Beware of Flights by Celebrity!

[terrydtx]

We have used FBC several times and never had anything but a positive experience, and not once lost control over our flights and not once did FBC make a change of flights on their own without contacting us first. I am a very savvy traveler who flew all over the world for business but I never take anything for granted. On our upcoming FBC bookings I check almost every day for any itinerary or flight changes, so I do not have any surprises. Even when I book directly with any airline, I do the same thing. I booked our flights to FLL for our June Equinox cruise direct with American Airlines. Last month they moved our outgoing flight from DFW to FLL by 2 hours earlier than booked. I saw it the day after it got changed, but it took AA 2 weeks to notify me by email.

 

Last week we booked with FBC our airfare for next January to Australia. We have a B2B cruise with a 10 day post cruise driving trip in Australia. We are flying from San Antonio to Sydney on American Airlines in Premium Economy. Our flights home are on Air New Zealand from Melbourne to Aukland and then direct to Houston, TX in Premium Economy. The whole itinerary was ideal for us, we wanted to fly home on Air NZ as their premium economy is one of the best rated in the industry. There was no way to book this itinerary directly with the airlines involved and the pricing was about the same as doing either United or AA round trip booked directly. Air New Zealand RT was about $1200pp more if booked direct. After booking online, I called FBC to get our seating assigned and it took only about 15 minutes to get all of our seats chosen. Best part is we do not pay until final payment in October, and we can change or cancel flights at any time if we find better deals with no penalty. 

[goofysmom99]

All the problems I've ever encountered with FBC were because of AA changes.  I've opted for Delta later this year.  Just don't trust AAs flight changes anymore and they'll be my last choice now (grudgingly still have to use up 150k miles on them).

[dezzy]

We  booked FBC for Manchester to Barcelona on 6th May in January  - we are now 40 days away and still do not know flight times or airline so cannot book parking as we do not know which terminal we are going from. Has anyone else in the UK encountered this issue. I ring weekly but just get the same story- flights will be allocated as soon as possible 

[Arizona Wildcat]

4 minutes ago, dezzy said:

We  booked FBC for Manchester to Barcelona on 6th May in January  - we are now 40 days away and still do not know flight times or airline so cannot book parking as we do not know which terminal we are going from. Has anyone else in the UK encountered this issue. I ring weekly but just get the same story- flights will be allocated as soon as possible 

Who flies from Manchester to Barcelona?   That might tell you which terminal

Cannot imagine it would be a big deal as it was about a 5 minute walk plus the Skywalk to get between the furthest terminals.

Have been ticketed as little as a week out.

[jojo1966]

28 minutes ago, dezzy said:

We  booked FBC for Manchester to Barcelona on 6th May in January  - we are now 40 days away and still do not know flight times or airline so cannot book parking as we do not know which terminal we are going from. Has anyone else in the UK encountered this issue. I ring weekly but just get the same story- flights will be allocated as soon as possible 

How did you book the flights with celebrity without knowing the flight details? When we wanted to add flights to our booking we were able to see the available flights and choose which one we wanted to use? Have you just asked celebrity to sort flights rather than choosing the one you wanted and then asking them to book those? 

[terrydtx]

45 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

All the problems I've ever encountered with FBC were because of AA changes.  I've opted for Delta later this year.  Just don't trust AAs flight changes anymore and they'll be my last choice now (grudgingly still have to use up 150k miles on them).

I agree with you on AA. In the last year we have flown with AA, Delta and United and AA has made more flight changes that the other 2 combined. Living in Texas it is hard to NOT fly on AA, but they are never our first choice.

[pmarrsouth]

On 3/22/2023 at 12:46 PM, terrydtx said:

Booking 2 different airlines is nearly impossible booking direct.

Not really true. What the issue can be is when trying to book airlines across different alliances (OW and *A in your case), these generally won’t ticket (or even price) when trying to do it direct on one of the airlines’ websites. Also similar if trying to book a non alliance airline (such as Southwest) with another airline on the same ticket 

[jagoffee]

50 minutes ago, dezzy said:

We  booked FBC for Manchester to Barcelona on 6th May in January  - we are now 40 days away and still do not know flight times or airline so cannot book parking as we do not know which terminal we are going from. Has anyone else in the UK encountered this issue. I ring weekly but just get the same story- flights will be allocated as soon as possible 

Is that something unique to the UK?  Are you sure you booked FBC and not some other Travel Agent package?  I see no way to book FBC without actual flights.  Or did they cancel your original flights and not yet reassigned you new ones?

 

Good luck.

