Absolute nightmare right now with Choice Air, getting to Barcelona!

[joyride]

1 hour ago, tidespring said:

Could the seats being sold to others, possibly be because the OP deliberately booked the two seats, window and aisle, hoping no one would take the middle seat?. This can cause a lot of problems for the airline and others who may want for example three seats together, or two aisle seats. Just a thought.

No, that wasn't the case. The seats in Premium Economy are in a 2 - 3 - 2 configuration. We had 2 seats on the right in Row One. Now we have 2 of the 3 seats in the middle of row 3. However, just checking today and the 3rd seat is unoccupied, so unless someone buys that seat by tomorrow, it looks like I won't have to sit next to a stranger. 

[laurieb]

We had this happen to us on Air New Zealand once.  No explanation was ever given.  It was very frustrating 

[RW75]

5 hours ago, les37b said:

 

Sorry to post off topic (though relevant for the OP hopefully)...

 

I posted on another forum hoping to find somewhere for my antigen test prior to boarding in Lisbon in 10 days. The best I managed to locate (which the unconnected hotel suggested) was €40 which I was less than impressed with.

 

Are there lots of test sites? I did search Google but found nothing. Elsewhere in Greece and Italy, there are places punters have used for under €10 so really hoping not to stump up €40 or £69 for a pre departure PCR.

 

Joyride, I've had bulkhead seats and like you concerned they wouldn't recline properly to get the benefit of what you'd paid for..... They did, at least on my flight.

 

Looking on Seat Guru, it is confusing as the aircraft seat configuration shows no premium seats. Further confusion from what you've said, is that it doesn't include cabin luggage, which makes me wonder if they've given you PE seats. With PE seats, you get 2 hold bags, 1 overhead and one small under seat allowance. I assume you have checked in now? Did you get the option to check in 2 hold bags without extra charge?

 

Also from what you've said, your TA should be dealing with this on your behalf. You booked this holiday through them not direct right? They should have been earning their commission and got it sorted.

 

Seats or cabins are never guaranteed. On the ship there maybe a problem with the shower for example. That is predominately the reason for the caveat, but no doubt there may be others. On airlines, I agree the whole point of booking and pay extra is to get what you want. Unfortunately it does say that the can make changes and whilst I agree it's out of order to be told they've sold your booked seat, there is nothing you can do.

 

At least you are ticked and ready to go.the airline Azamara booked me on are cancelling flights left right and centre because of software problems. A news article suggests this will go on for at least the next 10 days .... We fly in 9.

 

Travel is not the fun it once used to be but hopefully once you are on board, you can put this stress behind you are enjoy.... Do please post how it's all going.

Les - pics below of the cost of testing at LIS airport.  The rapid test is reasonable in my opinion, have been told of cheaper in the city, unfortunately, I can’t offer any direct info regarding this. 
 

[RW75]

Joyride - you’re looking good so far. The aisle seat is blocked, may be under airport control for allocation. No seats available for sale so could be occupied. 

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by RW75

[les37b]

Cheers RW75 

 

It certainly saves the hassle of searching. 

 

We will freebie home antigen test on the Sunday and test "proper" on arrival.

 

Hopefully a test at 2pm is fine for a boarding time at 2pm next day!

 

 

 

 

[voyager1964]

13 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

You did not buy specific seats.  Airline tickets are not like tickets to a baseball game or to a play.  You bought an upgrade to PE.  

 

 

I think Level also charges additional $$ for advanced seat selection (even in PE), and, on top of that, another $80-100 for the 1st row seats. Perhaps the OP was charged for all three things together...

[Killin Time]

We flew out of Barcelona on Level on our most recent Azamara cruise. They were terrible. This airline can’t even handle the boarding process properly. All the customers were upset. 

[FlyerTalker]

22 minutes ago, Killin Time said:

We flew out of Barcelona on Level on our most recent Azamara cruise. They were terrible. This airline can’t even handle the boarding process properly. All the customers were upset. 

