Can you pick your seats on Celebrity flights?

[tallyho8]

When booking flights with Celebrity in economy class are you able to pick your own seats? If you have to pay extra to pick your seats, about how much more is it?

[doubled]

Yes you can pick own seats.  Extra charge depends on seats (exit row, preferred, etc) can be as little as $6 and up as much as around $100 but usually $25-$70 just depends.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

15 minutes ago, tallyho8 said:

When booking flights with Celebrity in economy class are you able to pick your own seats? If you have to pay extra to pick your seats, about how much more is it?

To be honest, I don't know. We usually book our flights through Celebrity, then go to the applicable airline's website with the flight booking number they give us to do seat selection and enter our frequent flier numbers. 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

When we booked thru Flights By Celebrity on United we could select our seats on United's web site.  When we booked on American Airlines we could not.  We ended up changing the flights and when I spoke with the agent at FBC he asked if we wanted to choose our seats.  Our flights are in business class.

[jelayne]

The ability to pick seats can depend on the airline and fare code you book.  

[Ashland]

5 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

When we booked thru Flights By Celebrity on United we could select our seats on United's web site.  When we booked on American Airlines we could not.  We ended up changing the flights and when I spoke with the agent at FBC he asked if we wanted to choose our seats.  Our flights are in business class.

I believe business/first class you can always choose your seats...We always check the carrier directly so we know flight times and seats available before calling Flights By Celebrity....saves a lot of time.

[Wine-O]

7 minutes ago, jelayne said:

The ability to pick seats can depend on the airline and fare code you book.  

Correct.  Air2Sea booked us a flight to Europe on Swiss Air, and didn't have to pay until final payment.  I called the airline, and they wouldn't let me choose a seat until the fare had been paid.  Not sure if other airlines are like that.  🍷

[mac_tlc]

9 minutes ago, Wine-O said:

Correct.  Air2Sea booked us a flight to Europe on Swiss Air, and didn't have to pay until final payment.  I called the airline, and they wouldn't let me choose a seat until the fare had been paid.  Not sure if other airlines are like that.  🍷

Must vary by airline. I booked Delta to Barcelona for October, payable at final cruise payment, and was able to go onto the Delta site and pick seats. It was business class, not sure if that makes a difference.

 

mac_tlc 

[Wine-O]

15 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Must vary by airline. I booked Delta to Barcelona for October, payable at final cruise payment, and was able to go onto the Delta site and pick seats. It was business class, not sure if that makes a difference.

 

mac_tlc 

I think it may have been a Swiss Air thing.  We booked it as a United Codeshare. 

[Mr. Click]

Every airline has different rules so check before you book.  We booked with Celebrity Air once on AA but the outbound was a BA code share and when I was booking online it allowed me to pick my seats but when I went to the BA website, no seats and if we wanted to pick them ahead of time it was $125 per seat  but on AA return we could pick out seats for both segments. We were in Biz so that helped.  Ended up waiting to pick the BA seats at check in figuring the TA segment was over night in biz and we did not need to be side by side to sleep.  I had better things to do with $250.  Bottom line is check your airline, they all have different rules and yes, fare class can make a difference too.

[lobsternight]

We booked last week through celebrity on United, its a bit of a milk run from YVR to FLL, 3 segments on way out, 2 on way back.  Economy seats.  We were able to select seats for all segments.  Interesting though, we got a message a few days ago that the flight number from EWK to FLL has changed, same plane same times, just the flight number, and our seat selection has been removed from that one segment.

[keesar]

It depends on which class you book.  For instance, if you booked a Basic Economy you would not be able to pick your seat.  But you could with Economy.  Rules often vary by airline.  

[tallyho8]

Thanks for all of your replies. I booked over the phone direct with celebrity and they were able to let me pick my seats while booking. I also booked the port to airport transfer. Very easy and professional service.

[Wine-O]

6 minutes ago, tallyho8 said:

Thanks for all of your replies. I booked over the phone direct with celebrity and they were able to let me pick my seats while booking. I also booked the port to airport transfer. Very easy and professional service.

How about a few details.  What airline, to where, class of service, when to pay, what port/transfer?  Just curious as it would be helpful info for others booking direct with celebrity on Air2Sea.  🍷

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We booked on line then called to change our return flight. Ended up changing our outbound flight too. The details on our final booking as of today.

  Booked  by phone. American Airlines. Business class. Flying to FLL day before cruise from PIT. Agent was able to select seats. Asked if we wanted to book transfers but we declined. Payment is not due until final payment. Fully refundable if cruise is cancelled and we can make changes until then.

 

Our experience with booking business class is it is impossible to make a change in one of the flights because there are so few seats available to book with FBC the price more than doubles.

[tallyho8]

On 2/4/2021 at 7:56 PM, Wine-O said:

How about a few details.  What airline, to where, class of service, when to pay, what port/transfer?  Just curious as it would be helpful info for others booking direct with celebrity on Air2Sea.  🍷

 

It was United Airlines and the cheapest Economy service, and we pay when final payment is due on cruise. The transfer was from Vancouver port to their airport and was $23.95 a person.

 

But, all to no avail as the next day Canada announced they would not allow cruises until February 2022.

Now to cancel, flights, shuttles, hotels, etc.

