconnected.  Called back and another agent said the first agent was having system troubles and nicely helped me out.  She found the same flights but at $1628.  Oh well still better than what I was going to book.  Went though and booked it and sent email while I was on the phone.  Asked if I wanted to select seats but I said I'd do that on the Airline web sites.

 

Got on the airline sites and AA let me put in all my personal data but wouldn't allow me to assign seats.   United wouldn't take my FF number because names didn't match my account.  The First/Middle name is concatenated on the ticket which isn't uncommon.   Another FBC and nice agent added my FF number to United but United doesn't allow seat assignments for Premium Economy until the ticket is paid.   He nicely assigned seats for the American segments.

 

I also had the first agent price the same itinerary for our traveling companions with the same gateway flights but from CLT instead.   PE price was similar but they usually fly Economy so I asked her to price that, she said that price was significantly higher.

 

All in all I would rather do it all myself but the price is probably about 1/2 of what I could find on my own and it's risk free for the next 8 months or so.   Just be aware of the seat assignment issue when booking.   Worst case we don't sit together!