Managing Celebrity Air

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, TheMettins said:

We paid ours off earlier than I like (I'm a deposit and balance the day before it's due kind of gal) in order to change our seats (AA).  When I originally book everything the Flights by Celebrity agent was able to lock in the seats I wanted... fast forward to a minor flight time change notification, I noticed our seats had been reassigned to row 32

 

Two points:

 

A)  You never get to "lock in" your seats.  They are only "seat requests" and may be changed by the airline at ANY time prior to departure.  Check the fine print of the airline's contract of carriage and other documents -- you'll see that any kind of reservation or guarantee is explicitly declaimed.

 

B)  Since you have not paid for your ticket, you merely have a reservation.  When you are unticketed, you are at a much higher risk of having a seat change than when you are a paid ticket holder.  Same with an itinerary change, especially with any kind of equipment swap.  Paid tickets handled first.  One of the downsides of cruiseline air.

[drowelf]

41 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

Two points:

 

A)  You never get to "lock in" your seats.  They are only "seat requests" and may be changed by the airline at ANY time prior to departure.  Check the fine print of the airline's contract of carriage and other documents -- you'll see that any kind of reservation or guarantee is explicitly declaimed.

 

B)  Since you have not paid for your ticket, you merely have a reservation.  When you are unticketed, you are at a much higher risk of having a seat change than when you are a paid ticket holder.  Same with an itinerary change, especially with any kind of equipment swap.  Paid tickets handled first.  One of the downsides of cruiseline air.

There is also some other downsides of cruise line air. The fare buckets that the cruise lines tap into are often in what is referred to as 'bulk fares' in the industry. Depending on the actual terms and conditions of the airlines FF programs you can earn nothing, partial or full credit to your FF Account. For example on United, the bulk fares will earn you mileage credit (PQF) but no dollar credit (PQP). I can't remember if you get lifetime miles credit on the fares, but I thinks so. 

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, drowelf said:

There is also some other downsides of cruise line air.

 

Many of them.  Discussed often over in the Cruise Air forum.

 

In general, most of the folks who buy cruiseline air do it for some of three reasons:

 

1) Simplicity

2) Payment at time of cruise payment

3) A belief that they are "protected" against operational problems in getting to their ship

4) A belief that cruiseline air pricing is better than what they can get direct from the airline

 

The first two are valid -- the latter two are urban legend.

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Many of them.  Discussed often over in the Cruise Air forum.

 

In general, most of the folks who buy cruiseline air do it for some of three reasons:

 

1) Simplicity

2) Payment at time of cruise payment

3) A belief that they are "protected" against operational problems in getting to their ship

4) A belief that cruiseline air pricing is better than what they can get direct from the airline

 

The first two are valid -- the latter two are urban legend.

I have found number 4 to be true on several one way international flights.  

[Cruise a holic]

On 3/30/2021 at 6:34 PM, Host Anne said:

Nope...I had to read through things multiple times. There isn't a $100 fee if you cancel and get an FCC under Cruise with Confidence.  I noticed that Celebrity's confirmations do not have the correct information on them.  But I clipped and save the CWC policy from their website so I won't have any issues down the road.  You should double check with Celebrity and/or your travel agent but I specifically triple checked the wording since I have family sailing with us.  ENJOY

We cancelled and August Royal cruise and we were charged $100 pp to move to August 2022.  Unfortunately they have different rules for Royal.

[terrydtx]

20 hours ago, patri10719 said:

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by terrydtx

[BridgeMates]

Haven't used cruise line air before but have one reserved for cruise in November.

Can't make seat reservations on AA.  If we pay for Celebrity flights now (well in advance of final payment), and we have to cancel our cruise, can we get the air refunded?

 

[jagoffee]

On 5/15/2021 at 9:25 AM, BridgeMates said:

Haven't used cruise line air before but have one reserved for cruise in November.

Can't make seat reservations on AA.  If we pay for Celebrity flights now (well in advance of final payment), and we have to cancel our cruise, can we get the air refunded?

 

Do you have an AA frequent flyer account?  Is your Booked AA flight operated by AA? (Not by an AA partner)   If the answer is yes, you should be able to get a seat assignment.

 

If you were so inclined to pay for your air this far in advance, you should consider just booking your air directly with AA. (Assuming the price is the same)

 

Which flight/date did you book?

