Dealing with Celebrity Air

[Scrst]

Maybe some of you have had experience:

I am ready to book my flights to Europe.  The price through Celebrity Air is very good.  I have an agent from a large online agency and I am very satisfied.  He can do the booking or I can do it online directly with Celebrity.  So the dilemma…..  Celebrity advises that booking with them (probably with or without agent), will help me if I have a problem during the flight.  Well, it is so hard to reach Celebrity when I don’t have a problem.  No call back, very long wait times; you all know the drill.  If I am in the midst of a problem and can’t reach them in a timely manner?
And will they talk to me?   Right now Celebrity refers me to my agent with any question.  Will they do the same with an air problem?  This just puts another layer in getting in touch.  Thanks for any advice.

 

 

 

 

[trabeler]

I've booked air with Celebrity on several cruises where the cruise booking was through an agent.  Never had any problems dealing directly with Celebrity's air department to make or change the air portion of the booking.  I also got emails directly from their air department notifying of any changes, etc.  Recent wait times when calling the air group haven't been as ridiculous as calling the cruise group.

[Jeremiah1212]

Flights by Celebrity are handled by a different group. Although realistically if you have problem during travel and need a quick resolution, you need to go directly to the airline and not call FBC to handle it for you.

[canderson]

50 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Flights by Celebrity are handled by a different group. Although realistically if you have problem during travel and need a quick resolution, you need to go directly to the airline and not call FBC to handle it for you.

What if the problem is 'unhandlable' - embarkation would be missed?  Airline has no obligation to get you to the first possible port.  Only FBC is.  Seems one would definitely want to contact FBC in parallel to make them aware of the situation. 

[southernbreezes]

I have never had a problem reaching Celebrity Air by phone 1-800-533-7803 called maybe 5 times in the last 6 months never waited more than 5 minutes.  I shop online through their site and others then call. They seem to find me better flights than I can find myself on their site. So call them direct not your travel agent is my advise so you can go over the many flight options yourself directly. What I like is not paying until final cruise payment is due, I love the prices much better than directly with the airlines, so easy to make changes at no cost, everyone at Celebrity Air is very professional to deal with. My July 2022 flights to Europe were $1,000's less for business class using them.  After my cruise and flight was paid I did deal with the airline for a refund on my cancelled cruise last July. Plus its good to know that if I have a flight connection or embarkation problem they will handle this for me.

[RichYak]

23 hours ago, canderson said:

Airline has no obligation to get you to the first possible port.  Only FBC is.

I don't think there's any point of flying to the first port anymore. Didn't cruise lines (or at least Celebrity) stop downline embarkation?

 

And if I'm not mistaken, in the past FBC didn't cover flights to the first port, they just helped you arrange them. So there was no "obligation" as you put it, just assistance.

[sippican]

On 1/29/2022 at 9:01 AM, Jeremiah1212 said:

Flights by Celebrity are handled by a different group. Although realistically if you have problem during travel and need a quick resolution, you need to go directly to the airline and not call FBC to handle it for you.

 

Most airlines will tell you the booking agent (Flights by Celebrity) needs to contact them.

 

We recently had a situation where the airline cancelled our flight and Celebrity Air said it was not cancelled. They would not help us at all and we were left stranded in Ecuador. The best the airline would do for us is to schedule us three days later.  Luckily, our daughter in the US scheduled a same-day flight on a different airline then went to bat for us  by telephone with X.  In the end, they paid for the new flight.

 

Be aware - Most "1-800" numbers cannot be dialed outside of the US, or you need a special code!!!!! We were unable to call Flights by Celebrity from our phone! 

 

Copied from the Flights by Celebrity website: • Provides Assured Arrival as our guarantee to assist guests when they encounter any flight disruptions that occur through no fault of their own. We also proactively monitor flights and offer an around the clock specialist that is available throughout your travel and acts as a liaison between our guest, the carriers and our ships.

 

 

When we returned I made a complaint about the lack of customer service and support, and received a $200 OBC for our troubles. 

 

Never again!!!!

Edited January 30, 2022 by sippican

[Bfb832cc]

Celebrity Air has  an “in-transit emergency “ number. Ask for it when booking with them. I’ve used it in 2018 when I flight was late and we would have missed our flight. I asked them to put me in another flight with another airline, and they did. The airline was only willing to put me on a flight the next day. 

