Benefit of booking air w/ Royal

[hollon]

How do yall feel about booking air travel from royal caribbean and what are the benefits?  If I use my royal caribbean visa will I get points for booking my air? also, what about american airlines, has anyone had delays b/c of the "lack of employees"

 

Thanks

[CruisingHogFan]

22 minutes ago, hollon said:

How do yall feel about booking air travel from royal caribbean and what are the benefits?  If I use my royal caribbean visa will I get points for booking my air? also, what about american airlines, has anyone had delays b/c of the "lack of employees"

 

Thanks

I won’t ever use them again. When American canceled our flights last July Air2Sea wouldn’t let me rebook the flights I wanted because they were more expensive then the flights I was being offered.  I went back and forth for a couple days and even read American Airlines policy that I was allowed to choose my new fights with no price increase. 

I finally called American directly and they took over the booking and removed Air2Sea as agent. I was able to make the changes I wanted with no issues. 

[Bizzie07]

Firstly let me say we are in the UK.  Last year just before lockdown my daughter had a cruise booked on Symphony out of Miami.  The night before they were due to leave home at 2am we heard on the news that the Airline they were flying from Scotland to London with had gone out of business (this was now after midnight).  As they were on the way to the airport(not knowing what was to happen) I phoned RCCL and explained the situation and they were amazing.  They instantly looked at options and transferred them to a flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam and then onto Miami.  They actually arrived 30 mins before the original schedule from London to Miami. It just demonstrated how worthwhile the complete package with RCCL is.   Excellent!

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, hollon said:

How do yall feel about booking air travel from royal caribbean and what are the benefits? 

Use them for one way international flights for the usually lower cost - otherwise book somewhere else. 

[Cruiser_1977]

I used Air2Sea with no issue on my Navigator sailing in September 2019. I thought the prices were reasonable, choices fit my needs (first class) and if there were any flight delays/cancellations "our Emergency Travel Team will work with our airline partners to do everything possible to get you to your cruise."

Edited November 8, 2021 by JennyB1977

[Cigar King]

I think for an international flight the prices are competitive.  I think the real reason to book with their air is that they will either hold the ship, or fly you to the next stop, if there are delays.  That can be a big benefit, especially when weather can be uncooperative.  

[emeraldcity]

I don't know when it changed and I don't know how long it will be like this, but pre-covid when one booked air through Air2Sea, you paid when you booked it. Not any more.

 

I've booked air through them lately for a number of domestic cruises and they add it to the invoice, but you don't have to pay for the air until final payment on the cruise. Furthermore, you can check the rate periodically and if it goes down, they will adjust it. I've had several price drops on airfare. If I would have booked with the airlines, you can bet they wouldn't be giving me price drops.

 

If I had booked air for that November Radiance cruise with the airlines, I would have been scrambling trying to get a refund when the cruise was cancelled, and probably just ending up with flight credit I'd be trying to use before it expired. Instead I had never paid in full for the cruise and flight, so they cancelled the air and I just got my 125% FCC on the amount I'd paid to that point.

 

Given the rules currently in place, I frankly can't see why I should bother booking air separately. I hope they continue to do things this way.

[seychelle]

We have friends who used it and their flight was delayed and they missed the cruise.  They said Royal's service was so outstanding they will never use anything else.  As Cigar King mentioned they took care of everything, and in top of the line style.  They had transportation for them for the next port, put them up in 4-star hotels, and gave them meal vouchers, checking in on them several times to make sure all was well.  They had to pay nothing extra themselves for anything.

[Cruise a holic]

Fortunately we never had a problem.  We actually let the air to sea program book our flights, but we decide on the flights-  Like the idea that we do not pay until cruise fare is due-  Never had a problem.

[Steve&Teri]

12 hours ago, emeraldcity said:

I don't know when it changed and I don't know how long it will be like this, but pre-covid when one booked air through Air2Sea, you paid when you booked it. Not any more.

 

I've booked air through them lately for a number of domestic cruises and they add it to the invoice, but you don't have to pay for the air until final payment on the cruise. Furthermore, you can check the rate periodically and if it goes down, they will adjust it. I've had several price drops on airfare. If I would have booked with the airlines, you can bet they wouldn't be giving me price drops.

 

If I had booked air for that November Radiance cruise with the airlines, I would have been scrambling trying to get a refund when the cruise was cancelled, and probably just ending up with flight credit I'd be trying to use before it expired. Instead I had never paid in full for the cruise and flight, so they cancelled the air and I just got my 125% FCC on the amount I'd paid to that point.

 

Given the rules currently in place, I frankly can't see why I should bother booking air separately. I hope they continue to do things this way.

I totally agree I have never booked airfare thru a cruiseline in the past but decided to for our upcoming cruise I have caught several price drops and saved enough to cover our hotel for night before the cruise. 

[hollon]

thank you - do you know if we get double points for the RCCL Visa Card? 

 

Has AA cancelled any flts lately, AA is a good price, but worried b/c of the posts/people not showing up for work, cancelling flts, etc.

[ryano]

Hard pass on using them in the future.  Im still  waiting on a cancellation refund of my mothers flight cancellation that was cancelled in July.   Unfortunately, its a total mess because the refund was sent back to a card that was tied to an account that no longer exists, the bank automatically bounced it back to Air2Sea yet Air2Sea tells me the bank has the money.  Not to mention, when I went to check in for my flight with Delta, it wouldnt let me so I called Delta and they told me my flight had been cancelled too and it literally took me hours of back and forth to get it straightened out and get Air2sea to issue me another ticket, 24 hours before my flight was to leave.  What a stressful mess it was.   I think I will pass using them in the future.

[taglovestocruise]

Used them a few years ago to book one way LAX to JFK to Rome on American.  American canceled our flight the night before departure. Several hours with American got us nowhere. A 15 minute phone call to Air2Sea and we were rebooked with a non stop flight the next morning on Air France with a upgrade to economy plus on a airbus 380. No additional cost and super service from Air2Sea.  Have used them 5+ times for one way international. 

[jean87510]

We had our flight to Barcelona from Newark cancelled by TAP Portugal on our way to the airport.  Luckily Air2Sea moved us quickly to another airline that night.  Granted our seats were terrible and we had a chatterbox in front of us with insomnia for the 1030p flight to Barcelona yet at least we got there!  We used them for all our TA flights plus for Barbados in February and Alaska in May.  Prices are really good.  I have used them on 8 flights (2 upcoming) and so far all has been good.

 

[publicpersona]

23 hours ago, Cigar King said:

I think the real reason to book with their air is that they will either hold the ship, or fly you to the next stop, if there are delays.

Many people assume this is true based on craftily worded promises such as “We will be there for you.” But unless you can point to language that says this, it is bad information to perpetuate that myth. For one thing, at present, you cannot join a cruise downstream. Hold the ship? No, that’s not going to happen (although I have seen then hold the ship when there were a large number of people delayed due to weather). Finally, although they will help with alternate arrangements, I think there is already mention in this thread that this doesn’t mean they are going to cover the costs. 
 

[Cigar King]

I can tell you that we were on a ship where they did delay departure because a number of air2sea passengers were going to be late.  (I think it was about an hour, so no biggie)  We also had friends that had problems, and A2S flew them to the next port AND paid for their hotel.  Beyond that, IANAL.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Will A2S bring you in day of or previous day (for domestic flight)?