[terrydtx]

On 2/4/2021 at 11:37 AM, Wine-O said:

Correct.  Air2Sea booked us a flight to Europe on Swiss Air, and didn't have to pay until final payment.  I called the airline, and they wouldn't let me choose a seat until the fare had been paid.  Not sure if other airlines are like that.  🍷

We have used Celebrity flights and you can at time of booking have Celebrity request seats or wait and do it on the airline web sites after booking air, final payment not needed. This has worked for us with Delta, United and Lufthansa. American will not allow us to change on the website but we have called them and had seats changed. The worst experience is with British Airways who will not allow choosing a seat, even in Business Class until 24 hours before departure unless you pay an upfront non refundable fee. Unfortunately we are having to use BA for our return flight from Venice in September and they want $150pp to choose seats now for Business Class, which is outrageous and non refundable. They charge $75pp for economy and premium economy seats. We are going to wait until we know for sure our cruise will sail in September so we do not lose the $300 fee. I will never use BA again unless they are no only option available, like our flights back from Venice.

 

I have also used HAL flights which is way better than Celebrity for booking flights online. The HAL site allows you to actually choose seats (except for BA) at the time you book and go back if needed to change your seat selection anytime after.

[Islander500]

Has anyone been allowed to pick seats with TAP (Portugal’s airline) in any class whether Economy, Premium or Business class? 

[budmeister]

On 2/4/2021 at 11:17 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

To be honest, I don't know. We usually book our flights through Celebrity, then go to the applicable airline's website with the flight booking number they give us to do seat selection and enter our frequent flier numbers. 

This what I was told I had to do, and I did it. No problem.

[odysee]

When we had inter European flights included on Swiss in Eco we could not choose seats, not even for a fee.  We tried calling and they said changes could only be made thru FBC.  At 24 hrs check in we then discovered FBC had reserved the preferred seats with more legroom.    And this was the case on the return flight and the next booked cruise as well. Very happy.

[Cruise a holic]

After the cruise is booked with the flight, we go to the Delta website, as we typically fly Delta, and pick our seats.  Never paid a charge .  I assume if you upgrade from coach to first class you pay additional- we book first class and never paid anything additional.  We book our seats a day or two after we make the reservation.

[D. B.]

On 2/4/2021 at 2:07 PM, Wine-O said:

Correct.  Air2Sea booked us a flight to Europe on Swiss Air, and didn't have to pay until final payment.  I called the airline, and they wouldn't let me choose a seat until the fare had been paid.  Not sure if other airlines are like that.  🍷

I encountered the same thing with a Swiss Air flight booked thru FBC.

I just had FBC pay at the time of booking so we could select our seats.

The flights were still refundable as FBC will not sell non refundable flights.

When looking at available flights on FBC look for flights listed as Operated by another airline and if the same flight is listed as Operated by the Same airline that provides the flight you can probably select you seats right then with FBC.

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, D. B. said:

I encountered the same thing with a Swiss Air flight booked thru FBC.

I just had FBC pay at the time of booking so we could select our seats.

The flights were still refundable as FBC will not sell non refundable flights.

When looking at available flights on FBC look for flights listed as Operated by another airline and if the same flight is listed as Operated by the Same airline that provides the flight you can probably select you seats right then with FBC.

We do the same, we have  FBC pay for our ticket at or shortly after booking so we could pick seats because we fly either BC or PE and want better seat locations.  Next  month our return flights from Athens are on British Airways BC and we couldn't pick seats until the tickets were paid for. Same for our flights to and from Sydney Australia in January with Air New Zealand wouldn't let us pick seats until the tickets were paid by FBC. I will say when we call FBC  to pay for the air we ask for them to expedite payment to the airlines and in every case this has been done within 24 hours. We are very pleased with FBC.

 

My only complaint is the ability to change flights with the airlines after payment is made. Next month we fly to Amsterdam on United from San Antonio to Houston to Amsterdam. When we booked the flights back in November last year our flight to Houston got us there with a 6 hour layover. A couple of months ago United added another flight to Houston that only left us with a 4 hour layover. We tried through United to change to the later flight but were told that we had to do this through the 3rd party (FBC) ticket issuer. We then contacted FBC and the only way they could make the change was to completely rebook our whole RT flights at the prevailing costs, which at that time would have doubled the cost of our BC seats. So we will be spending 5-6 hours in the Houston United Polaris lounge with free food and drinks which is not too bad.

Edited August 26, 2023 by terrydtx

[FeelingCruisy]

On 2/4/2021 at 11:57 AM, tallyho8 said:

When booking flights with Celebrity in economy class are you able to pick your own seats? If you have to pay extra to pick your seats, about how much more is it?

When you book air from celebrity, you get to pick different options (more become available as cruise are closer , a few months off).  Options include cancel anytime before 90 days cruising OR NOT, etc.   Then depending on what category class of the flight you pick, you generally can select seats, but all depends.   Just pretend celebrity air as any other air company.   

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, FeelingCruisy said:

When you book air from celebrity, you get to pick different options (more become available as cruise are closer , a few months off).  Options include cancel anytime before 90 days cruising OR NOT, etc.   Then depending on what category class of the flight you pick, you generally can select seats, but all depends.   Just pretend celebrity air as any other air company.   

My experience about picking seats through the airlines we have flown through FBC:

 

American Airlines---Have FBC select when you book, cannot change on AA website until tickets are paid can be changed by calling FBS before payment

 

Delta--pick or change anytime on Delta website

 

United--same as Delta

 

Air Alaska same rules as American

 

British Airways--FBC cannot select seats, you can select online at BA website after tickets are paid for. BA charges a fee to select seats prior to 24 hours from departure in Economy. In BC and FC there is not a fee to preselect seats.

 

Air New Zealand FBC cannot select seats, you can select online at ANZ website after tickets are paid for.