Change in Custom Air Procedures

[taxare]

Hello, Received this message from Regent today!

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

NEW REGENT CUSTOM AIR REQUEST PROCEDURES

 

 

Dear Valued Guest and Travel Partner,   

 

We pride ourselves in delivering the best possible service to our guests and travel partners and continually seek ways to improve our guest experience. 

 

Circumstances outside of our control including strong demand for air travel, reduced airline capacity, major airline schedules changing regularly, and increased flight cancellations have created a challenging environment resulting in long call hold times to our Custom Air Department.  

 

With the help of your feedback, to address this issue we have implemented NEW Custom Air Request procedures listed below.

 

·          In order to service our guests and travel partners as efficiently as possible, we have temporarily suspended our Custom Air phone number.

·          For all Custom Air Requests please contact our reservation department at 1-800-285-1835. 

 

o    Bookings must be fully deposited prior to requesting Custom Air Request.

o    For requests within 90 days prior to sailing, please allow 3 full business days for your Custom Air Request to be processed and returned with flight details for acceptance.

§   To confirm your Custom Air Request please follow directions on your flight confirmation.

o    For requests more than 90 days prior to sailing please allow 7 to 10 business days for your Custom Air Request to be processed.

 

·          All requests will be handled based on the sailing date and then by the date the request was received.

·          Custom Air Requests cannot be submitted prior to 270 days (9 months) before sail date.

·          For guests requesting specific airlines and/or specific flight schedules, please note there will likely be a fare differential cost due to the increase in published airline rates.

·          For guests who prefer to arrange airfare on their own, please inquire about our air credit.

 

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we provide a new solution to processing Custom Air Requests efficiently while delivering the best service possible.

 

Regent Custom Air Department Team 

 

[GOARMY]

Thank you for this update.  

 

No surprise, as only a few days ago, our TA advised it took several hours waiting to connect with a Regent Air representative.  A change had to be made to our initial itinerary for an upcoming Mariner cruise, as Alaska Air had canceled yet-another flight--the one we were initially booked-on to get us from SEATAC to LAX.  

 

Apparently, it makes no difference as to the carrier; or whether CC'ers schedule independent air, or work the matter directly with Regent, or through a TA. 

 

Just another reality.   

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[irishwitchy]

Very happy,  I’m dealing with the flights myself and took the credit.  The person that will make sure you get want you really want is you!  I rather argue with United myself and I do make sure I get there earlier than the day the ship leaves!  Good luck to all.  

[UUNetBill]

Air travel is no picnic at all now...I just spent an hour on the phone with United trying to change a return flight from Guam (not cruise related) and after all that time ended up keeping the original flights - we had booked a week in Japan not knowing the island was shut down, and nothing on United's site mentioned that at all, just that vaccines and boosters were required.  Trying to explain to the agents (third time on the phone and after 4 chat sessions that got 'dropped') that we didn't want to change the outbound flights and only wanted to change our return to go to Honolulu vs. Tokyo was like trying to explain particle physics to a 4-year old.

 

Anything travel related right now is a royal PITA to say the least.

[GOARMY]

Now, now, UUNetBill:  

 

I have a very-precocious 4-year old grandson.  His father, my son-in-law, actually asserts this kid is already grasping some elements of particle and random physics theory.

 

OK--

 

I get your point, and share your frustration.  Example:  Attempts to actually talk to an Alaska Airlines representative yesterday to change an existing reservation--nigh-impossible.  Got the same, maddening recorded message that due to "increased volumes . ..." and so-on.  Could not even get into a "wait line" for a return call!   Hold time if I wanted to wait--"four to five hours".  No exaggeration.  

 

GOARMY!

 

[2012_Alaska_bound]

Bill -

American Airlines just gives you an inexplicable error if you try to book to Japan right now!  I tried to change a flight from June to December, got the error, called customer service, they tried, got an error, and finally determined they aren't booking ANY now.

 

Martha

We will now return you to the Topic of the Post!

[taxare]

I am guessing that if the pricing I am seeing for non Regent international flights becomes the new normal (I hope not) we are going to see this board blow up with Regent passengers that are not pleased with additional "fare differential costs" for the air deviation flights that they have requested.

[UUNetBill]

17 hours ago, GOARMY said:

Hold time if I wanted to wait--"four to five hours".  No exaggeration.  

 

GOARMY!

Good Lord, makes me think my 40-60 minutes on the horn with United ain't that bad after all...

 

15 hours ago, 2012_Alaska_bound said:

Bill -

American Airlines just gives you an inexplicable error if you try to book to Japan right now!  I tried to change a flight from June to December, got the error, called customer service, they tried, got an error, and finally determined they aren't booking ANY now.