[wrk2cruise]

On 5/15/2021 at 5:21 AM, Cruise a holic said:

We cancelled and August Royal cruise and we were charged $100 pp to move to August 2022.  Unfortunately they have different rules for Royal.

 

Not sure the rules are different.   It sounds like you moved your reservation (ship/sail date) to a sailing past 5/4/2022 which is when the CwC program ends.   Celebrity would also charge the penalty in this case.  (Some report no but most yes).  

 

If you cancelled (not moved) your August cruise with Celebrity using CwC you would be issued a FCC for the full NRD amount but would have to be used on a sailing booked by 4/30/2022 and sail by 9/30/2022.   So in your case at least on Celebrity if you had cancelled and made a new booking you could have applied the resulting FCC to your August 2022 sailing.  You probably would have to pony up a new deposit but in the end wouldn't be out any money.  

 

It's all in the details.   

 

Now if your new cruise is past 9/30/2020 the CwC FCC couldn't be used (no exceptions) and you would have the $100pp penalty period.

Edited May 16, 2021 by wrk2cruise

[BridgeMates]

Well, we decided to go with Celebrity air so that if for some reason the cruise is canceled, we'd get our money back from Celebrity.  We do have a FF account with AA, but I can't get seats on line with the record locator Celebrity gave me.  Haven't tried calling.....always a long wait and final payment isn't due until Aug 8th.  Cost was the same using Celebrity or direct with AA, but if we book direct with AA and cruise is canceled or we have to cancel, we'd have to deal with the airline and they may/or may not be issuing credit vouchers as they did last year.   We have flights next month using vouchers AA gave us last year, but it took 2 weeks for them to actually issue the tickets we wanted.  Apparently, the credit vouchers have to go thru a special department.  Anyway, that's my story....

 

 

[terrydtx]

7 minutes ago, BridgeMates said:

Well, we decided to go with Celebrity air so that if for some reason the cruise is canceled, we'd get our money back from Celebrity.  We do have a FF account with AA, but I can't get seats on line with the record locator Celebrity gave me.  Haven't tried calling.....always a long wait and final payment isn't due until Aug 8th.  Cost was the same using Celebrity or direct with AA, but if we book direct with AA and cruise is canceled or we have to cancel, we'd have to deal with the airline and they may/or may not be issuing credit vouchers as they did last year.   We have flights next month using vouchers AA gave us last year, but it took 2 weeks for them to actually issue the tickets we wanted.  Apparently, the credit vouchers have to go thru a special department.  Anyway, that's my story....

 

 

AA does not let you get seats or change seats online until the tickets are paid for by Celebrity or any cruise line, however if you call Celebrity air they can book your seats prior to FP. Other airlines like United and Delta will let you change seats on their web sites if you have FF account with them. One airline to avoid is British Airways, we are booked in business class from Venice to Heathrow in September and they want $156 to choose seats prior to 24 hours before departure which is ridiculous. This connection from Venice was the only one that worked for us to get home after our cruise.

[BridgeMates]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

AA does not let you get seats or change seats online until the tickets are paid for by Celebrity or any cruise line, however if you call Celebrity air they can book your seats prior to FP. Other airlines like United and Delta will let you change seats on their web sites if you have FF account with them. One airline to avoid is British Airways, we are booked in business class from Venice to Heathrow in September and they want $156 to choose seats prior to 24 hours before departure which is ridiculous. This connection from Venice was the only one that worked for us to get home after our cruise.

Thanks, I'll see if Cel Air can help.  That happened to us in Bus Class on British Air a few years ago.  We decided to just let it go and if seats weren't together at check-in they'd try to accommodate us; it all worked out as the airline assigned us seats together.  If it's important to have seats in a specific row or such, you might have to just pay the fee.

[jagoffee]

5 hours ago, BridgeMates said:

Well, we decided to go with Celebrity air so that if for some reason the cruise is canceled, we'd get our money back from Celebrity.  We do have a FF account with AA, but I can't get seats on line with the record locator Celebrity gave me.  Haven't tried calling.....always a long wait and final payment isn't due until Aug 8th.  Cost was the same using Celebrity or direct with AA, but if we book direct with AA and cruise is canceled or we have to cancel, we'd have to deal with the airline and they may/or may not be issuing credit vouchers as they did last year.   We have flights next month using vouchers AA gave us last year, but it took 2 weeks for them to actually issue the tickets we wanted.  Apparently, the credit vouchers have to go thru a special department.  Anyway, that's my story....

