Flights by Celebrity to Galapagos--not available online?

[NoWhiners]

9 hours ago, sonoma03 said:

On the flights, I also had the air package and booked through Celebrity.  We were able to choose from a number of airlines/flights, and chose a Delta flight to Quito and an American flight back from Lima.  

 

Regarding travel insurance, it really depends on what aspects are the most important for you.   When I looked, the pricing was the same from any Web site for the same policy.

 

1 hour ago, Suzanne123 said:

We booked our own flights with Delta, as Celebrity didn’t offer business/ first from my little airport, but ended up with the Celebrity insurance for $1758, as they had a cancel for any reason waiver that refunded 90% as FCC.  The CFAR insurance with private insurance would have been $4k+ for the two of us. I also have annual GeoBlue and MedJet policies, but I’m nervous about weather delays and who knows what else that could happen between now and January.

 

Thanks for these posts. We were able to book our preferred Delta flights on Celebrity and got the $750 pp credit applied. They had to do that manually, I had to remind them we had it and it took a supervisors approval, but we got it done. To  get the $750 credit, we had to go with non-refundable air but we'll hope for the best.

 

I have been checking insurance and finally realized that one reason the policies were so expensive was because I was using the full cost of the pre- and post-cruise stays, as well as the Galapagos cruise. When I changed the cost of the trip to just cover the cruise, it dropped to a much more affordable cost. I even looked at insurance through the big box TA we use (the one in Washington) and that was very affordable and excellent coverage. I am going to go back in and re-price using the total package cost and see what happens.

 

Since insurance is only required for the Galapagos, I may try to limit it to just these costs but I also need to talk to some insurance people and see what they say.

 

Thanks for the help and advice.

[sanger727]

2 things.

 

1. When we went to the Galapagos in September, nobody checked insurance coverage

 

2. If you are getting it just to satisfy a medical insurance requirement, not because you really want to buy travel insurance - you can get a medical only policy much more cheaply. We use Geoblue. The price varies based on age but is only dollars a day. 

[NoWhiners]

8 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

2 things.

 

1. When we went to the Galapagos in September, nobody checked insurance coverage

 

2. If you are getting it just to satisfy a medical insurance requirement, not because you really want to buy travel insurance - you can get a medical only policy much more cheaply. We use Geoblue. The price varies based on age but is only dollars a day. 

 

Thanks for this. I read that they don't always check but I think there is a big fine if you don't have it. Plus, they specify it has to be medical and evacuation insurance. I am sure the med evac adds a lot to the cost. Although, I don't really know how often people are evacuated from Galapagos cruises.

 

I think I'll google that 😉

 

Thanks

[lurkernj]

We were in the Galapagos earlier this year.  For insurance, we booked just the evacuation insurance through Travelsafe.  The cost was $108 for us both.  We have a premium credit card that provides travel insurance, so we didn't need the whole package.  If you have a premium credit card, check your benefits. 

 

Also, we traveled Delta through Atlanta and it was surprisingly easy and efficient.  Our connection was 5 terminals away and we had 1 hr to get there.  I was a bit stressed, but the monorails were great and we had plenty of time. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by lurkernj
bad grammar

[NoWhiners]

3 hours ago, lurkernj said:

We were in the Galapagos earlier this year.  For insurance, we booked just the evacuation insurance through Travelsafe.  The cost was $108 for us both.  

 

Also, we traveled Delta through Atlanta and it was surprisingly easy and efficient.  Our connection was 5 terminals away and we had 1 hr to get there.  I was a bit stressed, but the monorails were great and we had plenty of time. 

 

Thanks for this, I haven't seen Travelsafe. The only cc I had that included travel insurance dropped that benefit during covid 🙁

 

We should have almost 4 hours once we hit ATL, so lots of time. I spent many hours in the ATL airport when I was working, grew to hate it. This will be my first time back there since I retired, so I'm sort of looking forward to it. Yeah, I know, it's a little weird!

[NSW519]

We were on the Flora in March - we were not asked for proof of insurance although I did pay for it LOL.  Flights were booked through Celebrity (at the time they were heavily discounted). We flew from the west coast to Miami to Quito.  The return flights changed prior to the trip and we had two connections coming home - it was exhausting but we didn’t care as the trip itself was amazing!! Have a wonderful time!

[MisterBill99]

On 8/21/2022 at 3:27 PM, mahdnc said:

I imagine that you can have your TA switch your booking to the GALAPNOAIR promo, if you decide to book on your own.

 

Not sure if it was my TA or the person I was speaking to at FBC, but I was unable to get this switched recently. Not a big deal for me since I just booked my flights through Celebrity. It was initially a bit of a money loser for me since my flights were under $500, but JetBlue recently decided that they are no longer flying to Quito from FLL on Tuesday-Thursdays, and I was scheduled to fly on a Wednesday in October. I only found out about this when I got an email from Celebrity saying that there had been a chance to my flights. It took almost a month for them to rebook me, and changed me from JetBlue to Delta in both directions through ATL, and the new flights are over $500, at least on the Delta site. Also, it turns out that Delta does not charge a baggage fee for flights to Quito while JetBlue does, so that's a $120 savings there. And I was not charged for the change in my flights.

 

Friends we are cruising with decided that they did not want to stay overnight when we return from the cruise, even though the hotel is covered, and Celebrity would not allow them to book the 11:58pm flight the day we return. So they bought tickets on their own and forfeited the free flights offer since they could not get the promotion changed. They're in FLL and were going to be on that same flight to Quito that was cancelled. I think they'll need to go to Miami for a flight on AA. I could have gotten on that flight, but it required a 6am flight from NY, so no interest. Oh, and they weren't even notified about the flight cancellation by JetBlue and only found out when I told them!

 

One thing that may be of use to someone. The flights they booked me on to Quito only had a 1:13 layover in ATL and no later connecting flight. I wanted to switch the first flight to something earlier from a more convenient airport (where we are flying back to) but the rep started telling me about penalties for flight changes after final payment, even though FBC had just notified me of the new flights 30 minutes earlier. Only after I pointed out the very short connection time did his attitude change, and he agreed to submit a request to move me to the flight I wanted with a three-hour layover.

Edited September 8, 2022 by MisterBill99

[Kylie]

How are you getting to Baltra from Quito?  We are not doing the Quito part of the trip since we have been there before so just plan to arrive in Quito the day before the cruise but we still need to get to Baltra then.