 

Martha

We will now return you to the Topic of the Post!

I'd have taken a inexplicable error over letting me book a flight I can't take.

 

I burned an hour plus trying to sort it out...and when I finally got it explained to them the new fare is $1,800 more per person coming home.  I'm sure if I'd have been able to book the flights I wanted in the first place they'd have been closer to what I paid months ago.  Feels like a bait-and-switch, and it's annoying...but seems to be the new norm.

[RetroRod]

On 5/25/2022 at 7:06 PM, taxare said:

Hello, Received this message from Regent today!

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

NEW REGENT CUSTOM AIR REQUEST PROCEDURES

I have 4 cruises booked with Regent and have not received any messages like the one Taxare posted. Has anyone else received such a message?

[mrstanley]

We have several Regent cruises booked. Have not received that message regarding the changes in the Air Department.

However a friends TA told her about the changes and that it could take passengers up to a month to get their plane flights after requesting them . I find this really annoying that it's going to be impossible to communicate with the air department. If Regent wants to fill their ships they are going to need to be able to get you to your cruise. If the fares published by Regent increase with up charges this may impact

people from cruising. Business Class tickets for international travel are  very expensive and the amount of

FFmiles per trip is very high. I would think that Alaska , New England, Caribbean and Panama Canal cruises may become even MORE  popular due to the low cost of air travel for US passengers. 

[GOARMY]

RetroRod:  

 

Received Regent's message (see Posts #2 and 5) via our TA.   Not directly from Regent.  The messenger was different; the message the same. 

 

GOARMY!

 

[Zqueeze1]

We routinely take the air credit and book international travel using the 2 million miles I accumulated while on active duty.  However, American Airlines has increased their FF mile charges to a pint that they are making it difficult to book using miles. Real shame since we always enjoy Med cruises and other exotic places Regent offers.  May have to suck it up and use Regent air in the future. 
GO AIR FORCE!

Z and TB

[Go9ersjrh]

We are new to Regent - first cruise in August.  We are letting Regent book our air since we are not flying in early or staying after the cruise.  Any idea when we should expect to get our flight schedule?

 

Using google flights I can narrow down the possibilities.  We are flying from LAX to Barcelona.  There are no direct flights.  We will either fly to the East Coast and then over the pond to Barcelona or LAX to Europe and then a flight to Barcelona.  Since we are in Business Class for the over the Atlantic segment, what class of service does Regent do for the other segment?

 

Thank you

[Portolan]

18 minutes ago, Go9ersjrh said:

We are new to Regent - first cruise in August.  We are letting Regent book our air since we are not flying in early or staying after the cruise.  Any idea when we should expect to get our flight schedule?

 

Using google flights I can narrow down the possibilities.  We are flying from LAX to Barcelona.  There are no direct flights.  We will either fly to the East Coast and then over the pond to Barcelona or LAX to Europe and then a flight to Barcelona.  Since we are in Business Class for the over the Atlantic segment, what class of service does Regent do for the other segment?

 

Thank you

My recommendation is take an international business-class flight from LAX.  Your connecting flight in Europe should the also be in business class and short (inter-European business class usually means a blocked center seat).  If your first leg is domestic, it'll be in coach and much longer to the East Coast.  Without status with the carrier, you'll also pay for bags until you get to the international flight.  If your first flight is international, you'll have a free bag allowance all the way through.  Plus, once you get to Europe there are more backup flights or even rail to get you to the port if there are IRROPS.

[Go9ersjrh]

1 hour ago, Portolan said:

My recommendation is take an international business-class flight from LAX.  Your connecting flight in Europe should the also be in business class and short (inter-European business class usually means a blocked center seat).  If your first leg is domestic, it'll be in coach and much longer to the East Coast.  Without status with the carrier, you'll also pay for bags until you get to the international flight.  If your first flight is international, you'll have a free bag allowance all the way through.  Plus, once you get to Europe there are more backup flights or even rail to get you to the port if there are IRROPS.

Unfortunately, we are not picking the flights, Regent is.  My preference is Business Class from LAX to Europe. 

[GOARMY]

Go9----

 

We recently (late 2021) went through the drill of getting to Barcelona from USA utilizing Regent Air (Business Class).  In our case, origination was SEATAC n/s to Europe.  What a Drill!  Projected carriers Lufthansa and British Air kept changing and/or canceling that intermediate flight segment (Frankfort or Heathrow) to Barcelona.  Three cancelations from original Schedule, the last-occurring about two weeks before departure.  Finally--finally wound up staying with Lufthansa for both segments.  So----

 

Whatever you do--strongly recommend factoring-in arriving at Barcelona one-day BEFORE ship sails.  Stuff might/will happen.  If Regent is responsible for your air itinerary, Regent will, somehow, get you to the ship.  But, do not temp fate. Our Plan B was having an alternative available for spending a night in a Frankfort hotel before boarding the next morning for a relatively-short hop to Barcelona (and pick-up at the airport) for transport to the ship on embarkation day.  