[canderson]

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

I don't think there's any point of flying to the first port anymore. Didn't cruise lines (or at least Celebrity) stop downline embarkation?

 

And if I'm not mistaken, in the past FBC didn't cover flights to the first port, they just helped you arrange them. So there was no "obligation" as you put it, just assistance.

Thought that's what their "Assured Arrival" program was supposed to handle.  Downside embarkation by passenger choice is no longer an option, but this falls into the "flight disruptions that occur through no fault of their own" clause.

 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Flights_Celebrity/17057841_AirCelebrity_FAQs.pdf

 

"PROTECTION Celebrity Specialists have your back 24/7, so if you have flight issues on your way to your cruise or back home, we’re here to ensure you get there." 

 

They talk about "assistance" but don't define that other than to say they will liaise between airlines and ship.  The ship sails when it sails, so I always assumed the reason for that was for potential downline embarkation.

 

Am thankful not to have had the experience yet, but wondering if anyone here has ever been down thus road?

[RealBatman]

 I won't likely be using Celebrity Air anytime soon after our very recent issues (we WERE scheduled to be boarding our cruise at this very moment - had we not cancelled 😞 ). 

 

We had booked a specific set of flights to and from FLL. The airline cancelled one of the return flights and we were put on a different flight with a connection in Canada that would have been IMPOSSIBLE to make due to border crossing issues. Multiple calls to the Flight department resulted in no assistance. They claimed to be speaking to the airline (Westjet) and there would be a $200 up-charge to change to a flight that would make the connection time workable. We finally gave up and accepted that we would miss the connection flight in Toronto and hope for the best. Then, the outbound flight (to FLL) was cancelled and we were put on a red eye flight that was not acceptable to us. They refused to find more acceptable flights for us. 

 

All in all... Flights by Celebrity were of no added value. We ended up cancelling our cruise, and are still waiting to see if we get our flights refunded. In contrast, we had upgraded our seats on all of the flights directly with Westjet and have already received the refunds for the cancellations. We have read here in CC that there might be a $200 hold back on the flights even though we cancelled via the "Cruise with Confidence" program... waiting to see what happens with that.

 

So... it is highly unlikely that we will use Flights by Celebrity in the future as we see no added value. 

 

[canderson]

Just adding another data point for this service:

 

Prior experience has been that they have offered some good one-way consolidator fares to Europe for westbound TA cruises.  At present, their pricing for a flight to Barcelona in Oct 2022 is no better than the airlines offer directly.  I can save about $500 per seat on business class by buying elsewhere.

[Jeremiah1212]

On 1/29/2022 at 8:54 AM, canderson said:

What if the problem is 'unhandlable' - embarkation would be missed?  Airline has no obligation to get you to the first possible port.  Only FBC is.  Seems one would definitely want to contact FBC in parallel to make them aware of the situation. 

 

In that case, obviously give them a call but you should still go to the ticket agent first to see what options are out there. If you are in the airport and have a delay, canceled flight, etc. always always always go to the ticket counter or gate agent first. They can put you on flight combinations that are not bookable. Calling FBC, who are in turn going to call the airline, is wasting valuable time. 

 

On 1/30/2022 at 8:57 AM, RichYak said:

I don't think there's any point of flying to the first port anymore. Didn't cruise lines (or at least Celebrity) stop downline embarkation?

 

And if I'm not mistaken, in the past FBC didn't cover flights to the first port, they just helped you arrange them. So there was no "obligation" as you put it, just assistance.

 

I don't know that it's explicitly forbidden on a permanent basis (although it was mentioned on one of the FAQ pages at one point), but I think that was done to set proper expectation that it would likely be very difficult meet entry requirements to another county on such short notice. 

 

 

[brownc424]

19 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

In that case, obviously give them a call but you should still go to the ticket agent first to see what options are out there. If you are in the airport and have a delay, canceled flight, etc. always always always go to the ticket counter or gate agent first. They can put you on flight combinations that are not bookable. Calling FBC, who are in turn going to call the airline, is wasting valuable time. 

 

If there's a line, get in line for help first, than make the call while waiting in line.