 

 

Good for you.  I did the same thing.  Since the price was the same, I figured it is easier to cancel if necessary with Celebrity Air.  I would hate to see you pay for your flights in advance, due to incorrect information on getting seat assignments.  See below.  If you are not sure how to tell if your flights is operated by AA, let me know your flight number and I can tell you.

5 hours ago, terrydtx said:

AA does not let you get seats or change seats online until the tickets are paid for by Celebrity or any cruise line, however if you call Celebrity air they can book your seats prior to FP. Other airlines like United and Delta will let you change seats on their web sites if you have FF account with them. One airline to avoid is British Airways, we are booked in business class from Venice to Heathrow in September and they want $156 to choose seats prior to 24 hours before departure which is ridiculous. This connection from Venice was the only one that worked for us to get home after our cruise.

I know for a fact that AA allows you to select seats on line without the tickets being issued. .  Even when I buy a ticket directly on  line, I always select my seats before I pay and the ticket is issued. Even if I hold the reservation for several days. 
 

I just booked several flights last week and I was able to select seats at AA.com.  The first flight I booked was an AA code share operated by BA.  I was not able to select seats on line.  I found a better deal, cancelled that flight by calling Celebrity Air.

I then made a replacement reservation on Celebrity Air.  The flight is an AA flight operated by AA from Ord to BCN.  Connecting via LHR on a Iberia Air flight operated by BA.

 

Here is how I was able to select seats for the AA portion last week.  I logged into AA.com.  I was able to find my reservation by entering the record locator provided by Celebrity Air on my invoice.  At that point, I could not select seats, which I knew was not right.  Each of our names indicated that we needed to provide additional information to check in.  I entered all the information for each of us, which included our Known Traveler numbers, FF numbers, and other information.  Once completed I logged out and logged back in.  My reservation was located in my flights and I was able to select seats.

 

I wonder if people that believe AA will not allow you to select seats have a flight operated by a different carrier or do not input the information missing.

 

Try it, it worked for me.  
 

P.S.  My experience from last week is fresh, so I recall the details.  I am fairly certain that I was able to select seats on United, Delta, and Alaska Air in the past without paying for my flight and being ticketed.  In fact the only time that I can recall not being able to select seats was a BA operated flight.  BA would not allow you to select seats even if the ticket is issued unsee you pay or have a certain Airline status.  (My experience and understanding)

 

[happy cruzer]

17 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Good for you.  I did the same thing.  Since the price was the same, I figured it is easier to cancel if necessary with Celebrity Air.  I would hate to see you pay for your flights in advance, due to incorrect information on getting seat assignments.  See below.  If you are not sure how to tell if your flights is operated by AA, let me know your flight number and I can tell you.

I know for a fact that AA allows you to select seats on line without the tickets being issued. .  Even when I buy a ticket directly on  line, I always select my seats before I pay and the ticket is issued. Even if I hold the reservation for several days. 
 

I just booked several flights last week and I was able to select seats at AA.com.  The first flight I booked was an AA code share operated by BA.  I was not able to select seats on line.  I found a better deal, cancelled that flight by calling Celebrity Air.

I then made a replacement reservation on Celebrity Air.  The flight is an AA flight operated by AA from Ord to BCN.  Connecting via LHR on a Iberia Air flight operated by BA.

 

Here is how I was able to select seats for the AA portion last week.  I logged into AA.com.  I was able to find my reservation by entering the record locator provided by Celebrity Air on my invoice.  At that point, I could not select seats, which I knew was not right.  Each of our names indicated that we needed to provide additional information to check in.  I entered all the information for each of us, which included our Known Traveler numbers, FF numbers, and other information.  Once completed I logged out and logged back in.  My reservation was located in my flights and I was able to select seats.

 

I wonder if people that believe AA will not allow you to select seats have a flight operated by a different carrier or do not input the information missing.

 

Try it, it worked for me.  
 

P.S.  My experience from last week is fresh, so I recall the details.  I am fairly certain that I was able to select seats on United, Delta, and Alaska Air in the past without paying for my flight and being ticketed.  In fact the only time that I can recall not being able to select seats was a BA operated flight.  BA would not allow you to select seats even if the ticket is issued unsee you pay or have a certain Airline status.  (My experience and understanding)

 

Thank you for posting.  I was able to enter the record locator, no notice of extra info needed, logged out/in, still can't do seat assignment.  But the flight is about 11 months out....