[dezzy]

18 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Is that something unique to the UK?  Are you sure you booked FBC and not some other Travel Agent package?  I see no way to book FBC without actual flights.  Or did they cancel your original flights and not yet reassigned you new ones?

 

Good luck.

We booked directly with Celebrity on their flights for £99 offer- several flights were listed with airlines at prices well in excess of £500 but we were told the offer tickets would be allocated after booking. May have been cheep but a pain!

[jagoffee]

2 hours ago, johngalt181 said:

A few weeks we booked Savannah - London RT through FBC for an upcoming July 1, 2023 Scandinavia cruise. The savings were $5 pp vs booking directly with American Airlines. I belived their fluff and booked FBC. We got the flights and seats we wanted.

I have now paid for 2/3 of cruise + air and must pay the rest in a few days. This morning we got an email from FBC saying that (without my permission) our outgoing flights had changed. Upon checking, the layover at CLT was now (from experience) far too short. Our original flights were still available accodring to AA, BUT we could not get back to them without going through FBC. FBC now says they have made the request but it may take 3 weeks to confirm.

We are long term planners. We are now in a situation where we will, by Monday, have paid 100% of ship + air costs, yet have no idea if we will have convenient flights!!!

LESSON LEARNED: When you book via FBC you lose control of your flight planning, in our case for $5 pp savings! Never again unless there are meaningful savings. 

 

 

Just responded to something like this on a different thread.  Good lesson.  I would never keep a FBC reservation past final payment for $6.

I fly on AA a lot because  I get Lifetime Platinum benefits.  What you mention has happened to me.  I am fairly confident that AA made some kind of change with your originally scheduled flight.  It may have been a flight number change, aircraft change, or time change. (You can compare to your original booking and see the differenc) The AA system rebooked you on the “best alternative”.  If you were booked directly with AA, you would just call them and they would change your flight to whichever one you wanted.  Quickly and simple.  
Now you are forced to deal with FBC to get your flight back. I do not really understand why FBC cannot work with AA and get it done quickly.  Probably because the flight is not until July, but I would be surprised if it takes three weeks.

 

How long of a layover do you now have in CLT?

 

Did you check the current price for booking directly with AA?  Are you paying for your cruise/air in installments by your choice?  I assume your final payment is not yet due?  If Celebrity has not yet applied a payment to your FBC, you might be  able to cancel FBC without a penalty and just book direct.

 

Good luck.

 

I agree that AA makes a lot of changes.  When I book way in advance, there are always changes.  

 

 

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, dezzy said:

We booked directly with Celebrity on their flights for £99 offer- several flights were listed with airlines at prices well in excess of £500 but we were told the offer tickets would be allocated after booking. May have been cheep but a pain!

Thanks for the explanation.  I have never seen that kind of program on Celebrity in the US, but it does not mean that they do not exist here.  That is a great deal.  
 

Good Luck

[johngalt181]

22 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Just responded to something like this on a different thread.  Good lesson.  I would never keep a FBC reservation past final payment for $6.

I fly on AA a lot because  I get Lifetime Platinum benefits.  What you mention has happened to me.  I am fairly confident that AA made some kind of change with your originally scheduled flight.  It may have been a flight number change, aircraft change, or time change. (You can compare to your original booking and see the differenc) The AA system rebooked you on the “best alternative”.  If you were booked directly with AA, you would just call them and they would change your flight to whichever one you wanted.  Quickly and simple.  
Now you are forced to deal with FBC to get your flight back. I do not really understand why FBC cannot work with AA and get it done quickly.  Probably because the flight is not until July, but I would be surprised if it takes three weeks.

 

How long of a layover do you now have in CLT?

 

Did you check the current price for booking directly with AA?  Are you paying for your cruise/air in installments by your choice?  I assume your final payment is not yet due?  If Celebrity has not yet applied a payment to your FBC, you might be  able to cancel FBC without a penalty and just book direct.

 

Good luck.

 

I agree that AA makes a lot of changes.  When I book way in advance, there are always changes.  

 

 

The layover interval at CLT for what they wanted to give us was 48 minutes (minus however much earlier they close the doors.) At CLT that is hard on old people, especially if you land in the portable stair part of the end of terminal E, and have to get to another terminal.

I spent an hour on the phone with FBC on Sunday, and 24 hours later got confirmation of a new acceptable combination (different seats) at the same price. I hope this holds.
The reason given for the first change was that AA had eliminted or sold out of the price class (Coach) we had originally booked. The reason for installments was as a work-around for a low credit limit on a 3% rebate card I like to use. 

BOTTOM LINE: I will avoid FBC in the future because I lost control and could not deal with AA directly and rapidly. The only exception is if it saved $250 or more.

