Celebrity flight bookings

[Thameside]

Hi all, I have used Celebrity Cruises a few times over the years but never used their flight booking service, but after looking at their quotes decided it was a good option cost wise. I booked flights from London to Tampa return for a cruise in January and was surprised to see an option to book now and not pay until final payments were due. This seems like a very good deal, however, although the flights booked do appear on my booking, there is no further information and no email received confirming the transaction. Is this normal or should I try and contact Celebrity. Your  assistance would be appreciated, thanks

[rodndonna]

9 minutes ago, Thameside said:

Hi all, I have used Celebrity Cruises a few times over the years but never used their flight booking service, but after looking at their quotes decided it was a good option cost wise. I booked flights from London to Tampa return for a cruise in January and was surprised to see an option to book now and not pay until final payments were due. This seems like a very good deal, however, although the flights booked do appear on my booking, there is no further information and no email received confirming the transaction. Is this normal or should I try and contact Celebrity. Your  assistance would be appreciated, thanks

 

You should have received something - I did a similar  booking last week - and my flight was confirmed in an email with the subject "FLIGHTS by Celebrity Confirmation for Reservation ID....." at the same time (same day anyway) as my email with the invoice for our booking came in.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

12 minutes ago, Thameside said:

Hi all, I have used Celebrity Cruises a few times over the years but never used their flight booking service, but after looking at their quotes decided it was a good option cost wise. I booked flights from London to Tampa return for a cruise in January and was surprised to see an option to book now and not pay until final payments were due. This seems like a very good deal, however, although the flights booked do appear on my booking, there is no further information and no email received confirming the transaction. Is this normal or should I try and contact Celebrity. Your  assistance would be appreciated, thanks

 

1 minute ago, rodndonna said:

 

You should have received something - I did a similar  booking last week - and my flight was confirmed in an email with the subject "FLIGHTS by Celebrity Confirmation for Reservation ID....." at the same time (same day anyway) as my email with the invoice for our booking came in.

 

Same here. We just booked flights for our Apr 2023 cruise through Celebrity Air and received the same confirmation email with the above-mentioned title. However, we chose to pay a little bit more so that the flights would be refundable prior to final payment. By default, the CA rep was going to book them as nonrefundable to make them as inexpensive as possible.

[lienf]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

Same here. We just booked flights for our Apr 2023 cruise through Celebrity Air and received the same confirmation email with the above-mentioned title. However, we chose to pay a little bit more so that the flights would be refundable prior to final payment. By default, the CA rep was going to book them as nonrefundable to make them as inexpensive as possible.

We need to book for an April cruise as well and we would want a refundable fare. I’m assuming that means we can cancel and rebook if a cheaper fare comes up, or is it adjusted down if with the same airline? If we book to pay for airfare at time of final payment, can we book seats before that? 

[hooked_on_cruising]

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

 

You should have received something - I did a similar  booking last week - and my flight was confirmed in an email with the subject "FLIGHTS by Celebrity Confirmation for Reservation ID....." at the same time (same day anyway) as my email with the invoice for our booking came in.

 

I also verify the booking by going to the airline's website and enter the airline confirmation code to check for the booking.

[Ken the cruiser]

17 minutes ago, lienf said:

We need to book for an April cruise as well and we would want a refundable fare. I’m assuming that means we can cancel and rebook if a cheaper fare comes up, or is it adjusted down if with the same airline? If we book to pay for airfare at time of final payment, can we book seats before that? 

We booked AA flights this time through Celebrity Air and the rep was able to get us assigned seats at the time of booking. However, we have never been able to book seats on our own (after the fact) on the AA web interface until the flights were actually ticketed (paid for), which is usually about 45 days out. Now, we have always been able to pick our seats online through Delta before the flight has actually been paid for, just not AA.

 

I would assume you should be able to manually cancel and rebook your "refundable" flights through CA prior to final payment if you notice the pricing has gone down. However, I would not hold my breath to think the prices will automatically be adjusted downward if the price went down. If that were true, I would think the same would be true if the price were to go up and that would not be good. But in any event, that's a question best answered by the CA rep when you book your flight.

[mandream]

38 minutes ago, lienf said:

If we book to pay for airfare at time of final payment, can we book seats before that? 

 

Depends on the airline.  I have had no problem reserving seats immediately after or at time booking with Amercian and United.  Sometimes I could do it myself on the airline website, sometimes FBC needed to do it.

 

Some airlines won't allow seat selection until flights are ticketed (or later depending on airline seat policy). 

 

Mike

[SusanBentley1947]

The problem today is does anyone think airline schedules in spring of 2023 for example stay the same as today?

Need to be careful.  I assumed a first class fare would be refundable - nope.  In the fine print with my AA booking - no change fee but not refundable.

The other issue we experienced was with Princess Air - a similar consolidator- wherever did not need to pay till final payment, but when we cancelled were billed for a $200 change fee.

Caution and try to understand the fine print.  The rules are more complicated than ever and agents for FBC or the airlines cannot get it always right. 

Last comment.  While you have 24 hours to cancel a new booking, change an existing booking and it is done.  Cannot undo!  

 

[jelayne]

AA won’t allowed me to select seats until, the reservation. Is ticketed which won’t happen until final payment.

[mandream]

14 minutes ago, jelayne said:

AA won’t allowed me to select seats until, the reservation. Is ticketed which won’t happen until final payment.

Have you called FBC?  We have a December flight on AA that I reserved seats for when I booked a month ago.  I can't do it online (and did not try calling AA) but FBC was able to do it and I see the flights when I log into my AA account.

 

Same is true for my AA flight to Barcelona that leaves this week.  Made the reservations (including seats) the day flights opened up for the dates which was (I believe) 331 days before.

 

Mike

Edited July 26, 2022 by mandream

[mandream]

14 minutes ago, jelayne said:

AA won’t allowed me to select seats until, the reservation. Is ticketed which won’t happen until final payment.

 

Also, my flights weren't ticketed until about 3 weeks before travel date - but I've read you can call FBC and ask them to ticket them sooner (I assume, but am not sure only after payment has been made).

 

Mike 

[PaperSniper4]

1 hour ago, hooked_on_cruising said:

I also verify the booking by going to the airline's website and enter the airline confirmation code to check for the booking.

That's really the only "real" confirmation your booking was made. Celebrity seems very inconsistent with their confirmation of airlines booked. I did my airline reservations at Celebrity.com last week. That cruise was paid in full that same day. A day or two later I received a brief email from Celebrity which did not contain the confirmation number. I've spent too much time on hold with everyone lately, so I lazy-ied out and had my TA contact them to obtain the confirmation numbers (USA domestic flight on AA and DL) so I could make my seat assignment. This is for a cruise in late October from FLL. Once I had the confirmation numbers, I then logged onto the airline site to check my reservation and make our seat assignments.

 

I like to have all flight data in front of me, in hard copy, when we fly. With at least one backup. That includes flight numbers, dates and times, seats, aircraft (type) assigned and especially confirmation numbers. I also put my airline logon and password on that sheet document. Then I take a picture of it on my phone....and copy it to my tablet Yes, I am OCD.🙄

 

Doug

Edited July 26, 2022 by PaperSniper4