 

Given Regent's new policy as to scheduling air segments--just keep checking for updates on flights (and air carriers) you are currently considering.  No-doubt, things will change.  

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[Portolan]

5 minutes ago, Go9ersjrh said:

Unfortunately, we are not picking the flights, Regent is.  My preference is Business Class from LAX to Europe. 

See what Regent offers.  If not to your liking, consider spending the deviation fee ($175/pp + possible fare increase) to get what you want.  I hope your TA had explained this to you.  You can then make a fully informed choice with the alternative being taking the air credit and you/TA booking the air separately.  If you deviate, you can also arrive a day early which is absolutely what you should do.

[2012_Alaska_bound]

When Regent booked me from Portugal to Tucson, they had me on Iberia the whole way, which was a non-stop to LAX from Madrid. If you do pay for the deviation, ask them about using Iberia. Loved it.

[UUNetBill]

19 hours ago, Zqueeze1 said:

GO AIR FORCE!

Z and TB

😂👍

[UUNetBill]

As I recall, Regent usually assigns flights 70 days or so out - but you can do custom air up to 270 days (I may be off on the number of days, it's been a few years since we booked an air dev) - I'd recommend researching non-stop flights and requesting an air deviation - if you get that flight, cool.  If not, there's no fee charged.  Might be worth the extra $350 to not worry about crap connections or domestic coach.

 

I'd also read the Regent Air sticky up top if you haven't already (well, skim it, at least - there's a lot of info there.  🙂 )

 

[rallydave]

On 5/30/2022 at 2:29 PM, Go9ersjrh said:

We are new to Regent - first cruise in August.  We are letting Regent book our air since we are not flying in early or staying after the cruise.  Any idea when we should expect to get our flight schedule?

 

Using google flights I can narrow down the possibilities.  We are flying from LAX to Barcelona.  There are no direct flights.  We will either fly to the East Coast and then over the pond to Barcelona or LAX to Europe and then a flight to Barcelona.  Since we are in Business Class for the over the Atlantic segment, what class of service does Regent do for the other segment?

 

Thank you

 

Unfortunately it is too late to do anything but, take what Regent books for you.  Depending on when in August you are departing, your flights should be available shortly as generally available approx. 75 days out.

 

Based on the above letter about custom air, you are probably too late to deviate although never hurts to try as if you can't get what you want, it costs you nothing but, appears the time fraame is such that there will be a lot of waiting.  With all the flight issues and price increases unlikely you will be able to change whatever Regent provides which likely will be the least expensive routing for them.

 

Gook luck and have a great time. 

[RetroRod]

I had my TA contact Regent regarding the post about not contacting Regent Air for custom flights. According to Regent, as of today, I am not affected by this change since my cruise isn’t until May 2023. I still contact Regent Air 270 days prior which is August 12, 2022. Also, my TA said if I was affected Regent would have notified her about it. With all the changes going on I’m not real confident that is true. Time will tell how this plays our. I’ll post more later. 

[Go9ersjrh]

Thank you all for the information.  We should find out our flights in the next 2 weeks. I'll let you know the result.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a transatlantic followed by a short segment to Barcelona, but I won't be surprised if we fly to the east coast first.

Normally I would be flying in a few days ahead of time, but with the requirement to have a negative Covid test 48 hours prior to embarking, I don't want to be in Europe and find out that I can't get on the ship.  Fortunately, we've been to Barcelona several times so I don't feel like I'm missing out and our first day on the ship is a sea day so we'll have time to recover. Since Regent is doing our air, they will have to figure out how to get us to the ship if our flights are delayed.  An extra day in our first port waiting for the ship won't be a complete disaster.   It's not optimum, but at least we are going.

[taxare]

Retrorod, sorry for delay in responding as I have been traveling. I received two of the notices via my TA for my two upcoming cruises where I used Regent Air deviation 270 days in advance of the embarkation date.

[mrstanley]

We have not received any emails from our TA regarding Regent Air. We have already gotten tickets doing the air deviation for our July 2022 and November 22 cruises.

Unfortunately not able to get our desired flights on either outbound flights.

Regent always has an excuse… like no

contracts on that flight you requested.

Its impossible to even speak with someone and I find this unacceptable.