 

[jagoffee]

2 hours ago, johngalt181 said:

The layover interval at CLT for what they wanted to give us was 48 minutes (minus however much earlier they close the doors.) At CLT that is hard on old people, especially if you land in the portable stair part of the end of terminal E, and have to get to another terminal.

I spent an hour on the phone with FBC on Sunday, and 24 hours later got confirmation of a new acceptable combination (different seats) at the same price. I hope this holds.
The reason given for the first change was that AA had eliminted or sold out of the price class (Coach) we had originally booked. The reason for installments was as a work-around for a low credit limit on a 3% rebate card I like to use. 

BOTTOM LINE: I will avoid FBC in the future because I lost control and could not deal with AA directly and rapidly. The only exception is if it saved $250 or more.

 

So glad that you were able to work it out.  No way, I would settle for less than two hours on connection to an International flight.

I am not sure I believe FBC explanation as to what happened, but it does not really matter.  Really scares me when I hear that kind of explanation, because it makes it seem like FBC was involved somehow.

 

Always more flexible to be able to deal directly with the Airline.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

Edited March 27, 2023 by jagoffee

[Midpacpl]

When I use flights by Celebrity I normally choose the exact flights, airline, etc that I want to book before I contact them. Normally the price mirrors the price I would get booking directly with the airline. When I use FBC it’s usually because of their guarantee of getting you to the ship and also because I don’t have to pay until final cruise payment. 

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, Midpacpl said:

When I use flights by Celebrity I normally choose the exact flights, airline, etc that I want to book before I contact them. Normally the price mirrors the price I would get booking directly with the airline. When I use FBC it’s usually because of their guarantee of getting you to the ship and also because I don’t have to pay until final cruise payment. 

We do the same thing and use them for the same reasons. We just booked our flights for January to Sydney Australia and we were able to book American Airlines to SYD and Air New Zealand back to Houston non stop for about the same as booking American or United RT direct. No payment for the air until final payment in October. We picked the flights, airlines and our seats by calling FBC. We can also change at anytime if we find a better deal before final payment.

[Boo's Mom]

I learned a long time ago not to use a middle man for booking flights. 

 

Research wherever - but book directly with the airline. 

[drakes2]

3 hours ago, Boo's Mom said:

I learned a long time ago not to use a middle man for booking flights. 

 

Research wherever - but book directly with the airline. 

I very rarely book directly with airline. Never had any issues.

[chemmo]

On 3/26/2023 at 8:09 PM, dezzy said:

We  booked FBC for Manchester to Barcelona on 6th May in January  - we are now 40 days away and still do not know flight times or airline so cannot book parking as we do not know which terminal we are going from. Has anyone else in the UK encountered this issue. I ring weekly but just get the same story- flights will be allocated as soon as possible 

 We only have gone for the cheap flight offer once to Rome. It was direct (budget airline) on the day of the cruise but owing to a delay didn’t arrive until 2pm. We knew the budget airline didn’t have another flight to Rome for two days. You can imagine how we felt sat in the lounge looking at the ‘delayed’ sign. We had booked a Celebrity transfer to the ship to feel more ‘secure’ of getting to the ship. On landing we were then sat on a coach for over an hour waiting for a Gatwick flight. Yes, it was cheap but we found it stressful.

 

When we looked at all options for Barcelona we chose to arrange independently and fly in two days early. We chose Lufthansa with a connection rather than the budget airline which we could see on flight data had a reputation for last minute cancellations…Slightly more expensive but lots of options if one flight had a problem.

 

We did know our flight details at the time of booking but if I remember correctly we had booked the cruise only about two months before…

[Ducky_01]

On 3/26/2023 at 8:09 PM, dezzy said:

We  booked FBC for Manchester to Barcelona on 6th May in January  - we are now 40 days away and still do not know flight times or airline so cannot book parking as we do not know which terminal we are going from. Has anyone else in the UK encountered this issue. I ring weekly but just get the same story- flights will be allocated as soon as possible 

We're in exactly the same boat (no pun intended) ..booked with FBC on a too-good-to-be-true £99 offer, departing 07 May.  I'm doing the exact same as you - here's the latest from my weekly calls: no flight details yet as it's a "group-allocated flight".  Towards the end of this month, Celebrity agent said to expect a guest booklet containing flight reservation details and transfers (also booked by Celebrity).  I once reached the US agent and they advised to call the UK agents and request "to expedite e-ticketing".. perhaps you could try that?  I suspect you'll get the same answer, though i.e. you have a confirmed "booking" but will need to wait on an actual "ticket" until nearer the date.

