Flights by Celebrity

PMT51 · March 5, 2022

Hi. We are going to book a cruise tomorrow (Edge out of Fort Laderdale 3 Feb 2023, flying in from Canada) and have some questions about Flights by Celebrity.

I went to their web site flightsbycelebrity.com and just wanted a quick search to check prices. The only cruiseline listed is Azamara. Is there another place to check for Celebrity?

Can you fly in and out a few weeks before or after the cruise or is it just the day before and the day after?

Does this service really give peace of mind if somwthing goes wrong with the cruise?

Any pros or cons I should be aware of.

Thank you all.

Jim_Iain · March 5, 2022

They have made it more difficult to search for flights without a booking - You have to first search for a cruise itinerary - actually can be any cruise --- in small print under Book Now - select Itinerary and flights

Then look for the little Airplane Icon - Or page way down until you see the Picture of an airplane

Then click get Quote -

https://www.celebritycruises.com/flights-by-celebrity

Just Looking for Flight Quotes?

1) Search for a Cruise Itinerary
2) Click on View Itinerary & Flights Details
3) Click on Get A Flight Quote button

Edited March 5, 2022 by Jim_Iain

Peggy Tuten · March 5, 2022

I presume that you can book prior to your cruise and you can certainly book for after the cruise. I'm doing a TA to Amsterdam and returning 3 weeks later from Frankfurt. Easy to do on Flights by Celebrity.

NutsAboutGolf · March 5, 2022

24 minutes ago, PMT51 said:

Hi. We are going to book a cruise tomorrow (Edge out of Fort Laderdale 3 Feb 2023, flying in from Canada) and have some questions about Flights by Celebrity.

I went to their web site flightsbycelebrity.com and just wanted a quick search to check prices. The only cruiseline listed is Azamara. Is there another place to check for Celebrity?

Can you fly in and out a few weeks before or after the cruise or is it just the day before and the day after?

Does this service really give peace of mind if somwthing goes wrong with the cruise?

Any pros or cons I should be aware of.

Thank you all.

CONS

1) Many may wrongly parrot they will "guarantee" you will get on the ship even if delayed; this is false, they will help you but a miracle isn't guaranteed. Airlines will generally help you as well

2) They charge $200 change fees after final payment, most airlines no longer charge change fees

3) Not all airlines are present, specifically JetBlue and Southwest

I'm really curious to know what they can do that airlines can't if there's a delay. For example, if you book United, the flight is cancelled due to mechanical issues and there are not other United flights that can land before embarkation but there is a Delta flight, will Flights by X book and pay for the Delta flight for you? If yes then that is a PRO

Edited March 5, 2022 by NutsAboutGolf

as3369 · March 5, 2022

I think one of the advantages of Flights by Celebrity is if you are flying in the day of departure.. If there is a problem with your flight, they handle finding alternate flights for you. If I were arriving several days in advance, I probably would just book my own air.

Jim_Iain · March 5, 2022

7 minutes ago, Peggy Tuten said:

I presume that you can book prior to your cruise and you can certainly book for after the cruise. I'm doing a TA to Amsterdam and returning 3 weeks later from Frankfurt. Easy to do on Flights by Celebrity.

No problem you are also not restricted to the ports. We often do as you are doing and spend a couple weeks at the end of the cruise and often return from a distant port. I often use an existing cruise to check prices for a cruise I'm looking at 7-8 months out from the cruise i'm on.

Jim_Iain · March 5, 2022

7 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

CONS

1) Many may wrongly parrot they will "guarantee" you will get on the ship even if delayed; this is false, they will help you but a miracle isn't guaranteed. Airlines will generally help you as well

2) They charge $200 change fees after final payment, most airlines no longer charge change fees

3) Not all airlines are present, specifically JetBlue and Southwest

I'm really curious to know what they can do that airlines can't if there's a delay. For example, if you book United, the flight is cancelled due to mechanical issues and there are not other United flights that can land before embarkation but there is a Delta flight, will Flights by X book and pay for the Delta flight for you? If yes then that is a PRO

I experienced that and the Guarantee isn't as good as you would think and is probably similar to just calling the airlines. Unless it is the fault of the airline they will Guarantee to assist you but the fare may cost you more to get to the next port. In my case they couldn't get me to Rome on time for my cruise... no availability on AA for 2 days. The fare I had (Business Class) was a restricted fare and only available on AA flights and could not be changed to another airline (even their partners).

