Flights by Celebrity

[TMaine]

We have a flight booked for our August cruise with final payment coming up soon.  I have been trying to pay for the flight but not having any luck if you can believe that.  I called a couple of weeks ago and was told to wait until closer to final payment.  Called today and was hung up on twice.  Have already made final payment on the cruise (agent).  Has anyone experienced this? 

[terrydtx]

We are booked on the Apex in September with FBC for business class airfare.  Final payment is June 20th but we paid for the air to get it locked in 3 weeks ago. My TA took care of getting it paid with FBC. We got confirmation that the flights were paid and ticketed that same day. We booked the air last November.  Did you book with a TA or direct with Celebrity? 

Edited May 12, 2023 by terrydtx

[TMaine]

I booked the flights directly with Celebrity. 

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, TMaine said:

I booked the flights directly with Celebrity. 

Did you book the cruise directly with Celebrity or a TA?  We booked our cruise with our TA and booked our flights directly with FBC, but when we called last month to pay for the air, we were told to go though our booking agent, in our case our TA. Our TA handled it for us with zero problems. 

 

The reason we pre-paid the flights, our British Airlines Business class flight from Heathrow to Dallas Ft Worth was filing up and we could not choose our seats until the tickets were issued and paid for. We now have the seats we wanted.

Edited May 12, 2023 by terrydtx

[TMaine]

As I mentioned, the cruise was booked with an agent.  It sounds like our agent was willing to make the payment on the FBC but from previous conversations with Celebrity, it sounded like they would bill us directly.  

I booked the flights in December and was immediately able to choose seats and get confirmation from the airline.  I suppose different airlines handle these differently. 

[dcbiker97]

You should be able to pay the entire amount with your agent.  It’s not a separate payment as ours have been all part of one final amount owed. Once that happens I would call FBC up who should be able to see this and ask for it to be ticketed.  They will usually wait until closer to the cruise to ticket, but I don’t like that. 

Edited May 12, 2023 by dcbiker97

[jelayne]

When I booked my flights with directly with FBC my TA can see that on my booking and they are added as a separate line item on TA invoice.  I have not tried to pay flights before final payment, but there should not be any reason I can think of that the TA can’t handle making that payment. 

[terrydtx]

25 minutes ago, TMaine said:

As I mentioned, the cruise was booked with an agent.  It sounds like our agent was willing to make the payment on the FBC but from previous conversations with Celebrity, it sounded like they would bill us directly.  

I booked the flights in December and was immediately able to choose seats and get confirmation from the airline.  I suppose different airlines handle these differently. 

Some airlines like British Airways, will not let you choose seats until the flight is ticketed. We are flying from Texas to Amsterdam on United and we could go online to choose seats. our return from Athens is on BA and no seats until we paid for the flights.

 

If your TA is unwilling to help you and pay for your flights, you may need a new TA. 

[terrydtx]

28 minutes ago, dcbiker97 said:

You should be able to pay the entire amount with your agent.  It’s not a separate payment as ours have been all part of one final amount owed. Once that happens I would call FBC up who should be able to see this and ask for it to be ticketed.  They will usually wait until closer to the cruise to ticket, but I don’t like that. 

In our case when our TA paid for just the flights, she requested expedited payment by Celebrity to the airlines and it was done that day.  Even when paying prior to final payment we can still cancel or change the flights with FBC at no cost to us. This is why we use FBC when flying overseas. We already booked our flights for January to Australia and plan on prepaying next month so we can get seats with Air New Zealand. We are flying on Air NZ in Premium Economy and seats are going fast on the flights.

Edited May 12, 2023 by terrydtx

[TMaine]

25 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Some airlines like British Airways, will not let you choose seats until the flight is ticketed. We are flying from Texas to Amsterdam on United and we could go online to choose seats. our return from Athens is on BA and no seats until we paid for the flights.

 

If your TA is unwilling to help you and pay for your flights, you may need a new TA. 

The TA was willing to pay the flights, I told them that Celebrity was going to contact me directly to pay as that is what Celebrity told me.

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, TMaine said:

We have a flight booked for our August cruise with final payment coming up soon.  I have been trying to pay for the flight but not having any luck if you can believe that.  I called a couple of weeks ago and was told to wait until closer to final payment.  Called today and was hung up on twice.  Have already made final payment on the cruise (agent).  Has anyone experienced this? 

You have received a lot of great suggestions. 
 