 

All the more reason to buy your own airline tickets. 

[marinaro44]

43 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

All the more reason to buy your own airline tickets. 

We've never had to accept specific flights from ChoiceAir, as we had to do with "included" flights from Regent.  They gave us options and we chose what we wanted.

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, marinaro44 said:

We've never had to accept specific flights from ChoiceAir, as we had to do with "included" flights from Regent.  They gave us options and we chose what we wanted.

 

Still....if you buy cruiseline air, you are NOT getting the same tickets as what you would have gotten on your own.  There are many caveats and fare rules that came come back to bite you when the excrement meets the impeller.  Plus, it puts an extra layer in between if issues arise.

 

It's not a huge issue when all goes right.  But when something comes up, that's when you need your own tickets most of all.

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by FlyerTalker

[Mackdogmolly]

My travel agent forwarded me an email from Azamara yesterday that because of many airline disruptions, ChoiceAir was working on those that were within the next 7 days. My cruise is in 3 weeks and I have heard nothing from either ChoiceAir or my airline, so I went online and checked on my flights using my airline confirmation number and discovered that both my outgoing and return flights had changed (thankfully not canceled). I have signed up for text alerts, but don’t really have faith in that.

[joyride]

Well folks, thank you all for your help and suggestions. We have boarding passes that say LEVEL, Flight IB2622 for seats 3D and 3E. I have to look at the bright side of this, at least they have 2 other seats in PE that we were able to grab. 

 

I am a BIG believer of booking my own flights, I can think of one time we used cruise air other than this in over 20 cruises. My husband made the booking for this trip and used a new TA. He gave me this as a Christmas Present. He originally had us flying from California to Barcelona arriving on the day of the cruise. So, I immediately told him we had to change that!! We probably will never attempt to fly Iberia again, and also most likely won't use this TA again. (He's a musician friend of my husbands and Rod just thought he would give him a try). 

 

Anyway, now I just have fingers crossed that the flight goes OK. We plan on arriving at SFO very early, as the boarding passes don't even have a gate number on them. We are leaving in 2 hours to get our PCR tests and we got our QR Codes for entry to Spain - So I think we are back on tract to have smooth travel.

[QueenP]

Let us know how it all goes Joyride!

[Xcelsior]

I hope you have a wonderful cruise and your flight goes okay.  I can't believe how unbelievably rude some of the replies have been to your question/concern. 

[joyride]

Thank you Xcelsior. It was a bit upsetting spending about 6 hours getting this straightened out and then having some unsupportive posts. But we made it through. Thank you for your good wishes! 🙂

[laurieb]

5 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Still....if you buy cruiseline air, you are NOT getting the same tickets as what you would have gotten on your own.  There are many caveats and fare rules that came come back to bite you when the excrement meets the impeller.  Plus, it puts an extra layer in between if issues arise.

 

It's not a huge issue when all goes right.  But when something comes up, that's when you need your own tickets most of all.

 

agree; you're buying bulk air when you buy from a cruise line or a tour company; seats are not typically going to be great.  Flying is really difficult thing to understand.  

Edited May 29, 2022 by laurieb

[Grandma Cruising]

Hope everything goes well for you joyride and that you have a wonderful cruise.

[les37b]

Have a safe flight Joyride. Glad you got it all sorted. Please do let us know how it went with your flights and boarding Pursuit. I'll give you a wave in Lisbon after what's hopefully bee.n a great cruise..... Please let us know how it all panned out too with some tips, highlights and even lowlights. 👍

 

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by les37b

[nordski]

11 hours ago, laurieb said:

agree; you're buying bulk air when you buy from a cruise line or a tour company; seats are not typically going to be great.  Flying is really difficult thing to understand.  

I always believed that there was a difference between buying what was sometimes called CruiseAir from various cruise lines and ChoiceAir from RCI.