In my case it was my fault as I forgot my passport and couldn't get back in time for the flight. Iain went ahead with all our luggage and I followed.

I took a credit and found a convoluted last minute flight on United using miles leaving 1 hour after I booked.. San Jose to Vancouver, Vancouver to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Rom. I arrived 2 hours after Iain. My nerves were a wreck.

cachouonacruise · March 5, 2022

In my opinion, the pros are:

- ability to reserve the flight 11 months prior to sailing dates and not having to pay for the flights, until final payment date

- If things do not go as initially planned, in a world involving a rising risk of negative events, Flights by Celebrity will make changes and no hassles. For example, when our cruise itinerary was changed, a month prior to sailing time, from departing Hong-Kong to end in Shanghai , to depart in Tokyo and end in Singapore, I was thrilled that Flights by Celebrity made the changes promptly with no added costs. Furthermore, when our cruise was finally cancelled, two weeks later, Flights by Celebrity was the first agencyto process our refunds.

The only con from my perspective, is difficulty to deal with the airline after. Since Flights by Celebrity is their customer, it can be a bit more difficult. For example, seat assignment, cannot be selected until the point that your flight has actually been purchased, (after final payment).

But all things considered, I am now booking all my flights associated with a cruise with Flights by Celebrity. This is based on my personal experience.

PMT51 · March 6, 2022

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

They have made it more difficult to search for flights without a booking - You have to first search for a cruise itinerary - actually can be any cruise --- in small print under Book Now - select Itinerary and flights

Then look for the little Airplane Icon - Or page way down until you see the Picture of an airplane

Then click get Quote -

https://www.celebritycruises.com/flights-by-celebrity

Just Looking for Flight Quotes?

1) Search for a Cruise Itinerary
2) Click on View Itinerary & Flights Details
3) Click on Get A Flight Quote button

Thank you for this. Would not have found it by myself.

PMT51 · March 6, 2022

Just booked cruise and flights.

Flights by Celebrity were $100 cheaper than I could find on-line.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Peyton85022 · March 6, 2022

I have found great flight deals for many of my cruises. Also when I have my flights booked with Choice Air and my cruises have been canceled I have always received a full refund in a timely manner,

Having now 4 cruises cancelled in 2020 and 2021 this was a blessing.

39august · March 6, 2022

Re: choosing seats. I am always able to choose seats before final payment. It may depend on the airline.

Lastdance · March 6, 2022

26 minutes ago, 39august said:

Re: choosing seats. I am always able to choose seats before final payment. It may depend on the airline.

Exactly...United is great at allowering me to upgrade, but AA is not. I want to upgrade on my AA flight, but Celebrity cannot do it and AA insists that I speak with Celebrity about this. Anyway, quite the conundrum at this point in time; however, I am persistent! My flights have 50 minutes between them, so I want to be closer up front in the plane. At least I have time on my side.

sippican · March 6, 2022

We have booked flights by Celebrity a number of times, feeling we'd have peace of mind if there should be a travel glitch.

How wrong we were!

During our November trip to the Galapagos, I received notification on my phone that there had been changes to our return flight. The Guest Relations Desk onboard checked with Celebrity Air and informed us we were all set - no changes. The next day (disembarkation day), I received another such notification. The Celebrity representative/guide said he spoke with Celebrity Air and not to worry, our flight was as originally scheduled. At the airport lounge in Baltra - the airlines website listed our flight from Quito to Boston as cancelled! There was no X staff to help us, and you cannot dial a US 800 number from an international location.

The short ending to hours of pure panic was that my daughter based in the US booked us a new flight on a different airline, then went to bat for us with X to pay for that flight. They wanted to put us on a flight three days later! They did end up paying but their solution would have been to leave us in Ecuador for three days.

So much for guaranteed travel assistance!

Barsnikel · March 6, 2022

Without logging in to my current cruise booking, I checked Celebrity flights and found one for $170... but when I log in with my cruise booking number, that same flight is $270..