For future consideration, I will share my experience.  I always book my cruise with a TA.  If I decide to book Air, I book directly with the cruise line. (I want the flexibility).   I usually receive the booking information directly from CA.  (If not, I request it). I sometimes cancel my Cruise Air and book direct with the airline before final payment (if there is no difference in price), therefore I am not concerned if my airfare is not reflected on my initial TA invoice.  But I always make sure that the Airfare is added to my TA’s invoice before I make my Final payment.  I have never had a need to pay for my airfare before my final cruise payment.  
 

I agree with everyone else that your TA should be able complete the transaction for your CA payment.  If not, I would find a new TA for your next cruise booking.  

 

 

 

[TMaine]

So final payment has past, Celebrity never contacted me as they said they would about paying for the airfare.  I spent hours on the phone getting bounced around last night only for them to say that they can't take payment, it has to be done by the TA.  I booked the air directly with Celebrity so the TA was not comfortable paying it, which I understand but they did agree to pay it for me.

 

Why is it so difficult to get someone to take my money?  They certainly have no problem nickel and diming you to death once on board! 

 

Either way, I won't be doing that again, lesson learned! 

[dcbiker97]

You need a new TA because it seems that they are not aware of how it works.  Flights by celebrity is an additional line item for the cruise. It adds into the cruise fare to make one total. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by dcbiker97

[terrydtx]

I agree you need a new TA. Our TA has always taken care of paying to Celebrity for cruises and FBC costs with the credit card we authorize her to use. I never have to spend anytime waiting for someone to talk with. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by terrydtx

[jagoffee]

16 hours ago, TMaine said:

So final payment has past, Celebrity never contacted me as they said they would about paying for the airfare.  I spent hours on the phone getting bounced around last night only for them to say that they can't take payment, it has to be done by the TA.  I booked the air directly with Celebrity so the TA was not comfortable paying it, which I understand but they did agree to pay it for me.

 

Why is it so difficult to get someone to take my money?  They certainly have no problem nickel and diming you to death once on board! 

 

Either way, I won't be doing that again, lesson learned! 

I am not sure what lesson you have learned.  Always make sure when using a TA that any Celebrity Air that you book is reflected in your TA’s final invoice when you make your final payment.  If your TA does not understand how this work, I agree with the others that you should find a new TA.  
 

Certainly that alone should not be a reason to avoid using CA.  

[TMaine]

Perhaps I should have asked the TA and all of the different celebrity employees I spoke with if they are competent enough to take a simple payment.   Or maybe I should have queried the various cruise critic know-it-alls.  

[terrydtx]

Yesterday I called FBC to get a question answered about our booked flights on Air New Zealand for our January Australia/NZ cruise. With this thread in mind, I asked the agent about paying for our tickets before final payment. I asked if could call FBC directly to pay or do I need to go through my TA to make the payment? He told me that either payment process works fine and added that if we do prepay, we can still cancel or change the flights up to final payment with no penalty or cost. We plan on doing this in mid-June so that we get the flights ticketed sooner.

 

BTW when I called I got right through to an agent with zero waiting on hold, another reason we use FBC for all of our international flights. We booked directly with American Airlines for our June Equinox cruise. On Monday American Airlines changed our return flight from Ft Lauderdale from noon to 7:55am when they canceled the noon flight for that day. No way you can get off the ship and make a 7:55am flight, I was on hold for over 2 hours before I got a AA agent. 

[Oceangoer2]

2 hours ago, TMaine said:

 

Or maybe I should have queried the various cruise critic know-it-alls.  

👎

Edited May 17, 2023 by Oceangoer2

[TMaine]

58 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Yesterday I called FBC to get a question answered about our booked flights on Air New Zealand for our January Australia/NZ cruise. With this thread in mind, I asked the agent about paying for our tickets before final payment. I asked if could call FBC directly to pay or do I need to go through my TA to make the payment? He told me that either payment process works fine and added that if we do prepay, we can still cancel or change the flights up to final payment with no penalty or cost. We plan on doing this in mid-June so that we get the flights ticketed sooner.

 

BTW when I called I got right through to an agent with zero waiting on hold, another reason we use FBC for all of our international flights. We booked directly with American Airlines for our June Equinox cruise. On Monday American Airlines changed our return flight from Ft Lauderdale from noon to 7:55am when they canceled the noon flight for that day. No way you can get off the ship and make a 7:55am flight, I was on hold for over 2 hours before I got a AA agent. 

Glad to hear that you had a positive experience.   

[Texed]

26 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Or maybe I should have queried the various cruise critic know-it-alls.  

👎

 

I do not believe you meant your statement in a positive way, but you are correct.  There are quite a few folks on Cruise Critic that are very knowledgeable , and I trust their answers.  Thanks for posting. 😊