 

In fact there was quite a discussion about this some years ago.
 

For example, ChoiceAir never seems to be “included” as sometimes happens with CruiseAir. And there were never “deviation” fees to allow you more selection.
 

The ChoiceAir site just seemed to be a handy place to discover all the possible flights available from various airlines and also various seat categories available.

 

Have I been wrong about this?

[travelberlin]

Have a safe flight Joyride. I will be looking to following your experiences on your cruise. 
 

Ivi

[joyride]

Hi Nordski. I don't know how Choice Air was a few years ago, but honestly they haven't been helpful at all to us. Initially my husband had booked this cruise with a TA friend of his and I wasn't involved because it was a surprise gift to me. Once I became involved, I did not want to fly in the day of the cruise, so we started looking at alternatives.

 

We found a direct flight from SFO to Barcelona on Iberia that got there the day before our cruise. So, we booked that and paid in full for it. Choice Air had us on American Airlines, through Iberia, operated by Level. Everything was cool. We selected our seats on the Iberia website in December, paid directly to Iberia for an upgrade to Premium Economy. Everything was paid for and confirmed. Our return flights are on American Airlines. A couple of months ago we did get an email from AA saying that our flights home had a slight time change. No other communication.

 

A few days ago we got a generic email from AA regarding our upcoming trip. At that time, my husband decided to check our outgoing flights and that is when we discovered that our reserved and paid for seats from December no longer appearing on the Iberia website. 

 

Our TA called Choice Air and asked them to contact Iberia and find out what was going on, they refused to do so. Iberia would not talk to our TA because he was not our "agent" Choice air was our Agent. Hence, we had to handle this ourselves. Choice Air and our TA were useless really.

 

My husband called AA, Iberia, etc. and spent a good 6 hours on this. He got disconnected 3 times on the phone with Iberia, and when he did get through, had language difficulties a couple of times. In the end, he got boarding passes and new seats through the Iberia website, and hopefully we are good to go. 

 

We will find out tonight!!! 🙂 We will never use Choice Air again...

 

 

 

[blag]

30 minutes ago, joyride said:

Hi Nordski. I don't know how Choice Air was a few years ago, but honestly they haven't been helpful at all to us. Initially my husband had booked this cruise with a TA friend of his and I wasn't involved because it was a surprise gift to me. Once I became involved, I did not want to fly in the day of the cruise, so we started looking at alternatives.

 

We found a direct flight from SFO to Barcelona on Iberia that got there the day before our cruise. So, we booked that and paid in full for it. Choice Air had us on American Airlines, through Iberia, operated by Level. Everything was cool. We selected our seats on the Iberia website in December, paid directly to Iberia for an upgrade to Premium Economy. Everything was paid for and confirmed. Our return flights are on American Airlines. A couple of months ago we did get an email from AA saying that our flights home had a slight time change. No other communication.

 

A few days ago we got a generic email from AA regarding our upcoming trip. At that time, my husband decided to check our outgoing flights and that is when we discovered that our reserved and paid for seats from December no longer appearing on the Iberia website. 

 

Our TA called Choice Air and asked them to contact Iberia and find out what was going on, they refused to do so. Iberia would not talk to our TA because he was not our "agent" Choice air was our Agent. Hence, we had to handle this ourselves. Choice Air and our TA were useless really.

 

My husband called AA, Iberia, etc. and spent a good 6 hours on this. He got disconnected 3 times on the phone with Iberia, and when he did get through, had language difficulties a couple of times. In the end, he got boarding passes and new seats through the Iberia website, and hopefully we are good to go. 

 

We will find out tonight!!! 🙂 We will never use Choice Air again...

 

 

 

Although we seem to be going round and round on this, you paid Iberia direct for the seat upgrade. That seems to be something you did outside of any contract with either your TA or Choice Air, and understandably (perhaps), they did not get much or provide much assistance. 