I called Celebrity, and if I am already booked for a cruise, the best price they will give me is the $270.

In other words, they are giving a better airline discount if you book a new cruise, as opposed to if you are already booked.

RickT · March 6, 2022

18 minutes ago, Barsnikel said:

Without logging in to my current cruise booking, I checked Celebrity flights and found one for $170... but when I log in with my cruise booking number, that same flight is $270..

I called Celebrity, and if I am already booked for a cruise, the best price they will give me is the $270.

In other words, they are giving a better airline discount if you book a new cruise, as opposed to if you are already booked.

My guess is Celebrity has a promo that includes a flight discount (my recent booking did). I booked the cruise and the discounted flight. Others who had booked under a different promo did not have access to my discount. Makes sense to me.

RickT · March 6, 2022

To the OP. One helpful tip is to research flight options/prices prior to booking them with Celebrity. For my upcoming cruise my preferred flights were not showing up on the website. I gave the specifics to the rep and they were able to book the exact flights I wanted (Air Canada) and due to a flight promo saved me a couple hundred dollars. As soon as I was booked I was able to access my booking on the Air Canada website and preselected seats.

Jim_Iain · March 7, 2022

One downside of Flights by Celebrity that I'm experiencing and a number of others are reporting. Prices dropped over the weekend (after final payment). Celebrity has been rejecting application for price match "due to reservation including air reservation".

My agent is still working with Celebrity to resolve. If so will be the last time i use them. My fare is the same as I could have purchased direct with airlines.

NutsAboutGolf · March 7, 2022

10 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

One downside of Flights by Celebrity that I'm experiencing and a number of others are reporting. Prices dropped over the weekend (after final payment). Celebrity has been rejecting application for price match "due to reservation including air reservation".

My agent is still working with Celebrity to resolve. If so will be the last time i use them. My fare is the same as I could have purchased direct with airlines.

I can see that, so much easier to do this yourself online.

QCAZ · March 7, 2022

54 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

One downside of Flights by Celebrity that I'm experiencing and a number of others are reporting. Prices dropped over the weekend (after final payment). Celebrity has been rejecting application for price match "due to reservation including air reservation".

My agent is still working with Celebrity to resolve. If so will be the last time i use them. My fare is the same as I could have purchased direct with airlines.

Jim, have read your difficulty in getting the Best Price Guarantee. I am booked through Celebrity and Flights by Celebrity. I contacted my CVP but he was out until today, but was able to speak to another agent on Saturday and she processed the Best Price Guarantee and the OBC showed up on Sunday. My CVP sent updated booking confirmation showing the OBC this morning. Never was any mention of not being able to process “due to reservation including air reservation.” I did not make the flight reservations at the same time as the cruise booking, but the flights were included in the FP. Hope your agent is able to straighten it out for you.

2Long2NxtCrz · March 7, 2022

I'll chime in to add my experience with Flights by Celebrity.

Pros:

1) It is convenient to not have to pay for flights before final payment. And, on our original United flights we got a fabulous deal for First Class and were able to pick our seats at the time of booking (9 months before our cruise).

2) All the costs are bundled together. Or at least it was with our booking with our TA. This can be helpful for getting trip insurance.

3) They will work with you to the best of their ability if airlines cancel or reschedule flights. I add the caveat of to the best of their ability because they do not have access to all flights. I found a return after United canceled our original Vancouver flight, but it was on Air Canada (code-shared with UA) and then connected with UA. I found it online and could click and book at UAs website, but the Celebrity rep could not get that flight at all.

Cons:

1) Control. I actually work in the travel industry (long, long ago when I started this job it was with AA). And I know what I want and how to find the best fares and itineraries. And, I prefer to have that control. I only originally booked our return via Celebrity because using miles out of Vancouver adds an extra $100 in fees ($50/per) and I couldn't get First even if I wanted to.

2) It takes a very long time on hold to get through to an agent. United canceled our flights and it took me an hour and a half on hold before I even spoke to an agent. She was very capable, but, as I said above, she could not get the same flights that I could if I had booked directly.