[dezzy]

3 minutes ago, Ducky_01 said:

We're in exactly the same boat (no pun intended) ..booked with FBC on a too-good-to-be-true £99 offer, departing 07 May.  I'm doing the exact same as you - here's the latest from my weekly calls: no flight details yet as it's a "group-allocated flight".  Towards the end of this month, Celebrity agent said to expect a guest booklet containing flight reservation details and transfers (also booked by Celebrity).  I once reached the US agent and they advised to call the UK agents and request "to expedite e-ticketing".. perhaps you could try that?  I suspect you'll get the same answer, though i.e. you have a confirmed "booking" but will need to wait on an actual "ticket" until nearer the date.

Hi, my saga continues, today I have been told the booked flight which is supposed to be 11.50 am is now 7.45pm- 9 hours waiting at Barcelona airport is a nightmare. Never again.

[Boo's Mom]

4 hours ago, drakes2 said:

I very rarely book directly with airline. Never had any issues.

The first time you have an "incident" you will probably change your method of booking. 

20 years later I can still hear the agent at the airport in my head:  "We didn't book this flight for you, Travelocity did".  🤨

 

I do most of my research on a site called matrix.itasoftware

It's a google product. 

You can'l book flights on the site.  It's just a research tool. 

It scans most airlines.  Southwest is one that isn't in their system. ← no loss to me

Lots of filters for narrowing down what you need - very quickly. 

And then go to the airline to book directly. 

[Boo's Mom]

2 hours ago, dezzy said:

Hi, my saga continues, today I have been told the booked flight which is supposed to be 11.50 am is now 7.45pm- 9 hours waiting at Barcelona airport is a nightmare. Never again.

I am so sorry you are having such a hard time with this. 

Hang in there. 

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, Boo's Mom said:

The first time you have an "incident" you will probably change your method of booking. 

20 years later I can still hear the agent at the airport in my head:  "We didn't book this flight for you, Travelocity did".  🤨

 

I do most of my research on a site called matrix.itasoftware

It's a google product. 

You can'l book flights on the site.  It's just a research tool. 

It scans most airlines.  Southwest is one that isn't in their system. ← no loss to me

Lots of filters for narrowing down what you need - very quickly. 

And then go to the airline to book directly. 

 

It would seem among the Cruise Critic community that FBC is like the Edge class IVs: some swear by them, some swear at them.

[wallysdtr]

We did back to back - March 27 to April 6 on the Equinox  Fort Lauderdale and then transferred to Silhouette in Miami for a 4 day .   A friend recommened we use Flights by Celebrity and they did the reservation.  Booked one way with Southwest and also return one way with American.  Both out of Ft Lauderdale.     Didnt' dawn on me that if one way, the American return flight could have conveniently been out of Miami.  Instead, out of FLL.    A month prior, we found a return flight out of Miami with American for $200 less per ticket.   Flights by Celebrity - I called 3X - refused to change the flight.  Even though my discussion with an American airlines rep said we could make the change for a change fee of $50.   The last rep with Flights by Celebrity said the American airlines rep was wrong.  Guess Flights by Celebrity knows more about the american airlines rules than the employees at American.  So our return was out of FLL and the flights were not what I would have booked. 

Long winded post, but NEVER again, will we use Flights by Celebrity.  The representatives left a lot to be desired in customer service (I worked for years in customer service so I can recognize when a rep wants to help).   Very sad that Flights reps were very unco-operative even when I shared exactly what the american airlines rep shared.  They couldn't be bothered to double check.,    

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, wallysdtr said:

We did back to back - March 27 to April 6 on the Equinox  Fort Lauderdale and then transferred to Silhouette in Miami for a 4 day .   A friend recommened we use Flights by Celebrity and they did the reservation.  Booked one way with Southwest and also return one way with American.  Both out of Ft Lauderdale.     Didnt' dawn on me that if one way, the American return flight could have conveniently been out of Miami.  Instead, out of FLL.    A month prior, we found a return flight out of Miami with American for $200 less per ticket.   Flights by Celebrity - I called 3X - refused to change the flight.  Even though my discussion with an American airlines rep said we could make the change for a change fee of $50.   The last rep with Flights by Celebrity said the American airlines rep was wrong.  Guess Flights by Celebrity knows more about the american airlines rules than the employees at American.  So our return was out of FLL and the flights were not what I would have booked. 

Long winded post, but NEVER again, will we use Flights by Celebrity.  The representatives left a lot to be desired in customer service (I worked for years in customer service so I can recognize when a rep wants to help).   Very sad that Flights reps were very unco-operative even when I shared exactly what the american airlines rep shared.  They couldn't be bothered to double check.,    

Why didn't you pay the $50 and make the change with AA?