In effect, you had a separate contract (offer; acceptance; consideration) with Iberia. I am not sure that it is appropriate to blame any party other than Iberia - your contract for the seats was with them. 

Let's try another way of explaining this. You order a Ford car (say) from a dealer, and you chose all the options you want. But none of the options includes the mudflaps that are so important to you. You ask the dealer to fit some for you, but when the car is ready for collection - no mudflaps! Do you contact Ford and expect them to sort this out? I think not, because Ford were not asked to fit the mudflaps! And would you feel that Ford had let you down? 

Edited May 29, 2022 by blag
Expansion for clarification

[nordski]

28 minutes ago, joyride said:

Hi Nordski. I don't know how Choice Air was a few years ago, but honestly they haven't been helpful at all to us. Initially my husband had booked this cruise with a TA friend of his and I wasn't involved because it was a surprise gift to me. Once I became involved, I did not want to fly in the day of the cruise, so we started looking at alternatives.

 

We found a direct flight from SFO to Barcelona on Iberia that got there the day before our cruise. So, we booked that and paid in full for it. Choice Air had us on American Airlines, through Iberia, operated by Level. Everything was cool. We selected our seats on the Iberia website in December, paid directly to Iberia for an upgrade to Premium Economy. Everything was paid for and confirmed. Our return flights are on American Airlines. A couple of months ago we did get an email from AA saying that our flights home had a slight time change. No other communication.

 

A few days ago we got a generic email from AA regarding our upcoming trip. At that time, my husband decided to check our outgoing flights and that is when we discovered that our reserved and paid for seats from December no longer appearing on the Iberia website. 

 

Our TA called Choice Air and asked them to contact Iberia and find out what was going on, they refused to do so. Iberia would not talk to our TA because he was not our "agent" Choice air was our Agent. Hence, we had to handle this ourselves. Choice Air and our TA were useless really.

 

My husband called AA, Iberia, etc. and spent a good 6 hours on this. He got disconnected 3 times on the phone with Iberia, and when he did get through, had language difficulties a couple of times. In the end, he got boarding passes and new seats through the Iberia website, and hopefully we are good to go. 

 

We will find out tonight!!! 🙂 We will never use Choice Air again...

 

 

 

Thanks very much for the clarification.

 

If I understand, your TA contacted ChoiceAir and they would not intervene on your behalf.

Even if, for some reason, they couldn’t then you should have received an explanation as to the policy involved.

 

This does not match our experience with ChoiceAir which has always seemed to be helpful, and is indeed a major concern that their policies may have changed.Perhaps the difference is that we have always booked directly with ChoiceAir but it is hard to see why that would be an issue.

 

I hope your flight goes well and you have an amazing cruise.

 

I am certain that you are tired of thinking of and explaining this situation.

 

All the best!

[blag]

1 minute ago, nordski said:

Thanks very much for the clarification.

 

If I understand, your TA contacted ChoiceAir and they would not intervene on your behalf.

Even if, for some reason, they couldn’t then you should have received an explanation as to the policy involved.

 

This does not match our experience with ChoiceAir which has always seemed to be helpful, and is indeed a major concern that their policies may have changed.Perhaps the difference is that we have always booked directly with ChoiceAir but it is hard to see why that would be an issue.

 

I hope your flight goes well and you have an amazing cruise.

 

I am certain that you are tired of thinking of and explaining this situation.

 

All the best!

See post #47 which may serve to explain the lack of support from TA or Choice Air. 

[joyride]

OK Blag, point taken. You are absolutely right. We had a "guarantee" type of reservation with Choice Air for the Premium Economy seats that we paid for. We separately paid extra for row one seats directly with Iberia. Those row one seats are now gone, so we will most likely take that up with Iberia for a refund for that extra amount, which was paid directly to them. So, Choice Air and our TA really are not at fault here. 

 

I'll let you all know how the flight goes. Hopefully it will be smooth and no problems like some of the reviews I have read!

 

Joyce