3) Celebrity doesn't pay the airline in a timely manner. This may only be our issue, but right now, it is two weeks after final payment and Celebrity still has not paid AA for our flights. I'm concerned by this because I checked on our flights after final payment and AA had canceled them because of non-payment. It took 2 and 1/2 hours on hold to get an agent to fix this. But here we are, two weeks later and our flights still aren't paid for. You can imagine how concerning this is.

Bottom line, do your homework. Know what flights cost, know what routings are out there and then see if Celebrity can do better than you can do yourself (they did for UA First and for our AA flights) because there are pros and cons to using them. I'm not sure I'd do it again, to be honest.

TeaBag · March 7, 2022

For the first time, I decided to use Celebrity Air. They had a great rate supposed to end last night. Surprise, it is extended today. So I booked. I decided to book the cruise (it is after FP date) in CAD rather than USD. Big mistake. The airfare if booked in USD is $174. If booked in CAD it is $247! The current conversion rate is 1.26. $174 X 1.26 = $219. I know that is only $28/pp more for exactly the same flight but it screams screw the Canadians, as usual. They are used to paying more for everything.

And, in the fine print under the $174 airfare, it says the penalty for cancelling is $200/pp!!! What? How can you be penalized for more than you paid? i wouldn't believe this if I hadn't seen it written. Definitely done with Celebrity Air.

Edited March 7, 2022 by TeaBag

sippican · March 7, 2022

4 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

One downside of Flights by Celebrity that I'm experiencing and a number of others are reporting. Prices dropped over the weekend (after final payment). Celebrity has been rejecting application for price match "due to reservation including air reservation".

My agent is still working with Celebrity to resolve. If so will be the last time i use them. My fare is the same as I could have purchased direct with airlines.

When I called to upgrade to a completely new category, I was told that was not possible because a flight was attached to our reservation.

Four hours, five agents, a supervisor and the Resolutions Department later, we are almost all set.

They actually cancelled, refunded then rebooked the air reservations!!!!

gschwartz001 · March 7, 2022

I agree with all the previous posters but also want to describe my recent experience this past holiday season. My husband and I were scheduled on the edge New Years sailing. When we woke up very early in the morning we found our flight to Florida on delta had been cancelled. While delta had a three hour wait for help I was able to get a Celebrity air rep on the phone immediately and they were actually able to find us a replacement flight a few hours after our scheduled flight with confirmed seats. Again for our return we received a cancellation email at 11pm the night before we disembarked and were scheduled on an 11am flight. Again delta wait was over three hours and a call from the ship would have been difficult. We were able to have the guest services contact celebrity air and they called us in our cabin and again were able to get us a replacement flight with confirmed seats very close to our original flight time. When we arrived at the airport the next day we were lucky to be two of the very few who had secured flights back as most people who were canceled were trying to rebook at the airport, many for one to two days later. Based on that I have only good things to say about celebrity air and we will continue to use them when we don’t have much flexibility in our travel arrangements.

NutsAboutGolf · March 7, 2022

28 minutes ago, gschwartz001 said:

I agree with all the previous posters but also want to describe my recent experience this past holiday season. My husband and I were scheduled on the edge New Years sailing. When we woke up very early in the morning we found our flight to Florida on delta had been cancelled. While delta had a three hour wait for help I was able to get a Celebrity air rep on the phone immediately and they were actually able to find us a replacement flight a few hours after our scheduled flight with confirmed seats. Again for our return we received a cancellation email at 11pm the night before we disembarked and were scheduled on an 11am flight. Again delta wait was over three hours and a call from the ship would have been difficult. We were able to have the guest services contact celebrity air and they called us in our cabin and again were able to get us a replacement flight with confirmed seats very close to our original flight time. When we arrived at the airport the next day we were lucky to be two of the very few who had secured flights back as most people who were canceled were trying to rebook at the airport, many for one to two days later. Based on that I have only good things to say about celebrity air and we will continue to use them when we don’t have much flexibility in our travel arrangements.

I went through a similar situation with United over XMas but was visiting family, unrelated to a cruise. email said if you do nothing they'll attempt to rebook you ASAP or you're welcome to click a link and pick a flight on your own. I'm guessing if you booked directly with Delta you'd also have that option as 90 seconds after I clicked the email link I was booked on a slightly later flight.

Flights by Celebrity