[jagoffee]

4 hours ago, happy cruzer said:

Thank you for posting.  I was able to enter the record locator, no notice of extra info needed, logged out/in, still can't do seat assignment.  But the flight is about 11 months out....

Does the flight now show up under my trips without reentered the record locator? (If no, try reentering the record locator and make sure the FF numbers are listed under each passenger)

If yes, when you call up you flight are your FF showing under your names at the bottom?

 

if you flight is operated by AA, then I do not know why it does not allow you to pick seats.  What is the flight number?

 

 The number of months out has never made a difference to me, perhaps it is different for me because I have lifetime Platinum status?  It worked for me.

 

Good luck.

[BridgeMates]

On 5/16/2021 at 12:50 PM, terrydtx said:

AA does not let you get seats or change seats online until the tickets are paid for by Celebrity or any cruise line, however if you call Celebrity air they can book your seats prior to FP. Other airlines like United and Delta will let you change seats on their web sites if you have FF account with them. One airline to avoid is British Airways, we are booked in business class from Venice to Heathrow in September and they want $156 to choose seats prior to 24 hours before departure which is ridiculous. This connection from Venice was the only one that worked for us to get home after our cruise.

Yea!  I called Celebrity Air and got seat assignments, which now show up in the record locator.  Thanks!

[terrydtx]

22 minutes ago, BridgeMates said:

Yea!  I called Celebrity Air and got seat assignments, which now show up in the record locator.  Thanks!

I knew it would, have a great cruise

[dabear]

I have to disagree but tried today to book international seats on AA on September flights booked with XAIR. UNABLE TO BOOK SEATS. We even called AA & got the expected response that X has not paid for the seats yet. all try to call X Air but after holding for 20 minutes gave up for today.

[cruiztime]

Ahhh. I have used Flights by Celebrity a few times and always had great service. Today I noticed, while checking the carrier website, that the flight times have changed drastically! No notice from Celebrity. I gave up on the call to them to change my flights after over two hours on hold. Although, ,listening to the recorded message, I know how much they should be supporting me....

[jagoffee]

4 hours ago, dabear said:

I have to disagree but tried today to book international seats on AA on September flights booked with XAIR. UNABLE TO BOOK SEATS. We even called AA & got the expected response that X has not paid for the seats yet. all try to call X Air but after holding for 20 minutes gave up for today.

You might want to look at post number 40 above and try what I suggested. You have to make sure that your FF number is indicated on the passenger record. 

The AA rep was correct that Celebrity has not paid for the flights, but that does not stop you from being able to get a seat assignment.  
 

Good luck.

[happy cruzer]

D

8 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Does the flight now show up under my trips without reentered the record locator? (If no, try reentering the record locator and make sure the FF numbers are listed under each passenger)

If yes, when you call up you flight are your FF showing under your names at the bottom?

 

if you flight is operated by AA, then I do not know why it does not allow you to pick seats.  What is the flight number?

 

 The number of months out has never made a difference to me, perhaps it is different for me because I have lifetime Platinum status?  It worked for me.

 

Good luck.

Did get the FF number to show under our names.  Still can not assign seats.  1429 First class.

 

Thanks!

[dabear]

Jagoffee: thanks. Got seats on AA portion of trip. Could not request 500 mile upgrades on domestic portion to Phily, but locked in to PE on international portion.I'll try upgrades once we make fp (hopefully). Could not get seats on UA portion since using Air Canada code share. 

[jagoffee]

5 hours ago, dabear said:

Jagoffee: thanks. Got seats on AA portion of trip. Could not request 500 mile upgrades on domestic portion to Phily, but locked in to PE on international portion.I'll try upgrades once we make fp (hopefully). Could not get seats on UA portion since using Air Canada code share. 

Awesome.  Good for you.

[jagoffee]

20 hours ago, happy cruzer said:

D

Did get the FF number to show under our names.  Still can not assign seats.  1429 First class.

 

Thanks!

I assume you mean your FF numbers show up on the AA.com website on your flight reservation?  For some reason the information that I entered on Celebrity Air did not transfer to AA.  Does you flight  show up automatically on My Trips when you are on the AA website?

If yes, I do not know why your experience is different than mine.  You flight is domestic and I am always able to select seats before I purchase my ticket.  

[happy cruzer]

On the AA site, the status is shown as ticket pending.  Is that what everyone else's shows before final payment?  The flights do show up and so do the FF numbers.  I will call if need be and WAIT on hold...